Verification record
HYCM review
The entity behind HYCM, its licence, and how to confirm both yourself.
Last checked
HYCM is a real firm and not an outright scam, though enough is unverified here that we would want the gaps closed before recommending it. Regulated by FCA (186171); DFSA (F000048), offering HYCM Trader, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, WebTrader.
Our rating
One rating, identical across our sites - only the way it is shown changes. It averages six assessments: regulation, trading costs, platforms, markets, support and education.
Regulation and safety
- Regulated by
- FCA (186171); DFSA (F000048)
- Regulator tier
- Tier 1
- Register entry
- FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 186171
- Client money segregated
- Yes
- Held at
- Tier 1 banks
- Negative balance protection
- Yes
- Compensation scheme
- FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients
- Audited by
- Independent external auditors
- Not available to
- Afghanistan, Belgium, Hong Kong, United States and other restricted/sanctioned jurisdictions
A licence is the first thing a fake broker cannot produce, so it is the first thing to check.
HYCM holds a tier-one authorisation from FCA. 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.
The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
The DFSA regulates from the Dubai International Financial Centre, a separate legal jurisdiction from the wider UAE.
Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, the DFSA public register.
The company behind the brand
- Legal entity
- HYCM Capital Markets (UK) Limited
- Company number
- 02878581
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom
- Founded
- 1977
- Publicly listed
- No
- Parent company
- HYCM Capital Markets Group
- Employees
- 200+
- Also trades as
- HYCM; Henyep Capital Markets
Deposits and withdrawals
- Deposit methods
- Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller and regional payment methods
- Withdrawal methods
- Bank transfer, Visa/Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller and supported original funding methods
- Deposit time
- Instant for most cards/e-wallets; bank transfers typically 1-7 business days
- Withdrawal time
- Typically processed within 1 business day; receipt depends on payment method
- Minimum withdrawal
- $20
- Local payment methods
- Multiple jurisdiction-specific online banking and regional payment methods
What it costs to trade
- Spread from
- 0.1 pips
- EUR/USD spread
- Approx. 0.2 pips, Raw
- GBP/USD spread
- Approx. 0.5 pips, Raw
- Commission
- $2 per side / $4 round turn, Raw
- All-in cost, EUR/USD
- Approx. 0.6 pips
- Spread type
- Fixed and variable, account-dependent
- Overnight swap
- Both: overnight swaps may be charged or credited
- Inactivity fee
- $10/month after 90 days inactivity
- Deposit fee
- None internally
- Withdrawal fee
- Generally none internally; payment-provider/bank fees may apply
- Currency conversion
- Currency conversion at applicable exchange rate
Costs matter less than whether you can withdraw, but an offer that looks impossible usually is.
A quoted spread from 0.1 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.
HYCM lists a minimum deposit of $20. 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.
Accounts
- Minimum deposit
- $20
- Account types
- Fixed, Classic, Raw, Islamic/Swap-Free, Professional, Demo
- Account currencies
- EUR, USD, GBP, AED, JPY
- Islamic account
- Yes
- Demo account
- Yes
- Professional account
- Yes
- Minimum trade size
- 0.01 lots
- Time to open
- Typically a few minutes
Markets and execution
- Markets
- Forex, Stocks, Indices, Cryptocurrencies, Commodities
- Currency pairs
- 60+
- Total instruments
- 300+
- Crypto CFDs
- Yes
- Maximum leverage
- 1:500
- Execution model
- Market maker / principal
- Execution speed
- 12ms
- Order types
- Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop
- Servers
- London and global financial data-centre infrastructure
Leverage up to 1:500 is available on this entity. High leverage does not increase your expected return - it increases position size for the same deposit, and shortens the move needed to close you out.
HYCM covers forex, stocks, indices, cryptocurrencies, commodities. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.
Funding options: visa, mastercard, bank transfer, skrill, neteller and regional 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 and tools
- Platforms
- HYCM Trader, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, WebTrader
- Own platform
- Yes, HYCM Trader
- Mobile app
- Both proprietary and third-party
- Browser trading
- Yes
- Automated trading
- Yes; MT4/MT5 Expert Advisors and automated trading
- Copy trading
- No
- Indicators
- 30+ MT4; 38+ MT5; additional proprietary-platform tools
- Third-party tools
- Seasonax, Financial Source, Trading Central
- API access
- Yes, institutional connectivity
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 and education
- Support hours
- 24/5
- Contact channels
- Live chat, email, phone
- Languages
- Multilingual
- Telephone
- +44 20 3996 4943
- support@hycm.com
- Live chat response
- Typically under 2 minutes
- Education
- Extensive: webinars, workshops, educational articles, trading courses, platform tutorials and demo trading
- Research
- Market analysis, Financial Source, Seasonax, technical/fundamental analysis and trading insights
Questions people ask about HYCM
Is HYCM a real registered company?
Yes. At HYCM, the company you would be contracting with is HYCM Capital Markets (UK) Limited, registered as 02878581 and based in London, United Kingdom. A registration number is checkable in the register of the country that issued it, and a broker that will not give you one is telling you something.
Is HYCM regulated, and by whom?
HYCM holds FCA (186171); DFSA (F000048), which we grade as tier 1. A licence number is the part worth checking, because it is the thing a cloned site copies and the thing the regulator's register will not confirm.
Does HYCM trade under any other names?
HYCM also appears as HYCM and Henyep Capital Markets. This matters when you are checking a licence or a warning list, because a search for one name will not always find what was published about another.