FAQs

While minimum spreads can grab the headlines, they don't tell the whole story. Markets can be volatile and the underlying market spreads can fluctuate and widen throughout the day. At CMC Markets we believe it is important that FX providers should be more transparent and that they should publish their daily typical spreads as well as their minimum spreads. Consistent daily typical spreads are a reflection of pricing consistency throughout the day. View recent examples of CMC Markets’ most populartypical spreads. If your FX provider does not show this information you should ask them why.

With CMC Markets, all orders are 100% automated on the CMC Tracker platform, which means no dealer intervention and fast processing. With multiple price streams from top-tier banks we offer highly competitive prices, and with our 100% automated execution you have none of the hassles or restrictions that come when trying to trade quickly on news events or economic announcements.

Currency pairs are generally quoted to four decimal places (two decimals when trading the Japanese yen). The underlying Interbank market, however, offers additional precision within price quotes, meaning many brokers round these to the nearest pip, which widens the spread in the process. CMC Markets offers precision pricing and quotes an additional decimal place on all our FX pairs, enabling us to offer tighter spreads.

Precision pricing can increase your trading opportunities, prevent unnecessary stop loss execution and help you save money.

Traditionally, the minimum trade size for any FX trade is US$10,000 or equivalent. With the CMC Tracker platform, you can now trade Currency CFDs with trade sizes from as little as US$1. For new traders this gives you the ability to trade Currency CFDs with smaller trade sizes so you can get used to this exciting market before placing larger trades.

Not all FX providers pay positive carry rates on FX positions held overnight (past 5pm New York time). Therefore, if you are holding a higher yielding currency pair you would miss out on this interest. With CMC Markets you will receive interest when holding a higher yielding currency and you’ll pay interest when holding a lower yielding currency.

We are available 24 hours a day from Sunday 9pm through to Friday 10pm, and Saturday 9am to 5pm GMT/BST. We take great pride in our standards of service, yet we are constantly working to improve them to make sure they match your expectations and reflect a world-class offering.

Trading FX on low margins can be risky in volatile markets and you could lose more than your initial deposit. To help you manage some of these risks CMC Markets offers a wide range of risk management initiatives.

Order tickets automatically suggest a stop loss equal to your margin requirement for each trade (this feature can be turned off in the preferences section). This feature is known as Transaction Based Stop Loss and function will automatically suggest a Stop Loss Order that is equal to the margin, less a small buffer, for each Market Order and can help to enhance your FX trading and can help to limit the downside risk associated with a trade. There are order types to enter the market, including Limit and Market order, as well as Trailing Stops and Take Profit orders to exit. CMC Markets offers a full range of order execution tools.

The CMC Tracker platform will attempt to notify you when your CFD account value falls to 50% of your margin requirement and suggests you might want to deposit additional funds or close out some of your trades. This notification is provided as a courtesy only and you must not rely on it as it is your obligation to monitor your CFD account.

The CMC Tracker platform may liquidate your positions at the close out level to protect both you and CMC Markets and to help prevent your account falling into a debit balance. It's up to you to monitor your positions. To prevent the liquidation of your positions, make sure you've deposited enough funds to keep your account value above the close out level. If your trade doesn't go as you expect, you may be required to deposit additional funds with CMC Markets in order to hold your position.