ThinkMarkets

ThinkMarkets is a global Forex and CFD (Contract for Difference) broker, founded in 2010. The company is headquartered in the UK and has global offices located in Australia, Germany, Greece, and South Africa. ThinkMarkets is licensed in 8 jurisdictions: Australia, Cayman Islands, Cyprus, Japan, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and the UK.

ThinkMarkets offers a range of tradable instruments, including CFDs on stocks, commodities, cryptocurrencies, Forex, indices, and metals. The broker provides financial services to more than 450 thousand traders around the globe and has received 14 industry awards. In addition, customer support is available 24/7 with this broker, while most competitors only offer 24/5 availability or less.

In our review of ThinkMarkets, we’ll take a look at the trading conditions, such as trading fees, regulations, account types, trading software, customer service, tools for research, and more. In addition, for those traders that are interested in opening an account with this broker, we have a step-by-step guide section as well.

ThinkMarkets Summary

Safety & Security

Safety is one of the most important things to take into account when choosing a Forex broker. When you make a deposit, you entrust your funds to the broker, and therefore, you need to make sure in advance that the broker can be trusted.

Traders need to make sure that their broker is regulated. A regulated broker is subject to strict rules and regulations that are designed to protect the interests of traders. ThinkMarkets is licensed in various jurisdictions and therefore can be trusted. The full list of regulators includes:

• Australia: Australian Securities and Investment Commission​ (ASIC)
• UK: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• Japan: Japan Financial Services Agency​ (JFSA)
• Cyprus: Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission​ (CySEC)
• South Africa: Financial Services Conduct Authority​, South Africa (FSCA)
• Cayman Islands: Cayman Island Monetary Authority​ (CIMA)
• Seychelles: Financial Services Authority, Seychelles​ (FSA)
• Mauritius: Financial Services Commission, ​Mauritius​​ (FSC)

Policies

In accordance with a strict regulatory framework, ThinkMarkets provides clients with negative balance protection. This means that if a trader’s account balance falls below zero due to losses incurred during leveraged trading, the broker will cover the negative balance and reset the account to zero.

In addition, deposits are held in segregated accounts, away from the company’s funds. Account segregation is an important safety feature because it helps to protect traders’ funds in case the broker goes bankrupt.

Trading assets

ThinkMarkets offers a wide variety of tradable instruments and these instruments are mostly Contracts for Difference (CFDs). CFD trading is a popular way to speculate on the price movements of various financial instruments, including stocks, indices, commodities, and currencies. CFDs allow traders to take advantage of both upward and downward price movements, while this is not possible when trading physical shares or physical precious metals. In addition, traders can use margins to trade CFDs, which is one more advantage. On the downside, CFDs are not for investing long term due to trading fees.

Forex trading 

There are 46 available currency pairs for trading. The maximum available leverage is 500:1 for trading currencies and trading fees depend on the account type. On commission-free accounts spreads on the EUR/USD start from 1.1 pips. On the ThinkZero accounts, there are no spread markups, however, traders are charged with commissions. There’s a 7 USD commission per traded lot round turn.

Stock CFD trading 

Stock CFDs are the preferred way of trading for short term speculators due to the traders’ ability to use margin and trade with leverage. In addition, CFDs can be traded in both directions and there are fewer regulations and barriers to entering the market. The CFD market is more liquid than the physical shares market. As a result, CFD traders get better spreads. There are 4,027 CFDs available for trading with this broker. Leverage requirements are different for each equity, and the maximum available leverage for trading CFDs on stocks is 6.66:1.

It should be mentioned that if you are planning to trade CFDs on stocks, you should avoid downloading MetaTrader 4 as these assets are only available on the MetaTrader 5 platform.

Crypto CFD trading 

There are 21 crypto derivatives available for trading. Crypto CFD trading enables traders to speculate on the price movements without actually owning the underlying asset. In addition to all the advantages we have already mentioned above, crypto CFD trading enables traders to stop worrying about crypto wallets and difficulties related to cashing out, as profits are deposited straight to the trading account balance. Leverage is different for each crypto asset and ranges from 2:1 to 50:1. The maximum available leverage for trading Bitcoin is 50:1. ThinkMarkets enables traders to participate in crypto trading 24/7.

Commodity CFD trading 

The broker offers hard commodities to its clients such as energies and metals and the maximum available leverage for trading precious metals is 400:1. For energies, such as US crude oil and Brent crude oil, the maximum available leverage is 100:1.You can see the full list of available commodities below:

•  US Crude Oil- WTI
• Brent Crude Oil – BRENT
• Natural Gas – NGAS
• Gold Zero – XAU/USDx
• Silver Zero – XAG/USDx
• Gold – XAU/USD
• Mini Gold – XAUUSD Mini
• Silver – XAG/USD
• Mini Silver – XAG/USD Mini
• Platinum – XPT/USD
• Copper – COPPER

Indices trading

An index (plural: indices) is a statistical measure of the performance of a group of stocks or other financial instruments. It is used to track the performance of a basket of stocks that represent certain sectors of the economy. In addition, indices can be traded as CFDs. There are 15 indices available for trading with ThinkMarkets. Leverage varies for each index, and the maximum available leverage is 200:1.

Account types

There are lots of ways to make money in the markets and there are different trader types. In order to meet the needs of different traders, ThinkMarkets offers spread (markup) free and commission-free account types. In addition, demo and swap-free account types are also available. Swap-free accounts are also known as Islamic accounts and these types of accounts enable traders of the Muslim faith to place orders without breaking the rules of Sharia law.

It’s important to note that swap-free accounts are not permitted in these countries – Vietnam, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

 Demo Account

This account type allows traders to practice Forex trading using virtual money without risking any real capital. It is a great way to practice and learn how to use the trading platform. In addition, demo accounts help seasoned traders test their trading strategies in a risk-free environment.

 Standard Account

The Standard account is aimed at beginners and traders that place fewer orders and spend the most time preparing their trades. For instance, the account type is ideal for position traders and swing traders. Spreads on EUR/USD start from 1.1 pips, and on the index CFDs, spreads start from 0.4 pips. There are no commissions on this account. The maximum available leverage is 500:1, with the maximum tradable lot size being 50 lots. The available platforms are MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and ThinkTrader. There is no minimum initial deposit requirement for this account.

 ThinkZero Account

In order to open this account type, traders need to deposit 500 USD or more. There are no spread markups on this account and traders get raw, market spreads. For this very reason, the account type is ideal for active traders such as intraday traders, scalpers, high-frequency traders, and algorithmic traders. On the other hand, traders are charged with 7 USD commissions per traded lot round turn. In addition, account holders get account managers from the broker’s end to guide them. Only MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms are available on the ThinkZero account.

Trading platforms