CM Trading Broker Review

Author Author:  Jeffrey Cammack Published: May 7, 2019
Editor Editor:  Chris Cammack Updated: May 10, 2023

Last Updated On May 10, 2023

Jeffrey Cammack
Broker Score
3.48 3.48 / 5
Rated #54 of 59 Recommended Brokers
🏦  Min. DepositUSD 100
🛡️  Regulated By
💵  Trading Cost 
USD 15
⚖️  Max. Leverage200:1
💹  Copy Trading
🖥️  Platforms
💱  Instruments 
AlertAccepts Kenyan Clients. Average spread EUR/USD 1.70 pips on trading account with lowest minimum deposit. Max leverage 200:1. Islamic account available. MT4 & Sirix platforms supported. CM Trading is regulated by the FSCA.

Last Updated On May 10, 2023

Jeffrey Cammack

75-90% of retail traders lose money trading Forex and CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs and leveraged trading work and if you can afford the high risk of losing your money. We may receive compensation when you click on links to products we review. Please read our advertising disclosure. By using this website, you agree to our Terms of Service.

Our verdict on CM Trading

CM Trading is a major South African CFD broker offering trading on Forex, indices and commodities.  South African traders will be pleased that CM Trading is fully licenced by the FSCA, but should be aware that trading and withdrawal costs are high.

The minimum deposit is 250 USD and CM Trading offers both MetaTrader4 and Sirix trading platforms on desktop computers and mobile devices. A variety of promotions and bonuses are available for new accounts.

The local customer service is generally excellent, but wide spreads and only basic market analysis might discourage traders.

🏦  Min. DepositUSD 100
🛡️  Regulated By
💵  Trading Cost 
USD 15
⚖️  Max. Leverage200:1
💹  Copy Trading
🖥️  Platforms
💱  Instruments 

Overall Summary

Trust Rating
111003/ 5
Trading Conditions
111104/ 5
Trading Platforms
111104/ 5
Deposit & Withdrawal
100001/ 5
Education & Research
1110.503.5/ 5
Assets Available
111104/ 5
Customer Service
11110.54.5/ 5
Beginner Friendly
Standard
Welcome Bonus

Account Information

Base Currencies
EUR, USD
Number of FX Pairs
50
Crypto Pairs
23
Copy Trading
Hedging Allowed
Scalping Allowed
Islamic Account

Trading Conditions

Account Name
Bronze
Trading Desk
Commission
Fees Included in Spread
EUR/USD
1.70 pips
GBP/USD
2.60 pips
USD/JPY
1.70 pips
Negative Balance Protection

Company Details

Company Name
BLACKSTONE Marketing SA(PTY)LTD
Founded
2013
Website Language
English, Arabic
Support Language
English, Arabic
Office Locations
South Africa, Mauritius, Israel

Pros

  • Good for beginners
  • Great customer support
  • Copy trading accounts

Cons

  • Expensive withdrawals
  • Local regulation only

Is CM Trading Safe?

CM Trading’s parent company, Blackstone Marketing SA, has been regulated by the FSCA (License Number 38782) since 2009 and CM Trading has been an active CFD broker since 2012.  In 2018, CM Trading won the Best Broker: Africa award from African Investor for quality and innovation – in making the award, special reference was made to CM Trading’s CopyKat trading system and Guardian Angel automated feedback tool.

Overall, although CM Trading is lacking oversight from one of the major regulators, they have a great reputation amongst their clients in Africa and are widely recognised as a trustworthy broker.

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Group Regulators
Trading Desk
Website
Year Founded
Office Locations
Additional Fees
FSCA
FSA-Seychelles
Market Maker
2013
South Africa, Mauritius, Israel

 

Trading Conditions

As you might expect, trading conditions and spreads depend on your account type. CM Trading’s account types are split across four tiers depending on how much money you deposit: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Premium – with Gold and Premium accounts having the tightest spreads.

Interestingly, ECN Accounts are also available but only at the Gold and Premium tiers, putting them out of range of most new traders. Islamic (swap-free) account are available on all account types, except for ECNs.

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Display Name
Min. Deposit
Max. Leverage
Min. Spread
Commission
Bronze
USD 100
200:1
1.70
Spread Only
Account Details
Gold
USD 10000
200:1
0.90
Spread Only
Account Details
Gold ECN
USD 10000
200:1
0.10
14 USD
Account Details
Platinum
USD 100000
200:1
0.10
10 USD
Account Details
Premium
USD 100000
200:1
0.90
Spread Only
Account Details
Silver
USD 1000
200:1
1.20
Spread Only
Account Details

Account Features

Spreads and Commissions

While trading with a Bronze of Silver account will be commission-free, the Gold and Premium tiers allow you to choose an ECN Account which has a charge of 5 USD round-turn per trade – though spreads do get down to 0.1 pips on major pairs.

Generally, traders with a Bronze account will be getting spreads of 2-3 pips, with the EUR/USD averaging 1.5 pips and the USD/JPY averaging 1.7 pips (see below). Spreads will get incrementally tighter the higher your account tier.

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Broker
Trading Conditions
Base Currencies
EURUSD (Standard)
Trading Cost (Standard)
EURUSD (Best)
GBPUSD (Best)
USDJPY (Best)
Commission
CM Trading
111104/ 5
EUR, USD
1.50 pips
USD 15
1.70 pips
2.60 pips
1.70 pips
USD 0
eToro
111104/ 5
USD
1.00 pips
USD 10
1.00 pips
2.00 pips
1.00 pips
USD 0
Trade.com
1110.503.5/ 5
CHF, CZK, EUR, GBP, ZAR, USD, PLN
1.90 pips
USD 19
3.00 pips
3.00 pips
3.00 pips
USD 0

 

CM Trading Spreads

Bonuses & Promotions

CM Trading are always changing their promotions and bonuses and usually offer at least two at the same time. These can range from different cash bonuses and improved trading conditions to education packs and giveaways.

CM Trading Bonus

NB: These bonuses are accurate for October 2019 and are only illustrative of what you might expect.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits and withdrawals are generally processed within 2-3  business days.  Deposit methods include all major credit and debit cards as well as wire and bank transfers, CashU, Neteller, and Fasapay.  Withdrawals are processed more quickly if the correct documentation is provided. Same-day withdrawals are available for premium customers. 

Unusually, CM Trading does not publish their fees for deposits and withdrawals, so we approached them to find out what they were and received the following reply:

  • Bank Wire: CM Trading will charge the going market rate plus 2% with respect to all deposits and market-rate less 2% with respect to all withdrawals.
  • Cryptocurrencies: CM Trading will charge the going market rate plus 3% with respect to all deposits and market-rate less 4% with respect to all withdrawals
  • Credit/Debit Card: CM Trading will not charge any fees with respect to all deposits but will charge 4% on all withdrawals

If you wish to know more about these charges, contact the CM Trading finance team on [email protected].

CM Trading for Beginners

CM Trading is a good Forex broker for beginners, with a decent 3rd-party education section and adequate analytical content.  If your priority is to have a South African broker, CM Trading is definitely one of the best for beginners in the local market – an added bonus is that you do not have to be a CM Trading client in order to access any of this learning material.

Educational Material

Training Videos

The backbone of the education section is a generic library of animated training videos, with subjects covering common Forex terms, social trading, the MetaTrader 4 platform, trading strategies and trading psychology.  While most of the training videos are aimed at beginner traders, lessons in technical and fundamental analysis and trading plans support more advanced learning. Other more advanced videos cover EAs to use with the MT4 platform and other methods of automated trading.

The one downside to CM Trading’s video library is that all the videos are only accessible through CM Trading’s own player, which is dated and has very limited functionality. This is frustrating, especially for those of us accustomed to YouTube and other popular players.

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Broker
Beginner Course
Advanced Course
Well Structured Education
Education Quality
Webinars
CM Trading
Medium
eToro
Low
Trade.com
Low

 

Education CM Trading

Webinars

CM Trading hosts weekly webinars on a range of subjects, recent webinars include the Psychology of Trading and Trading Cryptocurrencies. These webinars are simple to register for and, once more, you do not have to be a CM Trading customer to access them.

Video Chart Analysis

The chart analysis section is accompanied by a brief, yet useful, analytical breakdown of the major currency pairs. The video chart analysis on offer is straightforward and detailed and is helpful to both novice and expert traders.

Ebooks

CM Trading, through a 3rd party, offers a collection of eBooks covering Forex terms, trading psychology, basic and advanced technical analysis and basic and advanced trading strategies. These are also available to non-customers but unfortunately non-downloadable.  Much like the with the Training Videos, CM Trading’s player is not a particularly easy way to digest new information, even in written format.

Analysis Material

The analysis material offering is basic but adequate in that it contains a functional economic calendar, highlighting the major events of the day.  This is accompanied by a five-minute daily market review every morning before market-open, which highlights potential trading opportunities across the major financial markets for the coming day, and is generally well researched. 

Customer Support

Customer support is available 24/5 via live chat, WhatsApp, email and via 11 different international phone numbers (in South Africa, Canada, Malaysia, UK, China, France, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Bahrain) with full language support for each region.  Additionally, CM Trading provides MT4 support to help beginner traders get started and one-on-one training is available to larger depositors.

Trading Platforms

CM Trading Smart Communication Systems

MetaTrader 4

CM Trading offers its version of the Meta Trader 4 (MT4) platform, which is the industry standard for Forex & CFD trading.  MT4 allows trade using EAs, and also allows for hedging or scalping. If you have your own existing Expert Advisor it will integrate seamlessly with CM Trading’s version of MT4. 

Sirix Webtrader

Sirix WebTrader was released in 2014 by Leverate and was developed in HTML5 so can be used on any phone, tablet or desktop. It has over 60 built-in indicators, a high level of security and receives regular software updates.

Designed to speed up trading, the Sirix trading windows can be pre-configured to include the instruments and lot sizes you trade regularly. One-click-trading can be enabled or disabled.

Additionally, Sirix Webtrader comes with a built-in copy trading functionality, which we will look at in more detail below.

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Broker
Platform Choice
Copy Trading
Platforms
CM Trading
111104/ 5
WebTrader
eToro
111104/ 5
etoro
Trade.com
111104/ 5
Sirix

 

Trading Tools

CopyKat

With CM Trading’s Sirix WebTrader you will also receive access to Sirix CopyKat, Sirix’ copy trading tool.

CopyKat allows you to watch professional traders’ deals and copy them in real-time but also allows for automated copying. The system is easy-to-use and supports one-click trading.

Guardian Angel

CM Trading runs a Smart Communication System for its customers called Guardian Angel, which provides support and direct messages concerning market trends and provides automated feedback on how you trade, highlighting market volatility indications and a stop loss calculator.

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Broker
Economic Calendar
Autochartist
Trading Central
Trading View
Free VPS
CM Trading
eToro
Trade.com

 

CM Trading Mobile Apps

CM Trading’s Sirix platform is available across all devices with little loss in functionality. CM Trading also offers a mobile trading platform driven by MT4.

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 CM Trading offer. 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.

CM Trading Risk Statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. CM Trading would like you to know that: Trading Foreign Exchange (Forex) and Contracts for Differences (CFD’s) is highly speculative, carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. You may sustain a loss of some or all of your invested capital, therefore, you should not speculate with capital that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with trading on margin.

Overview

CM Trading is a well-known FSCA-regulated market maker broker focused on its African client base. Established, award-winning, and trusted, CM Trading’s trading conditions are in line with their competitors and platform support is adequate. A wide range of trading tools, especially for beginner traders, is a bonus but CM Trading’s offering is slightly let down by expensive deposit and withdrawal fees.

Editorial Team

 

Chris Cammack
Head of Content

Chris joined the company in 2019 after ten years experience in research, editorial and design for political and financial publications. His background has given him a deep knowledge of international financial markets and the geopolitics that affects them. Chris has a keen eye for editing and a voracious appetite for financial and political current affairs. He ensures that our content across all sites meets the standards of quality and transparency that our readers expect.

 

Alison Heyerdahl
Senior Financial Writer

Alison joined the team as a writer in 2021. She has a medical degree with a focus on physiotherapy and a bachelor’s in psychology. However, her interest in forex trading and her love for writing led her to switch careers, and she now has over eight years experience in research and content development. She has tested and reviewed 100+ brokers and has a great understanding of the Forex trading world.

 

Ida Hermansen
Financial Writer

Ida joined our team as a financial writer in 2023. She has a degree in Digital Marketing and a background in content writing and SEO. In addition to her marketing and writing skills, Ida also has an interest in cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks. Her interest in crypto trading led to a wider fascination with Forex technical analysis and price movement. She continues to develop her skills and knowledge in Forex trading and keeps a close eye on which Forex brokers offer the best trading environments for new traders.

 

Vanessa Marcos
Financial Writer

Vanessa joined the team in 2023. Born and raised in southern Portugal, she has a BA in Journalism and a Master’s in Literary Theory, both from Lisbon University. Since 2011, she has worked in social media, copywriting, content management, ghost-writing, and SEO. Vanessa loves to write, and although she is a generalist in digital marketing, she always draws on her creativity in her work. She is constantly researching new subjects and finds the analytical depth of Forex trading fascinating.

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AlertAccepts Kenyan Clients. Average spread EUR/USD 1.70 pips on trading account with lowest minimum deposit. Max leverage 200:1. Islamic account available. MT4 & Sirix platforms supported. CM Trading is regulated by the FSCA.
  • William says:

    The insights about cm trading are very helpful

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