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In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. IC Markets and HFM are two popular options, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. This comparison will dive into the key features of both platforms,helping you decide which one best suits your trading style and goals.
The radar chart above illustrates the comparison between IC Markets and HFM across several key metrics, with the highest possible score being 100 in each category.
At FxScouts, our mission is to assist traders in finding the broker that best suits their needs. Comparing brokers side-by-side is an effective method to achieve this goal. We evaluated IC Markets and HFM, using our standard criteria: trust and regulation, trading platforms, costs and trading conditions, and educational and market analysis resources.
Trust and regulation are crucial when selecting a Forex broker. A broker’s credibility is largely built on its regulatory status. We spend considerable time verifying the safety of each broker by examining their regulatory licenses. We also consider numerous factors when deciding which tier a regulator belongs to. Regulators that we rank as the world’s top regulators, gets a tier 1 rank, while regulators who only scores a tier 5-rank, provide virtually no regulatory oversight. The more top-tier authorities regulating a broker, the higher its trust rating. Read more about regulation and our tier system here.
In our comparison:
Based on these findings, IC Markets earned a higher trust rating than HFM.
When comparing brokers, trading costs are a significant factor. We consider the minimum deposit required to open an account and ongoing costs, including spreads and commissions. We measure the cost to trade one lot of EUR/USD using the broker’s account with the lowest minimum deposit, including both the spread and any commission charged.
We found that IC Markets has overall lower trading costs than HFM.
Trading Platforms Offered Traders prefer brokers that offer a variety of trading platforms. We rate brokers higher if they support multiple platforms like MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, and proprietary platforms.
Copy trading is beneficial for beginner traders or those unable to trade full-time. In this case both HFM and IC Markets offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. IC Markets offers a greater variety of instruments compared to HFM:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, HFM offers 40 cryptocurrencies, while IC Markets offers 18 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, HFM is the better choice for cryptocurrency trading.
Traders prefer brokers with quick and cost-effective deposit and withdrawal processes. We favor brokers that process withdrawals within 24 hours using multiple methods without charging fees.We found that IC Markets charges a withdrawal fee and HFM does not. Overall, HFM has better deposit and withdrawal processes than IC Markets.Â
We often find that brokers offer very little in the way of educational materials, forcing traders to use other third-party sites or self-educate elsewhere. Beginner traders need well-structured, well-presented materials in multiple formats to get a good start at trading. More experienced traders also benefit from webinars led by experts in the field and advanced trading strategy sections with new trading ideas.Â
HFM and IC Markets both have very good educational support. Both HFM and IC Markets offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that IC Markets offers better research analysis than HFM and that both HFM and IC Markets offer frequent webinars.
An excellent all-round broker with a very high trust rating, IC Markets was founded in 2007 in Australia and holds licences from some of the strictest regulators in the world. IC Markets is well-known for its low trading costs, choice of trading platforms, and wide range of trading tools.
IC Markets offers a lower-cost trading environment than almost any other broker, with average spreads of 0.10 pips (EUR/USD) on its Raw Spread Account in exchange for a low commission of 6 USD (round turn) per lot.IC Markets is one of the few Forex brokers to support all four major trading platforms, including MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, TradingView, and cTrader; and offers numerous trading tools for each, including VPS services, Trading Central, and various copy trading services.
Beginner traders will benefit from IC Markets’ exceptional customer support, which is available 24/7 to help with any account or technical queries. While its education section is more comprehensive than most other brokers’, it offers a fairly limited selection of market analysis materials.
HFM (formerly known as HotForex) is a well-known international broker with a strong presence in Zambia. It has local customer support, and also offers fast and free deposits and withdrawals from local banks.Â
HFM offers four standard accounts and one specialised copy trading account. Three of its four standard accounts have no minimum deposit requirements and have extremely competitive trading fees. All accounts are available as Islamic accounts. We were also pleased to find that HFM has recently reintroduced cryptocurrency trading, no doubt because of the popularity of the asset. This is alongside an excellent range of trading instruments, including 950 international stocks.
HFM supports the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms in addition to its own mobile HF App, which allows clients to trade from charts and make deposits and withdrawals. It also has several excellent trading tools to assist traders further. Unfortunately, access to tools such as Autochartist, which other brokers offer as a free service, requires an account balance of 100 USD.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of IC Markets and HFM.
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Broker | Countries Regulated | Minimum Spread EUR/USD | Minimum Deposit | Trading cost/lot EURUSD Total trading cost at the time of last update, for 1 lot of EUR/USD using the account with the lowest minimum deposit. Includes spread and commission. | Broker Score | Broker Website | Select and Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |   | 0.10 pips | USD 3 | USD 7 | |||
 |   | 0 pips | USD 0 | USD 10 | |||
 | | 0 pips | USD 0 | USD 10 | |||
 |       | 0.60 pips | USD 0 | USD 6 | |||
 |    | 0.90 pips | USD 100 | USD 9 | |||
 | | 0.40 pips | USD 100 | USD 14 | |||
 |  | 0.70 pips | USD 5 | USD 7 | |||
| | 0.60 pips | USD 5 | USD 6 | |||
 | | 0.10 pips | USD 200 | USD 8 | |||
 | | 0.70 pips | USD 10 | USD 17 |
Select another broker to another broker to compare features, fees, and platforms side by side.
Alison and Chris cover a range of topics, including how to choose a Forex broker, safety and regulation, how to reduce your risk, trading psychology, trading platforms, and trading strategies, among others.
The FxScouts podcast helps beginner Forex traders get the best start to their trading careers.
