CMC Markets Review: Bonus of a Big Player

CMC Markets is a pioneer in the UK brokerage space. Founded in 1989, the broker is able to draw on more than two and a half decades of experience to provide its users with a comprehensive trading package. This heritage has enabled it to cultivate an expansive product range, offering an array of trading and analytical tools. The broker has won a host of industry awards for these services, notably Best Online Charts by MoneyAM in 2013. Partnerships with established industry players such as Reuters, the news information service, has also enhanced the broker’s product offering. In this review, Realmoney.co.uk puts the full CMC Markets trading package under the microscope.

. SEARCH9000+Instruments TRADE ON FOREX, STOCKS, INDICES, COMMODITIES Award-winning next generation platform Advanced award winning charting package Tight spreads and low margins PLAY HERE!Our Rating:Excellent

Trading involves a high risk of loss. T&Cs Apply

Selected Bonus Offer

CMC Markets offers selected clients that open a Next Generation live account a welcome bonus of £200 which will automatically be credited to their account. In the writing of this review it was found that the bonus offer is available only to people who do not have an existing live account with CMC Spreadbet. As with any trading offer, remember to read the small print as terms and conditions apply.

Trade More Than 10,000 Products

CMC Markets is unquestionably a giant in the retail trading space. This review found that the broker offers its clients more than 100,000 products to trade. These include 338 Forex products, 87 Indices, 9,413 shares and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), 111 commodities and 46 treasuries. The broker offers major Forex pairs for trading available as CFDs, including EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY. Investors can speculate on indices across the globe, including those in the US, Germany and Australia. The heavily traded benchmark crude oil Brent cash and West Texas cash are popular bets while the platform’s CFD share portfolio include household names such as Apple, Barclays and Facebook. The broker’s diverse offering enables its client to build up a balanced and tactically diverse portfolio. The broker’s native Next Generation trading platform is accessible to both novice and experienced investors alike. Users can control exactly when and how trades are made using the multiple order types available on the platform.

Best in Class Mobile App

The CMC Markets mobile trading app offers a complete suite of services that can match any of the rival offers on the market. The app provides subscribers access to all the functions that are available to desktop traders. These include guaranteed stop-loss orders, which are designed to protect against losses when trading. The platform also offers trailing stops, price ladder and boundary orders. You can view live streaming prices on your handheld device and obtain access to more than 35 technical indicator and chart types, including candlestick, spread and Heikin-Ashi. The app offers users search functionality where products can be filtered by performance and volatility measures over multiple timeframes and also according to product type, country or sector. Users can also customize the desired features of the app to keep track of the products and markets on their watch list. The app was voted ‘Best CFD Mobile Trading App’ in the 2012 Investment Trends UK CFD, FX & Financial Spread Betting Report. The app is available on Android devices with operating systems of 3.0 or above and the iPhone, equipped with the iOS operating system 7.0 or above.

CMC Markets Trading App: View and trade on live streaming prices Price depth ladder Unit and amount trading options Alerts on all major economic data releases Fund your account via the app

Trading Insights and Analysis

CMC Markets is able to leverage the size of its user base to provide traders with a variety of sophisticated analytical resources. A client sentiment analysis tool shows the percentage of CMC Markets clients who have bought versus the percentage who have sold on a particular product, providing users with an insight of what other traders on the platform anticipate the next market moves to be. Users can filter the client sentiment data by choosing all clients with an open position in a product or filter out the noise by switching to see data from only the top clients who have made an overall profit on their accounts in the previous three months. This data is updated every minute, making the information particularly valuable in incidents of market volatility. Further insight into what other traders are doing is provided in the ‘Also Being Traded’ section, which displays the trading activity of other users on the platform.

In addition, traders on the platform obtain access to a pattern recognition scanner which scans more than 120 of the most actively traded instruments every 15 minutes, searching for emerging chart patterns. The service also provides alerts when potential trading opportunities emerge. When patterns complete, a price projection box is launched, providing a forecast for where the price action could go on the product’s chart. A module linking feature allows users to link a watch list of securities to market news provided by Reuters, client sentiment, chart and order tickets.

Practice Forever in Demo Mode

If you are interested in opening an account with CMC Markets but would rather familiarise yourself with the platform first before putting any money at risk you can practice first using a demo account. New users simply provide a valid e-mail address, their full name and phone number and a password. A demo account can be maintained for as long as you like, enabling trading strategies to be battle-tested before any real cash is put on the line. Virtual funds can be topped up via the platform’s payments menu. However, the demo account doesn’t show CFD prices on stocks. Also remember that your decision-making process can differ when real money is at stake.

Customer Support by e-mail and Phone

The broker provides its clients with a comprehensive customer service offering, providing users with customer service support via telephone and e-mail. The broker is authorised and regulated by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. As part of its regulatory obligations, the broker segregates client deposits in top tier banks. Client funds receive further protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme for deposits of up to £50,000 in the event of insolvency.

Intuitive Trading

If you are looking for a broker with an established pedigree, expansive trading offering and large user base, CMC Markets may be the place for you to trade. This review found that the broker provides users with a complete offering that includes a state-of-the-art platform, demo account and cutting edge mobile trading app. The Next Generation platform is an intuitive and elegant trading hub. The tools and educational resources available serve to only further enhance the trading experience. This is a platform that caters perfectly for retail investors that have a technical approach to their trading. Still, the intuitive and transparent design will appeal to less experienced traders looking for a platform that is easy to navigate. In a crowded broker space, CMC Markets has stood the test of time and shows it continually ready to innovate and offer new products and services.

Risk Warning:Investing in CMC Markets derivative products carries significant risks and is not suitable for all investors. You could lose more than your deposits. You do not own, or have any interest in, the underlying assets. We recommend that you seek independent advice and ensure you fully understand the risks involved before trading.