ThinkMarkets Review 2024

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ThinkMarkets is #37 in our rankings of CFD brokers.

ThinkMarkets Facts & Figures

Founded in 2010, ThinkMarkets is a reputable CFD and forex broker with regulation from several top-tier bodies including the FCA and ASIC. The broker provides services to over 450,000 accounts from 11 global offices. Traders can use a bespoke platform, MT4 or MT5 to access a wide variety of assets including 3500+ stocks and ETFs, 46 forex pairs and over 20 cryptocurrencies.

Pros
  • Low fees with competitive spreads on the commission-free account and very tight spreads and a low $3.5 commission on ThinkZero
  • Unique Traders' Gym simulation tool for testing out strategies on real historical data, with multiple timeframes and custom features
  • In-depth educational resources for beginner, intermediate and advanced level traders, plus live webinars
  • Three stable and award-winning platforms plus seamless integration with the broker's Signal Centre
  • Top-tier regulation from the FCA, ASIC and CySEC plus offshore branches with high leverage
  • Free VPS hosting available for MT4 and MT5, ideal for traders using Expert Advisors (EAs)
  • Advanced charting package from TradingView in ThinkTrader Web - ideal for traders
  • Reliable 24/7 multilingual support via telephone, email or live chat
  • Quick and easy to open a ThinkMarkets account
Cons
  • $500 minimum deposit for ThinkZero account
  • Not many payment methods available for UK traders
  • Limited bonus offers, refer-a-friend schemes or trading competitions
Awards
  • Best CFD Provider 2021 - City of London Wealth Management Awards (COLWMA)
  • Best Value Broker in Asia at the 2020 - Global Forex Awards
  • Best Forex Trading Experience 2017 - UK Forex Awards
  • Best Forex Trading Innovation 2017 - UK Forex Awards
  • Best Customer Service 2013 - UK Forex Awards
Instruments CFDs, Forex, Stocks, ETFs, Futures, Commodities, Crypto, Spread Betting (UK Only)
Demo Account Yes
Min. Deposit $0
Mobile Apps iOS & Android
iOS App Rating
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4.8
Android App Rating
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4
Payments
Min. Trade 0.01 Lots
Regulated By FCA, ASIC, CySEC, FSCA, JFSA, FSA Seychelles
MetaTrader 4 Yes
MetaTrader 5 Yes
cTrader No
DMA Account No
ECN Account No
Social Trading Yes
Copy Trading Yes
Auto Trading Expert Advisors (EAs) on MetaTrader
Signals Service Signal Centre
Islamic Account Yes
Commodities
  • Gold
  • Oil
  • Natural Gas
  • Silver
  • Platinum
  • Copper
CFDs ThinkMarkets continues to offer an excellent range of around 3500 CFD instruments covering forex, indices, stocks and commodities. Leverage is available up to 1:30 in the EU and UK, while global clients can access up to 1:500.
Leverage 1:500
FTSE Spread 0.7
GBPUSD Spread 0.4
Oil Spread 0.03
Stocks Spread From 0.4
Forex ThinkMarkets offers 46 currency pairs, which is around the industry average. Forex traders can benefit from tight 0.0-pip spreads for EUR/USD during peak market hours. Additionally, the ThinkTrader proprietary platform offers an impressive 125+ technical indicators - ideal for complex forex strategies.
GBPUSD Spread 0.3
EURUSD Spread 0.0
GBPEUR Spread 0.0
Assets 45+
Stocks Although the broker doesn’t offer real stocks, clients can trade CFDs on an impressive list of 3000+ shares with low commissions from $3.50 per side and no hidden fees. Spreads are also competitive, coming in at 0.08 pips for the Apple stock.
Spreadbetting Spread betting is available to UK traders, with 30+ forex pairs, 8 indices, gold, silver and energies. Spread bets are available 24/5 Monday to Friday. ThinkMarkets also enhanced its spread betting offering in 2024 by making it available on the award-winning ThinkTrader platform, in addition to MT4 and MT5.
Risk Warning – Your Capital is at risk

ThinkMarkets is a forex and CFD broker that offers FCA regulated trading services to UK-based and international clients. This 2024 broker review covers crucial components of the firm’s services, such as minimum deposit and withdrawal amounts, investment markets, available leverage rates and account types. Read on to find out whether ThinkMarkets is suitable for you.

71.89% of retail clients lose money when trading CFDs with this provider

About ThinkMarkets

Since its launch in 2010, the ThinkMarkets group has offered CFD speculation services to traders worldwide. The broker has two headquarters from which it operates, the first in Melbourne, Australia and the other is a UK London office.

Regulated by the FCA, ASIC and FSCA, the broker has earned a reputation for reliability over its decade of operation. The company has recently announced the news of an imminent IPO on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), allowing investors to purchase direct shares in the firm.

Markets

Beyond forex pairs, ThinkMarkets offers CFDs in a wide range of markets, including indices, ETFs, stocks and commodities. Additionally, the broker provides a small selection of spread betting markets for UK tax-advantaged trading.

Forex

ThinkMarkets offers 46 CFD and 27 spread betting products on major, minor and exotic currency pairs.

Spreads start at 0.0 pips when using the ThinkZero ECN-style account and 0.4 pips on EUR/USD with a standard commission-free STP account. The minimum position size for retail clients is 0.01 lots, while maximum trade limits vary depending on the market.

Indices

Trading index instruments allows investors to speculate on the markets of specific global regions, such as the UK and US. ThinkMarkets provides 17 CFD, eight spread betting and four futures indices products, including the UK FTSE 100, Australian ASX 200 and US VIX 70.

The lowest index target spread is for the S&P 500 at 0.34 pips, though spreads are floating vary throughout the trading day.

Share & ETF CFDs

ThinkMarkets has thousands of global stocks and ETFs for investors to choose from. Clients can speculate on individual companies through share CFDs and access leveraged long or short options on industry sectors through ETFs.

Equities are available from the ASX, FTSE 100 and South African and Hong Kong exchanges. Spreads will differ significantly between different assets and can be located within any supported trading platform.

Commodities CFDs

ThinkMarkets provides a wide range of commodities markets, including soft commodities futures such as cotton and coffee, energies like crude oil and natural gas and precious metals such as gold and platinum.

Average spreads on the Gold Zero market, available through the ThinkZero account, stand at 6 cents, while all three energy markets start at 0.3 pips.

Cryptocurrency

Due to FCA regulations, ThinkMarkets no longer offers crypto markets to UK clients.

Leverage

As an FCA regulated brokerage, ThinkMarkets is limited in the leverage it can offer to retail clients.

The highest margin level available is 1:30 on major forex pairs, while minor and exotic pairs have leverage rates of up to 1:20. 1:20 leverage is also available on major global indices and gold markets.

A margin of 1:10 can be utilised on all other indices and commodity markets. Share and ETF CFDs range from 1:10 to 1:1, depending on the asset.

ThinkMarkets has a margin call level of 50%, leading to forced liquidation of the position, which is significantly higher than some non-FCA regulated competitors.

Account Types

One of ThinkMarkets’ strengths is its support for both STP and ECN-style account types.

The standard account uses the STP execution model for zero-commission trading. This account supports MT4, MT5 and the ThinkTrader trading platform and has no minimum account balance. Average spreads for forex pairs are 1.2 pips and 25 cents on commodities markets.

The ThinkZero account uses the ECN execution system to offer forex spreads from 0.0 pips and metals spreads from 8 cents for those who favour tighter spreads. Commissions are charged at £2.50 per side per lot and this account type requires a £500 minimum account balance.

Other Accounts

ThinkMarkets investors who cannot pay interest on positions due to religious beliefs can apply for a swap-free Islamic account. Joint accounts are also available for those who wish to share an account between two or more individuals.

Want to practice your trading strategy using live market data in real-time? The broker provides a free demo account in which clients can use the MetaTrader 4 or 5 platform with digital funds in a simulated environment.

Trading Platforms

ThinkMarkets offers three trading platforms, aiming to suit the needs of every client. These are MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and ThinkTrader, the broker’s proprietary platform.

MT4 has been the industry standard for forex and CFD brokers for over a decade. It remains a powerful tool with excellent customisability and automated trading integration via EAs. MT5 builds on its predecessor’s success and provides more indicators and charting tools as standard, an updated programming language and support for additional assets. Note that some assets such as shares and ETF CFDs are only available on MT5 and ThinkTrader.

MetaTrader 4

ThinkTrader is the in-house trading platform offered by ThinkMarkets. The system is a browser-based web trader, also offering a mobile app and a desktop platform to download, featuring over 140 indicators and drawing tools and several advanced features such, as customisable alerts and one-click order execution.

ThinkTrader

Mobile App

More and more brokers like ThinkMarkets are providing mobile apps to enable clients to login from anywhere and monitor their positions on the go. Clients can download MT4, MT5 and ThinkTrader dedicated applications on Android (APK) and Apple (iOS) to keep up with the markets wherever they are.

Trading Fees

ThinkMarkets provides traders with the choice between zero commission trading and tighter ECN-style spreads. The latter charges commission of £2.50 per side per lot on all markets, other than share CFDs.

Swap rates are different for each asset and can be found on the broker’s website or any supported trading platform. The firm does not levy inactivity fees for dormant accounts.

Deposit & Withdrawal Fees

While there are no funding fees for most payment methods, services such as Skrill and Neteller may charge fees not covered by ThinkMarkets. Additionally, international wire funding is subject to a $25 fee.

Payment Methods

ThinkMarkets provides several options for funding an account: bank wire transfer, Visa or MasterCard card payment, Neteller and Skrill. Six global currencies are supported, including GBP, USD and EUR.

There is no minimum deposit enforced by the broker, nor any charges for funding your account with any of the deposit methods. Deposit times range from instant for card payments up to 24 hours for the two supported e-wallets and 1-3 business days for bank wire transfers.

ThinkMarkets withdrawals can take up to 24 hours to process and an additional 1-7 working days to settle, depending on the method used. While the firm does not charge for withdrawals, any e-wallet or bank fees are borne by the user rather than the broker, which can be up to $25 for international wire transfers. In addition, the broker enforces a minimum withdrawal amount of $100 or equivalent.

Security & Regulation

The safety of client funds and personal information is of great importance to traders and brokers alike, with a company’s reputation especially significant in an industry where scams are commonplace. ThinkMarkets provides two-factor authentication (2FA) to help investors protect access to their client portal.

The broker is also regulated by six respected global watchdogs: the FCA in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, JFSA in Japan, FSA in the Seychelles, ASIC in Australia and FSCA in South Africa. Moreover, the FSCS fund protection scheme protects UK clients for up to £85,000. Likewise, the ICF compensation scheme may protect EU clients for up to €20,000. ThinkMarkets’ insurance policy offers an additional £1 million of cover, which may reassure traders of the brokerage’s commitment to safety.

The platform also offers its clients negative balance protection, so that, even in the event of a margin call, clients cannot lose more than their account balance.

The broker’s FCA register number is 629628.

Customer Support

A reliable and experienced customer support team provides users with peace of mind when trading and ThinkMarkets offers several methods to contact this help team.

The company has a UK-based support phone number routed to the London office, a dedicated email address and a live chat service available 24/7. The broker also has an active social media presence on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, where traders may be able to receive help.

Clients suffering from trouble with their login or withdrawing funds may also be able to resolve their problems with information from the website FAQ section.

  • Email Address: support@thinkmarkets.com
  • Phone Number: +44 203 514 2374

Educational Content

ThinkMarkets has a dedicated “learn to trade” section filled with tutorials on placing trades, video guides to financial markets for beginners and live webinars for investors to boost their knowledge. A glossary of trading terms like slippage and leverage supplements can also be found in this section, which has useful information for everyone, whether beginner to pro.

Additional Features

ThinkMarkets provides several extra features to help its clients thrive in the financial markets. One such feature is the free VPS hosting from ForexVPS for users that trade over 15 round lots of forex per calendar month. This helps to speed up execution times for automated trading strategies, running 24/7 on a dedicated server, rather than your computer.

The brokerage website also features an economic calendar, where investors can find news on upcoming market events like earnings reports and dividend payments.

For those that wish to emulate the positions of high ranking traders, ThinkMarkets also offers copy trading support via ZuluTrade.

Advantages Of ThinkMarkets

  • FCA regulated
  • Demo accounts
  • Islamic accounts
  • MT4 & MT5 access
  • ECN & STP accounts
  • CFDs & spread betting
  • Large range of markets
  • Solid education section
  • ZuluTrade copy trading

Disadvantages Of ThinkMarkets

  • Limited leverage rates
  • Limited funding methods
  • £100 minimum withdrawal
  • No promotions or bonus schemes
  • £500 account minimum for ThinkZero accounts

Trading Hours

ThinkMarkets facilitates clients to trade on its platforms within the 24/5 opening hours of the forex markets, though these may differ on holidays. However, markets such as indices, ETFs and share CFDs follow their local exchange trading hours. The broker does not support out of hours trading.

ThinkMarkets clients can login to their accounts via the client portal or through the ThinkTrader app at any time to monitor existing positions or make deposits and withdrawals.

ThinkMarkets Verdict

ThinkMarkets is a reputable forex and CFD broker, supporting a range of investing and trading styles, sitting under strong FCA regulation and boasting a competitive asset range. Moreover, UK-based clients can take advantage of the firm’s spread betting opportunities to take part in tax-free speculation. However, those looking for high leverage rates and enticing bonus offers should look to offshore alternatives.

FAQ

Is There A ThinkMarkets App?

ThinkMarkets has a proprietary mobile app called ThinkTrader, where users can manage their accounts and trading positions. The MT4 and MT5 mobile apps are also available for supported accounts and assets.

Does ThinkMarkets Offer API Access?

Unfortunately, ThinkMarkets does not provide direct API market access to retail clients. However, MT4 and MT5 users can use expert advisors (EAs) on their preferred platform to trade algorithmically.

Does ThinkMarkets Support Spread Betting?

In addition to its CFD products, ThinkMarkets supports spread betting on a selection of its assets, including forex pairs, indices and commodities.

Is There A ThinkMarkets Blog?

While the platform runs live educational webinars and provides a free economic calendar with upcoming market news, ThinkMarkets does not have a dedicated blog or forum.

Is ThinkMarkets A Market Maker?

No ThinkMarkets does not follow a market maker execution model. Instead, clients can register for straight-through processing (STP) or electronic communications network (ECN) accounts, receiving direct price quotes from the markets.

Does ThinkMarkets Offer A Welcome Bonus?

No. ThinkMarkets is regulated by the FCA for UK clients, so it is not allowed to use financial incentives like deposit bonuses or welcome promotions to entice new customers.

Compare ThinkMarkets with Other Brokers

These brokers are the most similar to ThinkMarkets:

  1. Pepperstone - Established in Australia in 2010, Pepperstone is a top-rated forex and CFD broker with over 400,000 clients worldwide. It offers access to 1,300+ instruments on leading platforms MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView, maintaining low, transparent fees. Pepperstone is also regulated by trusted authorities like the FCA, ASIC, and CySEC, ensuring a secure environment for traders at all levels.
  2. Vantage FX - Founded in 2009, Vantage offers trading on 1000+ short-term CFD products to over 900,000 clients. You can trade Forex CFDs from 0.0 pips on the RAW account through TradingView, MT4 or MT5. Vantage is ASIC-regulated and client funds are segregated. Copy traders will also appreciate the range of social trading tools.
  3. IG Index - Founded in 1974, IG is part of IG Group Holdings Plc, a publicly traded (LSE: IGG) brokerage. The brand offers spread betting, CFD and forex trading across an almost unrivalled selection of 17,000+ markets, with a range of user-friendly platforms and investing apps. For 50 years, IG has maintained its position as an industry leader, excelling in all key areas for traders.

ThinkMarkets Feature Comparison

ThinkMarkets Compared With Similar Brokers
ThinkMarkets Pepperstone Vantage FX IG Index
Rating 4 4.8 4.7 4.4
Markets Forex, Stocks, Commodities Forex, Stocks, Commodities, Crypto Forex, Stocks, Commodities Forex, Stocks, Commodities
Minimum Deposit $0 $0 $50 $0
Minimum Trade 0.01 Lots 0.01 Lots 0.01 Lots 0.01 Lots
Demo Account Yes Yes Yes Yes
Regulators FCA, ASIC, CySEC, FSCA, JFSA, FSA Seychelles FCA, ASIC, CySEC, DFSA, CMA, BaFin, SCB FCA, ASIC, FSCA, VFSC FCA, ASIC, NFA, CFTC, DFSA, BaFin, MAS, FSCA
Bonus - - - -
Education No Yes Yes Yes
Platforms MT4, MT5 MT4, MT5, cTrader MT4, MT5 MT4
Leverage 1:500 1:30 (Retail), 1:500 (Pro) 1:500 1:30 (Retail), 1:222 (Pro)
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Review ThinkMarkets
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Pepperstone
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Vantage FX
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IG Index
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Trading Instruments Comparison

Comparison of ThinkMarkets Trading Instruments
ThinkMarkets Pepperstone Vantage FX IG Index
CFD Yes Yes Yes Yes
Forex Yes Yes Yes Yes
Stocks Yes Yes Yes Yes
Crypto No Yes No No
Commodities Yes Yes Yes Yes
Oil Yes Yes Yes Yes
Gold Yes Yes Yes Yes
Copper Yes Yes Yes Yes
Silver Yes Yes Yes Yes
Corn No Yes No No
Futures No No No Yes
Options No No No Yes
ETFs No Yes Yes Yes
Bonds No No Yes Yes
Warrants No No No Yes
Spreadbetting Yes Yes Yes Yes
Volatility Index No Yes Yes Yes

ThinkMarkets vs Other Brokers

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Founded in 2010, ThinkMarkets is a reputable CFD and forex broker with regulation from several top-tier bodies including the FCA and ASIC. The broker provides services to over 450,000 accounts from 11 global offices. Traders can use a bespoke platform, MT4 or MT5 to access a wide variety of assets including 3500+ stocks and ETFs, 46 forex pairs and over 20 cryptocurrencies.