A. Willson
While XM Group struggles to stack up against industry leaders, in terms of its platform offering, range of markets, and pricing, XM Group provides an outstanding offering of quality educational content and market research.
Top Takeaways for 2021
Here are our top findings on XM Group:
- Founded in 2009, XM Group is regulated in two tier-1 jurisdictions and one tier-2 jurisdiction, making it a safe broker (average-risk) for trading forex and CFDs.
- XM Group is a Best in Class MetaTrader broker in 2021, that offers the complete MetaTrader suite, along with a few notable upgrades to enhance the experience, in addition to custom indicators. Besides Social Copy Trading, where XM Group finished Best in Class (7th Place), XM Group’s research offering is rich with depth and variety, challenging industry leaders such as IG and Saxo Bank.
- Pricing at XM Group varies by account type. Overall, the broker is not a stand out for low-cost trading when compared to pricing leaders such as CMC Markets and IG.
Is XM Group Safe?
XM Group is considered averge-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 84 out of 99. XM Group is not publicly-traded and does not operate a bank. XM Group is authorised by two tier-1 regulators (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). XM Group is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC) and, via its parent company’s other brand Trading.com, with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more about Trust Score.
Offering of Investments
Through its various brands, XM offers traders a total of 1,230 CFDs across multiple asset classes, including forex, along with 100 exchange-traded securities (non-CFDs). The following table summarizes the different investment products available to XM Group clients.
Commissions and Fees
Traders who need instant execution will appreciate no requotes or rejections with XM’s Zero account, compared to market execution offered by other agency-only brokers. That said, XM Group still trails the best forex brokers when it comes to its pricing for budget and active traders.
Account options: The commissions and fees at XM Group depend on the type of account and which global entity you choose. There are four primary accounts. While the commission-free Micro and Standard accounts are expensive, the commission-based XM Zero account is more competitive, followed by the XM Ultra Low account. Note: both the XM Zero and XM Ultra Low accounts are not available across all XM entities.
Spreads and commissions: In the commission-based XM Zero account, average spreads on the EUR/USD stands at 0.1 pips (according to XM Group website data), making the effective spread 0.8 pips after including the $7 per round-trip commission. The Standard and Micro accounts have average spreads of 1.6 to 1.7 pips for the same pair and are comparably less attractive options at XM Group.
Execution method: XM Group acts as the sole dealer (principal market-maker) in all trades it executes. This execution method allows XM Group to provide execution for up to $50 million worth of currency at a time and permits up to 200 simultaneous open positions which is reasonable compared to peers.
Shares trading: Forex and CFDs aside, XM Group provides a Shares account that requires a $10,000 deposit and is for investors who want to trade shares directly (non-CFD) with no leverage. This account is not available at all the entities of the Group.
