ThinkMarkets

South Africans will be trading under the subsidiary, TF Global Markets (South Africa) Pty Ltd, authorised and regulated by the FSCA. A well-respected regulator, the FSCA ensures that ThinkMarkets keeps all client funds segregated from company funds in top-tier banks in South Africa. It also ensures that ThinkMarkets is audited regularly to ensure that clients are being treated fairly. 

Although not required by the FSCA, ThinkMarkets provides South African traders with negative balance protection, so that when trading with leverage, clients cannot lose more than their initial deposit. Additionally, ThinkMarkets holds an insurance policy covering up to 1 million USD for individual traders in case of broker bankruptcy.

The account-opening and verification process at ThinkMarkets is fully digital and accounts are ready within 48 hours, which is about the industry average. 

All South African residents are eligible to open an account at ThinkMarkets, as long as they meet the minimum deposit requirements. These are:

• Standard Accounts: 0 USD
• ThinkZero Accounts: 500 USD

1. From the ThinkMarkets homepage, you will have to click on the ‘Create Account’ tab where you will be directed to register an account. Traders can choose between registering a live or demo account.   
2. ThinkMarkets’ registration form requires traders to fill in their country of residence, and choose the product type they would like to trade – either shares or CFDs.
3. Next, traders are required to fill in their South African ID number and tax number.
4. Traders will then have to fill in their personal details, including name, email address, and date of birth, and choose a password. 
5. Traders will then be able to choose their platform (MT4, MT5, or the ThinkMarkets’ platform). 
6. The next step requires completing one’s financial details, including employment status, and financial status.
7. Verification usually takes less than 48 hours and ThinkMarkets will need:
   1. Proof of Identification – ThinkMarkets accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. 
   2. Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the account holder within the last 6 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority. 

ThinkMarkets provides a broader range of tradable instruments than most other brokers, which should leave most traders satisfied.

Unlike other brokers that offer a range of account types with lower spreads linked to higher minimum deposits, ThinkMarkets offers only two market-execution accounts. The Standard Account has the trading costs included in the spread while the ThinkZero Account offers tighter spreads and a small commission per trade.

Trading costs are a little higher than average on the Standard Account – most good brokers’ entry-level accounts have a trading cost of 9 USD per lot of EUR/USD traded.  However, with no real minimum deposit requirements to speak of, this is still a good account for beginner traders.  

Trading costs improve significantly on the ThinkZero Account, but the minimum deposits here are much higher, at 500 USD.

ThinkMarkets offers two general accounts, a Standard Account with wider spreads and the ThinkZero Account – an ECN account with tight spreads and commission per trade.  The Standard Account is suitable for beginners, with no minimum deposit requirements.

Standard Account

The Standard Account is a commission-free trading account with variable spreads and no minimum operating balance, average spreads on major pairs are 1.10 pips but can fall to 0.4 pips at times. Leverage on this account is 500:1 and all three of ThinkMarket’s supported platforms are available.  Standard Account holders have free access to live webinars, special reports, and Trading Central.  

ThinkZero Account

The ThinkZero Account offers tighter spreads – starting at 0 pips but averaging 0.1 pips on major pairs – but charges an industry-standard commission of 7 USD (round turn) per trade. The minimum operating balance on this account is 500 USD and the ThinkTrader platform is unsupported – meaning you will have to use MT4 or MT5. Like the Standard Account, leverage is also set at 500:1 but ThinkZero Account holders have access to live webinars, special reports, Trading Central, and a personal account manager.

All the trading platforms supported by ThinkMarkets are available as mobile and tablet downloads – allowing traders to keep track of their open positions while on the move.

MT4/MT5

MT4 and MT5 are freely available on both Android and IOS mobile phones and tablets. The advantage of using the MetaTrader platform is the cross-device and multi-broker functionality, making it easier to change brokers or use multiple brokers.  

ThinkMarkets’ MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with 21 timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. Functionality to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit/loss in real-time, and tick chart trading further empowers traders while on the move.

ThinkTrader Mobile

The ThinkTrader mobile app is also available for Android and iOS.  It has the same functionality as the desktop version of the platform, including in-app deposits and withdrawals, real-time news, and one-click multiple order closing. Traders can also access 80 indicators and 50 chart types, including the TrendRisk scanner.  Other features of the ThinkTrader mobile app include:

• Quad screen display
• Multi Deal closure
• Cloud-Based Alerts
• Multitouch Functionality

Alongside ThinkMarkets proprietary ThinkTrader platform, it also offers support for MT4 and MT5, the two most popular trading platforms in the Forex industry.  In addition to the desktop applications, available on Windows and Mac, ThinkMarkets also offers MT4 and MT5 WebTerminal, which are browser-based versions of the platforms, along with mobile and tablet versions of both iterations.  

ThinkTrader

ThinkMarkets’ proprietary platform grew out of the company’s acquisition of Trade Interceptor, an award-winning trading platform in its own right. Available for mobile, tablet, web, and desktop ThinkTrader offers in-app deposits and withdrawals, real-time news from FX Wire Pro, and one-click multiple order closing. It also features over 125 indicators and 50 chart types and includes the TrendRisk scanner to assist traders in finding opportunities over different timeframes.  The ThinkMarkets platform is also easy to use and set up, making it a good choice for beginner traders.

MetaTrader 4

Having established itself as the industry-leading platform, Metatrader 4 (MT4) is the most reliable and popular platform in existence. Its intuitive interface and user-friendly environment provide essential tools and resources for successful online trading. It is also widely recognised for its fast execution speeds, range of charting tools, algorithmic trading, and customisability. MT4 is available in over 31 languages.  

Other features of MT4 include:

• Supports the creation, modification, and utilisation of automated trading strategies.
• Supports MQL4 programming language.
• Algorithmic trading, which allows any trading strategy to be formalised and implemented as an Expert Advisor. 
• Allows traders to develop their own custom indicators
• Superior charting tools in nine timeframes
• 31 graphical objects
• 30 built-in indicators
• 9 timeframes
• Three order execution types
• Four types of pending orders

While MT4 has great customizability, the platform feels outdated, and some of the features may be hard to find.  In addition, only the basic orders are available, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop.

MetaTrader 5

The MT5 trading platform is being adopted by more Forex brokers all the time, it has a more modern interface, allows for an unlimited number of charts to be used, shows Depth of Market, and has a built-in Economic Calendar. It also has a larger number of pending order types than MT4 and features an embedded chat system. In addition, the MQL5 scripting language is more efficient than its precursor and MT5 has more advanced charting tools than MT4.

The benefit of brokers offering third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 is that traders can use the platforms should they choose to migrate to another broker.  However, MT4 and MT5 are often not as user-friendly as ThinkMarkets’ proprietary platform.  

ThinkMarkets operates a “return to source” policy, meaning that withdrawals must be made via the same method and the same account as the original deposit.

ThinkMarkets allows accounts to be denominated in AUD, CAD, CHF, EUR, GBP, NZD, SGD, USD, and ZAR.  

This is a benefit for South African traders who will be able to avoid paying conversion fees for deposits and withdrawals. Additionally, having a ZAR account means that deposits and withdrawal times are much quicker.  

Deposits and withdrawals at ThinkMarkets can be made in a number of currencies which vary depending on the chosen payment provider. Additional deposit methods may be available depending on your country of residence. For example, if your account is held with ThinkMarkets’ South Africa entity, you will also be able to deposit funds using OZOW.

ThinkMarkets’ trading tools are great for both beginner and advanced traders.

Trading Central

A tool that provides a technical market analysis from third-party industry experts.  Trading Central’s top-notch indicators can help guide client trades through an easy-to-access platform.  It is intuitive, scans the market for opportunities 24/7, and provides a comprehensive analysis and constant notification alert system. 

VPS (Virtual Private Server) Hosting

Available on both MT4 and MT5, ThinkMarkets partners with ForexVPS to offer a free VPS service to traders who trade a minimum of 15 round turn lots on Forex in a calendar month.  Services are provided by ForexVPS and Beeks VPS.  Traders also get a 15% discount on Beeks VPS on opening a live account with ThinkMarkets.  Traders will have to contact the service providers directly to find out about pricing.  

VPS services ensure trades are never disrupted by technological or connectivity issues, such as internet service failure, which is a benefit to algorithmic traders who need to be connected to a server 24/7 to maximise uptime.  Other benefits of the VPS service include:

• 24/6 VPS email support
• 24/7 Redundant power to your VPS
• 24/7 Redundant internet connectivity to your VPS
• Low latency connectivity to FP Markets trading servers for precision trading
• Uninterrupted EA trading

Zulutrade

Zulutrade, a third-party platform, is a peer-to-peer social trading application where traders can choose among thousands of registered traders from 192 countries.  Traders are ranked using “ZuluRank” according to a number of different metrics, including their overall performance, stability, maturity, exposure, and minimum equity required. ZuluTrade charges a 30 USD monthly subscription. ZuluTrade customers will be charged directly by ZuluTrade via credit card, PayPal, or other.  On the whole, Zulutrade is an excellent social trading platform, particularly for beginners who are new to the trading space.

ThinkMarkets’ market analysis materials are limited compared to other similar brokers.  

Market research and analysis are slightly disappointing.  Alongside a basic Economic Calendar, ThinkMarkets has a Market News section featuring a stream of market analysis. This analysis is updated every few days and is of high quality, though we would like to see daily market updates across the major pairs. In this section, you can also find a Sentiment Indicator for the major pairs and links to the ThinkMarkets Twitter account, though at the time of writing this seems to have not been updated in some time.

ThinkMarkets also publishes special reports, although this occurs very infrequently.

Education at ThinkMarkets is split into three tutorials: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced – unfortunately, some tutorials are only available after signing up with ThinkMarkets, though you will not need to make a deposit in order to access them.

The Beginner section covers the basic aspects of Forex CFD trading such as leverage and margin and introduces traders to the MT4 platform. The Intermediate section covers trading plans, candlesticks, order types, and chart patterns – all essential skills for successful traders. Finally, the Advanced section covers technical and fundamental analysis, Fibonacci ratios, and support and resistance levels, among others – again, concepts that we consider essential for successful trading.

Alongside these tutorials, ThinkMarkets also has a technical analysis section of commonly used indicators for MT4 and MT5 – something we wish more brokers would offer to new traders, a section of educational articles, and a Trading Glossary devoted to the terminology of CFD trading.

ThinkMarkets also offers weekly live webinars, run by industry experts.  Traders merely have to register a name and email address to attend webinars.  

Customer support is available 24/7 from ThinkMarkets Johannesburg offices. Support is available via phone, email, and live chat and phone numbers are also available for the Australia, UK, Italy, and Spain offices.

For the purposes of this review, we found the Customer Support at ThinkMarkets to be responsive, polite, and resourceful.