Our HFM (HF Markets) review looks at the key features this Forex broker has to offer. With ECN-like trading conditions, MT4 and MT5 trading platforms and over 50 forex pairs, see what we say about the broker.
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Formerly known as Hot Forex, HFM (HF Markets) is a forex and CFD broker that’s a good match for beginner to intermediate traders. We thought most features on offer were quite generic for typical no-dealing desk brokers for example Trading via MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms and a decent range of CFD trading products like Forex, cryptos, stocks, commodities and bonds.
Standard and commission based accounts are available but we are on the fence in terms of their costs. Spreads can be low or wide depending on the currency pair you trade with and commissions are decent for major pairs but not so for minor and exotics.
Where HFM stands out, is the inhouse research department, which can be very useful depending on your type of trading. We give HFM a score of 6.5 out of 10, we think they are ok but there are better brokers to consider, for
We think HFM’s (also called HF Markets and formerly Hot Forex) offering is typical of a broker using an electronic communication network (ECN) with no dealing desk execution model. However, they do have some extra offerings of interest.
HFM has the usual range of CFD trading instruments such as Forex, cryptos, commodities, stocks and indices. Perhaps most interesting was the ability to purchase the physical stocks (i.e. the underlying instrument) but this feature is not available for UK and South African clients.
And like most no-dealing desk brokers, you can choose between a spread-only ‘Premium’ account and a commission-based ‘Zero Spread’ account. We compared the spreads for each of these accounts with other brokers for a range of currency pairs and found they were generally below the industry average. So if you are looking for a low-spread broker, you might be better to look elsewhere.
In terms of trading platforms, HFM offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) which from our observations, are the go-to platforms for many brokers using an ECN execution model. The broker also has its own mobile trading platform called HFM app (for Premium account holders) which appears to be built on the MT5 platform so shares many common features. Lastly, HFM also have another in-house developed app but copy trading called HF Copy. Still, we wish they had more 3rd party tools, especially for social trading and automation.
Other good features we think are worth noting include being regulated in 6 different countries or regions. Unfortunately, if you are in Australia, Canada or the USA you cannot sign with HFM. The broker also shines when it comes to education and its global research team, which publishes a large stream of articles and webinars to keep you on top of market news.
Overall we like HFM’s offering since they have all the essential features one needs to trade successfully. However, we feel there are other brokers out there that have more variety in their offerings and lower spreads as well.
Introduction
HFMs (HF Markets) is a forex, stocks, and CFD broking company that claims to help traders to trade markets under the best trading conditions.
By trading conditions, the company means trading with leverage, easy withdrawals, the smallest minimum deposits, and the fastest order execution speed.
In this HFM review, we’re going to take a deep dive into the reality of trading with HFM, who should be interested in this broker, and whether the marketing claims stack up in reality.
HFM have offices in the UK, Europe, South Africa, Kenya, the UAE, Seychelles and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. While products are similar for most regions, there are differences. While we have made this review as international as possible, it’s not practical for us to deep dive into all their offerings across the globe so there will be a slight bias to HFM’s UK offerings.
Let’s dive in…
Who Are HFM?
HF Markets Ltd, formerly Hot Forex is a forex, stocks, and CFD broking company owned by the HF Markets Group. HFM operates using the trading name HFM.
Established in 2010, and with more than 200 staff globally, the company is one of the top 10 retail forex brokers (by volume) in the world.
HFM offers a wide range of tradable markets, including forex trading, stocks, indices, bonds, commodities, ETFs, energy products, and even crypto CFDs.
The company offers both dealing desk and non-dealing desk trading, depending on the specific account type you choose to open.
HFMarkets Ltd. is registered in St.Vincent & the Grenadine, and the HF Markets Group is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Dubai Financial Services Authority(DFSA) in Dubai, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Seychelles, CySEC in Cyprus, and the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) in Kenya.
The HF Markets Group has won a number of industry awards, including best stock broker, best trading platform broker, and best forex trading app.
Using in-house data collection at CompareForexBrokers, we were able to get an insight into the size of the spreads offered by HFM. This technology takes published spreads from the brokers website and compares them with other brokers. Here is a sample of our findings vs other brokers.
Standard Account Spreads
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.
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Standard Account Spreads
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1.20 | 1.80 | 1.90 | 1.90 | 1.60 |
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1.12 | 1.22 | 1.40 | 1.69 | 1.47 |
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0.62 | 0.77 | 1.27 | 0.83 | 0.74 |
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1.00 | 1.11 | N/A | 1.32 | 1.09 |
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1.20 | 1.70 | 1.50 | 1.40 | 1.30 |
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1.10 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 | 1.30 |
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1.20 | 0.90 | 1.50 | 1.80 | 1.80 |
Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/09/2023
Our technology collected data from the websites of 50 different brokers so we think this sample size provides a fair base to calculate industry averages. We compared these spreads to the industry average.
For the EUR/USD pair, HFM has a spread of 1.2 pips , which is lower than the industry average of 1.35. However from this point on, HFM was wider than the industry average. For example, the GBP/USD pair has a spread of 1.9 for HFM, compared to the industry average of 1.68. The AUD/JPY pair sees a spread of 2.8 for HFM, while the industry average is 2.31.
| Forex Pair | HFM | Industry Average |
|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 1.2 | 1.35 |
| USD/JPY | 1.6 | 1.54 |
| GBP/USD | 1.9 | 1.68 |
| AUD/USD | 1.8 | 1.63 |
| USD/CAD | 2.3 | 1.93 |
| EUR/GBP | 1.9 | 1.69 |
| EUR/JPY | 2.3 | 2.04 |
| AUD/JPY | 2.8 | 2.31 |
While the numbers above use the spreads brokers publish on their website, Ross Collins from our team tested the spreads for standard accounts for 20 brokers to see how they perform. standard accounts for 20 brokers. When we compare the published results we listed above with the results for our Standard Account testing for other brokers, the conclusion we make is that HFM perform poorly with their Standard account spreads.
Commission Based (RAW) Accounts
When we look at HFM’s published average spreads on their website for the commission account (often called ECN or RAW) and compare them with the spreads other brokers advertise we can see HFM is good from some currency pairs and weaker for other pairs.
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ECN Broker Spreads
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0.10 | 0.10 | 0.40 | 1.20 | 0.70 |
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0.12 | 0.47 | 0.50 | 0.40 | 0.22 |
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0.02 | 0.14 | 0.25 | 0.27 | 0.17 |
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0.10 | 0.19 | 0.38 | N/A | 0.21 |
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0.23 | 0.60 | 0.66 | 0.90 | 0.65 |
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0.52 | 0.70 | 1.13 | 0.86 | 0.80 |
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n/a | n/a | 0.60 | 0.60 | 0.50 |
Avg. spreads are taken from each broker's website and updated monthly. Last update on 01/09/2023
Similar to the non-commission accounts, 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.
| Forex Pair | HFM | Industry Average |
|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 0.1 | 0.22 |
| USD/JPY | 0.1 | 0.41 |
| GBP/USD | 0.3 | 0.52 |
| AUD/USD | 0.7 | 0.46 |
| USD/CAD | 0.4 | 0.66 |
| EUR/GBP | 1.2 | 0.57 |
| EUR/JPY | 0.4 | 0.74 |
| AUD/JPY | 1.6 | 0.87 |
As an aside, while we haven’t physically tested the spreads ourselves with HF Markets, we have tested RAW spreads with other brokers like Pepperstone, IC Markets, and Fusion Markets. Our results are really interesting and overall we can say there are brokers with spreads that are lower (at least according to our results).
Our Verdict
Of the accounts HFM offer, we think their no-commission accounts are a better choice, that said, we think there are better brokers for low spreads.
Forex brokers often offer different account types, to match different styles of trading, regulatory requirements for certain countries, and your desired trading instrument.
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:
All accounts come with a personal account manager, which is just a fancy word for a customer service agent. Don’t be expecting any hotshot trading advice from your account manager.
When you deposit into an HFM account, for most accounts, you can choose to keep your funds in either USD or EUR, but there are options for traders from South Africa, the UK, and UAE to use their local currencies.
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 allows you to use the HFCopy app which uses the MQL5 MetaTrader Signal network for social trading.
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.
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.
Demo Accounts
Demo accounts are a great way for a new trader to experience trading the markets without having to risk any capital. They can also be great for more experienced traders to try out new strategies.
HFM offers demo accounts across the MT4, MT5 and Webtrader platforms and for most of its trading account types. There is even a Demo Contest option available.
HFM demo accounts are easy to set up and come with live pricing, virtual account balances of up to $100,000 and offer unlimited usage.
HFM makes depositing pretty easy.
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 USD $100 or a similar amount in another currency.
In terms of transferring your funds from your bank account into your HFM account, there are a number of options (Some are better than others). They include:
Each has a differing minimum deposit amount, ranging from $5 to $100.
We must warn you, 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.
Withdrawing from HFM
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.
Or, you can choose to withdraw to a crypto account, or e-wallet such as Skrill or BitPay for a much quicker withdrawal. But, once again, these could come with a bunch of fees to pay.
Trading platforms are your gateway to the markets, where you’ll see all your price quotes, charts, order entry boxes, and analysis tools.
HFM offers you three trading platforms: MetaQuotes developed MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader5 along the firm’s in-house HFM Platform for iOS and Android.
MetaTrader4 (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. We tested the platform with HFM and 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.
If you are the type of person who likes charts for analysis, you will find MT4 comes with 3 chart types (line, bar and candlestick) along with 30 of the most popular technical indicators. You will find 9 timeframes ranging from one minute bars, all the way up to monthly bars, which meant we could see trends down to the seconds or over multiple years. To help you make use of these charts, you can open up to 99 simultaneously and create chart templates.
MT4 also comes with 23 drawing tools to help identify support and resistance levels, or trend lines. We found making use of these very easy, just click on the drawing tool and select the points on the chart you’d like to draw a line through.
It was very easy to set orders to enter and exit the market, as well as place stop-loss orders. MT4 comes with 4 pending order types.
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 to use its more powerful successor MetaTrader 5.
MetaTrader5 (MT5) like MT4 is another platform that is commonly available with Forex brokers and one we are very familiar with. Given 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.
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 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 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 app and much more basic than the MT4 and MT5 webtrader and desktop versions.
We found HFM offer a wide array of tradable markets and instruments.
The firm offers a total of 38 FX pairs, which is a decent amount of currencies, but less than some other major brokers. 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.
You can elect to trade the 4 precious metals, such as gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. In the case of gold and silver you can trade them vs Euro in addition to USD.
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.
Should shares CFD shares be your preferred trading instrument, HFM offers a total of 96 shares to choose from with MT4 and 846 with MT5. MT4 shares are derived from NYSE, NASDAQ and EURONEXT exchanges while MT5 also include stocks from exchanges in Spain, The UK, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. MT5 has more shares since it is designed to enable trading via decentralised exchanges.
A commission charge of USD 0.1% is applied with MT4 while it is 0.01 USD or 0.02 EUR per deal with MT5. Some brokers like FP Markets, IG, TMGM allow you to choose from 1000s of global shares so HFM might not be the best choice if you like trading require a variety of shares CFDs.
Interestingly, HFM also offer 1800 physical shares but only for clients based in Europe, the UAE and other countries outside the UK and South Africa. There are no commission costs and you can even buy fractional shares from $5
Another way to trade shares CFDs is with indices and ETFs. 23 indices and 34 ETFs covering US, European and Japanese markets are available.
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.
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.
The leverage that HFM offers you varies greatly, depending on where you’re located, whether you’re a retail or professional trader, and which products you choose to trade.
If you’re a retail trader in the UK, EU, and UAE, leverage on major FX pairs is subdued, at just 30:1.
You’ll also be offered leverage on stocks of 5:1, major indices 20:1 and commodities at 10:1.
The reason for these subdued levels of leverage is the regulatory bodies that govern brokerage firms in the UK, EU, and UAE have strict limits on how much leverage is allowed.
To be honest, this is a good thing, and 30:1 leverage on a major currency pair is more than enough to get you into trouble if you don’t know what you’re doing.
If you’re outside of the UK, EU, and UAE, HFM offers blisteringly high leverage.
By high leverage, we mean leverage of 2000:1 on forex pairs, 20:1 on stocks, and 200:1 on stock indices.
But trading with leverage involves high risk.
One high leverage, poorly thought-out trade could destroy your capital in an instant. Successful trading is primarily about managing risk and making small, intelligent trades over and over again.
When trading with leverage, keep in mind that this involves high risk.
One high leverage, poorly thought-out trade could destroy your capital in an instant. Successful trading is primarily about managing risk and making small, intelligent trades over and over again.
If you’ve been around the forex and CFD industry for a while, you’ve probably heard of the occasional dodgy broker running off with client’s funds.
That’s why it’s super important to check up on a broker’s regulatory situation before even opening an account.
The safety of a forex broker has a lot to do with what government regulator is issuing the company a trading license.
HF Markets Ltd. is registered in St.Vincent & the Grenadine, and the HF Markets Group is regulated by the FCA in the UK, the DFSA in Dubai, the FSCA in South Africa, the FSA in Seychelles, CySEC in Cyprus, and the CMA in Kenya.
Client funds are segregated, and held by major global banks, in compliance with the regulations of government authorities.
The broker also offers negative balance protection, which protects you against going into debt in times of a losing trading position.
HFM has also taken out civil liability insurance up to €5,000,000, to protect client funds against broker error, negligence, fraud, and other risks.
Overall, I’d give HFM an 7/10 broker trust or safety rating.
There’s nothing more annoying for a trader than when you see a killer trade setup, you try to enter your position, and suddenly a technical error occurs.
Times ticking, and the markets starting to move, but you’re now waiting on hold on your broker’s customer support line.
Once you get through, you’re frantically trying to explain the problem to the employee at the other end of the line, but they’re taking their sweet-ass time and seem to not even know what they’re doing. It’s situations like these, where you realise that you want to use a broker with well-trained customer support staff, who will pick up the phone as soon as you call.
With HFM, customer service is available 24 hours per day, five days per week through email, phone, and live support.
When testing out the live chat feature, I found it to be error-prone, and not particularly useful for getting helpful information quickly or efficiently.
Initially, when trying to reach support, I was met with a completely blank chat screen, and then had to randomly message, asking for help.
When I did get a hold of a customer support agent, I had to suffer through slow responses and less than perfect comprehension of my questions.
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.
For inquiries of a less urgent nature, I found that sending an email often resulted in a timely, useful reply.
The HFM website states that the firm supports 27 different languages, which seems quite impressive, so if English isn’t your chosen language, HFM may be a good option for you.
All up, I rate HF Market’s customer service experience at a 5/10.
HFM offers a reasonably in-depth educational platform suited for reasonably new traders.
The lessons can be as simple as explaining basic market terms, to advanced as learning how to build mathematical models to analyze 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.
But, when it comes to developing trading skills that are going to mean the difference between profits and losses on your account, HFM isn’t going to help you get there.
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.
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 own trades and strategies using techniques that you’ve backtested and have found to be profitable for you.
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, I was offered a top-up bonus, which is an incentive from HFM to deposit funds into the account.
The bonus works by giving me some extra capital when I deposit, and I’m then required to turnover enough volume before I 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, and 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.
If you’re from the UK, Europe or the UAE, HFM is a highly regulated broker with a respectable amount of tradable products. If you’re Australian, you’ll need to find another broker, as HFM doesn’t offer their services to the land down under.
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.
And for traders who are very news driven and prefer fundamentally 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.
