FXTM Review: Licences, Trading Costs and Account Types

Main Strengths and Weaknesses

FXTM’s published terms for the first quarter of 2026 show a clear split between what the broker does well and where it falls short. Four things account for most of it: which live tier an account sits on, Advantage or Advantage Plus; what spread and commission come to on the major currency pairs, gold and indices; what those costs leave of a deposit of, say, 500 dollars; and how deposits and withdrawals are handled. The short summary comes first, the detail after it.

Strengths:

• Competitive pricing on the Advantage account, where spreads start at 0.0 pips and commission is 3.50 dollars per lot per side
• A wide product list of more than 1000 financial instruments, covering over 50 currency pairs, 300+ share CFDs and 500+ real shares
• A UK FCA licence, a tier-one authorisation that carries real regulatory weight
• Arabic-language support listed on every trading day, with a telephone line as well as live chat
• A large and varied Arabic-language education library aimed at beginners and improvers
• Flexible leverage of up to 1:2000 for clients outside Europe

Weaknesses:

• The group gave up its Cypriot CySEC licence voluntarily in May 2024, which raises fair questions about its regulatory direction even though the FCA licence remains in place
• A minimum deposit of 200 dollars, above what several rivals ask: Exness sets 10 dollars and XM sets 5 dollars
• An inactivity fee of 5 dollars a month once an account has gone 6 months without a trade
• The swap-free account has to be applied for by hand with supporting documents, and administrative charges may apply once a limited grace period ends
• The FXTM Invest copy-trading service was discontinued in 2024

Taken as a whole, the published terms point to a broker that suits traders who want breadth of instruments, keen pricing on the professional tiers and support in Arabic. FXTM is a weaker fit for anyone who needs a very low entry deposit, or a swap-free account granted automatically and without conditions.

Company Background

ForexTime, which trades under the shorter name FXTM, was founded in 2011 by the Russian businessman Andrey Dashin, who also founded Alpari. The group is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, with offices in London, Dubai and Hong Kong and further regional offices across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

As the corporate disclosures stood in February 2026, FXTM sits inside Exinity Group, the holding group it joined in 2020 and which also owns the Alpari International brand. That consolidation widened the client base considerably: the group states it now serves more than 4 million clients in more than 180 countries. It also lists a number of industry awards, among them best educational broker and best customer service, from various awards bodies.

The point that deserves attention is the decision to surrender the Cypriot CySEC licence in December 2023, formally withdrawn in May 2024. The company’s explanation was that it had stopped serving retail clients in the European Union in February 2021 and no longer needed a European authorisation. It kept the Limassol office and its other licences in the United Kingdom, Mauritius and South Africa.

Is FXTM a legitimate broker? The question comes up constantly in Arabic search results. On the public registers, the answer is yes. The firm has traded since 2011, holds the British FCA licence, which is among the more demanding in the industry, and has an operating record of more than 14 years and millions of clients. None of that makes it free of drawbacks, or makes trading with it free of risk: the company’s own disclosure states that roughly 83% of retail trader accounts lose money when trading contracts for difference. For checking any brokerage independently, there is a guide to avoiding trading scams.

Why Traders Consider FXTM

Several things set FXTM apart from other brokerages, at least on the terms it publishes. None of them makes it the right broker for everyone, but together they make it a serious candidate for particular kinds of trader.

Breadth of instruments: the length of the product list is the first thing that stands out. More than 1000 financial instruments — 50+ currency pairs, 300+ share CFDs, 500+ real shares from the US exchanges, 17+ global indices, 10+ commodities and 11+ cryptocurrencies — let a FXTM account hold a mixed portfolio on one platform. That range is wider than much of the competition: Exness, for instance, lists around 200 instruments.

A strong FCA licence: the Cypriot CySEC authorisation has gone, but the British FCA licence (number 777911) remains one of the more demanding in the brokerage industry. The Financial Conduct Authority holds the firms it authorises to strict rules on client-money segregation, disclosure and conduct. Background on what a licence does and does not mean is set out in the licensing and regulation section.

Educational material: FXTM publishes one of the fuller education libraries in the brokerage industry, judged by what it makes available. Live Webinars in Arabic, detailed written tutorials and daily analysis videos are all part of it, which is most useful to anyone still learning the basics of trading.

Arabic support across several channels: FXTM is one of the few brokers to list a telephone line in Arabic alongside live chat and email. Response speed and reply quality are not assessed here. The Dubai office also puts staff in the same region as much of the Arabic-speaking client base.

Competitive pricing on the Advantage account: the published schedule puts Advantage spreads from 0.0 pips on the major pairs during the deepest liquidity hours, with commission of 3.50 dollars per lot per side. On paper the total cost sits alongside the cheaper brokers in the industry.

Licences and Regulation

The licence numbers below appear on the regulators’ own public registers, as those registers stood in February 2026. FXTM’s regulatory position changed materially across 2023 and 2024, and the changes are worth understanding before an account is opened with FXTM.

The most significant of them is the voluntary surrender of the Cypriot CySEC licence (number 185/12) in December 2023; it was formally withdrawn on 20 May 2024. The company described the step as strategic, on the grounds that it had stopped serving European retail clients in February 2021. The decision nonetheless prompted fair questions among traders.

Is FXTM actually licensed? Yes, and it can be checked independently. The British FCA register at register.fca.org.uk returns Exinity UK Ltd as registered and authorised against reference number 777911. The Mauritian FSC licence C113012295 can be looked up the same way, through the Financial Services Commission’s own site. A fuller account of why licences matter in this industry, and how to verify one, is published separately.

What that means in practice for an Arabic-speaking trader: in most cases the account will sit with the Mauritian entity, Exinity Limited, authorised by the FSC. The rules that entity works under are lighter than the ones the British FCA imposes on the firms it authorises, on client-money segregation and on conduct standards. The FCA licence exists, but it applies to a narrow slice of the client base. That does not make the firm untrustworthy; it does mean the regime that actually governs the account is weaker than an advertisement citing the FCA licence suggests. A broker-licence verification guide is worth reading before any trading account is opened.

It is only fair to add that the arrangement is common across the industry. Most international brokers serve clients in the Arab region through offshore entities rather than their European or British ones. The voluntary surrender of the CySEC licence still deserves watching, though.

Opening an Account and Verification

As the sign-up flow was documented in February 2026, the process is orderly but runs through several steps. Initial registration on the website takes roughly 5 minutes: basic personal details (name, email, telephone, country of residence), then a short questionnaire on trading experience and financial circumstances, which is a mandatory requirement imposed by regulators.

Identity verification (KYC) is the step that takes longest. Two documents are required: proof of identity, meaning a passport or national identity card, and proof of address, meaning a recent utility bill or bank statement. The stated turnaround once both are uploaded is about one business day, and some published accounts report a few hours in straightforward cases.

One point deserves attention: neither deposits nor trading are possible until identity verification is fully complete. That differs from brokers such as Exness, which allows trading immediately after registration under limited restrictions. Read one way, the stricter sequence reflects sound regulatory discipline. Read another, it is an obstacle for anyone who wants to start straight away.

Anyone new to trading who wants the general sequence rather than this broker’s version of it can turn to the guide on opening a trading account, which walks through the process step by step across different brokers.

The account-opening steps in brief:

• Visit the FXTM website, register personal details and complete the financial-knowledge questionnaire
• Upload the verification documents (identity plus proof of address) and wait for approval
• Choose the account type (Advantage, Advantage Plus or Advantage Stocks)
• Deposit and select a trading platform (MT4, MT5 or the FXTM app)

Account Types

FXTM offers three main live account types, each aimed at a different kind of trader. The differences between them are drawn clearly in the published schedule, which makes choosing the one that fits a given trading style relatively straightforward.

On total cost, Advantage is the stronger of the two for active trading in forex pairs. A raw spread from 0.0 pips plus a fixed commission keeps the arithmetic transparent and easy to follow. Advantage Plus suits anyone who would rather not deal with a commission line at all, but its spread from 1.5 pips is wider than the standard account at several competing brokers.

The Advantage Stocks account is reserved for buying real shares on the US exchanges rather than contracts for difference, which means the share itself is owned rather than a derivative written on it. The trade-off is that the account is limited to shares: no forex and no commodities from it.

An important note on leverage: FXTM offers up to 1:2000 on the Advantage and Advantage Plus accounts through MT4 for clients outside Europe. Leverage at that level is tempting and carries very large risk. A far lower setting such as 1:100 is more than enough for most trading strategies, and the account limit can be set well below the maximum on offer.

The swap-free account: both the Advantage and Advantage Plus accounts can be converted to swap-free. Unlike some rivals — Exness applies the swap-free setting automatically — FXTM requires a manual application and may ask for a certificate from a recognised religious authority. The published terms set a grace period of between two and 10 days depending on the instrument, and once it expires an administration charge may replace the swap, running from 1.50 to 20 dollars a day per standard lot on the major forex pairs. That is less transparent than a swap-free account which levies no administration charge at all.

Fees and Trading Costs

Trading costs are the one factor that bears directly on a trader’s profitability over the long run. The comparison below reads the published spreads across the London session, the New York session and the overlap between the two, and sets them against three of the closest competitors: Exness, XM and IC Markets.

Spreads

On the schedules published in February 2026 the spread is quoted as variable rather than fixed, and it widens noticeably as the European session closes and when significant economic data is released. The Advantage Plus account, which carries no commission, sits mid-table against the equivalent accounts at rival brokers.

The table below gives the approximate average spread on the Advantage Plus account, which carries no commission, for the most heavily traded instruments, against three competitors. The figures are approximations drawn from the brokers’ own published schedules for the first quarter of 2026 and from independent data sources.

As the table makes clear, the FXTM spread on the Advantage Plus account is close to XM across most instruments and wider than Exness and IC Markets. Anyone chasing the lowest achievable cost at FXTM should look at the Advantage account instead, where the raw spread comes with a commission. On that account the all-in cost of a EURUSD position works out at roughly 0.1 pips plus 7 dollars round-trip, the commission being worth about 0.7 pips, for a total in the region of 0.8 pips. That is keenly priced.

Commissions

The Advantage Plus account charges no commission at all, with the cost built entirely into the wider spread. The Advantage account charges 3.50 dollars per standard lot per side on forex pairs, which is 7 dollars for the round trip. Trading share CFDs through the Advantage account carries no separate commission, which many traders treat as an edge over brokers that charge one on every asset class.

On the published schedules the Advantage commission of 7 dollars round-trip is level with IC Markets at 7 dollars and with Exness Raw Spread at 7 dollars. The real competition is in the spread that arrives alongside that commission.

Overnight Financing (Swaps)

Overnight financing applies to any position still open at the daily market close. It varies with the instrument, the direction of the position and prevailing interest rates. On Wednesday the swap is levied at triple rate to cover the weekend. FXTM’s swap rates sit around the middle of the industry range and can be read off the contract specifications on its own site.

On the swap-free account no swap is charged, though an administration charge may take its place once the grace period ends, as set out in the account types section above.

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

FXTM does not charge for deposits as a general rule. Withdrawals depend on the method: a card withdrawal costs 2 euros, or 3 dollars on a dollar-denominated account, and a bank transfer costs 5 dollars. The e-wallets (Skrill and Neteller) are free in both directions. A processing charge of 3 dollars also applies to any transaction below 30 dollars.

Inactivity Fees

This is a clear mark against FXTM. The firm levies an inactivity fee of 5 dollars a month once an account has gone 6 months without a trade. An account holding 100 dollars would therefore shed 60 dollars across a year of inactivity. Set beside Exness, which charges nothing for inactivity, that is an obvious weakness, and it matters most to anyone who trades only occasionally.

The Fee Structure Overall

The FXTM fee structure is acceptable on the Advantage account, where the raw spread and the commission are both stated plainly, and less competitive on Advantage Plus than at some rivals. The inactivity fee and the card-withdrawal charge add costs a newer trader may not notice. Against that, the absence of commission on share CFDs in the Advantage account is a real advantage for anyone trading equities.

Desktop Trading Platforms

FXTM offers MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 as its two main routes to the market on desktop and in the browser. There is no proprietary FXTM desktop platform of the kind several competitors build in-house.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4): the most widely used platform in retail forex. It supports automated trading through expert advisors (Expert Advisors) and carries a broad set of technical indicators and charting tools. One quirk of MT4 at FXTM is that leverage runs as high as 1:2000, where MT5 caps it at 1:1000. It is the older of the two builds and remains the default choice for automated strategies.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5): the newer generation, with 21 timeframes against 9 in MT4, depth of market, a built-in economic calendar and more advanced analytical tools. The full FXTM range of 1000+ instruments is tradable through MT5, real shares included, via the Advantage Stocks account.

MetaTrader WebTrader: the browser build of MT4 and MT5, with nothing to install. Handy for quick access from any computer, but short of some of the more advanced features, automated trading among them.

A fuller account of what each platform does well and where it falls short is set out in the guide to trading platforms and the comparison between them.

Mobile Trading Apps

With so much trading now done from a phone, FXTM offers an app of its own, FXTM Trader (later rebranded FXTM: Investing and Trading), alongside the official MetaTrader apps. What the FXTM app does, as documented in February 2026, is set out below.

The FXTM app carries a good rating on Google Play, with more than a million downloads, and positive user ratings on the App Store as well. The interface is current and easy to work, with full Arabic throughout. Positions can be opened and closed quickly, charts followed, and the account managed — deposits and withdrawals included — from the handset.

Price alerts and notifications are part of the feature set. The charts inside the proprietary app are simpler than those in the MT4 and MT5 apps, which makes it better suited to placing and monitoring trades than to detailed technical analysis. Order-entry speed is not assessed here.

Alongside the proprietary FXTM app, the official MT4 and MT5 apps from MetaQuotes are available on both stores. Those carry the advanced technical analysis functions but not the FXTM account-management features.

Anyone interested in trading from a phone who wants to compare what different brokers offer can look at the guide to the best trading apps.

Instruments Available

FXTM lists more than 1000 financial instruments, one of the broadest ranges in the brokerage industry. The breakdown below follows the instrument categories as they are presented on the MT5 platform.

Equity coverage is the clearest advantage FXTM holds over rivals such as Exness, with around 100 share CFDs, and XM, with around 1300 share CFDs. The option to buy real shares rather than only contracts for difference, through the Advantage Stocks account, adds a further edge for anyone who wants to own the stock itself.

The count of currency pairs (50+ pairs) is lower than Exness (100+ pairs), but it covers every major and minor pair and a reasonable spread of exotics. Cryptocurrency coverage is comparatively thin (11+ coins) next to brokers that specialise in crypto.

Gold (XAUUSD) is among the more heavily traded instruments on the platform, and the spread on it is competitive, particularly on the Advantage account. Anyone interested in precious metals can work through the guide to trading gold for the fundamentals of that market.

Order Execution

Execution matters to anyone trading actively, and it is also where a review can say least without an account. FXTM routes the Advantage account on market execution, and states that it clears more than 90% of withdrawal requests inside 5 minutes. Order latency and fill quality are not measured here, and no figure for either is published in this review.

On slippage (Slippage), the mechanics are what the account model implies: orders on the raw-spread tier go straight to liquidity providers, so the fill is whatever the book offers at that instant. Slippage is therefore widest around major economic releases and narrowest in ordinary conditions. No slippage measurement was made for this review.

FXTM runs an STP/ECN model on the Advantage account, which means orders pass straight to liquidity providers with no dealer intervention in the pricing. The Advantage Plus account runs on a market-maker model (Market Maker), where the broker itself takes the other side of the trade.

The order types available are immediate market orders, pending orders (Buy Limit, Sell Limit, Buy Stop and Sell Stop), stop loss and take profit, and more advanced instructions such as Trailing Stop. All of them are the standard platform order types and all are available on the live accounts.

Deposit Methods

FXTM supports a range of deposit routes that covers most of what traders in the Arab region need. The table sets out the stated minimum, the processing time and the fee for each.

The positive is that every deposit route is free on FXTM’s side. What needs watching is that deposits below 30 dollars, after the first one, attract a processing charge of 3 dollars. The payment provider may also levy a fee of its own.

The e-wallets (Skrill and Neteller) are the quickest and most convenient of the routes, with a Visa card close behind. The detail to note is that the minimum first deposit is 200 dollars whichever payment method is used, and that is higher than at several competitors.

Withdrawal Methods

Withdrawal routes at FXTM mirror the deposit routes, with differences in the fees and the processing times. Withdrawals are requested from the client dashboard or from the app, and the procedure is set out plainly in both.

Can money be withdrawn from FXTM, and what about the reported FXTM withdrawal problems? These are among the most frequent questions in Arabic search. On the terms published for the first quarter of 2026, funds return by the route they arrived on: e-wallets such as Skrill are the quickest, card withdrawals go back to the card, and bank transfers take longest. No withdrawal was placed for this review, so the processing times in the table below are unverified rather than measured.

The complaints that appear on Trustpilot and in Arabic-language forums about withdrawals from FXTM point in both directions. Some users report withdrawals going through smoothly; others complain of delays. Read across the public record, most of the delay reports involve accounts where identity verification was never completed, or cases where the firm asked for further documents. For a fully verified account following the stated procedure, there is nothing in that record indicating a systemic problem.

One negative deserves stating: the card withdrawal fee (3 dollars) and the bank transfer fee (5 dollars) add cost, and they bite hardest on traders who withdraw small amounts often. Set against Exness, which charges nothing at all to withdraw, that is a clear weakness.

Customer Support

Three contact channels are published for Arabic-speaking clients, with a self-service help centre alongside them. What each one offers, as documented in February 2026, follows. Response speed is not measured for this review, and the times in the table are unverified.

Live Chat: live chat is listed among the support channels, with Arabic among the languages it is offered in, and it is the channel the broker points to first. No target response time is published for it. The difference between the Advantage and Advantage Plus accounts is the kind of question it is set up to handle, and the answer to that one is in the account types section above.

Email: a support address is published for written enquiries, including questions about the swap-free account terms. No target reply time is published for email, and reply times are not assessed here.

Telephone: one thing FXTM has over rivals such as Exness is a telephone line. A dedicated number is published for Arabic-speaking clients and is staffed in Arabic. Answer times and the quality of the advice given on it are not assessed here. The line is open during business hours, Monday to Friday.

Arabic-language provision at FXTM is solid on paper: the published material is written in the language rather than machine-translated, and the financial terminology is handled properly. A telephone line adds something for traders who would rather speak to someone in an urgent case. Support runs 24/5 rather than 24/7, though, which means there is no live cover at the weekend. Support quality is not a scored category here, because scoring it would require testing that has not been done.

Research and Educational Material

The educational and research material FXTM publishes is among the strongest things about the broker. FXTM has taken several industry awards as best educational broker, and the range and quality of what it makes available bear that out.

Live seminars (Webinars): FXTM runs live teaching sessions in Arabic on a regular schedule, presented by analysts and market specialists. The published programme runs from trading fundamentals through to more advanced strategies, with risk management a recurring subject, and the material is set out as practical instruction rather than promotion.

Articles and video tutorials: a broad library covering technical and fundamental analysis, risk management and trading terminology. A substantial part of it is available in Arabic. The level suits beginners and improvers, and it reaches further into advanced material than most brokers manage.

Daily analysis: FXTM publishes daily and weekly market notes covering the significant economic events and their likely effect on markets, some of it in Arabic. On the schedule published in February 2026, the notes appear at a regular cadence and carry named support and resistance levels alongside specific forecasts.

Analytical tools: the site carries an economic calendar, a trading calculator, currency converters and tools for working out margin and profit or loss. These are most useful to newer traders learning to size positions and manage capital.

Taken together, the educational material at FXTM is among the best in the brokerage industry and ahead of many competitors, Exness included, on this front. Anyone after further reading on financial analysis and its tools is best served combining what a broker provides with independent sources.

Fund Safety and Safeguards

Fund safety is among the first things to weigh in choosing a broker. The safeguards disclosed for FXTM in February 2026 work in layers, and which of them apply depends on the legal entity that holds the account.

Client fund segregation: FXTM states that client money is held in accounts kept separate from the company’s own operating funds, at established international banks. How closely that separation is supervised depends on the regulator: the FCA entity is held to a tight standard, while the FSC entity in Mauritius operates under a lighter one.

Negative balance protection: FXTM states that negative balance protection applies across all its accounts, so an account cannot end up below zero however violently the market moves. That provision matters especially where leverage runs as high as 1:2000.

Statutory arrangements by entity: Exinity UK Ltd is the entity authorised by the FCA. Most Arabic-speaking traders, though, are onboarded to the Mauritius entity, and Mauritius runs no equivalent statutory arrangement. The Cypriot licence (CySEC) brought a statutory ceiling of 20,000 euros with it for the entity it covered; that licence was surrendered, so the arrangement no longer applies to anyone.

Additional insurance: some sources record that FXTM holds professional indemnity insurance (Professional Indemnity Insurance) against errors by the firm. That is a further layer, but it is not a substitute for a statutory arrangement.

On fund safety the picture is mixed. FXTM has an operating record stretching back more than 14 years, millions of clients and a strong FCA licence. Losing the CySEC licence and routing most Arabic-speaking clients through the Mauritius entity lowers the level of regulatory oversight that actually applies. The sensible rule is not to deposit an amount that could not be afforded as a loss, and that applies to any broker, not only FXTM.

The Verdict

On the terms it published for the first quarter of 2026, FXTM reads as a broadly dependable broker offering a sound trading experience, with real distinction in the breadth of its instrument list, its educational material and its Arabic-language provision, and with several reservations that matter.

Who FXTM suits:

• Traders who want a wide instrument range (1000+ instruments, real shares among them)
• Beginners who need substantial Arabic-language teaching material with live seminars
• Active traders who will make use of competitive pricing on the Advantage account
• Anyone who prefers a broker offering telephone support in Arabic as well as chat and email

Who it may not suit:

• Anyone looking for a low entry deposit (10 dollars or under). FXTM asks 200 dollars
• Anyone who wants a swap-free account applied automatically with no administrative charge after the grace period. Exness handles that better
• Anyone who trades intermittently and does not want to pay an inactivity fee
• Anyone looking for withdrawals that are free by every route

The common worries, addressed:

On the recurring Arabic search query “is FXTM a scam or a fraud?” the answer from the public registers is no. The firm has traded since 2011, holds the British FCA licence (777911), which is among the strongest anywhere, and serves millions of clients through the Exinity group. The voluntary surrender of the CySEC licence in 2024, the inactivity fee and the administrative charges on the swap-free account are all things worth knowing before an account is opened.

On “FXTM withdrawal problems”, the public record is genuinely split. Trustpilot averages 3.5/5 across roughly 1000 reviews, with 49% awarding 5 stars and 22% awarding a single star. That spread is normal in the brokerage industry and reflects how differently individual cases go.

On “is FXTM haram?”, the firm offers a swap-free account, but with a limited grace period and possible administrative charges once it ends. That is less competitive than some other brokers manage. A religious ruling falls outside the scope of this review, and a qualified authority should be consulted on it.

The overall picture is a capable, broadly based broker with clear strengths in education, instrument range and Arabic-language provision, weaker on competitive detail such as the minimum deposit, the inactivity fee and the swap-free account terms. The one published score for this broker is the derived one, calculated from the weights set out in the rating methodology; no separate figure is assigned in this text. For more on telling reliable firms from fraudulent ones, read the guide to fraud in the trading market, and it is worth visiting the broker reviews page to compare other options before deciding.

Related reviews on this site: Global Prime, BlackBull Markets and HFM.