Comprehensive Review dedicated to traders from Nigeria
HFM (HF Markets) Review Nigeria
Accepts Nigerian Clients
Who is HFM?
HFM, previously known as HotForex, is a well-established forex broker that has been in operation since 2010. This broker caters to Nigerian traders with over 1,000 different market products. Notably, this broker is licensed and regulated in various jurisdictions around the world, including South Africa's FSCA. HFM accepts Nigerian traders and provides them with competitive trading conditions. Additionally, this broker offers high leverage of up to 1:2000 and multiple account options.
With no minimum deposit requirement, this broker gives Nigerian traders a low entry point into the market. It also supports the Nigerian Naira as one of the account base currencies.
HFM Group is Regulated by:
SV
St. Vincent & the Grenadine, based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, registration number 22747 IBC 2015.
FSCA
Financial Sector Conduct Authority, based in South Africa, license number 46632.
CMA
Capital Markets Authority, based in Kenya, license number 155.
FCA
Financial Conduct Authority, based in the UK, license number 801701.
Risk warning: Remember that forex and CFDs available at HFM are leveraged products and can result in the loss of your entire capital.
Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved.
Pros
Cons
01
Trading assets
HFM caters to traders seeking a vast selection of assets for their investment strategies. With over 1,000 CFDs available, the platform offers exposure to a multitude of markets. These include:
- Forex – Investors can trade a comprehensive selection of currency pairs, including majors, minors, and exotics.
- Stocks – Nigerians can trade CFDs on stocks from prominent companies like Amazon and Alibaba, alongside numerous others.
- Indices – People can speculate on popular indices alongside less common ones to diversify their portfolios. Some of the indices available to trade include US30, UK100, and GER30, among others.
- Energies – HFM allows its traders to explore CFDs on spot oil or oil futures to capitalise on energy market movements.
- Commodities – HFM offers CFDs on both soft and hard commodities, including cocoa, coffee, and copper, for individual trades or portfolio diversification.
- Bonds – The broker also offers access to CFDs on bonds issued by leading economies with industry-standard trading conditions.
- ETFs – Finally, investors can trade CFDs on a variety of exchange-traded funds spanning markets, sectors, currencies, and commodities.
Available Deposit & Withdrawal Methods
There are a variety of payment options that Nigerian traders can use to deposit and withdraw funds. These include:
Supported Platforms by HFM
HFM supports a variety of trading platforms suitable for both beginner and advanced traders:
02
Trading platforms of the broker
HFM offers a variety of trading platforms designed to meet the needs of different types of traders, providing both versatility and functionality. Among these platforms is the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4), renowned for its user-friendly interface and comprehensive trading tools.
MT4 offers advanced charting capabilities, over 50 technical indicators, and supports Expert Advisors (EAs) for automated trading strategies.
MetaTrader 5 (MT5) comes with additional features and tools for advanced trading. It includes extended order types like buy stop limit and sell stop limit, a built-in economic calendar, and Depth of Market (DOM) for detailed market liquidity information.
MT5 offers more timeframes and technical indicators than MT4.
Further, the HFM Platform is the in-house trading platform derived from MT5. It provides real-time market data, full account management capabilities, and secure trading, ensuring high-security standards.
All three platforms are available on all kinds of devices including PCs, Tablets, Phones, and even on the web.
Screenshot taken from the official website of HFM.com
Did you know?
HFM has a very strong presence in Nigeria and frequently holds offline webinars in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.
03
HFM Spreads and Fees
HFM offers traders different accounts with different fee structures. The Premium and Cent accounts have spreads from as low as 1.2 pips on major currency pairs. The top-up bonus account features spreads from 1.4 pips for major currency pairs. Notably, there is no commission required when trading forex on these accounts.
In contrast, the Zero account features spreads as low as 0.0 pips with low commissions starting from as low as $0.03 per 1k lot. Meanwhile, the Pro account offers traders spreads from as low as 0.6 pips on major currency pairs plus no commissions are required.
Finally, the Pro Plus account has a spread that starts from 0.2 pips for major currency pairs and has no commission on forex.
These different accounts have different requirements to access. The cent, the premium, the zero, and the top-up bonus accounts do not have a minimum deposit to access. However, the pro account requires a minimum deposit of 50,000 NGN. Meanwhile, the pro-plus account requires a minimum deposit of 200,000 NGN.
Another fee that applies when trading on this broker site is swap fees charged to traders for holding positions overnight. This swap fee depends on the asset and the size of a trade. However, there are swap-free versions for each of the accounts on HF Markets. This means that even Muslim traders can trade on this broker site without worrying about breaking religious laws.
04
HF Markets Education Section
HF Markets features quite a rich education section with ebooks, educational videos, webinars, podcasts, and trading classes. These resources provide traders with training on a variety of topics from the basics to more advanced lessons on technical and fundamental analysis.
The broker even holds occasional events in different cities in the country to train people physically.
At the time of writing this, the company has upcoming events in Port Harcourt, Benin, Abuja, and Lagos.
All these resources are important for all kinds of traders. Beginner traders can get the knowledge they need to start their trading journey. On the other hand, experienced traders can gain new information and new trading strategies to apply in the market.
05
HFM VPS and Trading Tools
Positively, HF Markets provides its traders with a variety of trading tools including a VPS, Autochartist, Advanced Insights, and a Trading Calculator. The VPS allows investors to access lightning-fast response times with low latency. It ensures HFM clients can gain nonstop access, anywhere, anytime.
There are three different packages traders can subscribe to. The bronze package charges traders $25 per month, the silver charges $50, and the gold package charges $80. However, HFM VPS plans can be offered FREE of charge, subject to specific deposit and trading requirements.
Further, Autochartist and Advanced Insights provide traders with market insights, saving them some valuable time from technical analysis. Autochartist scans a multitude of trading instruments in real time and automatically identifies Chart patterns and Fibonacci patterns for traders.
Advanced Insights is engineered with sentiment and volatility analysis to provide traders with possible trading opportunities. Its engine scans millions of news articles and upcoming events to attempt to make a prediction on future movements of the market.
06
HFM Copy Trading
HF Markets offers traders of all walks one of the most important tools in trading, Copy Trading. Copy Trading enables traders, regardless of their expertise level, to follow other traders and copy their trades.
To participate in the HFCopy program, a client needs to have an HFcopy account. To get this, a trader has to apply for the services via a link on the company’s website or the Client myHF area. Traders can participate in the HFCopy program as either Followers or Strategy Providers.
Both the Followers and the Strategy Providers have something to gain in this system. The Follower can copy diverse trading strategies from successful traders, hence diversifying their own strategies.
In the process, they can also learn from more experienced traders or gain exposure to new trading strategies.
Moreover, followers can save the time needed to study and analyse markets to identify entry and exit points. This means that even people lacking the time to place their own orders can participate in the market.
On the other hand, Strategy Providers get rewarded for their successful performance. On top of that, they get to showcase their trading skills and build an inventory of loyal followers. This can potentially help boost their trading career as they gain publicity.
Screenshot taken from the official website of HFM.com > Investing > Copy Trading
Did you know?
2,500,000 client accounts have been registered at HFM since the broker foundation.
07
HFM Customer Support
Customer support is a very important feature in any company these days. Clients want to know that they can reach the company if they have any issues or queries. Customer support is even more important for any company that handles people’s funds.
Well, HFM understands this and offers customer support via several channels to ensure trader satisfaction. These include live chat, email, and phone. Further, the company has a strong social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube for updates and support.
08
HFM Leverage Review
HF Markets offers its traders one of the highest financial leverage in the market. With this broker, clients can access leverage of up to 1:2000. While this high leverage is beneficial, it is also a double-edged sword that can cause significant losses. As such, it should be used alongside tight risk-management techniques. Here is a breakdown of the leverage offered by this broker per asset group.
Forex 1:2000
Metals 1:2000
Energies 1:2000
Indices 1:500
Stocks 1:25
Commodities 1:Floating
ETFs 1:5
HFM in head-to-head with Nigerian leading competitors
Trading Forex and CFDs entail risk.
Your capital is at risk.
Expert's cricital opinion
from the author of this HFM Review
HFM stands out as a solid choice for Nigerian traders due to its competitive pricing, especially the low spreads with no commission on the pro and pro-plus accounts. On top of that, it offers a wide range of trading instruments and strong regulatory oversight. While not regulated in Nigeria, this broker has regulatory oversight from reputable organisations in other jurisdictions. Additionally, it offers competitive trading conditions and robust educational resources.
However, to fully evaluate this broker, it is crucial that we pin it against some competing brokers that are popular in Nigeria. In this case, we will compare HFM’s offering to XM and FP Markets.
Getting started is easy on HFM with its no minimum deposit requirement. This means that traders can start investing with whatever they have. XM also offers a low entry point of just $5 to its Nigerian traders. FP Markets requires a slightly higher $100 deposit. HFM stands out in this category as it does not have any restrictions on the minimum deposit except for its Pro account. Moreover, it supports the Nigerian Naira as an account base currency.
In terms of trading instruments, FP Markets takes the lead with over 10,000 instruments. HFM and XM offer just over 1,000 instruments each. Leverage is another crucial factor for many traders, and all three brokers offer competitive levels. HFM offers leverage of up to 1:2000 while XM provides leverage of up to 1:1000. FP Markets offers slightly lower leverage of up to 1:500, which still provides substantial trading power but with potentially lower risk.
It's important to compare spreads and fees, which can impact the trading costs. XM offers a standard account with spreads starting from 1.0 pips. It features even tighter spreads available on its XM Ultra Low account from 0.6 pips with no commission. Both HFM and FP Markets have standard accounts with spreads from 1.0 pips on major currencies. However, they both feature accounts with spreads from 0.0 pips plus commissions.
When it comes to regulation, these brokers match up well. All of them feature regulations from two top-tier regulators alongside other organisations. Moreover, these brokers have a reputable history in the market without any issues.
Peter Cook Ndungo
Editor, Senior Broker Analyst