CMC Markets review

Regulated by

FCA (173730); ASIC (AFSL 238054); BaFin (154814); MAS; FMA New Zealand (FSP41187); CIRO Canada; DFSA (F006316)

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 173730

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Major regulated banks including Barclays

Negative balance protection

Yes, retail clients

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; EdW protection up to €20,000 for eligible German clients; CIPF protection for eligible Canadian investment accounts

Audited by

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Not available to

United States and jurisdictions where CMC Markets is not authorised or services are legally restricted

The licence is what decides where your money sits and who is obliged to do something about it.

CMC Markets holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA, MAS, FMA, BaFin and CIRO. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The DFSA regulates from the Dubai International Financial Centre, a separate legal jurisdiction from the wider UAE.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the MAS Financial Institutions Directory, the New Zealand Financial Service Providers Register, the DFSA public register.

Legal entity

CMC Markets plc

Company number

05145017

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

1989

Publicly listed

Yes, London Stock Exchange (LON: CMCX), FTSE 250

Parent company

Independent

Employees

Approx. 1,000

Also trades as

CMC Markets; CMC Invest

Spread from

0.0 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 0.0-0.1 pips, FX Active

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 0.2 pips, FX Active

Commission

$2.50 per side / $5 round turn, FX Active

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.5 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight holding costs charged/credited

Inactivity fee

£10/month after 12 months inactivity

Currency conversion

0.5%

Cost is the last thing to weigh here, and never the thing that should decide it.

A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

CMC Markets lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Platforms

CMC Next Generation, MetaTrader 4, TradingView

Own platform

Yes, Next Generation

Mobile app

Both proprietary and third-party

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes, through MT4

Copy trading

No

Indicators

80+ on Next Generation; 100+ through TradingView

Third-party tools

TradingView, Morningstar, Reuters, Opto, Trading Central

API access

Yes

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Markets

Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Treasuries, ETFs, Cryptocurrencies

Currency pairs

300+

Total instruments

12,000+

Crypto CFDs

Yes, jurisdiction-dependent

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market maker / principal

Execution speed

Approx. 0.004 seconds

Order types

Market, limit, stop-entry, stop-loss, trailing stop-loss, guaranteed stop-loss, boundary orders

Servers

London and global financial data-centre infrastructure

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

CMC Markets covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, treasuries, etfs, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: visa, mastercard, bank transfer, paypal, apple pay and regional payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

CFD, Spread Betting, FX Active, Invest, Professional, Demo

Account currencies

GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, CAD, NZD, SGD, NOK, SEK, PLN

Islamic account

No

Demo account

Yes, unlimited

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

1 unit / instrument-dependent; approximately 0.01 lot equivalent on FX

Time to open

Typically a few minutes

Deposit methods

Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, PayPal, Apple Pay and regional payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, cards and supported original funding methods

Deposit time

Instant for cards/PayPal; bank transfer typically same day to 2 business days

Withdrawal time

Usually processed same day; domestic bank transfers typically 1-2 business days

Minimum withdrawal

No minimum

Local payment methods

BPAY and PayID in Australia; jurisdiction-specific bank and payment methods elsewhere

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

+44 (0)20 7170 8200

Email

clientmanagement@cmcmarkets.co.uk

Live chat response

Typically under 2 minutes

Education

Extensive: webinars, trading guides, platform tutorials, educational articles and videos

Research

Extensive: Morningstar, Reuters news, Opto, market analysis, technical insights, analyst commentary and client sentiment