Time is money represents the guiding philosophy of ForexTime (FXTM). This saying is apt in financial markets where millions of pounds are won – and lost – in fractions of a second. The broker was launched in 2011 to provide a superior trading experience in the retail forex space, offering traders high-speed trade execution, and it has won growing recognition for the excellence of its educational and trading tools. Bestforexbroker.info takes a look at the complete FXTM offering.
Incentives for New Customers
Customers are eligible for a loyalty cashback promotion scheme that enables subscribers to accumulate cash rewards from their trading activity. Traders are continuously rewarded as long as they stay in the promotion and keep trading for up to six months. You can obtain access to the scheme by registering for an account, joining the MyFXTM promotion and making a cash deposit before starting to trade regularly on the platform.
Earn FXTM Points
The FXTM points scheme runs for six months (from May 3 to November 1 2016) and is composed of five rebate levels. While the rebates are denominated in dollars you will obtain the exchange rate to sterling on the day you made your first deposit.
- Level 1 requires a net deposit of up to $5,000 and offers a rebate of $2 cashback per full completed lot with a maximum pay-out of $1,000.
- Level 2 requires a deposit of above $5,000 to $20,000 and offers a rebate of $3 per full completed lot with a maximum pay-out of $3,000.
- Level 3 requires a deposit of above $20,000 to $50,000 and offers a rebate of $4 cash-back per full completed lot with a maximum pay-out of $6,000.
- Level 4 requires a deposit of above $50,000 to $100,000 and offers a rebate of $5 cash-back per full completed lot with a maximum payout of $10,000.
- Level 5 requires a deposit of above $100,000 and a rebate of $5 per full completed lot with a maximum payout of $20,000.
Demo Account Getting Started
Visitors to the homepage have a choice between opening a live account and a demo account. The demo account enables users to practice trading under real market conditions without actually putting their money at risk. Demo account users are given £10,000 of virtual money to trade with. A click of the mouse will take you to the MT4 WebTrader portal and you can make your first trade. The benefits of using the demo account first before you start trading is that you can experiment with different trading strategies and familiarize yourself with the trading platform.
Enter the Real World of Forex Trading
This is a forex broker that takes an intelligent approach towards meeting the needs and challenges faced by today’s retail forex traders. Currency markets move fast and as technology facilities 24-hour trading, it has become increasingly important for brokers to deliver comprehensive services that always add value to the user experience. Bestforexbroker.info takes a look at the key essentials of the FXTM offering.
Trade More Than 60 Currency Pairs
The forex broker makes currency markets available to trade 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, providing investors with access to more than 60 currency pairs. The portal offers access to the most liquid major currency pairs such as EUR/USD and USD/JPY. Traders also obtain access to minor currency pairs such as EUR/CHF and EUR/GBP. Exotic currency pairs – made up of a major currency pair coupled with the currency of a developing economy – are also available. These include USD/HKD and the USD/NOK. The portal also offers Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on more than 180 stocks, CFDs on commodity futures and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Indices.
Competitive Spreads in Forex
As a forex broker offering some of the lowest spreads in the industry, FXTM competes aggressively on price offering fixed and variable spreads. The portal offers spreads that start from 1.3 on the standard MT4 trading platform and from 01. and 0.2 pips on the ECN MT4 and ECN MT5 trading platforms.
Sophistication in Leverage
Investors obtain varying degrees of leverage and margin requirements that may vary in accordance with the regulations of the various jurisdictions that the platform operates in. The portal offers flexible leverage making the platform a good place for forex investors seeking to pursue more sophisticated trading strategies. While leverage offers the capacity to trade volumes that are far in excess of the margin required to hold a position, it increases the magnitude of potential losses – as well as profits – making good risk management essential at all times.
FXTM’s floating leverage system is linked to the type of account that you hold. A Strategy Account and FXTM Pro account offer leverage of 1:200. On all ECN accounts leverage is set at 1:500, with the exception of an ECN Zero account, which offers leverage of up to 1:1000, the highest amount available. For example, if an ECN Zero account holder opens a position to buy five lots of GBP/USD 1.4584 for a USD denominated account, the notional value is: 5 × 100,000 × 1.4584 = 729,200 USD. Since the notional value of USD 729,200 is not above USD 1,200,000, the leverage offered is 1:1000. FXTM offers a rolling scale of leverage. For example, for an open position of above USD 12,000,000, but less than USD 17,000,000, a leverage of 1:1000 is provided for the first USD 1,200,000, a leverage of 1:500 for the next USD 5,800,000, leverage 1:200 for the next USD 5,000,000 and leverage 1:100 for the remaining amount.
MT4 and MT5 Trading Platforms
The MetaTrader series provides the backbone to the FXTM trading platform. Users can choose between MT4 and MT5 platforms, which are both available on PC, iPhone or iPad, smartphones with the Android operating system and Macs. The MT4 platform comes fully equipped with both back-office reporting functions and front-end terminals. Users benefit from security encryption of their trading activity, trading signals to provide insight into potential opportunities in the market, multiple timeframes to match the desired investment period.
The MT5 trading platform is designed for more sophisticated retail forex investors who value the importance of getting the best possible price on each trade that they make. The platform enables investors to trade directly with liquidity providers in the market place. Technical support in 18 languages is available on both platforms. The portal’s ECN and ECN Zero servers execute orders at 160 milliseconds or less while its standard and cent accounts execute orders in less than 200 milliseconds. You can see how fast trading is on the platform as the broker provides a monthly overview of order execution speeds on its website.
Technical Tools and Market Analysis
The MT4 platform offers traders more than 50 built in technical indicators to help them follow the market and discover trading patterns, with signals for entry and exit points on trades. The MT5 platform is equipped with a plethora of add-on features that include an advanced automated trading system, technical and fundamental analysis (consisting of more than 79 analytical tools), customizable timeframes, MQL5 trading signals, all order types available including fill or kill and immediate or cancel, trading signals, NDD/STP and Level II Data.
A copy trading service is also available for the MQL5 community. Copy trading, is a service whereby you can copy the trades of another trader into your own account. This service is meant to be mutually beneficial for both the signal provider and signal subscriber as the provider charges a fee for his service and the subscriber gets to mirror the trades of traders who may have far more experience.
Trading on the Move
As a very recent addition to the plethora of forex trading apps now available, FXTM has created a mobile trading platform that demonstrably stands out for the quality and breadth of services available. The free app provides market-moving forex news, an economic calendar informing users of the publication of key economic data and daily market analysis to identify trading opportunities and market trends. In addition, users can use the app to calculate pip value, profit and make quick currency conversions on the move. You can use the setting to customise the screen on your handheld device to follow your trades or monitor news flow relevant to your own trading strategies and ideas. The app is available on iOS operating systems 8.0 or later and Android operating system 4.0.3 or above.
Online and Telephone Support
The broker offers customer support between the hours of 3:00am and 20:30pm Eastern European Summer Time. You can have a live chat with a customer service agent after completing an online form in which you give your name, e-mail address, phone number and brief details of your inquiry. A representative can also be contacted by telephone on +44 203 734 2255. Alternatively, you can e-mail a customer service agent on support@forextime.com. The address details of the company’s headquarters in Cyprus are available on the website as are the contact details of its London address.
Payment and Withdrawal Made Simple
FXTM stands out among forex brokers for the transparency of its payment options. Depositing or withdrawing money into your account is simple and straightforward. The forex broker has tables on its website detailing the variety of different methods by which money can be deposited and withdrawn from a trader’s account. For example, you can deposit money into your account with a Visa credit card in two hours. You should check with your credit card provider for any transfer fees that it may levy for putting funds into your account. FXTM does not impose any impose any fees on deposits into an account. While there is no daily deposit limit for putting funds into your account a transaction limit of $10,000 is imposed on credit or debit card payments. While deposits using these methods are free a rolling scale of charges are imposed for withdrawals which can be viewed at the FXTM website.
A Safe Place to Invest
ForexTime Ltd is licensed and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The forex broker is also registered with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) along with regulators in all major European markets. All the regulatory bodies that the forex broker is registered with are displayed on the website. The broker segregates its clients’ funds in top-tier banks based in the European Union.
A Contender in Forex Has Emerged
In a crowded forex broker space where high profile advertising can make new players without a proven track record stand out, FXTM is gaining recognition for the transparency, sophistication and quality of its service. The broker’s offering will undoubtedly catch the eye of the informed and astute forex investors. Being able to trade directly with liquidity providers using ECN technology and STP on the MT5 platform is something experienced forex traders will value. Those with in-depth knowledge of currency markets will also appreciate the low-latency execution speeds that the platform offers. Still, novice forex traders won’t be intimidated to experiment with their first trades as the platform is transparent and easily intelligible. A new contender in the forex broking space has undoubtedly emerged.