HF Markets review

Regulated by

FCA (801701); CySEC (183/12); FSCA (46632); Seychelles FSA (SD015); CMA Kenya (155); DFSA (F004885); Mauritius FSC (C110008214)

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 801701

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Major regulated banking institutions

Negative balance protection

Yes

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; ICF up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients

Audited by

Independent external auditors

Not available to

United States, Canada, Sudan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, UAE, Türkiye and other restricted jurisdictions

A licence is the first thing a fake broker cannot produce, so it is the first thing to check.

HF Markets holds tier-one authorisations from FCA and CySEC. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

It also operates an offshore entity (FSC and FSA). Which one you are onboarded to depends on where you live, and the two carry very different protections - worth confirming before you deposit.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

CySEC licences passport across the EU and follow the 1:30 retail leverage cap, with the Investor Compensation Fund covering eligible claims.

The FSCA licenses derivative providers in South Africa without a fixed retail leverage cap, so headline leverage is often higher than an FCA or ASIC entity may offer.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, the CySEC register of investment firms, the FSCA list of regulated entities, the Seychelles FSA list of regulated entities, the DFSA public register, the Mauritius FSC register of licensees.

Legal entity

HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd

Company number

8419176-1

Headquarters

Limassol, Cyprus

Founded

2010

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

HF Markets Group

Employees

500+

Also trades as

HFM; HF Markets; HotForex

Deposit methods

Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, crypto and regional/local payment methods

Withdrawal methods

Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, e-wallets, crypto and supported regional methods

Deposit time

Cards up to 10 minutes; e-wallets instant-10 minutes; bank transfer 2-7 business days

Withdrawal time

Instant-24 hours for many alternative methods; cards/bank transfer 2-10 business days

Minimum withdrawal

$5

Local payment methods

Multiple regional bank transfers, e-wallets, mobile payments and country-specific payment methods

Spread from

0.0 pips

EUR/USD spread

Approx. 0.1 pips, Zero

GBP/USD spread

Approx. 0.3 pips, Zero

Commission

From $3 per side / $6 round turn, Zero

All-in cost, EUR/USD

Approx. 0.7 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight swaps apply; swap-free trading available on eligible instruments

Inactivity fee

$5/month after 6 months inactivity, increasing over longer periods

Currency conversion

Currency conversion applies where currencies differ

Costs matter less than whether you can withdraw, but an offer that looks impossible usually is.

A quoted spread from 0.0 pips is a raw-spread figure, which almost always means a separate commission per lot. Compare the two together - a "zero spread" account with a high commission can cost more than a wider spread with none.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

HF Markets lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

InfinityX, Cent, Zero, Pro, Premium, Copy Trading, Demo

Account currencies

USD, EUR, NGN, JPY, THB, IDR, GHS, USC for Cent

Islamic account

Yes

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

0.01 lots

Time to open

Typically a few minutes

Markets

Forex, Metals, Energies, Indices, Shares, Commodities, Bonds, ETFs, Cryptocurrencies

Currency pairs

50+

Total instruments

1,000+

Crypto CFDs

Yes

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market execution

Execution speed

Approx. 120ms

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-limit, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop

Servers

London and other global financial data centres

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

HF Markets covers forex, metals, energies, indices, shares, commodities, bonds, etfs, cryptocurrencies. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: visa, mastercard, bank transfer, skrill, neteller, crypto and regional/local payment methods. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, HFM WebTrader, HFM Platform

Own platform

Yes, HFM Platform/WebTrader

Mobile app

Both proprietary and third-party

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes; Expert Advisors and automated trading supported

Copy trading

Yes, HFM Copy Trading

Indicators

100+ through TradingView integration; 30+ MT4; 38+ MT5

Third-party tools

TradingView, Autochartist, VPS, Premium Trader Tools

API access

Yes, institutional/API solutions

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

MetaTrader 5 handles more asset classes and order types than MT4, but expert advisors are not compatible between the two - an MT4 EA will not run on it.

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone

Languages

27+ languages

Telephone

+44 203 097 8571

Email

support@hfm.com

Live chat response

Typically under 2 minutes

Education

Extensive: webinars, educational videos, courses, tutorials, ebooks, podcasts and trading guides

Research

Extensive: market analysis, Autochartist, trading calculators, technical analysis and market news