FXCM Review

Losses can exceed deposits

FXCM…

If you’re thinking about applying for a spread betting, CFDs or forex trading account then one option is FXCM, a leading operator that offers all three types of trading:

FXCM Platforms

FXCM Spread Betting

If you spread bet with FXCM you will get all the normal benefits such as:

  • Tax Free Investments*

    • No Capital Gains Tax
    • No Income Tax
    • No Stamp Duty

  • You can buy or sell markets
  • There are no commission fees, only the bid/ask spread
  • There are no brokers’ fees
  • You can trade a wide range of markets including stock indices, forex and commodities, for more details see FXCM spread betting markets
However FXCM also offers spread betting clients a number of additional advantages:

  • There are no re-quotes on spread betting markets such as stock indices, forex, gold and oil
  • Up to x200 leverage (beware that leverage can also work against you)
  • 24 hour trading from Sunday evening to Friday evening (UK time)

FXCM Awards

A review of some of FXCM’s awards (sorry – we need to update this list!):
  • 2013 Investment Trends US Forex Report†
    FXCM: Best FX Broker - Europe
    • Number One for Overall Client Satisfaction
    • Number One for Customer Service
    • Number One for Online Education Materials

  • 2013 MoneyAM Awards
    FXCM: Best Online FX Broker
    • Best Online FX Provider

  • 2010 FX Traders Choice Awards
    • Best FX Broker – Europe

  • 2010 MoneyAM Online Finance Awards
    FXCM: Best FX Provider
    • Winner Best Online FX Broker

  • 2010 What Investment Magazine Readership Awards
    • Best FX Provider

User Ratings & Comments on FXCM

Add Your View – if you have any comments or questions on FXCM, feel free to add them here.



Why Spread Bet with FXCM?

FXCM won’t act as a bookmaker on forex spread betting, so there is no conflict of interest. Every time you spread bet, FXCM will open a trade in the underlying market to hedge your bet on a one-to-one basis. For example, if you buy the EUR/USD market then FXCM will take the corresponding long position in the same forex pair.

Note that because all spread bets are hedged in real-time in the relevant underlying markets the ‘spreads’ available with FXCM can vary.

FXCM – User Friendly Spread Betting Platform

The FXCM spread betting platform is a result of more than 10 years of constant development and improvement to the FXCM trading platforms.

FXCM offers one-click execution as standard on all products. For cost transparency they display all charges in the same price window as the dealing price. This means that you know exactly how much you will pay or receive on rolling trades when you keep a spread bet open overnight.

FXCM Rolling Spread Bets

With FXCM spread bets are ‘rolled’ each day. Therefore as long as you have the funds in your account any trades that you don’t close are automatically rolled over to the next trading day.

There is either an overnight financing charge or credit to your account, depending upon whether you are buying or selling a market.

FXCM Trading Charts

FXCM offers clients a range of charting packages (note that charges may apply for certain charting packages).

The ‘Marketscope’ package is a professional grade charts package which is built into FXCM’s Trading Station II platform. Key features include:

Trading from Charts
  • Create Orders: you can click on the charts to create orders
  • Monitor Trades/Orders: you can keep an eye on trades and orders, they appear as dotted lines on charts
  • Manage Orders: you can drag and drop orders to new levels
  • Close Trades/Cancel Orders: naturally you can close trades and cancel orders from the chart

Indicators and Chart Elements
  • There are more than 30 popular indicators such as MACD, RSI and MA
  • There are more than 600 custom indicators that you can download
  • You can draw trend lines as well as add Fibonacci lines, Andrew’s Pitchfork and Gann Fans

Price Alerts and Indicators
  • Price Alerts: you can set price alerts for when markets hit certain levels
  • Indicator Alerts: you can receive indicator alerts for when popular indicators such as MACD or Moving-Average Crossovers are generated
  • Alerts Types: these include emails and pop-up messages

FXCM Forex Trading

At the heart of FXCM’s offering is its No Dealing Desk forex trading.

In short, clients benefit from FXCM’s large network of forex liquidity providers (banks, financial institutions, prime brokers and other market makers) which enables FXCM to offer competitive spreads on major currency pairs.

FXCM’s No Dealing Desk forex execution aims to provide clients with fair and transparent execution.

Every new trade is executed back-to-back through one of multiple banks or financial institutions. These liquidity providers compete to provide FXCM with buy and sell prices.

The result is that the best spreads available to FXCM are offered to clients. There is a small markup by FXCM but this is normally just one pip for major forex pairs.


FXCM Forex Trading Advantages

Clients benefit from:
  • Low Spreads

    • You can trade on rates provided to FXCM by numerous liquidity providers
    • Fractional pip pricing helps to tighten spreads even further

  • No Dealing Desk Forex Execution

    • This means that there’s no conflict of interest between you and FXCM – the price providers, ie the banks, do not see your stop or limit orders
    • There is no dealer intervention in trades – this helps to speed up trading
    • Competition from multiple price providers helps to reduce the potential for market manipulation

  • No Trading Restrictions

    • You can trade during breaking news
    • You can place entry orders anywhere, even inside the spread itself
    • You can scalp the market
    • There’s rollover transparency, all rollover costs are displayed in advance
FXCM Mobile Trading

FXCM Mobile Trading

With FXCM you can trade via your mobile. The platform is available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone and Windows mobiles. With FXCM’s mobile platform you can

  • View the latest live prices
  • Open / close trades
  • Create new trading orders
  • View live charts

FXCM Spread Betting Practice Account

If you want to become more familiar with the platform or if you just want to test a few trading theories then you could try FXCM’s free practice account. Key features include:

  • Live prices
  • Live charts
  • 24/7 client services
  • Risk-free trading – you only trade with virtual funds
  • Free practicing – practice accounts are free for 30 days and then expire
Also see Demo Accounts for Spread Betting and CFD Trading.


FXCM CFDs

In addition to spread betting and forex trading, FXCM also offers CFDs. With FXCM’s CFDs clients benefit from:

  • No re-quotes for stock indices
  • Competitive pricing
  • Commission free trading on stock indices – only pay the spread
  • Leverage – this can also work against you
  • Dividends – if you hold a long position on a stock index then you may be eligible for dividend payments
  • Going long or short on stock indices
  • The ability to trade metals as well as both US and UK crude oil

About FXCM

Losses can exceed deposits

According to the 2013 Investment Trends report, FXCM is the largest forex provider in the United States†.

Forex Capital Markets, Limited is authorised and regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority, registration number 217689.

FXCM Inc., a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: FXCM), is a holding company and its sole asset is a controlling equity interest in FXCM Holdings, LLC.

Forex Capital Markets Limited (“FXCM LTD”) is an indirect operating subsidiary of FXCM Holdings, LLC.

† based on the 2013 Investment Trends US Forex Report with ratings from 11,456 investors. This apparently makes the Investment Trends report the largest study of online retail investors in the United States.