CMC Markets

CMC Markets

Bucket shop?

If you are fond of requotes this is the firm for you.
Stay away

I was about to open an account with them in Canada but I decided to read first about them on the internet. It is scary what you read there and I cannot understand how anyone could trade with these crooks. The Australians have the same type of reviews as on this site, most people are screwed by their system.

I also subscribed to their Demo platform. I watched their Nasdaq and Toronto level II against a reputable provider I use for my trades (I am a reasonably seasoned trader). On Nasdaq, they mark up the spreads a minimum of 2 points each way and very often 4 or 5 points. For the Canadian market, where they try to enter (they are not tegistered yet) they did not mark up the spread. However I noticed the unusual spikes that so many people talk about which do not appear on the honest level II I use.

As far as I know, their platform is the only one that does not have Volume, On balance Volume or any other Volume related indicator. Can you guess why? I also checked with the software vendor who provides the original of the CMC platform. They have all the Volume indicators here missing.

At one of their hyped presentations in Toronto I presented them with copies of the reviews I collected of the Internet but I never opened an account.

The CD's (certificate for Difference) they trade are an interesting and attractive derivative if they were to be traded honestly. They could make money on a honnest and declared markup like any market maker. I would accept such mark-ups if the trades were automatic, with no human interference in between.

So stay away if you don't want to part with your money.
Meh

Windows-based platform has some nice features (single price windows, a lot of indicators), but also some real nuisances (limit/stop orders can't be autoclosed when you close a position, guaranteed stop positions MUST be closed by executing the stop loss order, for example). Have seen some insane price spikes (100 points or so) randomly turn up in their data feed; I don't put my stop losses that close, but other people have had problems with them where they do.

If the platform really appeals, might suit you well, but they're really not that great.
Biggest Rip Offs in History

I have been to their headquarters about 5 years ago, I used to work closeby. They have a particular desk which looks at all the current positions from traders and calculates the risk towards the firm, they has a bias control that can move the market in their favour and take people out, this is common practice and happens all the time. The people that win usually have positions or stops to far away and are saved, I call this the 'Window Wiper' Scenario.

They also have 2 other key desks. One desk has a guy sitting there looking at all the traders that win all the time. When a trade for this person comes through the firm copies him/her and tries to make money for the firm. The money they use is reconciled from all those people that have lost, so basically its a recycling process, 'Make Money For Free'.

The other guy sits at another desk looking at all the loosing trades coming through. Usually the loosers trade massive stakes so he/she will hedge half the postion if the order is too big. He/she is allowed to take a certain % risk everyday, and the more he makes the bigger the car he will get at the end of the year.

Generally 95% of the people loose money so the firms hedge less and less and pocket the money, They hedge less and less because over the years they have accumulated so much money from 'loosers' they have their own 'pool of money' which can be used to pay money inn and out...

Many people do not understand the 'DEEP GAME' the firms are basically out to get you.

Most of the front line staff are not very clever and are generally rude/inexperienced, when they put the phone down they swear at the customers!

I have been asked by CMC Staff a few time "You are on the online trading platform why are you phoning us"?
I have to explain to an 18 year old that the reason I am calling is because I need a particular price and am getting rejections from the trader at a certain level so have given up on the online platform, also on level 2 there is much volume so why are you not filling me? I also have to advise the trader that they are there to perform a duty and need to satisfy the customer however they can within reason, and his comments are not an attractive way to invite business...its ridiculous really! They give you whatever price they want to give you.

The review by Vispatel below is also very good, this is a true reflection.

The spreads also seems tight but are a lie, they purposely have programmed engines that add +-2 to exits so in real terms you get a bad deal upon exit.

All firms perform this action they want to bankrupt you asap and then advertise again and get the next sucker in. Please hedge your positions and you will smash it!

I hit cmc hard and do massive trades out-of-the-blue, you need to be aggressive with the traders who are on about £30k but think they are on £100k+ when they are not. When I loose with CMC they are not aware I am betting elsewhere and only loose small amounts as I do sector bets. But they are catching on because the money going into the account is weird numbers like 1038.57p as I balance the books.

I get massive delays on my account because they are looking at what I do and copy me. I know this for sure, because when I bet on level 2 a precise chuck gets filled.

A friend traded the interest rate cut a few weeks ago, they said "We could not fill the order as it is exceptionally busy"! What?!!!!basically they got shafted and did not want to make the fill. I have advised this person to take it to the FSA it is a 'Compliance issue'

I would love if a group of traders got together and constituted a account with CMC and traded as a co-op basically there are ways you can make risk free profits if you have £200k in cmc account. The orders also need to be telephoned through to make sure it happens!

People should be very very careful to trade with cmc, just imagine someone setup a betting exchange between traders and no middle man like bet fair! This would be great.

The people who are serious traders should not use this broker, there is much competition and you can find alternative easily.

Firms give you a free £250 bet you can use this and close account. There is now law against this.
CMC = Steal4Free

CMC used to called Deal4Free, traders nicknamed them Steal4Free then moved on. CMC's trading reputation was so bad they had remarket themselves as CMC Markets. Enough said? What I have found personally is when you start winning at a constant rate, you will experience difficulties with your trades. If your a successful trader, try betting above 5pp, it's a nightmare. Scalping is a no no, you need to prepare yourself to be robbed of a few pips per trade before you take it.

Why do I trade with them? Because I enjoy taking a few grand a month off their bottom line profits, but am looking for an honest SBet company (do they exist?) to trade with who won't mess me around when I up my stakes considerably in the future, has anyone got any honest recommendations? Not Cap spreads, Finspreads or IG index, they are just as bad.
The house always wins in this case

Having read some of the reviews below, it reinforces the fact that this trading platform seriously feels as if you are being screwed in everyway possible...

Pending orders which take sometimes 45 mins, having to ask the helpdesk on chat to physically ask the traders to push the price through, to be then told 'one moment please while we check the stock ticker to make sure the price has been hit' was the most insulting thing ever. My worst experiance once was, i was Short USCrude which moves like lightening as you may know, my order was hit and highlighted in my pending orders list. The price fell and i was making roughly a dollar gain yet my order still hadn't been filled. So i decided to buy by the position back and lock in my profits, to be later told that 'the order will not be filled as there was not sufficient volume at that price'. So basically what will happen is a pending order will only be filled when the market moves in their direction.

Overnight trading is hilarious... even when the market is extremely stable, you will be given a reqouted price ... after a minute may i add.. of a price maybe another 12 basis away. Thanks CMC your a bargain!

Why you may ask that im so angry about a platform and still using it? Well its only when i came across this platform that i realised i wasnt the only one.

By the way the guys on the chat helpdesk do not have a clue what they are talking about sometimes, its best to ring the dealing desk direct. I have been given so much misguided information its unbelivable they are able to get away with this.

and one more note, if you think you will ever be able to profit out of events such as FED annoucements, EIA inventories reports or any dramatic report like such, you WONT, because your order will never get filled in time i promise you.

If anyone has a better platform which they recommend, or one that you know you feel you can trust when you place and order.. please let me know! thanks

Vispatel
frustration!!

The platform looks nice and is easy to use...BUT definitely not for day trading!

I have sent about 20 emails complaining about various shortcomings of there system....fills are definitely a big issue, if the market is moving fast your guaranteed to get royally screwed by cmc.

Today it took 20mins for my pending order to get filled after the fed announcement....i went from 250bp gain to only a 70bp gain, not to mention that all my capital was locked up waiting for the pending order to get filled so couldn't do anything until i was filled at a price which turned out to be VERY much against me.

Today was the last straw and i am now looking for a decent application/platform...any ideas are welcome

Also am considering setting up a i hate cmc markets society! any takers?.....
Bad experience

I was on a trading course a while ago. We were trading live, using CMC as the spread betting co but, we had an independent data source for verification.

We held a position overnight which was showing a good profit and tried to close it soon after market opening. Every time we tried to close it, CMC moved the price away from us, even though the independent RT data feed showed that it had hardly moved. By the time CMC, finally, accepted the order, they had taken another 4p points in addition to their normal spread.

I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.
Sluggish execution

My experience was that whenever market moved, their system made sure I wasn't able to get my trades executed. I've been 1000 times more satisfied with IB.
Not for the serious trader

This is really not a platform for anyone that is serious about trading.

You are not going directly into the market but betting against the house.

This would be ok but after waiting for 1 minute to see if a trade gets filled on dow futures or not i would not call this a professional system by any means.

if you can afford to wait 1 minute to see if a trade gets executed and on something like the dow can surrender 100 points on a requote then feel free to use.

Anyone serious about trading must go down the direct access route.
Super charts

Excellent charting on their MarketMaker platform. I use 3 other SB Co's and CMC is by far the best technically for playing around and individualising the vast amount of indicators. I have found a brilliant use for heikin-ashi candles by playing around with them after coming across them while looking for something else !! Well done CMC
Top Platform

No SB firm is perfect, but this is a top platform, it's stable, it's fast and it does what it say on the tin.
The Spread

i understand the importance of looking after the pennies but really are the spreads that important? i mean how much are you playing with? to me its like watching the rugby and complaining for the whole match about the grass you cant cheat fate a loser is a loser
The Spread!!

Having just recently closed my account with CMC Spreadbet on the grounds that I no longer found their spreads competitive in particular US and European Stock Price. Along with various other problems with the platform updating late following telephone trades. i.e: Closed trades being shown as open following data feed crash. Thus resulting in further trades closing trades that were not open!! I was a little surprised at the offer I received from the staff member. Words to the effect we can offer tighter spreads for certain individuals and offer tighter stop placement. I felt it was a little odd. Why cant everyone enjoy this facility??? The staff member added that a small number of clients were enjoying this facility already!! Nice polite staff though...

PS. I wonder if the "big" spread players are paying some other traders spread???? :-) How kind.. This may prompt a nice 10/10 feedback from another CMC "Client"!!
Tricky and dubious

Tricky and cunning in their use of manufactured spikes that are not reflected in the actual market to wipe out your stops...after a while all their good points are lost in the mire of this dubious practice......
Agreed

I have to agree with firscall.

The spreads may seem tight but after 12 months of requotes, shading, stop running and all the other shady techniques of your turn of the century bucket shop, one ends up paying well over the odds. All in all this leads to a situation of negative expectancy because you're not trading the market you're trading against the CMC house. Go the Direct Access route and pay the income tax because you'll be saving in the long run.

CMC has a slick public facing marketing machine but don't be fooled by it. Because the not so public customer services arm are great when you're asking simple questions but not so good when you ask question like "why does it take upto 45 seconds to get an S&P500 futures fill?"

The following is an actual reply, from the CMC compliance department, that was given to a client of mine:

"...while you were trading on S&P June contract, there were some pricing issues. As a result of this, all trades on that instrument were being manually checked by a dealer which led to the delay. We do not believe that this is unfair practice, if you were incurring losses while we were experiencing pricing difficulties in good faith, I think you would expect the firm to be taking care to ensure that you were dealing on the right prices. This is an unfortunate situation, however, I am afraid that we cannot offer to reverse your trades on your account. We have acted fairly, followed your instructions and have adhered to our Terms of Business 6.5."

Interesting that CMC don't see the need to inform their customers of price delays.

Oh...I'll include the Terms of Business 6.5:

"It is possible that errors may occur in the prices quoted by us. In such circumstances, without prejudice to any rights you or we may have under statute or common law, neither party will be bound to any Bet which purports to have been made (whether or not confirmed by us) at a price which was, or ought reasonably to have been, known by the other third party to be materially incorrect at the time of the Bet."

That is short hand for "we'll do what we like with our pricing."

If you must spreadbet then try Barclays. The spreads are slightly higher but you get quick execution and it actually feels like you're trading the market.
Poor

Poor execution, price shading, price spiking that doesn't mirror the market.

If you want to position trade without using stops, don't mind losing a tick or two per-side due to requotes and don't mind the dubious small print (for God sake read it) then this broker is for you.
Good platform, good value seminars

I've been a CMC customer for a few months and am so far impressed with the company as a whole. The spreadbet trading application is well designed, and a new version has just been released. They do a range of free and paid-for seminars and workshops. The paid-for ones cost around £200 and they teach you a lot. There's no need to pay thousands for certain other trading courses!
Great Spreads, Great Platform, Great Service

No complaints at all! I did a spread comparison with other firms and found them either better or equal to other firms for what I trade. Good platform with excellent charting and fast execution. I also found the default layout feature really helpful. 24- hour dealing and customer support, very happy!
Good broker

I have no complaints with CMC - good spreads, good charting and good committment to enhancing the platform. One thing I would say is that you need to ensure that you have good memory on your PC otherwise the CPU can get overloaded leading to the platform freezing.
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