ThinkMarkets Broker Review

Author Author:  Chris Cammack Published: Apr 7, 2020
Editor Editor:  Alison Heyerdahl Updated: Aug 14, 2023

Last Updated On Aug 14, 2023

Chris Cammack
Broker Score
4.43 4.43 / 5
Rated #29 of 59 Recommended Brokers
🏦  Min. DepositUSD 0
🛡️  Regulated By
💵  Trading Cost 
USD 11
⚖️  Max. Leverage500:1
💹  Copy Trading
🖥️  Platforms
💱  Instruments 
AlertAccepts Kenyan Clients. Average spread EUR/USD 1.10 pips with 0.0 USD commission round turn on the trading account with lowest minimum deposit. Islamic account available. MT4 & MT5 platforms supported. ThinkMarkets is regulated by the FSCA, FCA, and ASIC.

Last Updated On Aug 14, 2023

Chris 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 ThinkMarkets

ThinkMarkets is a very well-regulated international broker which has been operating in South Africa since 2017. It offers support for MT4, MT5 and its own ThinkTrader platform on two account types: One with a very low minimum deposit and the other a commission-based ECN account for more experienced traders.

Education is well-structured and useful for beginners, though market analysis is poor and sometimes left to in-platform third parties. Customer support is excellent and provided locally and execution times are world-class, perfect for automated trading.

🏦  Min. DepositUSD 0
🛡️  Regulated By
💵  Trading Cost 
USD 11
⚖️  Max. Leverage500:1
💹  Copy Trading
🖥️  Platforms
💱  Instruments 

Overall Summary

Trust Rating
11110.54.5/ 5
Trading Conditions
111104/ 5
Trading Platforms
11110.54.5/ 5
Deposit & Withdrawal
11110.54.5/ 5
Education & Research
111115/ 5
Assets Available
11110.54.5/ 5
Customer Service
11110.54.5/ 5
Beginner Friendly
Excellent
Welcome Bonus

Account Information

Base Currencies
ZAR, USD, EUR, CHF, GBP, AUD, NZD, JPY, CAD, SGD
Number of FX Pairs
46
Crypto Pairs
27
Copy Trading
Hedging Allowed
Scalping Allowed
Islamic Account

Trading Conditions

Account Name
ThinkZero
Trading Desk
Commission
7 USD / lot - ThinkZero Account
EUR/USD
0.00 pips
GBP/USD
0.00 pips
USD/JPY
0.00 pips
Negative Balance Protection

Company Details

Company Name
TF Global Markets Limited
Founded
2010
Website Language
English, Portuguese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, Polish, Arabic, Malay, Czech, German, Greek, Italian, Spanish
Support Language
English, Portuguese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, Malay, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Bulgarian
Office Locations
South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia

Pros

  • Low minimum deposit
  • Well regulated
  • Great platform choice

Cons

  • Limited market analysis
  • Non-transparent spreads

Is ThinkMarkets Safe?

Founded in 2010, ThinkMarkets offers multi-asset trading across the globe from twin headquarters in Australia and London. ThinkMarkets is the brand name of TF Global Markets, which is regulated by the FCA in the UK, ASIC in Australia and the FSCA in South Africa:

  • TF Global Markets (UK) Limited is authorised and regulated by the FCA, FRN 629628.
  • TF Global Markets (Aust) Limited is authorised and regulated by ASIC, AFSL number 424700.
  • TF Global Markets (South Africa) Pty Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FSCA, FSP No 49835.

Due to the strict regulatory oversight required by these regulators, all client funds are held in segregated bank accounts; additionally, ThinkMarkets holds an insurance policy covering up to 1 million USD for individual traders in case of broker bankruptcy.

ThinkMarkets Security

Unfortunately, in Kenya ThinkMarkets do not offer negative balance protection by default – which means that traders can lose more than they have in their trading account and may end up owing the broker money.  ThinkMarkets does have negative balance protection, but this is an free-of-charge opt-in program. 

ThinkMarkets have won several awards over the years for their services, highlights being Best Forex Trading Experience 2017 and Best Forex Trading Innovation 2017 at the UK Forex Awards.

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Group Regulators
Trading Desk
Website
Year Founded
Office Locations
Additional Fees
FSCA
FCA
ASIC
FSA-Seychelles
CySEC
FSA-Japan
ECN/DMA
STP
2010
South Africa, United Kingdom, Australia
No. ThinkMarkets reserves the right to charge an inactivity fee.

 

ThinkMarkets Trading Conditions

ThinkMarkets is very proud of its trading infrastructure, with twin Equinix trading servers located in Hong Kong and London allowing for trade execution within milliseconds. This state-of-the art technology allows ThinkMarkets to deliver uptime of 99.99% and provides traders with the fastest execution speeds available, ideal for automated trading.

ThinkMarkets offers two general accounts, a Standard Account with wider spreads and the ThinkZero Account – an ECN account with tight spreads and commission per trade. Both accounts are available as Demo Accounts and Islamic Accounts and ThinkMarkets also offers a specialised Joint Account, which can be shared by two or more individual traders. Three platforms are supported (MT4, MT5 and the proprietary ThinkTrader) and 36 currency pairs and 5 cryptocurrency pairs are available to trade.

Account Types

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Display Name
Min. Deposit
Max. Leverage
Min. Spread
Commission
Standard
USD 0
500:1
1.20
Spread Only
Account Details
ThinkZero
USD 500
500:1
0.10
7 USD / lot
Account Details

Standard Account – The Standard Account is a commission-free trading account with variable spreads and no minimum operating balance, average spreads on major pairs are 1.2 pips but can fall to 0.4 pips at times. Leverage on this account is 500:1 and all three of ThinkMarket’s supported platforms are available.

ThinkZero Account – The ThinkZero Account offers tighter spreads – starting at 0 pips but averaging 0.1 pips on major pairs – but charges an industry-standard commission per trade. The minimum operating balance on this account is 500 USD and the ThinkTrader platform is unsupported – meaning you will have to use MT4 or MT5. Like the Standard Account, leverage is also set at 500:1 but ThinkZero Account holders have access to free AutoChartist and a personal account manager.

ThinkMarkets Account Types

Spreads and Commission

It is hard to tell exactly what average spreads are with ThinkMarkets as, unusually for a large broker, the data per currency pair has not been made publicly available. That said, minimum spreads are very low across the board (0.4 pips on the Standard Account and 0 pips on the ThinkZero Account) – though how often traders will see them is hard to say.

Commission on the ThinkZero Account is the industry-standard 3.5 USD per lot per side (7 USD round turn).

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Broker
Trading Conditions
Base Currencies
EURUSD (Standard)
Trading Cost (Standard)
EURUSD (Best)
GBPUSD (Best)
USDJPY (Best)
Commission
ThinkMarkets
111104/ 5
ZAR, USD, EUR, CHF, GBP, AUD, NZD, JPY, CAD, SGD
1.10 pips
USD 11
0.00 pips
0.00 pips
0.00 pips
USD 0
InstaForex
110002/ 5
USD, EUR, RUB
3.00 pips
USD 30
3.00 pips
3.00 pips
3.00 pips
USD 0
Khwezi Trade
111104/ 5
ZAR, USD
1.00 pips
USD 10
0.60 pips
1.00 pips
0.80 pips
USD 0

 

Deposit and Withdrawal

ThinkMarkets allows deposits and withdrawals in USD, EUR, CHF, GBP and AUD; be aware that base account currencies are USD, EUR, GBP, AUD and CHF.

ThinkMarkets operates a “return to source” policy, meaning that withdrawals must be made via the same method and the same account as the original deposit.

While ThinkMarkets does not charge any fees for any methods of deposits or withdrawals, the company reserves the right to impose fees on any withdrawal request originating from a trading account with minimal trading activity. Please contact ThinkMarkets support for more information on this.

Deposits and withdrawals can be made via the following methods:

  • Bank Wire: Deposits are free and estimated transaction time is 1-3 business days. Withdrawals are free, though banks may charge for the service, and transaction time is 3-5 business days.
  • Visa/Mastercard: Deposits are instant, but withdrawals can take up to 24 hours.
  • Skrill: Deposits are made within 10 minutes, but withdrawals can take up to 24 hours.
  • ZOTAPAY: Deposits are made within 10 minutes, but withdrawals can take up to 24 hours.

ThinkMarkets for Beginners

Beginner traders will find ThinkMarkets a relatively welcoming experience with a well-structured education section available for traders with different levels of experience and semi-frequent market analysis. Demo accounts on MT4 and MT5 will only expire after 30 days of inactivity and ThinkTrader demo accounts will never expire.

Educational Material

Education at ThinkMarkets is split into three tutorials: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced – unfortunately, these tutorials are only available after signing up with ThinkMarkets, though you will not need to make a deposit in order to access them.

The Beginner section covers the basic aspects of Forex CFD trading such leverage and margin and introduces traders to the MT4 platform. The Intermediate section covers trading plans, candlesticks, order types and chart patterns – all essential skills for successful traders. Finally, the Advanced section covers technical and fundamental analysis, Fibonacci ratios and support and resistance levels, among others – again, concepts that we consider essential for successful trading.

Alongside these tutorials, ThinkMarkets also has a section of explainers of commonly used indicators for MT4 and MT5 – something we wish more brokers would offer to new traders, and Trading Glossary devoted to the terminology of CFD trading.

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Broker
Beginner Course
Advanced Course
Well Structured Education
Education Quality
Webinars
ThinkMarkets
High
InstaForex
Medium
Khwezi Trade
Medium

 

Analysis Material

Market research and analysis is slightly disappointing, alongside a basic Economic Calendar ThinkMarkets has a Market News section featuring a stream of market analysis. This analysis is updated every few days and is of a high quality, though we would like to see daily market updates across the major pairs. In this section you can also find a Sentiment Indicator for the major pairs and links to ThinkMarkets twitter account, though at the time of writing this seems to have not been updated in some time.

Customer Support

Customer support is available 24/5 from ThinkMarkets Johannesburg offices. Support is available via phone, email and live chat and phone numbers are also available for the Australia, UK, Italy and Spain offices.

For the purposes of this review, we found the Customer Support at ThinkMarkets to be responsive, polite and resourceful.

ThinkMarkets Trading Platforms

Alongside ThinkMarkets proprietary ThinkTrader platform, it also offers support for MT4 and MT5, the two most popular trading platforms in the Forex industry.

ThinkTrader

ThinkTrader: ThinkMarket’s proprietary platform grew out of the company’s acquisition of Trade Interceptor, an award winning trading platform in its own right. Available for mobile, tablet and desktop ThinkTrader offers in-app deposits and withdrawals, real-time news from FX Wire Pro and one-click multiple order closing. It also features over 80 indicators and 50 chart types and includes the TrendRisk scanner to assist traders in finding opportunities over different timeframes.

MetaTrader 4 – The MT4 trading platform is the most widely used Forex trading platform and can also be used to trade other instruments like commodities, cryptocurrency, stock index, and stock CFDs. Though it is now showing its age, MT4 is still very popular for its auto trading features that enables algorithmic trading and strategy backtesting with expert advisors (trading robots).

MetaTrader 5 – The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time, it has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has a larger number of pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4

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Broker
Platform Choice
Copy Trading
Platforms
ThinkMarkets
11110.54.5/ 5
ThinkTrader
Khwezi Trade
111104/ 5

 

ThinkTrader Mobile Apps

All the trading platforms supported by ThinkMarkets are available as mobile and tablet downloads – allowing traders to keep track of their open positions while on the move.

Evaluation Method

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 ThinkMarkets offering. 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.

Risk Statement

Trading Forex is risky, and each broker is required to detail how risky the trading of Forex CFDs is to clients. ThinkMarkets would like you to know that: Derivative products are leveraged products and can result in losses that exceed initial deposits. Please ensure you fully understand the risks and take care to manage your exposure and seek independent advice if necessary. It’s important for you to consider relevant legal documents before you decide whether or not to acquire any of our products.

Overview

ThinkMarkets has a relatively decent product line-up, with support for the most common trading platforms and decent trading conditions over its two accounts. The education section, though requiring signup, will be helpful for beginner traders but the market analysis section is lacking compared to ThinkMarket’s international peers. Overall, ThinkMarkets is a solid if unexciting Forex broker, but we would like to see the introduction of negative balance protection for Kenyan clients and more transparency on its average spreads and possible withdrawal charges.

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 1.10 pips with 0.0 USD commission round turn on the trading account with lowest minimum deposit. Islamic account available. MT4 & MT5 platforms supported. ThinkMarkets is regulated by the FSCA, FCA, and ASIC.
Visit Broker
Broker Score
4.43 4.43  / 5
Rated #29 of 59 Recommended Brokers
Site Icon Data provided by FX Scouts Kenya

ThinkMarkets Financial Regulation

Regulator License
Regulator License

ThinkMarkets Trading Cost Comparison

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