XM Review: Global Reach in Forex

At Bestforexbroker.info , were committed to ensuring that you access the safest and most complaint trading experience anywhere online. This is part of our commitment to deliver the best customer service, to more than 500,000 clients across 196 countries.

To this end, we’ve recently been required to adopt new restrictive measures on the provision of Contracts for Difference (CFDs), so that we can comply with updated regulations within the body of the European Union.

These will impact on all positions that are opened on or after the 1st August 2018, so it’s imperative that your accounts are sufficiently funded in advance to avoid any disturbances caused by increased margin thresholds and a higher stop-out level at 50% of the minimum required margin.

More specifically, the margin close-out rule for account holders now requires that XM CY automatically closes all open retail clients’ open positions when the minimum total required falls below 50%. The current rate is 20%, so it’s important that you factor this into your trading decisions going forward

We’ll cover this in more detail below, but rest assured that opening an account with us continues to offer all the benefits that you would expect from a service provider with such a prominent global reach.

Claim a £20 Bonus, No Deposit Required

While we’ll continue to offer trading bonuses to our clients, the new legislation will have an immediate effect on existing offers.

More specifically, any remaining bonuses that pre-existed in your account will be permanently removed on 1st August 2018. This follows the advised removal of any unredeemed XM point that were in your account prior to 16th July 2018, and there is no way to take retrospective action once this date has passed.

From this date onwards, you’ll be able to claim our £20 bonus as usual. This takes just a few easy steps, and the process will be largely unchanged going forward.

Unlike many other offers you don’t have to make a deposit to be eligible. All that is required is proof of identity. Once the £20 bonus has been credited to your account after 1st August 2018, it can be used to trade but the bonus itself can’t be withdrawn, only the profits made from trading.

The bonus offer compares favourably with rival deals in the market. As is always the case you should read the small print. The £20 bonus amount is part of your trading equity and at risk. The broker promotes the £20 bonus as a way of testing its trading platform.

Demo Account with £100,000 of Virtual Cash

If you’d rather test your trading skills without putting any real money at risk, XM will continue to offer a demo account where you can practice trading ideas and strategies.

An account can be opened in seconds after providing some personal data, creating a password and confirming your e-mail address. You then have a variety of options for downloading the MT4 trading platform to your PC or Mac, tablet or smartphone device.

Once you’ve logged on you can practice trading with £100,000 of virtual cash that is automatically credited to your account. The MT4 trading screen displays major currency pairs on the left of the screen.

When you click on a currency pair that you’re interested in trading you see a graphic representation of its historical performance in front of you. Demo accounts that have been inactive for longer than 90 days from the last login are automatically closed. Still, users are able to open a new demo account.

When you feel confident enough to trade with real money a live account can be opened in less than five minutes. After completing an online application you’ll receive an e-mail with your login details that you can use to obtain access to the secure members area of the website.

Users can choose between a micro trading account (1 micro lot is 1,000 units of the base currency pair) and a standard account (1 standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency pair).

A Complete Portal for the Retail Trader

XM has made transparency and quality of execution driving principals guiding the service that it provides to retail traders. The portal also highlights the security and high level of professionalism and expertise in the forex industry. Bestforexbroker.info puts the XM offering under the microscope.

Take Your Pick from More Than 50 Forex Pairs

As a broker offering trading in more than 50 currency pairs – including majors, crosses and exotics – the portal offers myriad opportunities to trade forex. Retail forex traders can choose from major currency plays such as EUR/USD and EUR/GBP or take bets on less popular pairs such as SGD/JPY or CAD/CHF.

Under the new legislation, the margin rates for major FX currencies (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD and CHF) will change to 3.33% (or 30:1 leverage) from 1st August 2018. All other, minor pairs can be traded at 5% and 20:1 leverage from this date, so make a note of this when executing orders.

Customers can also trade a variety of other asset classes including precious metals, commodities and Contracts for Difference (CFDs).  A host of major equity indices are available to trade including the UK 100, Spain 35 and Wall Street 30. Traders venturing into commodities can go long or short on benchmarks WTI Oil or Brent Crude Oil.

The new margin rate for major indices (EU50, FRA40, GER30, JP225, UK100, US100, US30, US500, EU50Cash, AUS200Cash, FRA49Cash, GER30Cash, JP225Cash, UK100Cash, UK100Cash, US100Cash, US30Cash and US500Cash) will also be fixed at 5% and 20:1 leverage from 1st August 2018, while all remaining, minor indices will be available at a margin rate of 10% (leverage 10:1).

No Re-Quoting, Tight Spreads

As a broker that doesn’t engage in re-quoting you’ll obtain the market price on a currency pairs trade that it actually receives. Real-time prices are aggregated from liquidity providers in forex markets with the aim of providing traders with the best bid and ask prices available.

The broker offers 100 percent execution of orders with 99.35 percent of its orders executed in less than a second. Spreads on the platform vary according to market conditions and can be as low as 0 pip.

The average spread on the GBP/USD is 0.00025 while the average spread on EUR/USD is 0.00017. As these examples illustrate, XM offers fractional pip pricing. Instead of four-digit quoting prices. Clients can benefit from very small price movements as a result of the addition of the fifth digit.

Leverage to Meet Your Risk Profile

When using the platform to trade you can obtain varying degrees of leverage as referenced above, whereby the exposure you obtain on a currency pairs trade exceeds the margin payment required to make the trade.

The broker provides leverage of between 1:1 and 888:1. The level of leverage varies depending upon the value of the initial deposit. For example, a forex trader with £10,000 of capital could trade with leverage of 100:1. If he took a long EUR/USD position that opened at 1.3055 and closed at 1.3155 he would make a profit of £10,000 (as the difference is 0.0100 pips).

Leverage is a tool that is suitable only for informed investors as losses can be magnified if markets move against you. To guard against the added risks that leverage brings you can put in place a stop loss, which enables you to minimise your losses. You can also take advantage of a take profit order function where a position is automatically closed when it reaches a desired price

XM offers a sliding scale of leverage in line with the new guidelines from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). These revised scales will apply from 1st August 2018, and effect all trading positions opened on or after this date.

Trading on the MT4

The MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Web Trader is designed to fulfill the needs of traders of varying levels of ability, providing a portal for pursuing both basic and complex strategies. An execution to trade can be made instantly with the help of interactive charts over nine different periods that allow you to examine quotes and respond quickly to any price changes.

The MT4 platform has a signals and copy trading function, enabling you to automatically copy deals of other traders. The platform also allows more sophisticated traders to develop automated trading strategies via its Expert Advisors portal that facilitates the deployment of trading robots.

Taking an Educated View on the Markets

When trading with the MT4 platform you obtain access to 23 analytical objects and 30 built-in technical indicators along with interactive charts to inform your trading decisions. The broker also provides users technical analysis via its website, with bite-sized news items highlighting emerging bullish or bearish technical indicators across currency markets.

Charts can be viewed by right clicking on any of the symbols in the Market Watch section and choosing the Chart Window option. Alternatively, users can drag and drop any symbol in the chart window. Beginners who are still learning the basics of how to trade can consult a personal account manager who can be contacted via the website’s live chat function or by e-mail or telephone.

A one-to-one training session can also be arranged to go over the basics of the MT4 terminal.

Trading on the Move

If you want to obtain access to the MT4 platform on your smartphone the mobile app provides all the key trading functions, analytical capabilities and technical indicators you need to trade with confidence on your handheld device. Users obtain real-time quotes, a full set of trade orders including pending orders, all types of trade execution and a detailed trading history.

The functionality is intuitive and easy to use facilitating the same type of seamless trading experience that you can expect when trading on your desktop with a PC or Mac. The Android app requires the operating system of 4.0 or above while iPhone users must have iOS operating system 7.0 or above.

Meet Your Professional Adviser

XM is a transparent and open broker offering comprehensive customer support. If you have a query you can launch a live online chat with a customer service representative. Alternatively, you can telephone the customer support desk which is available 24-hours a day, Monday to Friday on +357 25029933.

Customer support is available in 26 different languages. The postal addresses of the broker’s various operations across the globe are transparently displayed on its website. You can even make arrangements to meet a professional adviser in person and visit the broker’s headquarters in Cyprus.

A Safe Place to Invest

XM is operated by Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd, a CySEC-regulated and European Union-registered broker. The forex broker is governed by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). The forex broker is also registered with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Client funds are segregated and transferred to the company’s client bank account, providing an additional security in the event of the company falling into insolvency.

Under the terms of the ESMA, we’re also required to offer a negative balance protection on a per account basis to all retail clients. We’ve always done this as a matter of course, and will continue to do so with our clients’ interests in mind.

Fierce Competitor in Forex

XM has positioned itself as a forex broker offering highly competitive spreads and a flexibility and depth of leverage that more sophisticated retail traders will appreciate. The broker also shows a demonstrable commitment to quality execution with its no re-quotes and no rejection of orders policy.

The trading app is accessible and intuitive. In a crowded forex broker space, XM is a fierce competitor. The bonus offer is one of the more attractive deals on the market and the broker goes the extra mile in providing first-class customer service. If you are looking for a secure and safe place to put your cash this is a forex broker worth seriously considered.

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