CMS review

3 August 2020

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CMS Forex is a Forex broker that was acquired by Gain Capital, the company behind Forex.com, back in 2010. CMS Forex was one of the largest Forex brokers on the market, with the company having its presence in some of the key financial markets across the globe. The transition from CMS to Gain Capital did cause a slight inconvenience for a few existing clients, but overall, Gain Capital must be commended for ensuring a smooth and seamless transition process into creating a world-class brokerage service. CMSFX still seems to offer its services to retail traders through proprietary trading accounts, but there are some drawbacks as well. The company does suffer from a few serious issues of trading and customer service, which we attempt to uncover in this CMSFX review.


Bonus	No
Regulation	Unclear
Mobile	Yes
Instruments	Forex, Equity Indices and more
Website	www.cmsfx.com
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How Does CMSFX Approach Its Regulatory & Licensing Requirements?

CMSFX regulation is a complicated affair, mainly because Gain Capital has set up the brokerage’s headquarters in the British Virgin Islands. CMS Forex was initially regulated by the NFA of the US, but after its acquisition by Gain Capital, all supervisory duties and responsibilities were assigned to the parent company. Therefore, CMSFX’s current regulatory status is not as clear as some of its immediate competitors in the market. CMS Forex clients can indeed be assured of the fact that Gain Capital is one of the top regulated financial companies in the market that has highly established trading platforms such as Forex.com. CMSFX was fined heavily by the NFA and the CFTC due to severe irregularities on broker capital requirements and performance issues with their trading platforms. Numerous clients had multiple issues while trading with the broker, which had led to a sub-par customer service experience. The overall negative experience with their customers had accelerated the acquisition of the company by Gain Capital, which has not yielded the desired results for existing clients. CMSFX seems to be lagging behind in their website maintenance schedule, with their design seemingly out of date with the modern competition. The official website also has poor navigation and incomplete pages for displaying all the vital information about the different trading products and services. In our experience, CMS Forex used to be a professional Forex brokerage service, but the broker’s current online presence may not be up to the new standards set forward by other leading Forex trading companies in the market.

The Minimum Deposit Requirements For A CMSFX Account

A CMS Forex trading account is only available for a minimum deposit of $200, which accompanies a limited leverage option due to the CFTC regulations. According to the CFTC rules of Forex trading, traders can only get access to a maximum CMSFX leverage of 1:50, which are also supplemented with other trading restrictions such as no hedging, FIFO rules on order execution, and limited scalping opportunities. The severe trading conditions may prevent CMSFX from catering to clients from outside the US, mainly because regulated Forex brokers from other top regions such as the EU and Asia-Pacific offer better freedom for trading regarding leverages and order transactions in the market. CMSFX is an automated dealing desk broker that works on the market maker protocol, where the CMS Forex spreads for major currency pairs start at 2 pips. The spreads are indeed competitive for a market maker account, but traders will sorely miss the option of an ECN account. ECN account is indeed one of the most popular choices for modern Forex traders, which should make CMSFX less attractive for the retail trading market. Traders can make a deposit into their trading account using their credit/debit cards, or they can also use other payment options such as PayPal, bank wire, or checks. All payment methods come with a standard transaction fee, which is to be borne by the trader. The absence of a CMSFX bonus may also come as a shock to new traders, particularly when there are tons of other regulated brokers in the market that offer attractive bonus packages. One of the major drawbacks of the broker is a limited CMS Forex demo account, which is only available for 30 days. Most new traders require more time to get the hang of the markets, which necessitates the need for an unlimited demo account. We are familiar with brokers offering a limited period demo account for their clients, but we prefer trading with brokers that provide unlimited demo accounts without any trading restrictions.

CMS Forex Trading Platforms – One Of The Problematic Aspects Of CMSFX

cmcfx CMSFX trading platforms were considered as some of the best trading interfaces in the market, but there were a lot of teething issues and reliability concerns that tarnished the reputation of CMS Forex trading apps forever. Trading duties are assumed by the VT Trader and the MT4 trading terminal, which connect traders to more than 40 different currency pairs and allied commodities. Although MT4 is known to be a stable and reliable platform, the VT Trader has led to a few issues that resulted in hefty fines from the NFA and the CySEC. Fundamentally, the CMSFX VT Trader is an excellent tool that offers access to the best charting indicators in the market, but the platform has had a tough time in keeping traders connected to the trading servers. Frequent disconnections and errors in connectivity had led to an unsafe trading environment, which has resulted in massive losses for existing clients. Since the broker was unable to rectify the issues on time, the CFTC deemed the company to have deviated from its regulatory code of conduct, which resulted in the disciplinary action and subsequent penalties.

Would We Recommend CMS Forex For Your Investments?

CMS Forex has been on a downward spiral for the past few years, and it wouldn’t be wise to invest your money into the company for trading purposes. On the contrary, its parent company, Gain Capital, has other established Forex brokerage services that should provide you with an excellent Forex trading account without any of the associated drawbacks. If you are not a trader from the US, you may also choose another broker that does not restrict your freedom of trading. Brokers from the UK, Australia, and other parts of the EU should be able to provide a high quality brokerage service. In short, you should consider your options carefully before choosing CMS Forex.