Founded in 1989, CMC Markets is one of the largest Australian forex brokers offering over 9,500 CFDs products across fx, indices, shares to cryptocurrencies with EUR/USD spreads from 0.7 pips and margin rates from 0.20% with cash rebates for high volume forex traders.
By Justin Grossbard / Updated: Sunday, May 17th, 2020
The maximum allowable leverage brokers can make available are subject to regulatory requirements of a particular country or region.
In Australia, our research found that the best forex broker leverage levels permitted by the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission (ASIC) are 500:1. While firms like OANDA only offer 100:1. CMC Markets possess a leverage rate of 500:1. Although this rate can be found in other online forex brokers, this is a highly leverage competitive when combined with the other key features of CMC.
For the United Kindom and Europe, CMC Markets use the Finance Conduct Authority (FCA). For major currency pairs such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY and AUD/USD, leverage of 30:1 or margin of 3.3%. For minor and exotic currency pairs such as Euro/GBP, EUR/AUD and GBP/JPY, leverage of 20:1 (margin 5%) is available. These levels are the maximum permitted by the FCA and comparable with other UK forex brokers.
Leverage trading, which is also known as trading on margin, means you can make a profit if markets move in your favour. Leverage how does pose risks as you can also lose they can significantly increase your loses should the market price for the currency pair not move in your favour.
Using high forex leverage levels or margin allows traders to maximise their returns with low capital investment when they take their position.
An example of a 500:1 forex leverage strategy at work would be having $200 as underlying equity which would ultimately provide traders with $100,000 worth of funds for trading currency. Any changes in the currency pairs will amplify the losses or gains incurred which is a critical issue as explained below and must be understood when using our forex broker comparison. They also offer this same leverage for CFDs trading.
The best forex brokers in Australia not only need to offer high leverage for brokers but also help forex traders manage their investment risks. CMC Markets offers Guaranteed stop losses which is a good way to protect your investment against excessive losses.
For a small fee, a guaranteed stop-loss ensures you cannot lose more than you are prepared to lose for a particular trade. This type of protection guarantees your position is closed should prices fall below your loss tolerance level as the broker will absorb any differences in the event of slippage.
Another nice feature of CMC markets offer is trailing stop-loss. A trailing stop-loss ensures stop gaps are moved when a currency pairing moves in the predicted direction leading to profits. When the currency then moves the other way by a certain amount of points the stop-loss will come into force at the more favourable price.
Some Forex brokers have high minimum deposit requirements. SwissQuotes has a USD$1000 minimum deposit requirement while other brokers like Price Markets, Vantage have significantly high deposits requirements too. While a minimum deposit of $200 is an industry-standard, CMC markets have $0 minimum deposit requirements.
No minimum deposits can be great if :
One thing to note is that even if CMC has no minimum deposit, you will still need to have enough in your CMC account to meet margin requirements.
CMC Markets has below average spreads for the largest forex pairs, indices, and Commodity CFDs. Some of the spreads are shown in the table below, updated as per 02/01/2020. View the financial service guide to understand all the charges and fees of CMC Markets.
Overall, when trading with a market maker like CMC markets, you will find the spreads will be wider than with an ECN pricing broker like Pepperstone. No dealing desk brokers generally offer more competitive spreads than market makers as they use commissions instead of wider spreads.
For a sample of brokers spreads that use commission and ECN style pricing see this module below (CMC don’t offer these type of spreads).
Spread Comparison | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 0.18 | 0.27 | 0.13 | 0.24 | 0.13 |
 | 0.20 | 0.30 | 0.20 | 0.50 | 0.10 |
 | 0.30 | 0.44 | 0.36 | 0.58 | 0.09 |
 | 0.20 | 0.50 | 0.20 | 0.30 | 0.20 |
 | 0.42 | 0.30 | 0.20 | 0.83 | 0.44 |
 | 0.29 | 0.68 | 0.24 | N/A | 0.16 |
 | 0.40 | 0.70 | 0.30 | 0.70 | 0.20 |
 | 0.50 | 0.80 | 0.40 | 1.10 | 0.40 |
 | 0.70 | 0.80 | 0.50 | 0.80 | 0.40 |
 | 0.99 | 0.77 | 0.45 | 1.21 | 0.44 |
CMC Markets Platform is the “Next Generation” trading platform which is browser-based and supports complex order types and account analytics. The platform includes customisable charts, advanced studies, templates, customisable display styles. Clients can trade directly from the charts, and research and analysis trading tools, including screeners, market calendar, and social charting, are integrated into the platform. It also offered mobile trading across android, iPhone and iPad devices. The cross-device functionality and technical indicators are the key strengths of the CMC Markets platform.
CMC Markets also now also offers MetaTrader 4 (MT4) which is the most popular forex trading platform worldwide. Unlike the CMC Markets platform, it’s used by other international and Australian forex brokers. Its popularity is due to its social trading, technical analysis and user-friendly interface.
MT4 also has advanced features for trading strategies from pattern recognition to an economic calendar. It has advanced chart types and drawing tools offering extra market insights such as customer sentiment. The online trading platform has a demo account and live account allowing uses to test trading in a simulated environment.
Pepperstone is the only Australian forex broker to offer 7 platforms including MetaTrader 4 and cTrader, the two most popular trading platform worldwide. The graph below shows a ranking of platforms created by brokers.
As you can see, the CMC platform is ranked the second-lowest out of leading brokers. This is a concern as they only offer one platform. By comparison, Pepperstone, which was voted as the broker with the best trading platform, has 7 different platforms, including the world-renowned MetaTrader 5 and cTrader. Clearly indicating customers prefer variety and reputable platforms rather than homegrown ones
Our CMC Markets review found that the CFD Trading mobile app can do basically anything you want to do on your desktop. Traders can access CMC Markets’ trading instruments, complex order and account types, account details, screeners, and charting from the Android or iPhone apps.
The app is extremely intelligent. It allows clients to create their own layout, so whats important to them is the first thing they see on the screen, creating a truly personal experience.
Whilst the iPhone app includes fingerprint security, the Android version does not. Although the app includes fingerprint security in the iPhone version, there is otherwise no added security beyond the login password.
Ideally, the applications should include classical security features such as automatic sign out and verification of log in from other devices. Many traders trade with an incredible amount of money, as a lack of security is quite unnerving.
Our CMC Markets review found it was the Top forex broker for intermediate forex traders. This is because it offered high leverage, a strong trading platform and guaranteed stop-loss orders.
The company has also stood the test of time having been founded way back in 1989. With the ever-increasing rate of FX and CFDs brokers going out of business, CMC’s 25 years’ experience is reassuring. While it shouldn’t be the determining factor when selecting a reliable broker, knowing client funds are in safe hands provides traders with confidence.
The only reason that CMC Markets in our best forex broker comparison was voted higher for experienced forex traders was due to that broker’s marginally lower spreads which is noticeable when day-trading or adopting automation trading techniques. There was also improved execution speeds for both IC Markets and Pepperstone reducing issues such as slippage.
Furthermore, the other weaknesses of average security and lack of platform diversity can be concerning to potential clients, detracting slightly from the CMC markets experience.
<Overall, this broker should be considered by those traders looking for high leverage. But remember, Forex & CFDs are a risky asset class so be sure to do everything to reduce your risk exposure.
CMC was is listed on the London Stock Exchange and founded in 1989. It’s one of the largest forex brokers and CFDs brokers in the world with a presence in markets like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In Australia, it’s regulated by ASIC while in the UK the local regulator is the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The registration number under the FCA is 173730.
CMC offers a wide range of educational resources. This ranges from technical indicators to platform guides. These educational resources range from videos, online guides to webinars. This comes from their Sydney staff who rate the broker at 64% according to GlassDoor. The Sydney office also assists in their customer support across e-mail, live-chat to the phone. This support is designed for all market conditions and times of the day and night.
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