HFM Review (2023)

What is HFM?

HFM is a multi-asset broker that offers Forex and Commodities, previously known as HotForex through CFDs trading services choice of 7 account types and trading platforms with tight spreads averaging EUR USD 0.1. The broker brings access to unrestricted liquidity allowing any size or profile trader to make a choice between various spreads and liquidity providers via automated trading platforms and performance of any strategy.

The brokerage firm itself was established in 2010 with its headquarter in Cyprus, yet in addition serves several global offices including Dubai, South Africa also offshore entities in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

While indeed HFM shows great interest and impacts mainly in African, Asian and MENA regions which brings some of the great opportunities to the global residents.

Meanwhile, HFM offers its trading service along with the applicable licenses that regulate the Forex industry, therefore delivers service trustworthily.

HFM Pros and Cons

HFM is a broker with good reputation and regulations. The offering is user friendly, with large portfolio for Forex and CFDs, fees are considered low and there is good education section suitable for beginning traders.

On the other hand, XM has limited portfolio for EU clients, and only Forex and CFDs are offered.

10 Points Summary

🏢 Headquarters	Cyprus
🗺️ Regulation	CySEC, FCA, DFSA, FSCA
🖥 Platforms	MT4, MT5
📉 Instruments	17 trading tools and 150+ trading products with access to global markets, Indices, Metals, Energies, Shares, Commodities, Bonds, ETFs, DMA Stocks, and Cryptocurrencies
🎮 Demo Account	Available
💳 Minimum deposit	5 US$
💰 EUR/USD Spread	1 pips
💰 Base currencies	Several currencies available
📚 Education	Provided
☎ Customer Support	24/5

Awards

Besides its attractive trading proposal at the first look, there are some confirmations about its trustworthy business due to official figures and numbers, as well as numerous industry awards that HoForex holds and counting. Until now there are more than 500,000 Live accounts opened with the HFM, along with multiple Industry awards and sponsorship HFM prestigious titles recognizing them as Best Clients Funds Security Broker, Best Forex Provider, Top 100 Companies etc.

Is HFM scam or safe or a

No, HFM is not a scam, it is licensed by several top authrotiites including FCA, FSCA and CySEC. HFM is a brand name of the HF Markets (Europe) Ltd. that is authorized and regulated by the CySEC a regulatory authority for Investment Services firms in Cyprus, along with a cross-border licenses due to its European position, authorizing the company to provide investment services within EEA zone.

In simple terms it means the broker is regulated and authorized to offers its trading service along with necessary safety measures and controls applied.

Is HFM legit?

In addition to its main license from CySEC, the broker holds other licenses to be able to serve clients from some specific jurisdictions including South Africa, Dubai, England and more. Which all in all makes HFM legit broker.

Also, there are HFM entities that are registered in offshore zones alike Mauritius, SVG and Seychelles. While our general recommendation is not to trade with offshore brokers as they simply do not regulate Forex trading, due to HFM multiple parallel regulations it is considered to be safe to trade with them.

How are you protected?

For the funds protection, which is an important part of the regulated broker, HF Markets (Europe) Ltd. is a member of the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund. It constitutes a claim of the covered clients against investment firms. Clients’ deposits are protected under the requirements of the regulators.

While in addition to that HFM made further efforts to safeguard traders with a Civil Liability insurance program for a limit of €5,000,000, which includes market leading coverage against errors, omissions, negligence, fraud and various other risks that may lead to financial loss. However, according to applicable laws and regulations, the conditions vary from one entity to another.

Leverage

While trading with HFM you can operate with fixed or floating leverage, which is indeed a very useful tool, especially for traders of smaller size. Leverage brings an opportunity to increase your potential gains through its possibility to multiply balance in a particular number of times. Yet remember that leverage may work in reverse too, defining also your risks, that is why it’s so important to understand how to use tool smartly.

HFM offers various leverage levels from the “modest” one as determined by European regulations and various other measures, and up to very high ratios. Yet, again always make sure to learn about high risks of leverage, as retail trading accounts lose money rapidly due to high leverage.

Therefore, your leverage levels are firstly settled according to the regulatory requirement in the region or another also your prof level in finance, so make sure to verify with the customer support team which one you entitled to.

• European entities that oblige to ESMA regulation, the maximum leverage ratio is set to a 1:30 on Forex instruments, 1:25 Spot Metals, etc.
• South Africa residents may access leverage of up to 1:200
• Higher leverage ratios like 1:400, 1:500 or even 1:1000 are offered through HFM offshore entities since a particular registration does not limit offering and allows high leverage levels.

Account types

HFM provides an unparalleled variety of account options with 6 different accounts with specific requirements. The range offers Micro, Premium, Zero spread, HFCOPY, PAMM Premium Accounts and along with the Islamic Account suitable for traders from the MENA region or beyond.

From the very beginning you may sign in for Demo Account and then transfer it to a Live one just by depositing money.

Each of the account types bringing the particular possibility for your trading strategy while allowing either beginning traders, investors or professionals to find its own way in trading. The options ranging from the opportunity to trade Micro lots, or specified account for Copy Trading or if you would like to become a Masker account. You may see below in our HFM Review detailed discrepancy of each in order to understand what offering is about.

How to open a Demo Account?

To open a Demo account you should simply follow the process of risk-free account opening so you will get access to either MT4 or MT5 platforms with unlimited demo funds.

And once you ready or decided to start Live Trading you can submit for a Live account where HFM may ask you for confirmation of your documents including identity, residency and other prove before you start. In both cases, you will get access to myHF client area where you can manage all your accounts and finances.

So here is the step by step process of Demo Account opening.

Opening a Demo account step by step

1.       Go into HFM Demo Account Sign In page

2.       If you are a new client enter your personal data First and Last Name, Country of residence, email, phone, etc. Or in case you’re existing client follow sign in

3.       Fill in all required information for the first register of myHF

4.       An account will be approved almost immediately, where through your client area you can get access to New Demo Account, follow with Live Account and manage your funds

What instruments I can trade in HFM?

One of the HFM Pros also its offered market range that includes 17 trading tools and 150+ trading products with access to global markets. These include Indices, Metals, Energies, Shares, Commodities, Bonds, ETFs, DMA Stocks, and due to increasing demand now offering Cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and more.

Fees

HFM trading costs mainstays at the tight spread offering, as well bringing some of the most attractive spread opportunities among the industry, also proposing spreads from 0 pips on some accounts. However, check on the additional, non trading fees and charges for deposits or withdrawals all in all concluding your trading costs, see fee table below.

Spreads

HFM fees are built in a transparent manner while the only charge is variable spread, which is a difference between bid and ask price, also HFM does not offer fixed spread (Find fixed spread brokers list here). HFM does not charge additional fees or commission, thus your calculation of the position is quite seamless and easy despite the level of trader you are.

Of course, spreads fees defined by the account type you use, thus Micro Account spread starting from 1 pip and Zero Account obviously offers 0 fee which averages spread from 0.2 pips most often. However, the difference between trading costs also defined by the margin requirements, which increase almost double in case you wish to trade with 0 spread. So make sure to verify account conditions in detail before you sign in.

Below you may see a comparison of the most popular instruments, the typical spread based on Standard conditions, as well for your information compare fees to another broker FP Markets.

Comparison between HFM fees and similar brokers

Asset/ Pair	HFM Spread	FXTM Spread	XM Spread
EUR USD Spread	1 pips	1.5 pips	1.6 pips
Crude Oil WTI Spread	5 pips	9 pips	5 pips
Gold Spread	19	9	35
BTC USD Spread	30	20	60

Overnight Fee

As well always consider overnight or rollover fees as trading costs in case you holding an open position longer than a day. This fee is defined by each instrument separately and you will see it directly from the platform or upon the opening of the trade, see below example with Cryptocurrencies.

However and unless you trading through swap-free accounts designed to traders following Sharia rules, as these accounts restricted from any interest rates or swaps.

Fee conditions upon opening of trade

An overview of the Non Trading Fees

Lastly, there is a fee charged in case you didn’t use your account and show no activity for 6 months or more. After this your account entitled to 5$ HFM inactivity fee per month.

Despite this, there are no deposit fees or some of the withdrawals are free as well, which we will see in our HFM review further.

Deposits and Withdrawals

There are multiple ways to fund trading account supported by HFM. Besides broker issue its very own HFM MasterCard for a straight transaction and the ability to make safe online payments.

Deposit Methods

To simplify the funding of accounts, HFM offers over 14 methods to deposit or withdraw money.  Those methods include

• major credit and debit cards
• wire transfers and domestic transfers available at some regions
• vast of e-wallets, including Cryptocurrency transfer, and more.

How do I deposit money on HFM?

So in order to deposit money on HFM you simply need to select the payment provider of your preference, as well as the one that is available at your region and proceed with the payment. HFM will process your withdrawal within short time and available 24/5.

HFM Minimum deposit

HFM minimum deposits starts from 5$, yet, if you just make a first deposit check out preferences on a minimum requirement according to the account type as well, also determined by the payment method you would choose.

HFM Withdrawal Review

HFM withdrawal options including cards, bank transfer by far most used option and various ewallets. And the last point withdrawal fee, which is actually 0$ is amazing news that allows you not to worry about extra fees. However, Wire Transfer may involve some correspondent fees according to your bank and international policies.

How do I withdraw money from HFM?

In order to proceed with the Withdrawal, you should access your myHF area and submit a Fund Withdrawal request.

HFM Broker Review Account Opening step by step

1.       Access your myHF page and account area

2.       Select ‘Fund Withdrawal’

3.       Chose the appropriate withdraw method and amount

4.       Confirm necessary data and processing time/ fees

5.       Submit

6.       Follow up and check on the process or confirmations through your page

How long does it take to withdraw money from HFM?

Various payment methods will process withdraw money I slightly different time. HFM accounting team confirms transactions quite quickly, within business days of course, yet the matter might take longer due to payment providers.

Alike Wire transfer will take 2-10 working days, also depending on your bank and international policy processing, while ewallets will load the request Instant.

Trading Platforms

So talking about trading software, HFM provides an award-winning MT4 Platform and its newer version MetaTrader 5 as its trading software. It is not a surprise choice, as platforms enable one-click trading along with numerous tools and access to institutional quality technology through advanced configuration. So whether you are a very beginner or an advanced trading veteran software is suitable for both.

Pros	Cons
Mainstays on an industry known MT4 and MT5	No proprietary platform
Customer friendly design
An advanced range of tools
Automated trading and PAMM capabilities
Clear Charting
No restrictions on strategies
Possibility to have MT4 and MT5 accounts simultaneously

WebTrading Platform

What is also great with MetaTrader is its computability with various devices. MT4 and MT5 terminals available in various versions that suit your personal needs and allows efficient trading through the Desktop Platform, WebTerminal which is compatible with any browser. Or by the use of MT4 MultiTerminal with access to manage multiple accounts simultaneously. Also, HFM FIX/API is ideal for the clients that want to use the FIX protocol.

So its full range of over 13 platforms, due to range of versions, powered with fast execution, fully applicable with provided tools and available to trade all the offered instruments.

Mobile Trading Platform

Of course, there is a mobile trading platform as well a HFM Mobile Application with an option to trade “on the go”. MT4 and MT5 mobile trading are known for its advanced capabilities and interactive charts with almost the same productivity as its full versions. Besides, there are over 30 technical indicators and 24 analytical objects, so mobile capabilities are truly great.

Look and Feel

Does HFM allow scalping?

Yes, HFM allows scalping and places no restrictions on the strategies, however various entities and regulations may apply some conditions so you better always check terms and conditions before start.

Particularly about scalping, there is no restriction and HFM range of accounts alike with Zero spread may assist you even better to trade this strategy.

Moreover, there is a possibility to copy trade or become a professional master to be copied through an advanced PAMM technology designed by HFM. PAMM program is indeed an amazing opportunity to invest at the beginning, or maybe for the long term without having to trade the markets yourself by simple follow of the Fund Manager from the ranking list.

Placing Orders

How do I manage my risk?

Also while placing an order you should manage your risks smartly while tools like Limit Order and the stop loss orders will assist you. Stop loss will set a particular position to be automatically closed at the predetermined price, sot that you won’t lose more than you define.

Customer Service

Another important point while choosing the broker and within our HFM Review is customer service. Eventually, the broker provides support in 27 languages that is an impressive number which covers world trading need and allowing traders from almost any country to join trading and get quality support.

As we check the traders reviews and satisfaction statistics HFM provides a good level of customer support along with support materials.

Research and Education

Education is another strong point of HFM since the broker concentrates and putting efforts on Africa and Asia regions so its allows you to improve Forex experience and results. There are course, Live Webinars, Video Tutorials, Daily Analysis and Market Outlooks along with News Feeds so with HFM you have all potential to become a better trader whether you’re a beginner or a professional one.

Also, understanding that good research is the most valuable in trading as well, HFM provides a range of analytical and research tools. This including Analytical Objects, Economic Calendar, Autochartist and Trader’s Board for comprehensive analysis, as well as additional Premium Trading Tools.

In addition, there is a VPS Hosting available, while free VPS packages provided to those who deposit from 5,000$.

Conclusion

Overall, HFM is a well-established customer-oriented broker with secure, regulated trading environment suitable for almost every trader. The services and products are tailored to specific requirements while bringing a comprehensive range of clients’ accounts, platforms, tools, and instruments with the ability to choose a suitable strategy. So either you wish to join copy traders or to use EAs, perform scalping or become a partner etc. there is an option for all. As well, HFM pricing strategy shows transparent prices with one of the lowest rates in the industry.