Markets.com review

Spread from

0.6 pips

EUR/USD spread

0.6 pips

GBP/USD spread

0.9 pips

Commission

$0

All-in cost, EUR/USD

0.6 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight swaps charged/credited

Inactivity fee

$10/month after 3 months inactivity

Withdrawal fee

None; minimum withdrawal requirements apply

Currency conversion

0.6%

Cost is where brokers in the same regulatory bracket actually differ.

Spreads from 0.6 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

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.

Markets.com lists a minimum deposit of $100. 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.

Markets

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

Currency pairs

50+

Total instruments

2,000+

Crypto CFDs

Yes

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market maker

Execution speed

Under 1 second

Order types

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

Servers

Global data-centre infrastructure

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.

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

Funding options: visa, mastercard, bank wire, skrill, neteller, zotapay and regional 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

Markets.com Web Platform, MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Both proprietary and third-party

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes, through MT4/MT5

Copy trading

No

Indicators

80+

Third-party tools

Trading Central, TipRanks

API access

No retail API

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.

Regulated by

CySEC (092/08); FSCA (46860); SVG registration (27030 BC 2023)

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

CySEC register, licence 092/08

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Regulated banking institutions

Negative balance protection

Yes

Compensation scheme

Investor Compensation Fund up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients

Audited by

Independent external auditors

Not available to

United States, Canada, Belgium, Japan and other restricted jurisdictions

Across a hundred brokers, the licence is what separates the field fastest.

Markets.com holds a tier-one authorisation from 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.

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.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own money, at Regulated banking institutions. That separation is what makes your balance recoverable if the company fails, rather than part of the pool its creditors divide up.

Negative balance protection applies, so a losing position cannot take the account below zero and leave you owing the broker money.

Covered by Investor Compensation Fund up to €20,000 for eligible CySEC clients, which pays eligible clients up to its limit if the firm fails owing client money.

Check the licence yourself: the CySEC register of investment firms, the FSCA list of regulated entities.

Minimum deposit

$100

Account types

Retail, Professional, Islamic, Demo

Account currencies

USD, EUR, GBP

Islamic account

Yes

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

0.01 lots

Time to open

Typically a few minutes; document verification up to 24 business hours

Markets.com runs 4 account types. More choice is not automatically better: the tightest headline spread almost always sits on the account that also charges a commission, so the comparison that matters is the two added together.

Base currencies: USD, EUR, GBP. Holding the account in the currency you fund it with avoids a conversion charge on every deposit and withdrawal - a cost that never shows up in a spread comparison.

The smallest position is 0.01 lots. For anyone starting carefully this matters more than the minimum deposit, because it sets the least you can put at risk on a single trade.

A demo account is available. Worth using for the platform rather than the results: fills are simulated, so it tells you how the software behaves but very little about execution.

Deposit methods

Visa, Mastercard, bank wire, Skrill, Neteller, Zotapay and regional methods

Withdrawal methods

Visa/Mastercard, bank wire, Skrill, Neteller and applicable original funding method

Deposit time

Instant for cards/e-wallets; bank wire typically 1-3 business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 2-7 business days depending on method

Minimum withdrawal

$5 Skrill/Neteller; $10 cards; $100 wire transfer

Local payment methods

Zotapay and region-specific payment methods

Withdrawals are stated at Typically 2-7 business days depending on method, against Instant for cards/e-wallets; bank wire typically 1-3 business days for deposits. A gap between the two is normal and not in itself a warning sign - identity checks are a legal obligation, not obstruction. What is worth noticing is a withdrawal that keeps meeting new conditions after those checks are done.

Withdrawal routes: visa/mastercard, bank wire, skrill, neteller and applicable original funding method. Money is usually returned by the route it arrived on, so the deposit method you pick is in effect the withdrawal method you are picking too.

The minimum withdrawal is $5 Skrill/Neteller; $10 cards; $100 wire transfer - relevant if you intend to fund the account lightly, since it sets the smallest amount you can take out at a time.

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, email, phone

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

+357 22 278807

Email

support@markets.com

Live chat response

Typically under 2 minutes

Education

Extensive: educational articles, webinars, trading guides, platform tutorials and glossary

Research

Extensive: market news, analyst recommendations, sentiment, technical analysis and fundamental data

Support runs 24/5. Round-the-clock cover matters more than it sounds: a position held over a weekend or through an unexpected halt is exactly when you need somebody to answer.

Reachable by live chat, email, phone. A published telephone number is the one channel that is hard to fake and hard to ignore, so whether there is one says more than the number of channels does.

Languages: Multilingual. Being able to raise a complaint in your own language is worth more than it appears, because complaints are where precision matters most.

Education: extensive: educational articles, webinars, trading guides, platform tutorials and glossary. Treat broker-published material as an introduction rather than as advice - it is produced by a firm whose revenue rises when you trade more.

Legal entity

Safecap Investments Limited

Company number

HE 186196

Headquarters

Nicosia, Cyprus

Founded

2008

Publicly listed

No

Parent company

Finalto Group

Employees

Approx. 300

Also trades as

Markets.com; Markets

Markets.com has been trading for around 18 years, through at least one full market cycle. Longevity guarantees nothing on its own, but a firm that came through 2008 and 2015 has been tested in a way a recent entrant has not.

The contracting entity is Safecap Investments Limited. This is the company you would actually have a relationship with, and it is worth checking that it is the same one named on the licence you are relying on: large brokers commonly operate several, and they are not equally protected.

Part of Finalto Group. A parent adds resources, but the protections that apply to you are the ones attached to the entity that holds your account, not to the group.