All you need to know about XM in this XM review

XM is one of the largest and most popular Forex brokers. The brokerage has ten years of experience and is often considered as the frontier of the Forex industry with its well-designed services, innovative approach to the trading process and fast executions. XM Forex broker is a Cyprus-based firm and is regulated by the local financial authority CySEC. Furthermore, it is regulated by FCA, ASIC, and IFSC and is compliant with the regulations of other financial watchdogs as well.

Before I start the XM review in more details, let’s have a quick look at what the broker has to offer and why it is preferred by so many traders around the world. XM offers a wide selection of trading instruments such as currency pairs, different classes of CFDs, cryptocurrencies and more. The minimum deposit with the broker is ZAR70, spreads are tight and as low as 0.6 pips, while the leverage is from 1:1 to 1:888. The payment methods and withdrawal conditions are very comfortable for the traders and are commission free. The broker offers MT4 and MT5 trading platforms and three account types plus the demo account. The service and conditions that the broker offers excludes the possibility of XM fraud and puts the broker in the top South African brokers list.

XM Forex broker overview

When somebody asks me to name the best Forex broker in South Africa or anywhere else XM Forex broker is one of the companies that pop up in my mind. The brokerage was established in 2009 in Limassol, Cyprus and soon became the leading investment firm in the Forex industry on an international level. There are not many brokers that can be proud of ten years experience alongside with the business model and modern solutions that are developing on a daily basis and thus are always actual and welcomed by the traders of all experience level and budget.

Can XM be trusted? – There is no room for this question to be asked as the broker is regulated by the most influential and respected financial authorities worldwide such as FSCA, ASIC, CySEC, and IFSC. You can view the licenses from all the regulators on the XM website. With these regulations, the company can be trusted not only by the citizens of the country where the broker is regulated but by the residents of the countries worldwide. This is why XM has over 1,500,000 customers all over the globe.

As XM is a multi-regulated broker and puts the safety of the customers’ funds as a top priority there is no possibility of an XM scam.

XM.com review

Let’s take a look on the XM website as the first connections a trader makes with the broker is via the website.  XM website is very nicely designed, once you visit it you can see all the important information displayed in a way that you do not really need to search for it. The navigation on the website is very easy, with one scroll you can find the most important features of the broker and on the top panel, you can directly access the pages you need. The landing time for one page to another is very fast and the overall experience is very good. Just as you would expect from one of the leading FX brokerages.

What really adds up points to the XM rating for me is that the broker website is accessible in over 25 languages that includes widely spoken ones such as English, Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and more. XM has a big presence on social media, you can find the broker on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and on LinkedIn. I personally always like when the broker has social media accounts as it is easier to reach them personally with one click only.

What XM has to offer

XM gives an amazing first impression, now let’s discuss what is behind it and what XM FX brokerage has to offer to its customers. With the broker you can trade with more than 1000 trading instruments that are divided in seven classes:

• Forex trading: with more than 55 global currency pairs
• CFDs on major global indices
• Commodities CFDs, such as sugar, cocoa and more
• CFDs on stocks of over 600 companies
• CFDs on Metals such as palladium, gold, silver and more
• CFDs on energies including oil, gas and all major energies
• Cryptocurrencies

Besides the wide range of trading instruments my XM review has shown that trading with broker comes with other advantages such as personal account managers, free access to multiple features that make the trading experience better for every trader, that includes Forex market research, daily Forex webinars, video tutorials, FX trading signals, daily technical analysis, daily market outlook and many more.

Spread

XM spread is another advantage of the broker. XM offers tight spreads for all kind of asset classes and clients. It does not matter what kind of trading account they have or what are their investment sizes.  On the website, the broker features the spreads as low as 0.6 pips on all major currency pairs. In fact, you can get fractional pips as low as 0.1. What’s even greater is that the broker does not have any commissions and hidden fees.

Minimum Deposit

Most of the brokers offer several types of accounts and minimum deposits are different for each. It is the same for XM as well. The broker offers three account types, for two of them – Micro account and Standard account the minimum deposit is as low as ZAR 70. The broker also offers XM ultra low account with the minimum deposit of ZAR 700. Even though the ultra-low account has a higher minimum deposit it is more popular. I will be talking about the account types in more details below.

Usually, when the minimum deposit is so low or on the contrary when it is very high, people tend to question the legitimacy of the brokerage. So with this low minimum deposit is XM legit? It definitely is, while scam brokers might offer low min. deposit to attract customers the big brokerages like XM can afford to offer low minimum deposit as they already have a large customer base.

Leverage

One can be surprised to hear that the XM Forex broker is offering 1:888 leverage as ESMA has put the leverage caps on the brokers that are regulated by the European financial authorities. However, thanks to its multiple licenses worldwide, the brokerage is able to have this feature. For some traders, it can be great, but some might get intimidated by high leverage. Although leverage means more profit, it may also lead to considerably larger losses. However, the leverage is quite flexible, so you’re not restricted to only using that 1:888, you can go with 1:10 if you prefer. Moreover, the broker has negative balance protection that always comes handy.

Withdrawal

Now we came to one of the most important parts of trading. Once you have made some successful trades and gained profit, you would probably want to withdraw it from your account. Most traders are stopped in their tracks however when they find out exactly how long it takes and how much it costs in fees. I am delighted to say that nothing similar happens with the XM withdrawal process. The broker does not have any commissions attached to the withdrawal, all requests will be completed in 24 working hours and you can use any of the methods to transfer electronic payments, credit/debit card transfers or WIRE transfer.

XM account types

Now as we’ve gone through the XM trading review let’s discuss the account types of the brokerage and what each of them has to offer. As I have mentioned above XM offers three kinds of trading accounts: Micro Account, Standard Account and Ultra Low Account. All of them come with negative balance protection, option to hold an Islamic account, and there is hedging allowed for all of them. In addition, none of the accounts have any trading commissions attached to them. Let’s have a closer look at XM trading accounts.

• Micro Account

With the micro account and ZAR 70 minimum deposit, you can have a nice range of leverage from 1:1 to 1:888 / 1:1 to 1:200 and 1:1 to 1:100 depending on your initial deposit. Maximum open and pending orders you can have is 200 positions and the lot restriction per ticket is 100 Lots. There are minimum trade volumes as well, for MT4 it is 0.01 lots and for MT5 – 0.1 lots.

• Standard Account

The standard account is similar to a micro account as it has the same min deposit, leverage, and limit for positions. The difference between these two accounts is the lot restrictions which is 50 lots for this account and the minimum trade volume, which is always 0.01 lots

• XM Ultra Low Account

With this account, the trader can have spread as low as 0.6 pips and two options between standard ultra and micro ultra. Minimum trade volume for standard ultra is 0.01 lots and for micro ultra, it is 0.1 lots. While the XM trading bonus is available for other accounts it is not applicable on the ultra-low account.

XM also offers a demo account that gives the possibility to the inexperienced traders to trade without any real money and thus with no financial risks included. With the demo account, you can start trading with $100,000 virtual money and see how trading is like with XM as well as try out the platforms the broker offers. XM demo account is very popular with beginners as well as experienced traders.

XM Trading platform

There isn’t a large variety with trading platforms as one would expect since many XM reviews praise the broker for having an innovative approach to trading. However, the broker offers trading platforms that can be named as the best ones that are currently available on the Forex trading market – MT4 and MT5. XM trading platforms can be used on all the devices: PC, Mac, Ipad, iPhone, Android, and Android tablet, in addition, one can use MT5/MT4 Webtrader and XM WebTrader.

XM support

Last but not least, customer support is one of the most important things to consider when you are choosing a broker. Many XM opinions state that the broker is very responsive and has a professional customer support team. The broker has a live chat that is accessible 24/5 GMT in 25 languages. Live chat has two options one for new traders and the other for the customers that already have an account with the broker. Apart from this, one can reach XM Forex broker via support email and phone number.

Is XM legit?

Now as you know all about XM and its features I am sure there is no reason to doubt their legitimacy, however as the broker is not regulated by the FSCA you might still ask if XM South Africa is legit or not? On this question, I can confidently say that yes, with the regulations and the reputations the broker has worldwide there is no doubt that the broker is trustworthy. Besides that, XM has one of the best trading assets and conditions for the traders with all kind of experiences, needs, and investment sizes.