XM Broker Review

Review By: Alan Little

Review Updated: 2023-06-19

4.5

Visit Broker

Risk Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74.89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Bottom Line Summary

XM, an award-winning broker, serves over five million clients across 192 countries, offering a wide selection of more than 1,000 tradable instruments. Our XM broker review confirms its suitability for traders at all levels, including beginners and those looking to enhance their trading skills.

With a global presence and extensive client base, XM has established trust and credibility in the industry. Traders can access a diverse range of assets such as currencies, stocks, commodities, and specialized instruments, enabling them to diversify their portfolios and seize opportunities across various financial markets.

XM’s comprehensive support extends to both beginners and experienced traders. Novice traders benefit from educational resources, tutorials, webinars, and market analysis, providing guidance for informed decision-making. Experienced traders, on the other hand, can leverage advanced trading platforms, robust charting tools, and cutting-edge technologies to refine their strategies and explore new avenues for success.

XM has a few advantages over some of its closest competitors, such as a very low minimum deposit, a high number of instruments, and a choice of trading platforms that will suit different types of traders.

Back to top

XM broker features

XM pros and cons

Pros

• Great choice of trading platforms
• 1,000+ instruments
• Low minimum deposit

Cons

• No cryptocurrencies
• Support is not 24/7

Compare Brokers

Review Sections:

Who are XM?

Founded in 2009, XM forex broker offers a trustworthy trading platform and fast execution, with 99.35% of all trading orders executed in less than one second, with no re-quotes and no rejections. XM has offices in Cyprus, Australia and Greece, and offers more than 25 secure payment methods along with 16 trading platforms. More than 30 languages are supported, making this a truly international broker. The broker has won a number of industry awards, and not just in Europe. XM has been recognised, for example, at the Smart Vision Investment Expo in Egypt, and the Dubai Expo Awards. Traders all over the world can consider investing with this broker, though they should, of course, make sure that it provides the specific markets they want to trade.

XM Fees

4.5

Trading fees

XM trading fees are reasonable and transparent with no hidden costs and tight spreads on most instruments. The broker offers variable spreads and fractional pip pricing, ensuring the best prices from its liquidity providers and allowing clients to benefit from the smallest of price movements.

Forex fees

Forex spreads start from 0.0 pips, with the average spread for EURGBP being 0.0002 and for USDJPY 0.016. Regular traders will note that these spreads are tighter than at many of the broker’s competitors. As is always the case, however, a lot will depend on the type of account you open. These spreads are offered on the popular XM Zero account, which does charge a small commission, and will, of course, only be available when trading major currency pairs. The Micro and Standard accounts are commission-free, and spreads start at 1 pip on the major pairs with both of these accounts.

XM CFD fees

XM offers reasonable fees on a range of assets that can be traded as CFDs, including stocks, commodities, energies, precious metals and equity indices. Spreads are as low as 0.1 on stock CFDs, 0.003 on commodities CFDs, and 0.3 on cash indices.

XM Non-Trading Fees

XM inactivity fees

The XM inactivity fee is known as a ‘dormant fee’ and is imposed on accounts that are inactive for 90 days, as long as they have free balance in the account. XM offers negative balance protection, so will not charge you more money than you have available in your trading account. This also applies when trading, so whenever your XM account balance goes negative due to unexpectedly volatile movement in the market, your account will automatically be reset to zero.

XM rollover fees

XM debits or credits clients’ accounts with rollover fees when a trade is kept open overnight. Although there is no rollover on Saturdays and Sundays when the markets are closed, banks still calculate interest on any position held over the weekend. To level this time gap, XM applies a three-day rollover strategy on Wednesdays. Swap-free accounts are available on request for Islamic customers who cannot trade swaps due to religious beliefs.

XM is committed to keeping its pricing low and transparent and offers negative balance protection to avoid accounts going into the red.

Accounts/Membership Levels

4.5

Account types

XM offers two commission-free accounts – the Micro account and the Standard account, where all trading fees come from the spreads – along with the XM Zero account, which has a small commission fee and spreads as low as 0 pips. The lot restriction is 100 lots on the Micro account and 50 lots on the Standard and Zero accounts. There is a minimum deposit of just $5 on all accounts, making this broker highly suitable for new or hobby traders on a small budget.

How to open your broker account

Account opening is simple, and there is a demo account available. Initial registration takes around two minutes. You will simply need to fill in your details and select the type of account you want, along with your preferred trading platform. As always, we recommend that you consider a demo account if you are brand new to the platform, and even more so if you are new to forex trading in general. A demo account can be an excellent way to find your way around and practice trading risk-free.

The three account types offer a range of features, and a demo account lets clients try before they commit.

Deposit and Withdrawal

4.5

How long does it take to deposit?

All deposit methods are instant, except for bank transfers, which will depend on the bank being used. While instant deposits are not that unusual in the world of online trading, there are still some brokers where you might experience a delay. However, payments at this broker really do appear in your account straight away.

When choosing a deposit method, be aware that XM will generally only let you withdraw using the same method that you used to deposit. This is to protect clients from fraud, and is considered a good practice, but it can be inconvenient if you choose an unsuitable payment method.

Withdrawal fees and options

There are no broker-levied fees on deposits or withdrawals and clients have a range of options available, including multiple credit cards, electronic payment methods, bank wire transfer, local bank transfer, and other payment methods.

In terms of XM withdrawal methods, always check to see that your preferred method of withdrawal is available in your region. This is a truly international brokerage and tries to make things easy for its clients worldwide, but sometimes there may be a restriction if a certain payment method simply isn’t available or easily accessible in your country.

How long does it take to withdraw money?

Withdrawal requests can be made at any time and are processed by the XM Back Office within 24 hours on business days. You can expect to receive your money on the same day for payments made via e-wallet, but if you request a withdrawal by bank wire or by credit or debit card, it can take two to five business days.

Remember that the most common reason for a delay on a withdrawal is that you have not yet fully verified your account. This is not exclusive to XM, of course. It is the exact same situation at almost any broker, so always make sure that you go through the verification process immediately after signing up. XM, like many brokers, will let you trade without verifying your account, but will not let you withdraw until everything is up to date.

How do you withdraw money?

As mentioned above, to withdraw funds, your trading account must be validated, so make sure that you have uploaded your documents in the Members Area. Checking this before requesting your withdrawal will save you time and stress. You can then request a withdrawal by logging into the Members Area, selecting the Withdrawal tab and sending a withdrawal request. XM, like most brokers, will only send your withdrawal back to the original source of deposit.

XM offers a wide range of payment options but restricts withdrawals to the same method used to deposit.

Trading Platforms

4.5

Web trading platforms available

XM offers a choice of trading platforms, including MT4 and MT5 WebTrader, MT4 Multiterminal, and MT4 and MT5 for PC and Mac.

All trading platforms support the use of automated trading and EAs, which is a further reason why we would recommend this brokerage for new and intermediate traders who are still learning. The use of automated trading can be beneficial while you are still perfecting your trading techniques and developing your trading discipline.

Usability

XM provides a good choice of user-friendly platforms for traders using any device. MetaTrader enthusiasts will be happy to see that both MT4 and MT5 are available. The XM app also allows easy mobile trading from almost any mobile device, or there is the choice to use the MT4 or MT5 app if you prefer. There is a wide variety of chart indicators and it is easy to open and close positions, with almost immediate order execution and no re-quotes.

Platform languages

There are more than 30 supported languages, including English, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Turkish and Malay. This, along with other features of the platform, make this broker an excellent choice for international traders, as long as they are happy with the account features and trading platform.

Placing orders 

The following types of orders are available:

• Buy Limit (an order to purchase a financial Instrument at or below a specified price)
• Buy Stop (an order to buy a financial instrument, which is entered at a price above the current offering price – it is triggered when the market price touches or goes through the buy stop price)
• Sell Limit (an order to sell a financial instrument at a specified price or better)
• Sell Stop (an order to sell a financial instrument when it reaches a certain price)

It is also possible to attach a ‘Stop Loss’ and/or ‘Take Profit’ to any pending order.

99.35% of all trading orders are executed in less than one second at XM, and there is a good choice of order types available to allow you to experiment with different trading strategies.

Mobile Trading App

4

Mobile trading is available via MT4 and MT5 apps for iPhone, iPad and Android. There is also a proprietary XM App for iPhone, iPad and Android. Which app/trading platform you prefer is up to you, and there is nothing to stop you trying them out to see what works best for you.

The choice of mobile apps means that the broker is great for mobile traders, and means that it will appeal to younger traders and part-time traders who often trade from their place of employment or on the go, as well as traders in countries where the culture dictates that the majority of traders tend to trade from a smartphone.

High-quality, robust mobile apps make trading on the go an easy choice with XM.

Markets and Products

4.5

CFDs

XM offers more than 1,000 instruments with CFDs available in multiple asset classes. Clients can trade via CFDs when trading:

• Stocks
• Commodities
• Equity Indices
• Precious Metals
• Energies

While there is a great range of assets available, XM does not provide trading in cryptocurrencies, bonds or mutual funds. For most multi-asset traders, however, there is more than enough here to keep them happy. At XM, leverage is 2:1 up to 30:1, depending on the instrument.

Forex

XM provides trading in more than 55 currency pairs, including a good range of majors and minors, as well as some exotics. This means that a variety of forex trading strategies can be used when trading at XM, depending on your aims, knowledge base and appetite for risk.

Copytrader

The XM Mirror Trader platform allows investors to instantly benefit from the buy and sell signals of professional traders, copying them to their own trading accounts, and executing copied trades either manually, semi-automatically or automatically.

The number of instruments available is impressive, but XM does not currently offer trading in cryptocurrencies.

Market Research

4.5

XM provides excellent research and education, including a Markets Overview, News Feed, Trade Ideas, Technical summaries and an Economic Calendar. XM TV and the broker podcast keep clients up to date on market analysis.

An education portal provides forex webinars, platform tutorials and trading education videos. The level of market research available should be sufficient for even more advanced traders, and is another reason why we feel confident that traders at all levels can consider trading with this broker.

Customer Service

4.5

XM offers responsive customer service in multiple languages, and can be contacted by phone or email. The support desk is open 05:00-19:00 GMT, five days a week, which is around the same as at most of the broker’s competitors, though there are some brokers that offer 24/7 support.

Long opening hours and multilingual customer support channels make life easier for many international clients.

Address: ● 12 Richard & Verengaria Street, Araouzos Castle Court, 3rd Floor, 3042 Limassol, Cyprus
● Level 13, 333 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
● Michalakopoulou 91, 3rd Floor, 11528, Athens, Greece

Phone: Cyprus: +357 25345225
Australia: +612 8607 8385
Greece: +30 211 7700022

Email: support@xm.com
clientrelations@xm.com
backoffice@xm.com

Education

4.8

The majority of the content in XM’s education area is video. You can delve deeply into a variety of subjects, including technical analysis, money management, and an introduction to financial markets. There are multiple lessons available to XM subscribers alone in each chapter.

In addition to these recorded lessons, they also provide live instruction both online and offline for people of all expertise levels. You may also create a sample account to practice with.

Safety

XM is generally considered a safe broker. It is regulated in Cyprus and the UK and offers negative balance protection.

Is XM regulated?

XM is fully licensed and regulated by CySEC and the FCA.

Verdict: Is XM right for you?

XM is a great broker for those wishing to trade CFDs in multiple asset classes all under one roof. Is XM good? To answer that question, we conclude that yes, XM offers many attractive features, and is, in our opinion, the best broker when it comes to the choice of trading platforms. The broker will be of particular interest to international traders, multi-asset traders and mobile traders, and the low deposit requirement makes it very accessible for hobby traders with limited funds to play with.

Alternatives to XM

Although an excellent option for all types of traders, there is a lot of strong competition in the forex trading space. Despite offering excellent research and education resources and a great choice of trading platforms, XM may not meet all your specific requirements when looking for a new broker. If you would like to explore further, here are five alternatives to XM that are worth considering.

• AvaTrade – Best for client protection
• Naga – Best for copy trading
• FXTM – Best for types of account
• Spreadex – Best for number of markets
• Libertex – Best for range of assets to trade

We Compare Brokers is here support you in your search for the perfect broker, providing you with all the extra information and resources you might need in order to find the best forex broker for you. 

FAQ

Risk Disclaimer

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74.89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

Compare XM to other brokers

Broker info