HFM Review 2026

How safe is HFM?

HF Markets has a trust score of 48 out of 100. We gave them this score from evaluating their regulation, reputation, and reviews.

1. Regulation

The footer, legal page, and client agreement at hfm.com/int name the company that would open your account: HF Markets (SV) Ltd, incorporated in St Vincent and the Grenadines, number 22747 IBC 2015, which holds no financial licence. HFM’s regulation page lists it as incorporated, not regulated, and the Financial Services Authority of St Vincent and the Grenadines has no forex or securities licence category. When I asked HFM’s live chat on October 21, 2026, the agent confirmed Cambodia, Thailand, and Nigeria residents all open under HF Markets (SV) Ltd. HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd holds licence SD015, but its sign-up redirects to the St Vincent one, and nothing on the group’s pages assigns global clients to it.

The client agreement of August 2026 sets out what HF Markets (SV) Ltd gives its clients. Retail clients get negative balance protection under clause 20.4, so you cannot lose more than the funds across your accounts, though the cover lapses for conduct such as abusive trading. Client money sits in omnibus accounts kept apart from the company’s own operating funds, with third parties such as exchanges or intermediary brokers permitted to hold it, and no bank is named. Professional indemnity insurance with a limit of USD 5,000,000 covers HF Markets (SV) Ltd from July 8, 2026 to July 7, 2027, and no compensation scheme is named anywhere in the agreement.

The group does hold licensed companies: HF Markets (UK) Ltd under the FCA (FRN 801701), HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd under South Africa’s FSCA (licence 46632), HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd under the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (SD015), and HFM Investments Ltd under Kenya’s CMA (licence 155). Each of those serves its own clients, so none of their protections reaches you as a global client of HF Markets (SV) Ltd. The Dubai company under the DFSA has ceased operations. I would weigh HFM’s trust on the company that actually holds a global account, not on licences elsewhere in the group.

Some of the abbreviations on this page are expanded to the regulator's full name: a broker regulated by DFSA is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

2. Reputation

HF Markets launched as HotForex in 2010, while its St Vincent entity, HF Markets (SV) Ltd, is a 2015 company registration (number 22747 IBC 2015) rather than a financial licence. The broker maintains a solid presence in the online trading space. HF Markets draws 9,840 worldwide branded Google searches for September 2026, which ranks it forty-third among the 61 brokers this site tracks. Web traffic data shows a similar positioning, with Similarweb reporting 2,697,000 global visits in February 2026, placing HFM as the 14th most visited broker.

HFM has traded since 2010, when it launched as HotForex, and its international home page claims 4 million client accounts and US$4 billion in client deposits. The same page counts more than 500 trading instruments.

HFM Country, 10 rows.

Country	2025 Monthly Searches	Rank
Indonesia	60,500	1st
United States	27,100	2nd
Malaysia	27,100	3rd
Thailand	12,100	4th
South Africa	9,900	5th
Japan	9,900	6th
Kenya	8,100	7th
Nigeria	6,600	8th
India	5,400	9th
United Kingdom	4,400	10th

3. Reviews

Trustpilot is not currently displaying a score for HFM. As of September 2026 the profile carries a notice from Trustpilot stating the rating is unavailable.

Our score for HFM is set against every other broker on broker reviews.

Verdict on HFM’s Trustworthiness

Our trust score for HFM sits at 48, with trust rated 5 out of 10. The low mark follows from the company that opens global accounts, HF Markets (SV) Ltd, holding no financial licence.

What traders say about HFM

What other review sites say about HFM

These are ratings of HFM from other platforms, read on the date shown and expressed on each platform's scale, so you can weigh them against our own score.

Trustpilot is withholding HFM's score for a guidelines breach, as Trustpilot itself states; checked Oct 1, 2026.

On Oct 1, 2026, Trustpilot showed neither a TrustScore nor a star rating for HFM, and the profile carried Trustpilot's own notice that the rating is unavailable because of a breach of its guidelines, and the screenshot above shows that notice as it appeared. Trustpilot withholds a company's score when it finds the company has broken its rules for collecting or handling reviews, but it does not state on the profile which rule was broken, and we make no claim of our own about what happened. The 2,961 reviews already posted stay on Trustpilot and remain readable, with only the score hidden, and Trustpilot restores the score if it lifts the notice. A withheld score is not a score of zero and not a low rating, and it means Trustpilot is not vouching for the figure at the moment, and we recheck this profile every month.

App Store and Google Play ratings for HFM

Our score is based on published criteria and is not influenced by these third-party ratings.

How popular is HFM?

HFM sits in the lower half for search interest, 43rd of 61 on 9,840 branded searches in September 2026. Search interest measures attention, not quality; the score above is the review verdict.

43of 61Search interest rank

9,840

Brand searches, September 2026

-9.3%

vs August 2026

307,920

Login searches

0.2%

Share of all searches

Source: Google search volume, Worldwide, September 2026.

How this is measured

Google Ads reports how many times a month people searched each broker's brand terms, and the brokers are ranked on that figure alone.

A term counts for a broker only when that broker's own website holds the first organic Google result for it; bare brand words that any company could own are left out.

A month-on-month change prints only where the previous month reached 1,000 searches, because Google rounds smaller volumes.

The figures refresh on the 15th of each month with the newest month Google has published, and the first-result check repeats every quarter.

HFM at a glance

HFM spreads and fees

HFM offers two pricing options, a commission account and a non-commission account. Using in-house data collection at CompareForexBrokers, we got an insight into the size of the spreads offered by HFM. We take published spreads from the broker’s website and compare them with other brokers. Here is a sample of our findings vs other brokers.

1. Raw Account Spreads

The Zero account figures in the table below come from HFM’s own “spreads as low as” column, so they are published minimums rather than averages. Set against the spreads other brokers advertise, they leave HFM looking low on some currency pairs and weaker on others.

HFM ECN Broker Spreads, compared on spreads.

ECN Broker Spreads	EUR/USD	USD/JPY	USD/CAD	EUR/GBP	AUD/USD
	0.00	0.40	0.00	0.00	0.00
	0.10	0.30	0.30	0.20	0.10
	0.10	0.00 (min)	0.00 (min)	0.27	0.00 (min)
	0.20	0.10	0.50	0.60	0.10
	0.10	0.10	0.10	0.50	0.10
	0.44	0.39	0.82	0.71	0.57
	0.10	0.10	0.60	0.60	0.20

Avg. spreads are taken from each broker’s website and updated monthly. Last update on 1 Sep 2026, corrected 12 Oct 2026

At the time of writing, spreads on HFM commission accounts were tight on major currency pairs, but wide and expensive once you step into currency crosses like the EUR/GBP. It does appear you get good value provided you use the right currency pair.

2. Raw Account Commission Rate

HFM’s commission account charges $3.00 per side (USD 6 round turn per lot) on its Zero account for USD accounts. On the offshore Zero account, gold carries a separate commission of USD 10 round turn per 100 ounces. As an aside, we have not measured HF Markets’ spreads ourselves, though Ross Collins from our team has tested RAW spreads at other brokers such as Pepperstone, IC Markets, and Fusion Markets. Several brokers in those tests have lower spreads.

3. Standard Account Fees

HFM call its no-commission account a Premium account. In the sample below, we can see that HFM isn’t the best choice for spread-only trading given most other brokers perform better.

We collected data from the websites of 50 different brokers so we think this sample size provides a fair base to calculate industry averages.

Premium’s EUR/USD spread starts from 1.4 pips against the industry average of 1.1 in the table above. GBP/USD opens at 1.6 pips versus an average of 1.5, and AUD/JPY at 2.4 against 2.0. HFM’s own figures are published minimums while the comparison column is an average, so the Premium account’s spreads trail the industry on most pairs.

While the numbers above use the spreads brokers publish on their websites, Ross Collins from our team ran standard spread tests at 15 brokers for the Standard Account Spreads. When we compare HFM’s published figures with those results for other brokers, our conclusion is that HFM performs poorly on Standard account spreads.

Accounts

HFMarkets offers five different account types. Three are aimed at beginner to intermediate traders, with a separate pro account designed for more experienced traders. Just note that some accounts are only available in certain countries.

HFM account types are called:

• Cent Account: A type of micro account that allows traders to trade with ultra-small cent lots, which equal 0.01 of a standard lot size. With margin requirements of as little as 10 U.S. cents, the cent account is aimed at traders from low-income nations, who often have smaller trading capital.
• Zero Spread Account: This is positioned to be a zero spread account that has ultra-low spreads from zero pips, but where you have to pay a commission to trade. This type of account is a RAW, STP or ECN style account that is suited for highly active day traders and scalpers.
• Premium Account. An account for the majority of traders who are looking for reasonably tight spreads while not having to pay commissions. If you’re just starting, this is probably the account type for you.
• Pro Account: Designed for traders who want to step up from the premium account. The HFM pro account offers ultra-low spreads and zero commissions but has a higher minimum deposit amount.
• InfinityX Account: An offshore account at HF Markets (SV) Ltd, with a $500 minimum deposit. It runs on MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, WebTrader and the HFM platform.

All accounts come with a personal account manager, which is just a fancy word for a customer service agent. Don’t expect any hotshot trading advice from your account manager.

No professional account appears on HFM’s international site, and the Premium Pro account with its US$5,000 minimum belongs to HF Markets (UK) Ltd, so it is not open to a global client. The group’s Dubai company has ceased operations, and the international site excludes residents of the UAE.

Advanced Account Types With HFM

HFM offers two interesting types of accounts which differ from the traditional trader and retail investor accounts.

These are the HFCopy account and the PAMM account.

A HFCopy account is a copy trading account, which allows you to sign up as either a strategy provider or a follower. This account lets you use HFM’s proprietary copy trading system, where you connect as a follower or strategy provider directly within HFM.

As a strategy provider, you can trade your strategy and earn additional revenue by allowing people to copy your trades. As a follower, you can deposit funds and elect to automatically copy the trades of a strategy provider.

This can be a good option if you have a very promising strategy, or if you’re able to find another trader whose strategy you’d like to follow. In my experience this is offered through HFM’s offshore entity: copy trading is not available to clients of the onshore regulated entities, and it is not offered to new clients of the European entity.

A PAMM account takes copy trading to a more advanced level and allows you to sign up as a fund manager, where you can manage funds for investors at a pre-agreed percentage of profits.

This type of account is certainly for more advanced traders, and if you’re just getting started in the markets, could be a good thing to strive for in the future. Note the PAMM program is offered through HFM’s offshore entity.

4. Swap-Free Account Fees

Swap-free trading at HFM applies to specific instruments and account types rather than every client, and they also provide trading conditions for those who adhere to Sharia law. HFM charges an escalating dormant fee across its entities once an account sits idle for six straight months: USD 5 per month from six months to one year, USD 10 per month in the second year, USD 20 per month in the third year, then the previous year’s monthly fee plus a further USD 10 per month for each additional year. The fee is charged on the remaining balance until it reaches zero, or the equivalent in your account currency.

Verdict on HFM Spreads

Of the accounts HFM offer, we think their no-commission accounts are a better choice, that said, we believe there are better options among lowest spread forex brokers to consider.

HFM posts a competitive 0.21 raw average in our sample, yet our cost score stays low for a couple of reasons. Its Premium spread-only account is uncompetitive and its $3 commission only sits mid-pack against rivals. We also have not tested its live spreads in-house, so we score its costs conservatively.

Deposits and withdrawals with HFM

HFM makes depositing pretty easy with its minimum deposit and funding options.

What is the minimum deposit at HFM?

The broker does not have a minimum deposit requirement to open cent, zero, and premium accounts. Meanwhile, the Pro account requires a minimum deposit of $100 or a similar amount in your base currency.

Deposit Options And Fees

In terms of transferring your funds from your bank account into your HFM account, there are several options (some are better than others). Each has a differing minimum deposit amount, ranging from $5 to $100. These figures reflect HFM’s offshore entity; clients of other entities may face different minimums, which depend on the entity they open an account with.

We must warn you, that some of the digital wallets have hefty fees and currency conversion spreads. That said, this is not a charge from the broker itself. Most traders should be electing to use wire transfers or credit/debit cards to deposit, depending on how much they’re transferring.

Withdrawal Options And Fees

With HFM, there are a similar amount of options to get your funds out of your HFM account as there are to deposit.

The simplest option would be a straight wire transfer, which will generally take 2 to 10 business days.

Ease To Open An Account

Opening an account with HFMarkets is a very straightforward, streamlined process.

The first step involves opening an account, using your email address and your desired password.

You’ll need to show your country of residence, as certain countries are only allowed certain accounts.

After you’ve opened your account, it’s time to verify your email address. This is a simple step to ensure HFMarkets that you’re a real person, providing real details. It only takes a minute.

Next, you’ll need to give further personal details. These include your full name, gender, country of birth, phone number and the base currency you’d like your account to be held in.

When you get to the next step, it’s time to choose which account type you’d like to open. It’s important to pick an account type that matches your trading experience and strategy, so make sure to read the above section on account types.

Next up, HFM may offer you a top-up bonus, which is an incentive to deposit funds into your account. The bonus works by giving you extra capital when you deposit, and you must then turn over enough trading volume before you can withdraw it.

Not every account or every country is offered the same bonus (or offered one at all), so it’s important to read the terms & conditions if you’re considering taking up a bonus offer.

Clicking through to the next step, we have the account open. All that’s left to do is load our chosen trading platform and make a deposit. All up, a quick and easy process.

Or, you can choose to withdraw to a crypto account, or an e-wallet such as Skrill for a much quicker withdrawal. But, once again, these could come with a bunch of fees to pay.

Verdict on HFM Funding

With several options for deposits and withdrawals, and low minimum amounts, HF Markets scores high in this category.

HFM trading platforms and app

HFM offers four trading platforms: MetaQuotes-developed MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, the firm’s in-house HFM Platform for iOS and Android, and the HFM WebTrader. Note MetaTrader 4 is available through HFM’s offshore entity only; clients of the onshore regulated entities trade on MetaTrader 5 and the HFM platforms.

MetaTrader 4

MT4 is the industry-standard workhorse software of the retail forex industry and is offered by many brokers so is one we are very familiar with. Except for some personalised branding, MT4 with HFM has all the features we expect to see.

The team at CompareForexBrokers have long liked the ultra-intuitive, feature-rich experience that allows you to quickly analyse markets and enter and exit trades with a few mouse clicks. With this in mind, it’s not hard to see why MT4 is popular, finding trading opportunities and executing your trades is just really straightforward when using this platform.

MT4 also comes with 23 drawing tools to help identify support and resistance levels, or trend lines. To draw a line, you click on the drawing tool and select the points on the chart you’d like the line to pass through.

If you wish to automate your trading or build your custom indicators, MT4 allows you to build Expert Advisors (EAs) to do these. Being able to code is an advantage for building these EAs but if not, we found you can find many free or paid ones in the MT4 marketplace.

All-in-all, there is a good reason why in our mind MT4 is far and away the most popular trading platform for retail forex traders. If you want a program that has the fundamental features you need to trade without superfluous features that some competing platforms tend to have, then MT4 is an excellent choice. Just know that it is not the best option for stock trading, for this, you are better off using its more powerful successor MetaTrader 5.

MetaTrader 5

MT5 like MT4 is another platform that is commonly available with Forex brokers and one we are very familiar with. Given that MT5 is an updated version of MetaTrader4, with more advanced features and is still receiving new development and support from Metaquotes, we tend to recommend this platform to most traders. View the Best MT5 Brokers for more info.

Features MT5 offers over MT4 include the ability to trade stocks, more order types (6 vs 4), additional technical indicators (38 vs 30) and analytic tools (44 vs 23). You will also find 21 timeframes vs 9, a Depth of market indicator and even 64-bit (vs 32-bit)processing which makes MT5 a superior option for backtesting.

Generally speaking, we think the only real reasons to stick with MT4 are if you are already comfortable with MT4 or if you desire to use EAs built for MT4 since MT5 uses a different programming language).

Similar to its predecessor, MT5 runs on Windows and Mac desktops, Android, iPhones, and iPads.

HFM app

HFM Trading App is the in-house app developed by HFM allowing traders to trade from their smartphones. The main benefit of using this app is that logging into your trading account is easier since it can be done with your HFM credentials. You also will not need to select the MT4 or MT5 server you wish to use and lastly funding your account can be done directly via the app.

The features found in the app are a bit more basic compared to the MT4 and MT5 apps and much more basic than the MT4 and MT5 webtrader and desktop versions.

HFM: Online Trading is rated 3.7 out of 5 on Google Play (United States store) from 10.9K reviews shown worldwide, checked Oct 1, 2026.

View on Google Play

Markets you can trade with HFM

Where your account is booked decides the count: HF Markets (SV) Ltd lists 53 pairs (15 majors, 38 minors) across its Cent, Zero, Pro, and Premium accounts, and 30 pairs on InfinityX, while HF Markets (UK) Ltd carries 47 (15 majors, 32 minors). That line-up covers the majors and a good spread of minors, even if some larger brokers list more. Brokers like Pepperstone, IC Markets and Eightcap have about 60-65 currency pairs, while CMC Market and IG have over 100 pairs. All that said, HFM do have the most popular traded pairs which is all most traders will need. See our full Pepperstone review for more information.

Metals

You can elect to trade theBest Brokers for Gold CFD Trading palladium, and platinum. In the case of gold and silver, you can trade them vs Euro in addition to USD.

Commodities

There are also energy commodity products, both spot contracts and futures contracts, which allow you to speculate on the price of crude and Brent oil. Soft commodities, such as cotton, cocoa, and sugar are also available.

Shares

If share CFDs are what you like to trade, HF Markets (SV) Ltd lists 157 of them on its Zero, Pro, and Premium accounts, with none on InfinityX or Cent, and HF Markets (UK) Ltd lists 156. MT4 shares are derived from NYSE, NASDAQ and EURONEXT exchanges while MT5 also include stocks from exchanges in Spain, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United States. MT5 has more shares since it is designed to enable trading via decentralised exchanges. These share and instrument totals vary by HFM entity and region, so your account may show a different set.

A commission of 0.1% applies on MT4 stock CFDs, while on MT5 the commission is set per stock in the product description, subject to a minimum charge of 0.01 USD or 0.02 EUR per deal. Some brokers like FP Markets, IG, and TMGM allow you to choose from 1000s of global shares so HFM might not be the best choice if you like trading and require a variety of shares CFDs.

Indices

Another way to trade shares CFDs is with indices and ETFs. At HF Markets (SV) Ltd, the Zero, Pro, and Premium accounts cover 23 indices (12 spot and 11 futures) plus 12 ETFs, while InfinityX carries 6 spot indices and no ETFs, and the index list spans US, European, and Japanese markets.

If you have an insight on interest rates, or where the bond markets will move, you can trade contracts based on the Bund, Gilt, and U.S. Treasuries.

Verdict on HFM Trading Products

While some other brokers offer even more markets to trade, we think HFM has a good range of products overall. You won’t have to look too hard to find a market that’s moving.

HFM customer service, research and education

HFM gives three contact channels: live chat, email, and phone. The “Available 24/7” label sits under the trading desk contact rather than live chat, and no hours are given for the chat channel itself.

For urgent technical support or inquiries, calling the company’s phone line would be a much quicker option, but be aware that international calling may be costly.

The international site offers 16 languages through its selector, so you can browse it in something other than English if that is easier.

Verdict on HFM Customer Support

All up, I rate HF Market’s customer service experience at a 6/10.

Research and education

HFM offers a reasonably in-depth educational platform suited for reasonably new traders.

The lessons can be as simple as explaining basic market terms, and to advanced as learning how to build mathematical models to analyse and trade markets.

There are hours of webinars and recorded videos, as well as daily market analysis to keep you informed about current market movements.

There’s also an economic release calendar, which can be useful for knowing when to expect market volatility and changes in spread sizes.

All up, I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of education provided by HFM.

Sure, there’s plenty of content on how to enter an order, or telling you what a currency pair is and how many trillions of dollars are traded each day.

HFM’s lessons stay at a beginner level, so you will not pick up the skills that turn a losing account into a profitable one.

You’d be better off purchasing a book on technical analysis, and perhaps another on trading risk management. Then put in some hours developing a back-tested trading strategy using techniques that make sense to you. We quite like the work of Davin Clarke

Overall, I can’t fault the HFM education resources, but make sure to take your own trading success into your hands, and educate yourself. It’s also a good idea to master your strategy on a demo account before switching to a live account.

Research

HFM also provides traders with a large amount of market research. This is comprised of numerous daily articles, and occasional webinars that are created by a team of analysts located around the globe.

I found the volume of research released by the analyst team to be more than sufficient for keeping most traders up to date with the latest market movements.

But, as a side note, no matter how great a broker’s research team is, you should always be formulating your trades and strategies using techniques that you’ve backtested and have found to be profitable for you.

Our final verdict on HFM

A global account with HFM sits with HF Markets (SV) Ltd, a St Vincent and the Grenadines company that holds no financial licence. The international site also refuses residents of the US, Canada, the UK, the European Union, India, the Philippines, and Pakistan, among others. If your country is served, the sign-up goes to that unlicensed company, so I would read the client agreement before depositing.

HFM is well suited for two types of traders in particular: beginner traders and traders who want a large amount of research.

Beginner traders will find it easy to deposit and withdraw from HFM and be able to trade with tiny amounts of capital.

For traders who are very news-driven and prefer fundamental analysis, the HFM research team produce a huge stream of research that should keep you busy and updated with what’s happening across the globe each day.