Founded in 2009, XM is an online broker and trading platform that offers a variety of different account types and a low minimum deposit to attract all levels of traders from across the globe. It allows clients to trade a range of assets with the full MetaTrader platform.
Over the years, XM has grown into an online multi-asset forex broker providing a thousand CFDs (contract for difference) and 57 currency pairs. Moreover, five CFDs on cryptocurrencies are accessible covering Ripple, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, and Bitcoin. With a thousand plus markets and low spreads, XM offers an excellent service. They were named as the ‘Best Forex Execution Broker of 2017’ and the ‘Best FX Broker Europe in 2018.’
XM delivers ultra-low spreads across a diverse range of forex markets. XM Zero accounts, Micro, and flexible lot sizes accommodate every trader level.
XM is a well-established investment firm and an industry leader with 2.5 million clients in 196 countries. So far, XM has executed 1.4 billion trades with a remarkable zero repeats or rejections. XM Group, at present, has more than 300 professionals, each of whom has extensive experience, offering support in more than 30 languages. That means XM can appeal to those all across the globe and of any skill level. Moreover, XM also boasts 16 full-featured trading platforms for traders to choose from.
Our detailed forex broker review of XM will give you sufficient information to see if XM is suitable for your needs and preferences in trading.
An Overview of XM
XM in an online trading platform offering advanced as well as flexible trading conditions to offer to a range of domestic and international clients. Its proficiency comes from comprehensive knowledge and experience with the global financial markets. XM appears dedicated to providing superior services to their clients, including trading equity indices, energies, precious metals, CFDs, and currencies.
On the other hand, it also provides its functioning outlook as a reason to consider electing XM as a broker. XM’s outlook is to earn customer trustworthiness as a way to make sure clientele satisfaction is maintained. Moreover, it also identifies that reputation and credibility are closely associated with each other, therefore depend on the ability to cater to client needs based on what they expect.
It also takes steps to adapt according to the client’s needs. This is accomplished by monitoring the latest finance technologies and industry trends. XM never compromises on factors affecting client performance, and this helps them to deliver tight spreads and best execution.
One of the key characteristics of this online broker is that it strives to incorporate human interventions whenever and wherever possible. This is the reason why the management team at XM has spread to more than 120 cities around the world, to get to know the clients and partners.
XM places a high value on connecting with clients in the most humane way possible. To deliver such interactions, XM offers a range of interactive learning opportunities for clients at all skill levels. They host seminars around the world with an aim to give clients the necessary skills required to make improved trading decisions. The online broker has already hosted hundreds of workshops with many more scheduled to follow.
Types of Accounts offered by XM
Ultra Low Account
The XM Ultra Low account is accessible for traders with the base currency of ZAD, AUD, SGD, EUR, GBP, or USD. Although it does not offer negative balance protection and zero commissions, Islamic accounts remain optional. Hedging is allowed, but there are neither deposit bonuses nor any trading bonuses. The minimum deposit of $50 is required for opening an XM Ultra Low account. Traders can have up to 200 positions pending or open at a time. XM Ultra Low accounts can either be Micro Ultra or Standard Ultra. For a XM Micro Ultra Low account, the minimum trade volume is 0.1 lots with a limit of 100 lots per ticket, whereas, for a XM Standard Ultra Low account, these figures are 0.01 lots and 50 lots per ticket, respectively.
Micro and Standard Accounts
XM Micro accounts have the base currency of SGD, ZAR, RUB, HUF, PLN, AUD, JPY, CHF, EUR, GBP, or USD. There are no commissions where 1 lot is 1000 units of any currency. Unlike XM Ultra Low account, this type of account comes with negative balance protection and trading bonuses; however, there are no deposit bonuses. The minimum deposit of $5 is required for opening a Micro account, where an Islamic account is optional. Hedging is allowed, and trading on Meta Trader 4 platform must meet the minimum trade volume of 0.01 lots. It is 0.1 lots on Meta Trader 5 platform. Moreover, traders can have up to 200 positions pending or open at a time. 100 lots per ticket is the limit set for this type of account.
The primary difference between XM and Standard accounts is that for a Standard account, 1 lot is 100,000 with a minimum trade volume of 0.01 lots and restriction of 50 lots per ticket. Other than this, the Micro and Standard Accounts are necessarily the same.
Other Account Types Offered
Shares accounts are Islamic accounts with a minimum deposit requirement of $10,000. Hedging is not allowed, and there are no deposit bonuses and trading bonuses either. With a minimum trade volume of 1 lot, the contract size is one share where the lot limit per ticket is subject to the share. Moreover, traders can have 50 positions pending and open.
One of the benefits of using XM as your online trading platform is that it lets you build custom-tailored accounts for trading foreign exchange, giving you the flexibility to meet your trading requirements.
What are Islamic Accounts?
Most account types available on the XM platform are offered as Islamic accounts. They are also known as swap-free accounts where they don’t have any swap interest or rollover for overnight positions. In order to open an Islamic account, one must open a regular account and authenticate it in the member’s area. During this point, you can contact XM to convert your regular account to an Islamic account. However, in the case of misconduct, XM can revoke your account’s swap-free status.
Compared to other forex brokers offering Islamic accounts, XM’s offerings are more obvious since it doesn’t apply additional charges upon opening Islamic accounts. In addition, most of the forex brokers will provide Islamic accounts greater spreads. In addition, XM broker remains courteous to the norm of Islamic accounts, refraining from using disguise accounts. Some brokers use ‘swap-free in disguise’ accounts in which they allocate interest charge to a different fee. Since it is a charge covering interest, it is against the fair and ethical trading norms that come with Islamic accounts.
What Assets can you Trade with XM?
XM enables traders to trade more than 1000 financial instruments across seven asset classes, namely – equity indices, energies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, precious metals, individual stocks, and foreign exchange.
As an XM trader, you can view all the exact instruments available for trading on XM’s individual asset pages. There are 1210 stick CFDs and 57 forex pairs available, including exotics, majors, and minors. You can search or browse the stock CFDs by country, since they span 17 countries. Which include Russia, Australia, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
The platform provides traders with access to 8 commodities through futures CFDs. And you can access 12 futures indices CFDs and 18 cash indices CFDs. Moreover, it also lets traders trade two spot metals instruments, namely silver and gold.
Trading Conditions Offered
The trading conditions offered by XM vary significantly based on account types. For Micro accounts, the leverage for trades between $5-$20,000 is 1:1-1:888, $20,000-$100,000 is 1:1-1:200, and above $100,000 is 1:1-1:100. The leverage above $100,000 is also known as dynamic leverage. Typically, as the volume per trade increases, the margin percentage will also increase. The spreads on this account type can be as small as 1 pip, and there are no commissions.
NOTE* – the same goes for standard accounts as well.
The leverage is also identical for XM Ultra Low accounts, but spreads can be as small as 0.6 pips. On the other hand, there are no commissions, the spread is per the underlying exchange, and there is no leverage on Shares accounts.
By visiting the asset’s class page, you can review all the trading conditions for each particular asset. Once on the page, you will find the value of a lot, average spreads, swap values, the starting point for spreads, and minimum price fluctuations. Most importantly, the information differs based on asset class and can comprise the margin percentage and maximum and minimum trade size. The information provided is divided by account type; hence, the traders know where they stand for each particular asset.
XM Spreads
XM, unlike other online brokers, uses variable spreads, as does the interbank foreign exchange market. XM, by offering variable spreads is eliminating the requirement for an insurance premium. An insurance premium is obligatory for fixed spreads, as they are inclined to be greater than the variable spreads. This is often hindered by the fact that most online brokers limit trading close to news announcements. In such cases, the requisite insurance premium becomes insignificant. XM can avoid these issues by offering variable spreads to the traders. The best part is that there are restrictions or limitations regarding trading at the time of news announcements.
Moreover, the platform also gives traders access to fractional pip pricing, allowing for the best prices from the liquidity providers. Fundamentally, an additional digit can be added to any typical digit price quote. That is, a 5th digit can be added to a 4-digit price quote. This allows traders to leverage the price movements, even the smaller ones. Moreover, this also allows for tighter spreads and more accurate quoting.
XM Margins and Leverage
Typically, XM traders can select leverage in the range of 1:1-888:1. However, the leverage you can choose will depend on the trade size, asset, and account type. The margin requirements, on the other hand, remain the same all throughout the day and week, including overnight and weekends. XM lets you request a change to your chosen leverage, either an increase or a decrease.
When starting a trade, the platform warns the traders about the risks attached to trading with leverage. In order to help traders cope with real-time risk exposure, the platform gives them the ability to monitor their margin. Both used and free margins can be observed, which combines as equity. Free margin is the quantity you still have in your trading account. Whereas, used margin refers to how much money must be deposited for holding a trade. The margin will fluctuate depending on account equity. However, you can use margins to open additional positions or absorb losses.
In case your account equity plunges below 50%, the required margin for open positions, you will receive a margin call warning from XM. This is a notification suggesting that your trading account lacks adequate equity for backing up the open positions. If you engage in telephone trading, the broker (dealer) will give you a margin call. In this case, the margin call is essentially advisement to either close positions or deposit funds.
For fund protection, XM comes with a stop-out level. The stop-out level is the equity level that automatically closes your open positions. Retail clients with XM Ultra Low Accounts, Micro Accounts, or Standard Accounts have a stop-out level of 20%.
Things to Know about Overnight Positions with XM Broker
Placing an Order with XM
As discussed earlier, XM allows a trader to place a variety of order types, including stops, trailing stops, market orders, and limits. You can set the trade at any time of the day, given that it is during trading hours. Moreover, you can also place trades through the telephone if you prefer this way.
The XM Trading Hours
The XM trading hours are those of the market. For the foreign exchange market, when one market closes another opens thanks to markets in London, Tokyo, Sydney, and New York. So, for the forex market, you can trade 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The XM trading hours start at 22:05 GMT (Sunday) and ends at 21:50 GMT (Friday). This applies to telephone trading as well. Your trades will not be executed if you use the XM trading platform outside of these hours. However, you can view the relevant features of each trade during these hours.
The XM Execution Policy
There are no requotes with XM, and you can trade with real-time execution. Since the XM execution policy instigated in 2010, the platform has had no requotes and no rejection of orders at all. 100% of the orders are executed with an impressive 99.35% executed within a second.
The XM-supported platforms allow placing orders at any time during the trading hours. Only after your closing trade is executed, the positions close. In order to reflect the current market price trends, your account balance will be updated in real-time. However, you need to remember that the maximum of 200 positions can be opened at a time (per client) and includes pending orders as well.
Furthermore, clients can trade using tighter spreads thanks to the fractional pip pricing offered by XM. This allows for accurate quoting also.
With a simple click, fills for market orders can be accomplished. You can fill the market order with up to 5 million or 50 lots. If you want to trade larger quantities, you have two options – you can divide the order into several smaller ones, or you can place the trade by phone.
Stop-loss orders and fills for limits are assured with up to 50 lots. The best part about this is that these occur at the best available market prices. The XM execution policy allows you to manage risk as well.
Although there is a clear policy for market gaps between Sunday open and Friday closing, including weekends and holidays, XM will execute the pending limit and stop orders at the first market price.
Even when there are volatility and liquidity, the platform follows a comprehensive policy. That is, XM collaborates with several liquidity providers to greatly reduce the risk of liquidity. In case, if the market is volatile, the platform will execute orders at the best available market price.
What Trading Platforms can be Used with XM?
You can trade using Meta Trader 4 or Meta Trader 5, both of which are popular trading platforms. MT4 and MT5 are available through different devices, and you can access the platforms through the XM WebTrader in the browser.
XM offers a Meta Trader 4 platform that accentuates on trading execution quality. Trading on the Meta Trader 4 platform gives traders access to leverage ranging from 1:1-888:1, and the best part, there are no requotes or rejections.
XM Customer Support
XM offers live chat support as well as customer support via phone. Both service supports are available 24/5, ensuring that the clients don’t have to wait to get their queries answered. XM Customer Support is available in 30 different languages, making it possible for nearly everyone to make easy and secure communication with XM’s dedicated support team.
XM encourages its users to contact their customer support team whenever in doubt about the trading platform. In case your query is unresolved, XM will direct your call to the Compliance Office, where your complaint will be dealt with.
Advantages and Disadvantages of XM
Conclusion
XM is one of those few international brokers that provide traders with access to more than 1000 financial instruments across seven asset classes. As you have read, it comes with no rejection of order or requotes while giving high liquidity to the clients. You can choose from four account types, and you can customise an account based on your trading requirements. You can use the demo account before going in big and at just $5, you can open a live account. XM has an outstanding educational area for new clients that include live webinars, tools, and videos. While XM doesn’t offer its own proprietary trading platform, it supports MT 4 and MT 5 trading platforms for execution of a trade. XM is a large and well-renowned international broker offering deals that are well-regulated, ensuring that the traders feel safe when opting this broker and its platform to trade with.