HYCM Review

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HYCM is an award winning, multi-regulated broker with over 40 years of experience. They provide you with a diverse range of assets to trade with very good trading conditions from my experience. This includes quick trade execution speeds with minimal slippage, tight spreads and competitive trading costs. You can access the global markets via user-friendly yet powerful trading platforms for all of your devices. I would put them up there with some of the best trading brokers for reasons that we will explore in detail throughout this review.

Summary

HYCM is a multi-regulated broker that has been providing trading services to clients across the globe since 1977. I like that they offer a wide range of assets to trade across multiple markets including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies & CFDs. I think they have certainly established themselves as one of the leading providers of FX and CFDs.

HYCM has several decades of experience. I trust the security of their services since they’ve been regulated since 1998. They process around 25,000 orders each day with fast execution. I would’ve preferred a broker to have 24/7 customer support but 24/5 customer support with a dedicated personal account manager available at all times for any queries is just as good too. There are over 300 trading instruments to trade across 6 asset classes with raw spreads from 0.2 pips and an average execution speed of just 12 milliseconds. However, you can get zero spreads and top class execution speeds from Pepperstone as an alternative option.

HYCM have accumulated plenty of global awards for their trading services. This has helped them gain recognition as an industry leader and to become one of the online brokers of choice for many traders worldwide.

Trading Conditions

HYCM put a strong emphasis on providing excellent trading conditions with large liquidity pools, high speed trade execution, tight spreads and competitive trading costs but this is something that I feel is already expected from brokers so it isn’t something that they need to boast about having. They embrace the latest innovative technologies in order to cater to traders ever demanding needs which I find to show that they really care about their customer’s experience. In terms of trading conditions, they are comparable with leading brokers such as IG.

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AvaTrade is an award-winning and multi-regulated broker offering a great selection of trading instruments including Forex, Cryptos, Stocks and Commodities. You can trade on all of your devices via user-friendly platforms with excellent trading conditions and no commission fees.

Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

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Regulation

HYCM are regulated by two of the most respected authorities which gives clients comfort that they are trading with a trusted and reputable broker. HYCM is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). It gives me just the extra reassurance when a broker is regulated by a tier-one body. You could consider Plus500, who are regulated across an impressive 5 continents.

HYCM operate in accordance with the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR), where it is a legal obligation for all EU firms to report all derivatives to trade repositories. They report all clients’ executed trades through UnaVista, the LSE global hosted platform (FCA) and DTCC (CySEC).

They are also regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the Cayman Island Monetary Authority (CIMA).

This regulation means that HYCM must abide by strict regulatory requirements. They must undergo regular third-party audits to ensure that they are maintaining the highest standards with a qualified compliance officer ensuring their compliance with all regulatory responsibilities, fair treatment of clients and resolution of complaints. It is a legal requirement for them to submit financial reports and prove their capital adequacy. Oftentimes I would go through these reports myself just to make sure I know what I’m getting into with each broker.

Funds

I appreciate that HYCM takes safety of client funds, transparency and fair practice very seriously. They have partnered with top tier banks such as Barclays and Eurobank to hold client funds in segregated bank accounts so they cannot be used for any other purpose.

Countries

HYCM have some regional restrictions. I read on their website that they do not offer their services to residents of certain jurisdictions such as Afghanistan, Belgium, Hong Kong, Japan, the United States of America and some other regions. Although I find this unpleasing, it isn’t their fault as these countries are quite strict in who they allow to operate within them.

Platforms

HYCM offer the online brokerage industry standard MetaTrader platforms. Most trading brokers have these platforms which makes them one of the most popular choices. I personally don’t mind that they don’t have their own proprietary platform since most traders don’t use those anyway. With the exception of brokers such as AvaTrade who have their own proprietary platforms for you to trade on. MetaTrader was developed by software company MetaQuotes and has continued to grow over the years, often the go to platform for new traders.

MetaTrader Platforms

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) Platform

HYCM offer one of the world’s leading trading platforms, MetaTrader 4 (MT4). I appreciate that it is a user-friendly interface and this is also why it is very popular amongst many traders of all experience levels from across the globe.

MT4 utilises advanced technology to provide a powerful and flexible trading solution for all types of traders. MT4 is available on desktop (Windows / MAC), web and mobile (iPhone / iPad / Android / Tablet). I have to admit that their iOS app is definitely way more user-friendly than their android one.

I love how MT4 is customisable to suit your own unique preferences with a large collection of built in indicators and trading templates for technical chart analysis. You can also create your own indicators, templates and automated trading systems. I really enjoy customising my screen to suit my preference so this is something I look out for as well. There are 100 instruments available to trade through HYCM’s MT4 platform.

The key features of the MT4 trading platform include:

• User friendly platform with many online tutorials available
• Fully customisable charts & user interface to suit your trading style
• Supports multiple chart styles, order types & timeframes
• Vast collection of built in trading tools including technical indicators & graphical objects
• Conduct in-depth technical & fundamental market analysis across a large selection of trading instruments from multiple asset classes
• Automated trading through the use of expert advisors (EAs)
• MQL4 programming interface to create customised indicators, scripts & EAs
• Strategy tester for back testing EAs over many years of historical data
• Large online community where you can get additional tools for the platform & copy trading signals
• Alert notifications via SMS, email & pop-ups
• Available on desktop, web & mobile devices (iOS & Android)

MetaTrader 5 (MT5) Platform

HYCM also offer MetaTrader 5 (MT5) which is similar to MT4 with some additional features including additional timeframes, more technical analysis indicators and an integrated economic calendar. MT5 also has around 300 trading instruments compared to the 100 on MT4. Despite the fact that the MT5 platform has more capabilities than MT4, the older platform still remains the most popular amongst traders. I personally wouldn’t use the MT5 platform as I dont find it as user-friendly as the MT4 platform. This is also perhaps due to the fact that MT4 has an abundance of additional custom indicators and EAs available online.

Mobile Trading Apps

Mobile trading is possible with the MetaTrader app for iOS and Android devices. This is useful if you plan to trade on the go. My favourite part is how you can open, manage and close orders with complete control over your trading account from your mobile phone or tablet. The MetaTrader apps maintain most of the core features as the desktop platform. It is very user friendly with a simple layout and modern interface for quick and easy trading from within the palm of your hands.

MetaTrader Apps

Tools

There is a selection of tools that I found very useful on the HYCM website. These trading tools can complement those already built into the trading platform very well. They can increase market analysis capabilities and overall trading efficiency.

I especially like the availability of Trading Central as I find it great for market analysis. I would also like to see them include Autochartist for a more in-depth market analysis and trading signals. You can get this tool form other brokers including BlackBull Markets.

Trading Calculators

After creating an account with HYCM, I immediately had access to a selection of easy to use trading calculators that could help me with trade planning and management. These include the Pip Calculator, Currency Converter and Margin Calculator. My personal favourite when I was still a beginner was definitely the pip calculator since pips had always really confused me.

Economic Calendar

You can keep track of market news events with the user-friendly economic calendar which can be filtered by country, category, impact, dates and more. The calendar is considered by many experts as an imperative aspect of fundamental analysis. I couldn’t go through a successful day of trading without one myself.

Market Outlook

The market outlook provides the latest news, commentary, fundamental and technical analysis. I’ve been studying it for quite a while and noticed that it is updated frequently and goes into great detail including illustrated charts. This can help to inspire potential trading signals whilst also being useful if you have an open position you are keeping tabs on.

Trading Central

HYCM offer Trading Central’s award winning analysis tools to use on their platforms to assist traders with their trading decisions. These tools include Alpha Generation, Risk Management and Indicators Lab. Trading Central third-party plugins can be installed on the MetaTrader platforms to further enhance technical analysis and to provide market forecasts and commentary. I installed its third-party plugins on my MetaTrader platform to further enhance my technical analysis and to me provide market forecasts and commentary. This significantly improved my trading abilities.

Trading Central

Alpha Generation

Alpha Generation has 3 tools to help with your trading:

• Analyst Opinion Indicator: This indicator overlays research, forecasts, commentary and key levels (support/resistance/targets/stop pivots) from Trading Central’s analysts directly onto your charts. It displays the latest opinion of Trading Central analysts based on various timeframes on an intraday (30 min chart), short term (daily chart) or midterm (weekly chart) basis. You can program and fill in orders based on the analyst’s levels. After trying it out myself, I realized that I can actually program and fill in orders based on the analyst’s levels.
• Adaptive Candlesticks: Trading Central Adaptive Candlesticks (TCAC) will mark your chart with valid candlestick patterns that can be incorporated into your own trading system and show potential trade setups whilst helping to improve trading skills and timing. There are 16 candlestick patterns included and when I rolled my mouse over a mark-up, it revealed more information on a candlestick.
• Adaptive Divergence Convergence Signals: The Adaptive Divergence Convergence (ADC) is a technical indicator that adapts according to the current market conditions, shortening in trending market and getting longer in ranging markets. This really helped me pin point trending and ranging markets. I noticed that they are also slow and fast oscillators to assist with trading signals. As it has only one parameter, it can easily be optimised according to your preferences. Further information on entry and exit signals can be found by hovering your mouse over the mark up on the chart.

Risk Management

Risk Management has 2 useful tools to help with your market analysis.

• Probabilistic Market Classifiers: Probabilistic Market Classifiers (PMCs) show a probability of between 0 and 100 for a bearish, sideways and bullish market. I used this method quite a few times to differentiate between tending and ranging markets. It is possible to combine the PMC on multiple timeframes for a greater outlook.
• Probabilistic Stops: Probabilistic Stops can be used to find price levels for your stop loss that will allow for reasonable price fluctuations. My favourite part about this is that you can adjust them according to your preferences.

Indicators Lab

Indicators Lab provides you with some indicators that you can use for your own trading systems and chart analysis.

• Regularised Momentum: This indicator can be used to remove unwanted momentum turning points and offers a smoothing technique to momentum which could otherwise be too noisy to interpret. This was an issue I was very familiar with before I found out about this indicator.
• Regularised Buying Selling Pressure: Buying Selling Pressure (BSP) reflects the underlying tendency of close prices to gather near the highs in an uptrend or near the lows in a downtrend. As BSP can usually be a noisy signal, regularisation helps to get rid of some of this noise.
• Regularised RSI: RSI is used as an indicator with an exponential smoothing constant of one and regularisation parameter. This usage means regularisation is being used only for smoothing.

Education

HYCM has a wide selection of free educational materials suitable for novice and experienced traders. When I was a beginner, this was something that I really used quite a lot to help me become a better trader. These educational tools are designed to help you improve your trading skills and knowledge of the financial markets.

Trading Guides

There is a good selection of free trading guides where plenty of subjects are covered ranging from the basics of trading, trading psychology, chart analysis and much more. There are tutorials, videos, e-books, trading strategies, articles and courses. I really recommend the tutorials and videos as they do a much better job at explaining things.

Webinars & Seminars

HYCM offer frequent webinars for traders to participate in and venue-based seminars that clients can attend. This adds to the overall transparency and friendly approach adopted by HYCM.

Markets

HYCM offer traders a range of assets to trade across multiple markets including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies & CFDs. There are 100+ instruments available to trade on the MT5 platform and 300+ on MT5. I think the instruments would be enough if you are planning on trading forex and want access to some popular stocks. However, they dont have as many stocks as TMGM who have an excellent range of over 15,000+ stocks for you to choose from.

Forex Trading

There is a large range of major, minor and exotic currency pairs to trade forex with raw spreads starting from just 0.2 pips. I think the forex offering should be enough for most forex traders.

Stocks Trading

You can trade stocks in some of the world’s leading brands and global equity markets. There is a decent amount of stocks to choose from, including most major companies.

Commodities Trading

You can trade commodities without owning the financial instrument on which the contract is based. This includes precious metals and energies.

Crypto Trading

Users can trade cryptocurrencies without physically purchasing them, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. They are constantly looking to add some of the latest and most popular cryptos.

Accounts

HYCM offer a variety of trading accounts to suit individual trader needs and levels of experience. I love that they didn’t go overboard with their offerings as this can often confuse traders. If you are not sure what account to choose, there is a short questionnaire that will help identify the most suitable for you.

If you are looking for low spreads then you would want to consider the raw account where the spreads start from just 0.2 pips. There is also a commission fee of $4 per round turn which is quite low when compared to other leading brokers such as IC Markets who charge $7 per round turn. However, HYCM does not have zero spreads as IC Markets and XM Group do for example. When you factor in both the spread and commission fee from these brokers, the difference between overall cost is negligible.

All accounts are Islamic friendly and minimum deposits start at just $100. There are brokers who require a smaller deposit if that is too much for you. Admirals have a minimum deposit requirement of just $5.

I actually found the account opening process quite simple and fast with HYCM. All I had to do was complete the online registration form and fill out the brief trader’s questionnaire. Once my account had been verified by uploading my proof of identification and address, I could finally fund my account via my preferred method and commence trading.

Fixed Spread Account

The fixed spread account requires a minimum deposit of $100 with fixed spreads starting from 1.8 pips. There is no commission charged as fees are included within the spread.

Classic Account

The classic account requires a minimum deposit of $100 with variable spreads starting from 1.2 pips. There is no commission charged as fees are included within the spread.

Raw Spread Account

The raw spread account requires a minimum deposit of $200 with variable raw spreads starting from 0.2 pips and $4 commission fee per round turn.

VIP Account

There is a special VIP account for clients who actively trade larger volumes. The VIP account comes with lower spreads, a dedicated account manager and comprehensive market analytics.

Support

HYCM have a professional global customer support team on hand around the clock to assist. They welcome all questions and are on hand to support you from your initial inquiries all along your trading journey. Customer support is provided via online chat, telephone and email. I would’ve preferred if they offered their services on weekends as well as this is when many traders would get the time to ask their questions. FP Markets are an alternative option where you can get 24/7 customer support.

HYCM have a solid background as they are part of the Henyep Capital Markets Group, which is an international conglomerate with businesses in financial services, property, education and charity. They support many charitable causes and organisations including Operation Smile, Hong Kong AIDS Foundation and The Community Chest of Hong Kong. I can probably speak for most of this generation when I say that charitable activities really put a good impression when choosing a broker. Henyep’s operations are headquartered in Hong Kong’s Central business district with regional offices in London, Dubai and Limassol.

Funding

HYCM provide a variety of quick and convenient methods of depositing and withdrawing from your trading account. I personally favour online payment processors such as Skrill and Neteller as they’re a faster method of funding. However, they dont currently support crypto funding. If you want to make crypto deposits and withdrawals, you could try KOT4X.

Some fees may be charged when using certain payment methods. Bank transfers may take a few business days to clear. Accounts can be opened in USD, EUR & GBP. The different currency options are beneficial as currency conversion fees do not apply when using an account in your own currency. I would like to see them provide accounts with more currency options to cater to a larger community.

Conclusion

HYCM is an award-winning global online broker that is under strict regulation and has been providing financial services to clients for a long time now. I can confirm that they have a good selection of tradeable instruments over a range of markets but they could definitely add more instruments to their offerings. Execution speeds and spreads are very competitive whilst there are trading accounts suited to each individual trader’s needs. Various funding methods are available (not cryptos) and customer service is on hand for support. The charitable work from the Henyep Capital Markets Group is highly commendable and helps to emphasise strong business ethics. I would confidently use them for trading CFDs on the MetaTrader platforms.

$100

HYCM is an award winning, multi-regulated broker with over 40 years of experience providing a range of assets to traders across the globe with high speed trade execution, tight spreads and competitive trading costs.

Between 74-89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.

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