KEY TAKEAWAYS

✔️ Accepts Canadian & Japanese customers
✔️ Great selection of 965 stocks DMA
✔️ Regulated in the EU, the UK, the UAE, South Africa
✔️ Customer support in 20 different languages

Regulations and Money Protection

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Entity Name	Regulation	Client Money Protection	Deposit Compensation Scheme	Negative Balance Protection
HF Markets (SV) Ltd (St. Vincent & the Grenadines)	❌	✔️ - segregated client money	❌	✔️
HF Markets (DIFC) Ltd (Dubai)	Dubai DFSA License	✔️ - segregated client money	❌	✔️
HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd (South Africa)	South Africa FSCA License	✔️ - segregated client money	❌	✔️
HF Markets (UK) Ltd (UK)	UK FCA License	✔️ - segregated client money	✔️ - up to £85,000	✔️
HF Markets (Europe) Ltd (EU)	Cyprus CySEC License	✔️ - segregated client money	✔️ - up to €20,000	✔️
HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd	Seychelles FSA License	✔️ - segregated client money	❌	✔️

Entity/Regulation

HF Markets Group is also trading as HF Markets Ltd in Mauritius, authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius, with a SEC-2.1B Investment Dealer authorisation (full service dealer excluding underwriting).

For the purpose of this review we will use only the entities with whom the traders can open an account; the companies in Dubai, South Africa, UK, EU and Seychelles.

International customers: HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd will be the counterparty for International customers. This entity, with registered address at Room 107, Orion Complex. PO Box 1228, Victoria Mahe, Republic of Seychelles, is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of the Republic of Seychelles with a Securities Dealer's License number SD015.
UAE customers: HF Markets (DIFC) Ltd, with address at Unit Office 612, Level 6, Index Tower, DIFC, PO Box 507274,Dubai, UAE, is authorised and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) under license number F004885.
South Africa customers: HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd, with address at Katherine & West, Suite 18, 2nd floor, 114 West street, Sandton, South Africa, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa as a Financial Service Provider (FSP) with authorisation number 46632.
UK customers: HF Markets (UK) Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales under number 11118651. Principal and registered office at: Bloomsbury Building, 10 Bloomsbury Way, Holborn, London WC1A 2SL, England. HF Markets (UK) Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FCA.
European customers: HF Markets (Europe) Ltd, with address at 50, Spirou Kyprianou Str, Irida 3 Tower - 10th Floor, CY-6057 Larnaca, is a Cypriot Investment Firm (CIF) under number 277582 and is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license number 183/12.

Client Money Protection

HF Markets complies with the highest safety standards for client's funds. For this reason, HF Markets client's funds are kept in top-tier international banks, such as Barclays Bank and the SBM Bank, fully segregated from the company’s funds.
HF Markets also complies with the client money handling rules and employs strict policies and procedures regarding the maintenance and operation of these accounts. HF Markets holds client's money separately to the company funds and does not use these funds for any operational expenses or purposes.

Deposit Compensation Scheme

HF Markets (UK) Ltd Limited is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), an independent compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised UK financial services firms. If HF Markets (UK) Ltd Limited is unable to pay claims against it in the event the firm has stopped trading or has declared to be in default, clients might be entitled to compensation (up to the value of £85,000) per claim.
HF Markets (Europe) Ltd is a member of the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF), an investor compensation fund for CIF clients and its functions are regulated by the directive DI87-07 of the CySEC. If HF Markets (Europe) Ltd is unable to meet its obligations, clients might be entitled to compensation (up to the value of €20,000) per claim, irrespective of the number of accounts held, currency and place of offering of the investment service (within Europe).

Negative Balance Protection

For accounts opened via any entity of the HF Markets Group, there is a default Negative Balance Protection mechanism in place, for the sake of no negative balance. With NBP, HF Markets customers are protected from any losses bigger than their original investments, in cases of extreme market volatility.

Accounts, Instruments and Platforms

Accounts	Instruments	Platforms	Social trading	Maximum Leverage
✔️ - Micro ✔️ - Premium ✔️ - Zero Spread ✔️ - Premium Pro ✔️ - PAMM ✔️ - Islamic Accounts	✔️ - Forex ✔️ - Indices ✔️ - Stocks ❌ - Futures ❌ - ETFs ❌ - Bonds ✔️ - Commodities ✔️ - Cryptocurrencies	✔️ - Metatrader 4 ✔️ - Metatrader 5 ✔️ - cTrader	❌ - Myfxbook ❌ - ZuluTrade ✔️ - HF Copy ✔️ - Auto account	30:1 Europe 1000:1 Rest of World

Account types and currencies

HF Markets offers four types of trading accounts; Micro, Premium, Zero Spread and Premium Pro. HF Markets also offers swap-free accounts for traders of Islamic belief*.
HF Markets allows for social trading, including copy trading, via the HF Copy account (as a follower or a signals provider) and through the Auto account, connected directly to any MQL5 trading signals account.
HF Markets has PAMM accounts alternatives for money managers.
HF Markets maximum leverage is 30:1 for accounts opened within Europe and up to 1000:1 for accounts opened in other countries around the world.
Currently, HF Markets trading accounts are only available in EUR, USD, GBP, PLN and NGN*.

*depending on the contracting entity and traders' geographical location

Financial instruments

Trading with HF Markets can be done via the Metatrader 4 and Metatrader 5, available on web, desktop terminal and mobile versions. HF Markets offers an excellent selection of more than 1,000 assets to trade*, including Forex, indices, stocks, commodities and cryptocurrencies.

FX market - 50+ currency pairs (including Minor and Exotic crosses).
Indices - 11 world indices, including AUS 200, US 500 and UK 100.
Stocks - 50+ stocks CFDs from global top companies and banks, such as Adidas, Amazon, BBVA, eBay, or Google. Traders opening an account with HF Markets (SV) Ltd will have access to 965 stocks DMA via MT5, allowing traders to place trades directly on the order books of global stock exchanges.
Commodities - 14 commodities CFDs available for trading; 6 metals (Gold and Silver included), 3 energies; UK Oil, US Oil and Nat Gas and 5 soft.
Cryptocurrencies - 7 CFDs crosses for trading, including Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Pricing

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Pricing/ Account	Micro	Premium	Zero Spread	Premium Pro
Spread EUR/USD	from 1.0 pip	from 1.0 pip	from 0.0 pip	from 1.0 pip
Commissions	❌	❌	from 6 USD	❌
Minimum Deposit	from 5 USD	from 100 USD	from 200 USD	from 500 USD - retail clients from 5,000 USD - professional clients

Spreads

HF Markets spread for the most traded pair, the EUR/USD, starts at 1.0 pip, with a typical spread of 1.2 pip and no commissions. We consider this spread, for the Micro, Premium and Premium Pro accounts to be average when compared with other top brokers.

With a HF Markets Zero Spread account, the EUR/USD minimum spread is 0.0 pip (typically 0.2 pip). To benefit from the lower spread of the Zero Spread account there’s a cost to pay: a commission. For the EUR/USD, the standard lot commission for 1 lot (100,000 units) is 6 USD commission (3.0 USD per side/per lot). We consider this commission to be quite in line with other top brokers.

Rollover Rates

HF Markets swap rates, as of 18-09-2020, for 1 lot EUR/USD (100,000 units) stands at an average rate of -6.00 for holding overnight a long 1 lot contract and at -0.70 for holding overnight a short 1 lot contract. We consider HF Markets swap rates to be higher when compared with the rollover rates offered by other top Forex brokers.

Deposits/Withdrawals and Other Fees

Deposit fees - Trading accounts can be opened in 5 different currencies* and maintained via 15 different funding methods*, including cards, bank wires and e-payments such as Neteller, Fasapay, Skrill and Bitcoin*. Deposited funds are available, usually, within 10 minutes. HF Markets does not charge any fees for deposits.
Withdrawals fees - Same policy applies for withdrawals (processing times vary from instant to 10 working days). HF Markets does not charge any additional fees for withdrawals. However, the sending, correspondent and receiving bank may charge transaction fees according to their own fee structure. For more information, please visit the HF Markets deposit and withdrawals dedicated page.
Inactivity fee - HF Markets does not charge an inactivity fee or any account maintenance fees.

*depending on the contracting entity and traders' geographical location

Popularity

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Forex Education	Deposit Options	Deposit/Withdrawals Fees	Non expiring demo account	Customer Support
FX Courses Webinars Video Tutorials Fundamental & Technical Analysis Trading Tools	Cards Bank Wire E-payments	❌	✔️	Multi language 24/5 Support Live Chat

The popularity of HF Markets deserves a great 5 out of 5. HF Markets is considered a good broker for traders looking for a highly regulated company and safety of funds. With over 2,000,000 accounts opened in more than 10 years of business (according to their corporate website) HF Markets seem to have their fair market share and captured the attention of traders.

Trading accounts - The HF Markets Zero Spread account is a popular choice with traders looking to save on trading costs, with a lower spread and a competitive commission of $6.00 per lot traded. Extra points for HF Markets' policy of no fees on deposits or withdrawals.
Forex education - HF Markets also gets extra popularity points for their extensive range of Forex education materials, available through the Education tab. HF Markets clients can enroll on webinars and Forex courses to enhance their trading skills and overall market knowledge, watch and learn with several video tutorials, read and make informed decisions with HF Markets fundamental & technical analysis reports. HF Markets traders will also have access to the broker's Trading Tools tabs, packed with several Forex calculators and other handy tools.

Funding Methods	Bank Wire, Cards, Fasapay, iDeal, Neteller, PaySafeCard, Przelewy24, Skrill (Moneybookers), Sofort, Webmoney, Western Union, TrustPay, Bitcoin
Support Languages	Arabic, Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese

Minimum deposit - Opening a trading account with HF Markets is completely hassle-free and can be done online, taking around 10 minutes to complete all the required forms. The minimum deposit requirement with HF Markets varies from 5 USD to 5,000 USD, depending on the selected account.
Customer support - HF Markets' multi language customer support service is available 24 hours, 5 days a week, in 20 languages. HF Markets' support is available via phone call, contact form, email and live chat directly from the broker's website.

Broker Profile

Founded in 2010 and with headquarters in South Africa, HF Markets is an award winning Forex and commodities CFDs broker, providing trading services and facilities to both retail and institutional clients. Through its policy of providing the best possible trading conditions to its customers, HF Markets allows both traders and scalpers the use of EAs (Expert Advisors).

HF Markets offers various accounts types, trading software and tools to facilitate individuals and institutional customers to trade Forex and CFD's online. All Retail, Affiliates and White Label clients have the opportunity to access various interbank spreads and liquidity via state of the art automated trading platforms. HF Markets provides an unparalleled variety of account options for individuals, fund managers and institutional customers.

Coupled with good trading conditions and fast execution times, customers can enjoy a tailored trading experience that perfectly suits their needs. HF Markets provides all the tools and services needed for clients of any level to realise their trading ambitions.

Overall, on our HF Markets review, the broker scores a satisfactory 4.7 out of 5 as it is a good choice for traders looking for a reputable broker with strong regulations in place and safety of funds. Points to review? Probably the overall cost of trading. HF Markets spreads and commissions could be slightly lower and more in line, compared with other top brokers. Also the availability of trading platforms, currently Metatrader 4 and 5, could be extended to satisfy more potential customers.

Data supplied in partnership with CashBackForex - Forex Rebates places HF Markets on the top 10 brokers for popularity with traders opening an account in 2020.

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