Markets.com Broker Detailed Review

Is Markets.com Safe?

Reliable service, excellent trading infrastructure, and low spreads are some of the factors that have drawn more than 5 million traders to Markets.com.

High security and privacy standards are top priorities at Markets.com and it uses encryption, rigorous firewalls, and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) software to protect information during transmission. Its trading servers are located in SAS 70 certified data centres, and all client funds are held in segregated trading accounts, providing a further level of protection. Clients of Markets.com also enjoy negative balance protection.

Markets.com has been regulated by CySEC (licence no. 092/08) since 2008, and TradeTech Markets (South Africa) PTY Ltd (Markets.com’s South African operator) has been regulated by ASIC (licence no. 43906) since 2010, and the FSCA (FSP:43906) since 2012.

Markets.com has won numerous industry awards, some of their most significant achievements include:

• Best Customer Service 2012 (London Investor Show Forex)
• Best Broker in Customer Service Europe 2012 (Global Banking and Finance Review)
• Best Forex Trading Platform 2017 (UK Forex Awards).
• Best Forex Provider 2017 (UK Forex Awards).

Markets.com For Beginners

Education Material

Markets.com offers both video tutorials and trading webinars for its clients. The webinars are conducted by professional traders and market experts and cover everything from the basics of Forex trading to managing trading risk and applying winning strategies.

You can also learn more about how Markets.com’s trading platforms work by watching the video tutorials and by checking out the platform tips – which provide suggestions on how to get the most out of your trading platform.

Markets.com’s Trading Tools

Markets.com’s clients have more than enough trading tools at their disposal. Here are some of the handy features you can utilise:

• Traders Trend – This feature shows you how Markets.com’s database of traders is positioned on thousands of financial instruments.
• Trading Central – a fusion of analyst research and automated analytics, Trading Central indicators can be overlaid on the price charts to show support and resistance levels. It will also provide a summary of recent market movements, with suggested entry and exit points.
• Trending Now – a tool which helps you find new trading opportunities by showing you assets in the following categories: Top Risers, Top Fallers, Top Volatile
, Top Traders trends, 52 Week High
, 52 Week Low
, Uptrend
, Downtrend
, 30 Days High
 and 30 Days Low
.
• Economic Calendar – This tool allows you to identify key volatility drivers in the Forex market. Filter by day, week, and month, as well as by country, to find the data most relevant to you.
• Events & Trade – A unique interactive economic calendar, Events & Trade uses forecasts from over 30 leading global economists and analyses historical asset movement in order to give you statistical trend predictions for upcoming events.

Customer Support

Markets.com’s support team can be reached via email and live chat, 24 hours a day, five days a week. Although the Markets.com website is available in 15 different languages, customer support is only available in Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

Trading Conditions

With Markets.com, clients can choose between a number of base currencies, including ZAR, USD, EUR, GBP, PLN, SEK, DKK, NOK and AUD. Similarly, Markets.com has a wide range of tradeable instruments, including:

• Forex (e.g. USD/JPY)
• Commodities (e.g. crude oil)
• Stocks (e.g. IBM)
• Stock indices (e.g. S&P 500)
• ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds), e.g. iShares MSCI ACWI Index ETF
• Bonds (e.g. GER 10Y Bond)
• Cryptocurrencies (e.g. litecoin)

Trading Accounts

Demo Account

Markets.com offer an unlimited demo account so you can forward-test an expert advisor indefinitely or practice trading for as long as you want. The Markets.com demo trading account accurately simulates real account trading conditions and gives you USD 10,000 to practice with.

Live Account

The Markets.com standard live account has a low minimum deposit of USD 100. Although there is only one type of live account with Markets.com, it has a very generous bonus scheme. A USD 100 deposit will receive a 20% bonus, but clients who deposit more than USD 10,000 have access to a senior account manager and will receive an impressive 35% (USD 3,500) bonus to kickstart their trading.

Markets.com’s standard account unlocks competitive live trading conditions on a multitude of financial instruments. All clients of Markets.com enjoy responsive client support and all the trading tools available on the Markets.com trading platform.

Markets.com Swap Free Account

The swap-free account option is only available to clients who cannot receive or pay any interest due to the observance of religious beliefs. This account type offers the same advantages as the standard trading account, but clients with swap-free accounts will not be charged rollover fees or be able to execute carry trades.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposit Methods at Markets.com

You can fund your Markets.com trading account with:

• Credit/Debit cards
• Wire transfer
• Skrill
• Neteller
• Paypal

How Fast are Deposits Processed?

• Credit/debit card transactions take approximately 24 hours to process upon receipt. After clients have completed Markets.com’s Onboarding Process, their deposits will be credited to their trading accounts immediately.
• Wire transfers take approximately 1-2 business days to process upon receipt.
• E-wallet deposits can take up to 24 hours to reflect in your trading account.

How to Withdraw Funds From Markets.com

Due to anti-money laundering regulations, withdrawals can only be sent via payment methods with which you funded your account. To withdraw funds from your Markets.com trading account, your account needs to be fully verified and will take up to 36 hours to be processed by Markets.  You can also withdraw using Markets Mobile (Markets.com’s mobile app).

The minimum withdrawal amount for the supported payment methods are listed below:

• Wire transfer: USD10 or ZAR100
• Credit/Debit Card: USD5 or ZAR50
• Skrill/Neteller: USD5 or ZAR50

Here are the different times according to the different payment channels:

• Credit and debit cards: 2-8 days
• Wire transfer: 2-5 days
• Skrill/Neteller: 2 days

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

Markets.com doesn’t charge clients for making deposits and withdrawals. The only costs are the usual bank card, e-wallet, or bank transfer fees.

*Please Note: clients depositing over USD 2,500 will be reimbursed by Markets.com for any external transaction fees that are charged.

Spreads and Commissions

There is no commission on trades, which means that usually, the only transaction costs are the spread and rollover charges, where applicable. Beware that markets.com do charge a Conversion Fee on some trades. This is a small charge (0.3%) deducted for the currency conversion when the trading account currency and the quoted currency of the underlying asset are different.

Trading Platforms

• Markets WebTrader – this is Markets.com’s proprietary web-based trading platform. (It is also Markets.com’s default trading platform).
• Markets.com MT4 Desktop Trading Platform – the MT4 trading platform is one of the most widely used Forex trading platforms and can also be used to trade other instruments like a stock index, cryptocurrency, commodity, and stock CFDs. MT4’s auto-trading feature enables algorithmic trading and strategy back-testing with expert advisors (trading robots).
• Markets.com MT5 Desktop Trading Platform – this trading platform is similar to MT4 but has some differences and extra features. It was specifically designed for trading CFDs, futures, and stocks, whereas MT4 was designed primarily with Forex trading in mind.
• Markets.com Mobile

Markets.com Mobile App

The Markets.com mobile trading platform is available for Android and iOS devices.

Evaluation Process

We value transparency and openness in the way we review the partners. To bring transparency to the forefront, we have published our review process that includes a detailed breakdown of the Markets.com offering. Central to that process is the evaluation of the reliability of the broker, the platform offering of the broker and the trading conditions offered to clients, which are summarised in this review. Each one of these is graded, and an overall score is calculated and assigned to the broker.

Markets.com Risk Statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. Markets.com would like you to know that: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 73% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Overview

Markets.com is a reputable broker with high-security standards. Based on their security measures, segregated trading accounts, and negative balance protection, protecting client funds is clearly a priority with Markets.com.

We like Markets WebTrader, Markets.com’s proprietary trading platform. Some traders prefer an alternative to the ‘traditional’ MT4 trading platform, and Markets WebTrader is a strong substitute.

Telephone customer support is not available, which can be a big drawback for customers with more urgent issues.

Other positive aspects of Markets.com include:

• Competitive spreads and no commission
• A large range of tradeable instruments
• A range of different account base currencies, including ZAR (South African Rand).
• Excellent trading tools

Most retail CFD accounts lose money. Your capital is at risk.