CM Trading Broker Review 2021

Introduction or Skip Content and Read the Bottom Line!

CM Trading is a global brokerage company that specializing in forex and commodity trading.

This trading brand has been around since 2012 and what’s interesting is that they have a variety of platforms that are designed for traders of all types.

CM Trading Sirix platform

Such features sound promising but the question is:

Is CM Trading a good broker?

Look:

There are lots of critical factors to consider to answer this question but don’t worry, we won’t make this a long and uninteresting review.

We’ll get to the facts straight and will even include actual screenshots of our test so you know that you’re getting REAL results and not just fabricated ones that you usually see on the internet.

So are you ready?

If that’s a yes then let’s get the ball rolling…

Here’s the thing:

Compared to other brokerages, CM Trading’s registration process is very basic and simpler.

All you have to do is supply the following information on the sign-up form:

• First and last name
• Email
• Password (minimum of characters composed of a lowercase letter, an uppercase letter and a number)
• Country
• Phone number

CM Trading registration page

And…you’re done (at least on the first stage)!

That’s how easy it is.

Account verification

Do take note that:

Just like with any established broker, account verification is essential due to regulatory requirements so they can confirm your identification and address.

If this is all new to you, licensed brokerages are required by financial regulators to verify their clients’ identity and to make sure that they are actually the one who signed-up for an account.

This can be done by getting the following information from you:

• Your financial background – Accomplish this short questionnaire so they could better understand your trading experience.
• Your proof of identity – This is a copy of national ID and must include the front and back. You can use an your driver’s license or an international passport.
• Your proof of residence – You may use a bill that has been issued within the past 3 months. It must be under your name and with your complete residential address. This can be a utility bill, bank statement or affidavit in your own name.
• You can also upload other supporting documents you think will help in easily confirming your account.

And as per their website, it takes up to 24 hours for them to verify client accounts although in our experience, it took less than that.

CM Trading will offer you 4 account types to choose from and this is primarily based on the amount that you deposited:

• Bronze
• Silver
• Gold
• Premium

Each account type has its own perks and benefits and of course, the higher the account, the more features you get to enjoy.

CM Trading account types

And there’s more…

If you’d like to use an Islamic account, you are free to do so REGARDLESS of your account type excluding ECN accounts.

No what about that cash back?

Be sure to get in touch with your account manager so you can sign-up for this plan and avail of this rebate.

In comparison to the other brokerages that we previously reviewed, CM Trading’s account types are at par with popular brokerages and in fact, they offer much more advantages even for the most basic account which is Bronze in this case.

We can’t emphasize enough:

If you’d like to experience a broker’s platform without risking your real funds then taking advantage of the demo account is your best option.

Here’s the thing:

CM Trading’s practice account comes with basically the same features with that of a live account like risk management tools, live charts and prices, and all that. But keep in mind that you’re accessing it in virtual mode.

When it comes to the virtual funds, you’ll be credited with $50,000 which we think is good enough for you to test drive the platform and apply various strategies to enhance your skills.

And when you’ve used up all these demo funds, you can simply ask it to be topped-up by getting in touch with their customer support team. We tried doing it and they were able to grant our request without any conditions.

With CM Trading, it is possible to fund the account via the following methods:

• Credit and Debit Cards
• Wire / Bank transfer
• Neteller
• M-pesa
• OnlineNaira
• Cryptocurrency

With so many options, you’ll surely have no issues in transferring money to and from your account.

CM Trading deposit page

Here’s what you need to know:

Aside from having many ways to fund your online trading account, it would be better to be with a broker that supports not only the most popular payment gateways but also the most convenient ones.

And the good news is that CM Trading accepts various deposit methods that are known and trusted so you’ll surely find an available option to transfer money into your account so you can continue your online trading activities on their platforms.

The minimum deposit requirement in order to open an account start live trading is $250.

Look:

It may not be that low if you compare them to other brokers that accept $1 initial deposits but it’s definitely not the highest either.

And besides, how can you start exploring online trading with an extremely small capital like $1?

In our honest opinion, a $250 starting fund on your account is the ideal size and this is probably why CM Trading decided to set it at that amount.

With this amount, you will be assigned with the most basic account which is Bronze.

Here’s a table of the minimum deposit requirements per account type:

All platforms feature user-friendly designs and this makes it easy even for beginners to get used to the trading system.

The Sirix WebTrader in particular as one of the most visually engaging and had a lot of cosmetic features that we really liked including the option to switch between light and dark themes.

How cool is that?

Here’s a short animation of showing this platform in action:

CM Trading Sirix platform

It’s also worth noting that…

The loading time only takes a few seconds and doesn’t take up a lot of system resources even though the user interface was enhanced.

In general, we were very impressed on how they managed to enhance the UI and still keep the platform running in high performance.

CM Trading’s platforms provide access to over 150 instruments which are composed of several markets and industries so you’ll be able to access not just one particular sector but a more diverse one and this is a great advantage for you to expand your trading portfolio.

CM Trading tradable assets

Explore the markets with CM Trading!

Below are the financial instrument categories that you can invest on with this online brokerage firm:

Currencies

This brokerage has over 50 currency pairs and this includes the majors such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and AUD/USD , and other interesting FX pairs like USD/ZAR, EUR/ZAR, USD/HUF and USD/SGD to name a few.

Commodities

Commodity trading is also possible and the great news is that they offer a diverse selection of sectors: precious metals (gold, silver, copper, platinum and palladium), agricultural products (corn, wheat, coffee and sugar) and energy markets (gas, crude oil and Brent oil).

Indices

Currently, there are 17 available assets for this class and this includes popular favorites like Dow Jones, S&P 500, CAC 50, DAX 30, FTSE 10 and even other global indices like South Africa’s JSE, Japan’s TOPIX and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng.

Stocks

Equity CFDs are also available and this includes some of the well-known companies that are listed on NASDAQ and NYSE.

As of press time, CM Trading has around 70 stocks listed so there’s a lot of assets to add to your portfolio such as Apple, Aurora Cannabis, Intel, Netflix, Pfizer, Starbucks, NVIDIA and a whole lot more..

Cryptocurrencies

Their platform will also give you access to crypto CFDs for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin allowing you to invest on this new and emerging market.

But always keep in mind that:

Investing on cryptocurrencies via CFDs is completely different from buying or selling cryptocurrencies from a digital exchange.

The minimum lot size that they allow is 0.01 which is basically the standard in this industry.

This size is ideal for traders who prefer investing with a much smaller lot size.

Do keep in mind this:

The higher the lot, the more profits you can make but the risk will increase as well.

For this reason, we strongly advise that you understand and balance your lots by determining the most acceptable risk level for you in order to find the right trade size.

To keep things simple:

Opening or closing a trade is less costly if your trading with a brokerage that is capable of providing tight (lower) spreads.

As for CM Trading, you can trade major currency pairs with very tight spreads and this can effectively lower the cost of trading of forex against other assets.

For example:

The EUR/USD currency pair has a regular spread of 1.5 pips which a tad better than the spreads offered by other brokers.

Here’s the surprise:

They offer tighter spreads but these extra perks are only available for Silver, Gold and Premium account holders only.

For example:

For EUR/USD, Silver accounts get to enjoy spreads as low as 1.2 pips while Gold and Premium accounts will get access for this FX pair at 0.9 pips.

As for CM Trading, their customer service team can be reached via phone, email, live chat and surprisingly, via the Whatsapp messaging app.

CM Trading customer support

If you want immediate answers then we suggest that you contact them via phone, live chat or WhatsApp since these methods can get you a real person to converse with in just a minute or so.

You may also want to checkout their FAQ page first before reaching them because this page covers a lot of topics so there’s a high chance that you might find the answers to your questions there.

 

So how did our actual test go?

We contacted them via all the available methods to check first their availability and then to see if their answers are consistent and if their agents are really reliable.

• Via phone support, it only took just a few seconds for us to talk with a live agent.
• In WhatsApp, the waiting time was a mere few seconds as well. We find this mode of communication more convenient to use.
• Email support was also pretty impressive because it only took less than 30 minutes for us to get a response from them.
• The live chat feature was also very easy and convenient since this can be done straight from their website.
  Here’s the screenshot of our actual conversation with the live chat support:

 

CM Trading live chat support

In terms of customer service, their agents are able to provide above average support.

The questions that were thrown at them were all answered with professionalism and overall, we were very satisfied on the customer service quality.

CM Trading is operated by Global Capital Markets Trading Limited (a Seychelles-registered company), GCMT SA (a South African company) and BlackStone Futures (Proprietary) Limited (a South African-registered company).

GCMT SA is approved by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), a highly respected and the sole financial regulatory body in South Africa.

But here’s a more impressive fact:

GCMT South Africa has been licensed by the FSCA since 2012 which means that they were able to abide by the standards set by this strict regulator.

As of this writing, its FSP number 38782 is active and accessible on the official FSCA website.

Blackstone Marketing SA FSP license from FSCA

Look:

The FSCA is widely known for imposing very strict guidelines and in fact, they only have 80+ licensed brokers so for CM Trading to belong to this limited list of brands that has this prestigious license clearly indicates that they are transparent and are serious in this industry.

Is CM Trading a scam?

There are several ways to determine if CM Trading is a reliable brokerage or a scam.

Fact:

CM Trading has been operating since 2012 and continues to do so as of press time.

Scam companies usually won’t last that long and are most likely going to be shut down by the authorities so this is a solid indication that CM Trading is NOT a scam.

In addition…

The fact that they are licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) South Africa means that the can be trusted.

And to further prove that they are indeed credible, we did a lengthy research and compiled all the verified comments and what’s surprising is that our search results also revealed a lot of good reviews from their actual clients.

In fact, they happen to be one of the top choices of traders specifically in South Africa where they have a huge client base.

Below are just some of the comments and reviews that we found:

CM Trading user comment

CM Trading user comment

CM Trading user comment

Among the most common comments that we found is that CM Trading has managed to improve their services for the benefit of their traders and they deserve a significantly high score for this category.