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<p>Alison Heyerdahl is the Head of Content at FxScouts, a Chartered Market Technician (CMT), and an experienced trader, as well as a financial writer with extensive expertise in Forex trading, broker analysis, and market research. She has reviewed 100+ brokers, publishes weekly YouTube trading videos, and co-hosts the “Let’s Talk Forex” podcast.</p>
In the fast-paced world of forex trading, choosing the right broker is crucial. CMC Markets and Saxo 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 CMC Markets and Saxo 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 CMC Markets and Saxo, 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, Saxo earned a higher trust rating than CMC Markets.
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 CMC Markets has overall lower trading costs than Saxo.
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 CMC Markets and Saxo offer copy trading.
A broader range of CFD instruments provides more trading opportunities. CMC Markets offers a greater variety of instruments compared to Saxo:
For those interested in trading cryptocurrencies, CMC Markets offers 12 cryptocurrencies, while Saxo offers 9 cryptocurrencies. Therefore, CMC Markets 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 neither CMC Markets nor Saxo charges a withdrawal fee. Overall, CMC Markets has better deposit and withdrawal processes than Saxo.
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.
CMC Markets and Saxo both have very good educational support. Both CMC Markets and Saxo offer educational support for more experienced traders.Access to frequent and high-quality market research and analysis is crucial.
We found that CMC Markets offers better research analysis than Saxo and that both CMC Markets and Saxo offer frequent webinars.
Founded in 1989, CMC Markets is a well-known Forex and CFD broker with a high trust rating and a strong presence in Australia.
It has local ASIC regulation, and a local Australian office and offers accounts denominated in AUD. CMC Markets offers two live accounts with no minimum deposit requirements - a low-cost commission-free account with spreads starting at 0.7 pips on the EUR/USD and a commission-based account with spreads of 0 pips and commissions of 5 USD round turn, one of the lowest in the industry.
Trading is offered on MT4, MT5, TradingView and its own NextGen platform that features numerous technical and fundamental analysis tools. CMC Markets also offers excellent education and market analysis materials to get new traders started. Customer service is offered 24/5, but CMC does not provide a live chat feature.
An excellent all-round broker, Saxo Bank is a well-regulated investment bank and brokerage with two top-end trading platforms and an outstanding selection of financial instruments.
Geared towards more experienced traders, Saxo Bank’s ongoing trading fees are lower than average across all three account options, with spreads that average between 0.4 pips and 0.8 pips (EUR/USD), but it has a high minimum deposit of 1,000 AUD on its entry-level account and a whopping 1,500,000 AUD on its VIP Account. Experienced traders will also be satisfied with the number of financial instruments on offer, which includes no less than 190 Forex pairs.
Saxo Bank’s platforms are some of the best in the industry, and although MT4 and MT5 are not available, it supports algorithmic trading. We were also impressed at the quality and frequency of market research available at the brokerage, which is on par with some of the biggest players in the industry.
For more detailed reviews, please read our comprehensive assessments of CMC Markets and Saxo.
Select another broker to another broker to compare features, fees, and platforms side by side.
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