Introductions To Markets.com
Markets.com is an online brokerage firm specializing in offering forex and CFDs trading services. The broker was established in 2007, but, at that time it was known as GFC Markets. It was later rebranded to Markets.com thereafter, underwent a successful acquisition by Playtech PLC.
Playtech is a prominent brand in the online gaming space known as a provider of online gambling software. The company is listed in the London Stock Exchange under the ticker PTEC and it forms part of FTSE 250 index. So what exactly is Markets.com? Let’s find out in this Markets.com forex broker review.
Established: 2008 | Website: markets.com |
Country: Cyprus | Regulation: CySEC, FSCA |
Platform | 4/5 |
Customer Support | 4/5 |
Account Management | 5/5 |
Leverage & Bonuses | 5/5 |
Reliability / Security | 5/5 |
OPEN ACCOUNT
Markets.com has a long history of serving the forex community with a robust and trustworthy trading platform for trading forex and CFDS. Powered by four trading platforms alternatives, the broker could be considered on the most reliable broker in terms of trading platform choices and trading tools. The following are the trading platforms that Markets.com offers; MT4 upon request, Web trader, MT5, and markets mobile. You can trade from any of their three types of trading accounts; Islamic account, demo account, and real account. The accounts have a maximum leverage of 1:300 to non EU citizens and 1:30 for EU citizens when trading major FX pairs and 1:20 when trading exotic pairs, commodities and indices. This is in compliance with ESMA regulations which stipulate the conditions. The leverage limits could be considered competitive to what other online forex brokers offer. Markets.com has a well-built website with a search button located on the top of the website and four menus with submenus beneath them.
Company information
Markets.com operates two websites domain, the Europe domain and South Africa domain. The South Africa business is operated by TradeTech Markets (South Africa) (Pty) Limited a company registered in South Africa and regulated by the Financial Services Board under license number 46860. The company is located in Umhlanga, South Africa. TradeTech Markets (South Africa) (Pty) Limited is a subsidiary of Playtech PLC. The Europe division is operated by Safecap Investments Limited, a company established in Cyprus and regulated by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission(CySEC) under license number 092/08. Safecap Investments Limited is a subsidiary of Playtech limited.
The company reputation in the offering top notch trading services has made it receive several industry awards. It received the “Best Customer Service 2012” award, a recognition it received at the London Investor Show Forex. The same year it was recognised during the Global Banking & Finance Review as the “Best Broker in Customer Service Europe 2012”. In 2017, the company bagged two awards at the UK forex Awards; “forex provider of the year 2017” and “best forex trading platform”. That demonstrates the company resilience in offering superior trading services to its customers.,
Assets available
Markets.com has over 2200 markets that traders can choose from. The asset list compose of the following asset types; blends, ETFs, shares, bonds, cryptos, commodities, index, energy, metals and currencies. The currency entails all the three currency types; major pairs, minor pairs and exotic pairs. In total there are 55 currency pairs that you can choose from. There are 5 metal types that you can choose to trade, these are; Gold, Palladium, Platinum, Silver and Zinc. The energy CFDs are four; Crude oil, Natural gas, Heating oil and Natural gas. There are 37 indices that traders can try opt for, examples include, UK100,Japan 225, Dollar index and Australia 200. There are 8 commodities CFDs, these are; Wheat, Rice, Soybean, Cotton, Cocoa, Coffee, Sugar, and Corn.
Cryptocurrencies allowed are only six, ripple, Dash, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin, and bitcoin cash. All the cryptocurrencies are paired against USD. Note, however. that the availability of cryptocurrency CFDs depends on your location and regulations.
There are five tradable bonds; GER 10Y Bond, US Tnote 10Y, JPN 10Y bond, Gilt 10Y Bond, and US Tbond 30Y. The shares are diverse and represent several stocks of different economies such as Japan shares, Norway shares, Belgium shares, Germany shares, and Russia shares.
Bonuses & VIP programs
Markets.com has only one type of bonus, the deposit bonus. Traders are required to deposit some amount to their trading wallets. The percentage of matching of the deposit will depend on the deposit made, there isn’t a discretionary percentage established, but according to the information received from the customer support team the deposit bonus varies between 20%-30%.
Traders are required to make deposit and they will see what amount has been credited to them as a bonus. In this review of Markets.com forex broker, the only bonus listed is welcome bonus, however, when you visit the old website there are other bonuses such as refer a friend bonus which have been discontinued.
Market.com has a VIP program that traders can join upon making a deposit of USD10, 000 or more. The extra services that come with the VIP program aren’t listed on the website and traders get such details once they are contacted with the markets.com team.
Mobile
Markets.com supports mobile trading. They have a mobile responsive app that traders can use for trading especially on the web. There are mobile apps too that support Apple devices and Android OS phones. Mobile trading is helpful for traders who would want to monitor their trades on the go, or open and open positions. Click here for read more on forex trading platforms.
Deposits and withdrawals
Market.com has multiple payment methods that are supported. You can make deposits and withdrawal using the following payment methods; MasterCard, Visa, Skrill, Neteller, wire transfer, and PayGate. Markets.com doesn’t charge any fee for processing any deposits or withdrawal. Traders who make deposit of $2,500 and above are reimbursed of any transaction processing fee that was charged by the payment service provider in course of making a deposit. In general their payment options are fair enough as expounded on bestfxbrokers banking page.
The transaction processing time vary based on the payment method. E-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller have an instant processing time while cards take up to 24 hours for the funds to reflect. Wire transfer takes 1-2 business days.
Customer support
Traders can reach the customer support team via; live chat and contact form. This is a very limited approach of according help to traders who want to speak or talk to the customer support team. Alternative ways you can reach the customer support team is through their Facebook page or Twitter handle. You can visit the support centre which is found in both the old website and new website the support centre is similar to the FAQ section and has detailed answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Extra features and resources
Markets.com has some unique add on services that are very helpful to novice and veteran traders. These are; economic calendar, webinars, market commentary and demo account. The demo account helps upcoming trader to at least have a feel of what it feels to trade on the live account. The demo account is helpful too to experienced traders since they can practice some trading strategies before deploying to live account or back testing of data.
The webinar help traders to catch up in real time with experienced financial markets experts. The economic calendar and market commentary section gives traders a heads up of too when trading. These tools as much as they look pretty simple, they are very helpful to any trader. The company should many consider allowing trading robots in the future to offer another extra services to its already existing perks to its customers.
Verdict
In this Markets.com online forex broker review it is justifiable to say that markets.com is a nice forex broker who meets and surpass the expectation of what a forex broker should offer to its customers. Everything about the broker is well thought of such as regulation, bonuses, account types, and much more. The broker could be clustered among the list of the best forex brokers. A setback about this broker is the lack of multiple customer support options and more bonus types. Here is a breakdown of the pros and cons of the broker.
- Over 2000 trading instruments
- The parent company is listed
- Demo account
- Regulated broker
- Wide spreads on FX pairs
- No telephone support
FAQ
No, the online forex broker is regulated by two regulators.
No, the broker doesn’t accept cryptocurrency deposits. However, you can trade cryptocurrencies on their platform, subject to regulations.
Yes, the broker is reliable because it has won several awards in the past.