XMTrading seems like a broker with a far reach. It’s licensed by the world’s leading regulators and offers a wide range of trading products. However, not all of these trading services are offered everywhere, and XM Trading also doesn’t provide the same level of protection for its customers in all regions. This means that the trading experience with XM Trading can vary greatly from one country to the next.
XM Trading has a long list of licenses and has won some awards. That’s impressive, but it’s important for customers located outside of the United States, Europe, Australia, and South Africa to be cautious. XMTrading may be taking advantage of the fact that it has licenses in some parts of the world with lax standards. It’s possible that traders in these areas have less protection.
About XM Trading
XMTrading, at first glance, seems like a five-star broker and it may behave this way for traders in some countries. It has a long and illustrious list of regulators. Because of its many licenses, it can operate in 190 countries and its staff speaks 30 languages.
XMTrading offers trading of stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, precious metals, indices, and forex, although Europeans may have to trade some of these assets not directly but through CFDs. Its main branch is in Cyprus, but it also has offices in Australia, the UK, Belize, and Greece. It also has a license from Dubai to offer trading services in the Middle East.
Benefits of XM Trading
XMTrading has some of the lowest deposit minimums in the industry. Customers can open an account for as little as $5. XMTrading is ideal for novice investors and experienced traders alike with a wide range of educational and research tools. Customer service is available 24/5 and speaks 30 languages.
Like most regulated brokers, XMTrading offers MetaTrader 4 and 5, which sets the industry standard for trading platforms. Although its fixed spreads are relatively high, there are no surprises and it offers competitive spreads on many assets. XMTrading also has lower-than-average fees and no fees on deposits and withdrawals.
Issues with XM Trading
Although XMTrading sounds outstanding, the picture isn’t exactly rosy for all of its customers. The following are some problems with XMTrading
- Limited Trading Opportunities for Some Customers
- Extremely High and Unsafe Leverage in Certain Regions
- Different Standards of Safety and Protection
- Numerous Verified Customer Complaints
Limited Trading Opportunities for Some Customers
Although XMTrading boasts of offering a wide range of trading opportunities, these can be rather limited for its customers in the EU. European clients have to trade stocks through CFDs only, and their only other choices are forex and cryptocurrencies.
This may sound good enough for European traders who prefer trading CFDs, forex, and cryptocurrencies, but it should be noted that these are very high-risk assets, which means that XMTradings European customers are at a much higher risk of losing money than people in other regions.
Extremely High and Unsafe Leverage in Certain Regions
In trading, leverage is a touchy subject. We see many scam brokers boast of offering extremely high leverage. They often trick people into thinking they can make a lot of money if they trade with higher leverage. However, traders are more likely to lose than win with this deal and many end up in debt to the broker.
Trading on the margin was what caused the stock market crash in the U.S. that led to the Great Depression in the 20th century, and not much has changed since, except that leverage is more popular as a selling point than ever.
However, respected regulators don’t allow brokers to offer leverage of more than 1:30. XMTrading takes advantage of its several different grades of licensing and offers 1:500 and even 1:880 leverage to some customers. This clearly isn’t appropriate for a broker that has top licenses. So why does XMTrading do this?
Different Standards of Safety and Protection
The answer to the above question is, “Because it can.” That may be a cynical conclusion, but that is the only conclusion we can draw from XMTrading’s different standards of protection. Why should they offer just 1:30 leverage to customers in Europe but 1:880 in other areas? Simply because their European licenses don’t allow them to offer higher leverage. However, where they can offer higher leverage, they do, even though everyone knows this is dangerous.
The leverage issue is only one of several examples of XMTrading offering different degrees of protection to clients based on where they are located. This seems ethically questionable and of course unsafe.
Numerous Verified Customer Complaints
The starkly different levels of oversight and safety give rise to very different views of the broker. This isn’t at all surprising. Naturally, if XMTrading doesn’t protect all of its customers equally, it will get many justified negative complaints from some customers, and glowing reviews from others, because the vulnerable clients will get poorer service.
Should You Open an Account with XM Trading?
Whether or not you should open an account with XMTrading depends on where you are located and how comfortable you are with XMTrading’s double or triple standards. If you are located in a region where XMTrading holds a solid license, you are likely to be safe trading with them. However, Europeans should keep in mind that their choices of trading vehicles may be limited.
If you’re located in a country where XMTrading doesn’t have a first-class license, you should take positive reviews with a grain of salt. You may not be offered the same selection or the same standard of protection.
Even if you are protected by XMTrading’s licenses, you may feel uncomfortable with the variation in offerings or safety. You may choose instead a regulated broker who doesn’t operate this way. The choice is yours.
If You Need Fund Recovery from a Problem Broker,Talk to Us
We create these reviews to warn consumers about brokers and schemes that may be fraudulent. If you have an account with this broker close it and request a withdrawal. If you are not given your money back, contact Broker Complaint Registry right away. We will consult with you, work to track down your funds and create investigative reports, and will assist with fund recovery efforts.
