XM

ASIC regulation: Founded in 2009, XM has been one of the biggest names in Australian Forex trading since its arrival in the local market in 2015. Headquartered in Cyprus, with an office in Sydney, XM is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) and has received multiple awards for its transparency and reliability.

Safety Features: As required by ASIC, XM protects its traders by:

• Segregating its client funds from company funds in top-tier banks.
• Providing traders with automatic negative balance protection, which means that traders cannot lose more than their initial deposit. 
• Limiting leverage to 30:1 to reduce traders’ risk.

We found XM’s account opening process fast and simple. Our account was open in less than a day, and XM’s customer support was readily available for our technical and account queries.  

It took us about 5 minutes to open an account at XM, and once our documentation had been submitted, our accounts were ready for trading on the same day. XM’s customer support agents were very helpful and provided relevant and immediate responses.

As an Australian  trader, you are eligible to open an account at XM as long as you meet the minimum deposit requirement of 5 AUD. 

How to open an account at XM:

• We clicked on the “Open an Account” button at the top of the page.
• We then filled in our personal details and chose our preferred trading platform (MT4/MT5), base currency, and level of leverage. 

• We were then required to fill in our financial information and answer questions about our trading knowledge.
• In order to verify our account, we were required to submit a copy of our Australian ID or Passport with the signature page and a copy of a recent utility bill or bank statement. Our documents were scanned as high-quality digital camera pictures. 

Once all our documents had been received, the account was ready for trading on the same day. 

XM offers a variety of assets, including including over 57 Forex pairs and over 1200 stock CFDs.

All of XM’s accounts have a minimum deposit of 5 USD, making them accessible to beginners. Spreads start at 0.6 pips on the EUR/USD on its two commission-free accounts but come down to 0 pips on its Zero Account in exchange for a commission of 7 USD (round turn).

We opened and tested a variety of XM’s accounts:

XM Ultra-Low Micro Account

XM’s entry-level account, minimum deposits start at 5 USD and spreads start at 0.6 pips on the EUR/USD, which is tighter than other similar-sized market makers.  The base currencies on this account are USD, EUR, and GBP.  

Ultra-Low Standard Account

Like the Micro Account, the minimum deposit requirement is 5 USD and spreads start at 0.6 pips on the EUR/USD, which is tighter than other similar-sized market makers.  In contrast with the Micro Account, one lot is the equivalent of 100,000 units, and minimum trade volumes are 0.01 lots.  It also offers the same wide range of base currencies as the Micro Account. The XM Ultra-Low account offers swap-free trading for a wide selection of popular instruments such as Gold, EURUSD, USDJPY, EURJPY, GBPUSD and many others. 

XM Zero Account

The minimum deposit requirement on the XM Zero Account is 5 USD, and a commission of 3.5 USD per lot per side is charged, but spreads start at 0 pips on the EUR/USD.  The base currencies available on this account are USD, EUR, and JPY. 

Islamic Account

XM offers Islamic accounts for traders of the Muslim faith.  We were pleased to note that XM does not apply any extra charges for Islamic accounts. This is unusual as most other brokers apply an admin fee to Islamic accounts in lieu of the swaps. 

XM offers three mobile trading platforms, which is more than other brokers. All of the platforms are available on both Android and iOS.

We tested the XM App on an iPhone 11:

We were pleased to find that we could trade directly on the XM mobile app, and that it could be linked to our MT4 and MT5 accounts.

We found that the XM  app was very easy to set up and use. It was also easy to search for and monitor our assets and trades:

MT4/MT5 Mobile Trading

XM’s MT4 and MT5 mobile trading apps offer similar functionality to the desktop and web trader versions of the platforms. Traders can access all instruments available at XM (except that share CFD trading is only available on MT5), and access all the same charts. Additionally, all the trading order types are available. The only difference is that the number of indicators is reduced for both the MT4 and MT5 mobile applications.

XM offers an average range of trading platforms, including the web trader and desktop versions of MT4 and MT5.

Both MT4 and MT5 are available on Mac and PC.  

For the purposes of this review, we tested XM’s web trader platforms.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and Metatrader 5 (MT5) 

The benefit of XM offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can take their own customised version of the platform with them should they choose to migrate to another broker.  Additionally, there are thousands of plugins and tools available for both the MetaTrader platforms.  

As you can see, the MT4 Webtrader looks slightly outdated but it is highly customisable. There are three chart types, including Line, Bar, and Candlestick charts and you can access a wide selection of indicators in multiple timeframes. See below:

In our review of MT5 web trader, we noted that it has a great depth of market display:

One other benefit of trading with XM is that it offers MT4 Multiterminal, which is not often available at other brokers. It allows traders to open and manage multiple MT4 accounts from a single terminal with one login and password.

In line with Anti-Money Laundering policies, XM operates a “return to source policy,” meaning that withdrawals can only be returned to the original funding source.

Base Currencies: When we opened our account, we noticed that the client portal allows traders to deposit funds in 11 base currencies, including EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, CHF, JPY, RUB, HUF, PLN, ZAR, and SGD. Because we were depositing funds from an Australian bank with an AUD trading account, we weren’t charged any currency conversion fees. However, to trade on instruments denominated in other currencies, such as the EUR/USD, conversion fees will still be applicable. 

Fees: The account funding process is open 24 hours a day and is fully automated. We were very pleased to note that XM covers all transfer fees and does not include any hidden fees or commissions on deposits or withdrawals. However, fees are charged on deposits and withdrawals made by wire transfer under 200 AUD, or currency equivalent. 

Our review noted that XM’s market analysis section consists of a Markets Overview, News, XM Research, Trade Ideas, Technical Summaries, an Economic Calendar, XM TV, and a Podcast.  See below for more details:

• Markets Overview: Frequent articles by a third-party provider, Reuters, are available in this section and cover all the latest market news.
• News: All the latest market news, also provided by Reuters, is updated a few times an hour.
• XM Research: The XM Research team provides frequent articles covering technical analysis, Forex previews, market comment, financial markets, special reports, and stock market news.
• Trade-Ideas: Provided by a third party, namely Analyzzer, this section covers how the various instruments fare against one another.
• Technical Summaries: This section covers the various trends among the XM’s instruments.
• XM TV: Provided daily by XM’s in-house team of analysts, XM TV covers Forex News, Technical Analysis, and a Weekly Forex Outlook.
• Podcast: XM’s trading podcast, Global Market Insights, provides traders with meaningful and informative content encompassing up-to-date information needed for online investing and updates on economic events across the globe.
• Economic Calendar: XM offers a good economic calendar. It has a filter function where you can filter for countries, data type, and importance.

XM also offers several technical indicator tools to help guide traders in their trading decisions, including the following:

• Ribbon Indicator
• River Indicator
• Ichimoku Indicator
• Bollinger Bands
• ADX and PSAR Indicator
• Analyser Indicator
• MQL5

Unfortunately, XM doesn’t offer the popular third-party tools such as Autochartist or Trading Central, that are commonly available at other brokers.  

Overall, we found XM’s trading tools useful in making trading decisions, but it could add a variety of third-party tools to help with fundamental analysis.

We found that XM’s library of educational materials is world-class and on par with some of the best brokers in the world. Education comprises XM Live, Live Education, Educational Videos, Forex Webinars, Platform Tutorials, and Forex Seminars. These materials are in-depth and well-structured.  We were pleased to note that educational materials are accessible to all XM website visitors, although some sections require registration.  See below for more details:

• XM Live: Available from Monday to Friday 06:00 – 15:00 GMT, visitors can learn about the products and services offered by XM, trading fundamentals, and have all their questions answered by its hosts.
• Live Education: XM offers the Basic Room for beginner traders and the Advanced Room for more experienced traders. Live Education is essentially a series of live webinars that run from Monday to Friday from 06:00 – 15:00 GMT.  These webinars cover trading fundamentals and trading session analysis.  The Advanced Room also covers topics such as How to Prepare for a Trade, Follow Real-Time Trading, and Live Debates.
  
  
• Educational Videos: XM provides an extensive library of videos that cover topics such as:
  • Intro to the Markets
  • Trading Essentials
  • Fundamental Analysis
  • Technical Analysis
  • Money Management
  • Trading Psychology
  • Trading strategies
  • More on Forex Trading
• Forex Webinars: XM offers free webinars presented by 67 highly skilled forex professionals in 19 languages, seven days a week.
• Platform Tutorials: XM’s team has developed a vast array of video tutorials that explain the ins and outs of the MT4 and MT5 platforms in addition to the XM trading tools.
• Forex Seminars: XM runs frequent seminars across the globe to educate online investors and help them develop their trading knowledge with the guidance of professional instructors. 
• Demo Account: Ideal for trading practice, as well as for testing trading strategies, XM’s Demo Account does not expire and allows you to trade on live markets, risk-free. However, demo accounts that have been inactive for longer than 90 days from the last login will be closed, but you can open a new demo account at any time. Please note that a maximum of 5 active demo accounts are allowed. 

XM’s customer support is available 24/5 in over 30 languages, via email, phone, and live chat.  

For the purposes of the review, we tested the live chat service and email. Our email was answered within a day and the answer was relevant and to the point. The live chat agents were able to answer all our questions quickly and to our satisfaction.  They also provided links and extra reading material where appropriate.

After logging into the live chat, we were connected to an agent who replied to our message within a matter of seconds, as shown below: