CMC Markets

If you’re in search of a well-established broker offering a sophisticated, cutting-edge trading platform, the UK-based CMC Markets may be just what you’re in the market for.

There is a lot of hype surrounding the platform; you probably have heard other traders say that it is more intuitive and advanced than most competing forex platforms.

Does it live up to all the hype? Let’s find out in our in-depth guide.

History of CMC

The history of CMC dates way back. It was founded in 1989 and was originally known as Currency Management Corporation. Eventually this was simply shortened to CMC Markets.

The company has a unique claim to fame—at least if you believe their press. Supposedly, it conducted the first ever forex transaction online in 1996. There is no way to know for sure if this is true, but CMC definitely was a pioneer in online investing.

Over the years, CMC grew in reach and reputation. By 2010, the company was able to launch a brand new version of its platform which it referred to as the Next Generation. This upgraded software offered greater precision with market price quotes and streamlined the execution of trades.

How to Use CMC

If you want to use the CMC trading platform, you will need to begin by first opening an account at CMC. To do this, click on the blue ‘Create Account’ button in the upper right-hand corner of the homepage. You will see a dropdown which allows you to open a demo or real account.

Opening a demo account is fast and easy. Just put in your country and basic information, then check your email for the message to verify your account. Do that, and you can log in and start paper trading.

The process to open a real account is similar. You will first need to select your country of residence. Quite a few countries are prohibited, including the USA. If your country is banned, you will be informed immediately when you select it from the dropdown. Otherwise, you will be taken directly and automatically onwards. You may now select an account type, currency, and Corporate/Joint/Individual account status. Don’t worry about the fact that it only lists CFD for account types; this gives you access to forex trading as well.

Once you have input that information, click ‘Get Started’. You will then need to fill in a few more screens of information before you can deposit money into your account and begin trading.

One convenient thing about CMC is that their platforms are web and mobile-based. That means that once you download the relevant app for your iOS or Android device, you can start trading right away. If you are on a desktop or laptop, you can just log into the web platform in your browser and begin trading immediately.

Which Brokers Are Supported by CMC?

The CMC trading platform is proprietary for the CMC broker. It is intended primarily for use with your CMC trading account, but can also be used with introducing brokers (no public list is available).

Want to plan trades on the CMC platform and trade with another broker which does not partner with CMC? Open a demo account and start planning your trades on this platform. Then just execute them elsewhere.

Different Features of CMC

Now let’s talk about the platform’s features. What sets it apart from the rest? First of all, it runs smoothly and is ridiculously intuitive to navigate and use. A lot of traders who choose CMC say that it is easier to plan and execute trades on the Next Generation platform than it is on a lot of competing platforms. Why? When you read about the features below, you’ll understand.

Streamline Your Planning

CMC is feature-rich and adaptable to your needs. There are a dozen types of charts ready to go when you load the platform. That means you can go beyond your basic line, bar and candlestick charts. You can choose chart types which aren’t available everywhere, like renko and kagi charts.

Once you have your charts set up the way you like, you can use more than 35 drawing tools and around 80 technical indicators to get a sense of what price is doing. On a lot of other platforms, this would be the full extent of the charting features available, but CMC goes further.

To make planning your trades and spotting setups even easier, the CMC platform offers a really cool Pattern Recognition feature. This tool will scan over your charts for common price patterns and will highlight where price is likely to go next. This can save a lot of time and energy scouring your charts manually for price patterns. Does it have everything? No, but it has a lot programmed into it. You can adjust the settings for the patterns too by specifying the minimum and maximum number of bars to include.

It’s still up to you to manually check over the suggested trades of course, but any price action trader will tell you that the two main challenges of price pattern trading are spotting solid formations and evaluating context. Pattern Recognition on CMC is optimised to help you out with the first part of that equation. That way you can focus more of your time and energy on working out context.

If you look at more than one timeframe while you are planning trades, you can use the Module Linking feature to make your life simpler. With this feature, you can replicate settings, tools, indicators, and pattern recognition between the linked charts for fast and easy side-by-side comparison.

Want to go back in time to backtest? There are 20 years of charts loaded into the program, so you can get plenty of data on the effectiveness of your system before you start demo testing it or trading it live.

Collaborate with Other Traders

Another nice feature on CMC is the chart forum. With this feature, you can chat with other traders about your charts without ever navigating away from them. This makes it much easier to discuss setups in real-time. Want to import another trader’s technical analysis right to your chart? You can do so with a single click using the integrated copy trading feature. You can also quickly and easily save your analysis so that you can reference or share it later.

Conclusion: CMC Really Is a Next Generation Platform

After exploring CMC’s features, it is easy to see that this truly is an impressive platform. Maybe what you are looking for is simple—something that runs smoothly and gives you the indicators and drawing tools needed to plan your trades along with historical data for testing.

If so, CMC will blow your expectations out of the water. It takes all of that to the next level by making it easier to carry out all the routine tasks associated with planning trades. Features like Pattern Recognition and Module Linking take a lot of the legwork out of searching for setups and evaluating them.

To conclude, this is an outstanding trading platform which really does deserve the hype. It is called Next Generation because it is. Using this platform is like taking a step into the future of trading. Wherever that future takes us, it seems likely that CMC will be leading the way.

FAQ

Q: Does CMC offer demo trading?

A: Yes! It only takes a few minutes to sign up for a demo account on CMC. Once you do, you will receive $10,000 in virtual funds (or the equivalent in your currency) with which to trade. You can log into the platform right away after your account is created and start experimenting with the tools and features and testing out trade ideas.

Demo testing is critical if your goal is to profit in forex. So do not skip this step. Plus, it takes some time to learn the ropes with CMC—not because the platform is hard to use, but just because there are so many features included which you may never have encountered before on other platforms. You have 20 years of historical data to test these features on, so take advantage of the opportunity.

Q: Why choose CMC over another platform?

A: CMC has features which you are not going to find everywhere. These features save time and energy and make trading more intuitive. The biggest downsides are that you cannot link up CMC to any broker of your choice, and you cannot hold an account in certain countries.

Q: Is CMC a scam?

A: No, CMC is not a scam. This company has been around since the earliest days of forex trading online and has a strong reputation. It continues to push the envelope with online FX and remains at the forefront of the retail trading world.

Q: Do I need to download software to trade on CMC?

A: No, you can just log into the web-based platform and enjoy the rich suite of features right in your browser.

Q: Who should consider choosing CMC?

A: Any trader can benefit from using the CMC platform, but it is a particularly good choice if you are a price action trader. Traditionally, the focus on most platforms is on technical analysis, not price patterns. CMC’s tools for price action trading really go beyond what you are probably used to.

CMC is also a good choice for collaborative traders who are community-minded and enjoy working with others to plan and execute trades. If you are a beginner with questions, you will find traders on their forum who are willing to help you out with your setups right on the platform. If you are an experienced trader and enjoy sharing your knowledge and helping out others, CMC makes it easy to do.