FXCM Review 2024

Is FXCM regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa (FSCA), and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

Is FXCM safe?

To be certain that a brokerage is safe, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• the background of the broker.

How you are protected

Depending on your country of residence, you can open an account at one or more of FXCM's legal entities.
This can be important because the investor protection amount, the maximum leverage allowed and the regulator differs depending on the entity. Only the clients of Forex Capital Markets Limited and FXCM EU LTD are covered by investor protection.

FXCM provides negative balance protection for retail clients. If the balance on your account goes into negative, you will be protected.

Background

The majority economic owner of FXCM is the Jefferies Financial Group. The background of the broker matters as a strong economic owner company reduces the chance that the company will go bust.
The Jefferies Financial Group is a listed company on the New York Exchange It has an merchant banking background. The stock exchange listing increases transparency, as the company publishes annual reports.
FXCM was founded in 1999. The company's more than 20-year history signals that FXCM can sustain operations despite periods of economic distress. The company had been fined multiple times from 2005 to 2017 and there were name changes also. However, we did not find any problems from 2018 onward.
Being regulated by a top-tier regulator is a great sign for FXCM's safety.

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Account base currencies

At FXCM, you can choose from the following 4 base currencies: EUR, USD, GBP, CHF.

This selection falls behind competing brokers. Both Forex.com and Pepperstone offer more base currencies.

Why does this matter? For two reasons. If you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you won't have to pay a conversion fee.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

Deposit fees and options

FXCM charges no deposit fees.

A bank transfer can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant. You can only deposit money from accounts that are in your name.

There are a lot of deposit options at FXCM, including electronic wallets such as Neteller, Skrill, Unionpay.

Skrill and Neteller are not available to EU residents.

FXCM withdrawal fees and options

FXCM charges no withdrawal fees for credit/debit cards, but bank transfers may cost up to $40.
You can use bank transfer, debit/credit cards and electronic wallets for withdrawing funds.

You can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

Bank withdrawal fees depend on the currency and the location of your bank account.

How long does it take to withdraw money from FXCM? We tested the credit card withdrawal and it took more than 3 business days.

How do you withdraw money from FXCM?

• Log in to your account through myfxcm.com
• Once logged in, click on 'Withdraw Funds'
• Select your preferred withdrawal method
• Specify the amount of funds you want to withdraw
• Re-enter your password for security reasons and review your withdrawal details

Can you open an account?

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

FXCM accepts customers from most countries in the world. There a few exceptions, including residents from the USA, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Hong Kong, Iran, Cuba, Russia, New Zealand, Syria and South Korea.

What is the minimum deposit at FXCM?

The required FXCM minimum deposit is $50.

If your account is denominated in another currency, the minimum deposit will be 50 units of that currency if you make your deposit via credit/debit card. Active Trader accounts require a $25,000 minimum account equity.

Account types

FXCM offers two account types:

• Individual – Standard
• Individual – Active Trader

If you plan to trade in high volumes, FXCM's Active Trader account is your best option. It offers better spreads and customer support than Standard accounts. For example, the EURUSD spread was 0.2 in Q1 2021 in the Active Trader account, compared to 1.3 for the Standard account.

How to open your account

The account opening is fully digital and straightforward.
You have to go through the following steps:

1. Choose your platform, account type and base currency.
2. Add personal information and do a KYC questionnaire. KYC means "Know Your Customer", and is a standard and regulated process for identifying clients.
3. Upload documents to verify your identity and residency. You can upload a copy of your ID/passport for verifying your identity, and a bank statement/utility bill for verifying your residency.

With FXCM, you can use the following mobile trading platforms:

• Trading Station – FXCM's own mobile trading platform
• MetaTrader 4 – a third-party mobile trading platform
• ZuluTrade – a mobile trading platform for social (copy) trading

Similarly to FXCM's web trading platform, we tested FXCM's own mobile trading platform, Trading Station. It is available both for iOS and Android.

The mobile trading platform is available in several languages.

Look and feel

The FXCM mobile trading platform is user-friendly and well-designed. However, when we tested the platform on iOS, we felt that the platform's layout was not optimized for newer iOS versions.

Login and security

FXCM provides only a one-step login for its mobile platform. A two-step authentication would be more secure and adding this feature should be high on any company's list of security changes.

You can't log in using biometric authentication. Providing this feature would be more convenient.

Search functions

The search functions are good.

Nevertheless, it is difficult to find the search option as the 'Settings' menu is not at all an obvious location for it – but that's where it is. Once you pass this hurdle, it works as a basic, bare-bones search field, with no predictive input or any other features.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types on the mobile trading platform:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Stop trailing
• Stop-loss
• OCO

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Good-til-cancell (GTC)
• Fill or Kill (FOK)
• Immediate or cancel (IOC)

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications on the FXCM mobile platform.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

You can use Trading Station or MetaTrader 4 as FXCM's desktop trading platform. We tested FXCM's own desktop platform, Trading Station.

The desktop trading platform is available in many languages.

Look and feel

Just like Trading Station's web version, the desktop trading platform has great customizability. It is fast and stable and its charting solution is really advanced. You can build and save your own layout.
However, first you need to get used to the logic of the platform before you can become a power-user. It is quite inconvenient that many functions, such as research, are not integrated with the platform.

Login and security

FXCM provides only a one-step login. A two-step authentication would be more secure and adding this feature should be high on any company's list of security changes.

Search functions

The search functions are good.

You can search by typing in the name of the product, while there is also a categorized breakdown, for e.g. major currency pairs.

Placing orders

FXCM provides a wide range of order types on the desktop trading platform.

There are also order time limits you can use on the desktop platform:

• GTC
• IOC
• FOK

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications on the desktop trading platform.

Portfolio and fee reports

FXCM has clear fee reports.

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70% of retail CFD accounts lose money

Disclaimer: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 70% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Note that the FCA banned the sale of crypto-derivatives to UK retail consumers as of January 2021.

You can't change the leverage levels of the products, which is a drawback. Changing the leverage manually is a very useful feature when you want to lower the risk of your trade. Be careful when trading forex and CFD as the preset leverage levels may be high.
Remember that leverage is a double-edged sword and it can dramatically amplify your losses not just your profits.Trading forex/CFDs with any level of leverage may not be suitable for all investors.

FXCM offers a social trading service via the third-party service provider ZuluTrade. Access is provided through ZuluTrade's own trading platform, where you will have to register with your FXCM account number.

We recommend FXCM for forex traders looking for easy account opening, funding and withdrawal.

Below you can find links to all aspects of FXCM in this comprehensive collection.

Lower fees, lower costs?

We detailed this in our FXCM fees article.

What about the minimum deposit?

Our ultimate guide to the FXCM minimum deposit is updated regularly.

How's their trading app?

Here's our expert view after checking the FXCM trading app.

Is the quality of customer service satisfactory?

All you need to know about the FXCM customer service.

Legit or scam?

Is FXCM legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

Free or premium? Or both?

A glance at actual costs and whether FXCM is really free.

Is this broker good for beginners?

We checked it in Is FXCM good for beginners.

Should you buy your silver bullets on FXCM?

Research for silver bugs in the Silver buy on FXCM guide

I want to trade options, are they available at FXCM?

We explored the topic in Can you trade options on FXCM?

What is the minimum account balance at FXCM?

Check out the current account balance requirements at FXCM in our What is the minimum account balance at FXCM article.

Looking for commission and fees data for FXCM?

We collected them in FXCM commission and fees.

How do you withdraw money from FXCM?

We tested it and collected the options and costs in How to withdraw money on FXCM.