HotForex Review

HotForex is a member of HF Markets Group and was formed in 2008 as a Straight Through Processing (STP) forex broker. Based in Mauritius, the company is regulated by both the Financial Services Commission or FSC which handles its Mauritius compliance, and CySEC which regulates it’s Cyprus offices. This dual regulatory status gives HotForex’s clients an added degree of safety in dealing with the broker.

The official website for HotForex is located at www.hotforex.com and a screenshot from its Home page appears below:

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With its motto of “Honesty, Openness and Transparency”, HotForex has established a loyal customer base with over 350,000 live accounts opened to date. The broker has also received over 18 industry awards during its operating history and offers customer support in more than 22 languages to its clients.

In terms of product offerings, HotForex offers a high quality transaction service in a wide variety of currency pairs, CFDs and binary options to its clients. Furthermore, by using STP technology and strong liquidity providers, the broker is able to deliver Interbank forex dealing spreads to its retail customers.

Although it services trading clients from around the world, HotForex does not presently accept customers based in the United States.

HotForex Features

HotForex features good overall customer support services and a customer responsive approach to doing business with its trading clients. The firm provides 24-hour customer support during trading days in a wide variety of languages spoken by its multilingual representatives.

Another feature of HotForex is that the broker allows traders to deal in a wide variety of trading instruments, which include currency pairs and binary options, in addition to CFDs on stocks, indexes and commodities. They offer over 200 trading vehicles in 20 markets, which is enough to keep just about any trader busy. Also, since HotForex is a STP broker, this means dealing spreads are tight due to its strong liquidity providers and start at only 0.2 pips wide.

The amount of leverage offered by HotForex is also impressive, with traders being able to access unusually high leverage ratios of 1000:1. The promotional bonuses offered by the company are also interesting to note, and live trading accounts can be opened with as little as five U.S. Dollars. The company also offers a debit card to allow quick withdrawals of trading account funds.

In terms of data security, HotForex uses highly secure 128-bit SSL encryption technology to protect clients’ trading and personal data. For fund safety, the broker complies with regulatory standards by separating all client deposits from its own operating capital and placing them in accounts held with major banks.

HotForex has also forged into the social trading phenomenon, allowing traders to connect with their peers, have conversations about trading strategies and current news events, follow each other and even copy the trades of successful operators. Expanding your social trading network lets you identify even more trading opportunities than your own analysis would allow.

For safety purposes and in compliance with regulatory standards, all client deposits are segregated from operating capital in accounts with major Tier-1 banks, like Barclays.

With respect to accounts, the company offers demo trading, in addition to three standard account types that have increasing perks. Their Micro accounts require a deposit of $5 to $499 and offer especially high leverage of 1000:1. Their Premium accounts require deposits in the $500 to $39,999 range and have a 400:1 leverage ratio, and their VIP accounts are for those with over $40,000 to deposit and have a leverage ratio of 300:1. HotForex also accommodates Islamic traders with its No-Swap Islamic account, and scalpers and automatic traders will appreciate the broker’s Currenex account type, which gives them access to very tight dealing spreads to trade on.

Supported Trading Platforms

Similar to most of the best forex brokers, HotForex supports the highly popular MetaTrader 4 or MT4 online trading platform that is available in different software versions for both PC and Mac users. This reliable platform is suitable for most traders and features numerous analysis tools, a strong execution capability, the ability to be fully automated, and a facility to create custom technical indicators.

The screenshot below shows the extensive functionality of HotForex’s MetaTrader 4 platform, which includes a market view, extensive technical analysis tools, the ability to manage your trading account, a trade history and news feeds.

The broker also offers a HotForex Multiterminal platform that allows active traders and fund managers to manage multiple trading accounts at the same time using MT4’s functionality.

In addition to the desktop versions of MetaTrader 4, mobile MT4 apps are also available for Android and Apple devices, including iPhones, iPods and iPads. If you prefer to access your trading account via an Internet browser, then HotForex also has a web-based trading platform designed especially for you.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits can be made to HotForex accounts using all of the major credit and debit cards and via bank wire transfers. The company also takes deposits from electronic payments services, including Skrill (formerly Moneybookers), Cashu, Neteller, Webmoney, mybitwallet and Ukash.

Like other international brokers, traders need to provide legal identity information to make withdrawal requests. Nevertheless, the company offers a proprietary debit card that traders can use to make purchases and withdraw funds from their trading accounts at ATMs, which makes withdrawals even easier.

Customer Support

HotForex offers 24/5 customer support, and its multi-lingual service reps speak numerous languages competently to make communication that much easier. In addition, customers can contact the broker using phone, live chat, email, and even using Skype. The company’s website has also been translated into 25 languages.

In terms of educational material, HotForex’s learning center offers useful training guides for both novice and seasoned traders. The company also makes educational videos, technical charting tools, trading signal alerts, and daily market commentary available to clients.

HotForex Conclusion

Overall, HotForex offers a popular and effective online brokerage service for those traders that like using MetaTrader 4. Dealing spreads are very competitive, and traders of just about any initial deposit level are suitably accommodated. Also, the broker makes very high leverage ratios available – especially for Micro account holders.

The company has also made a substantial commitment to communicating with its clients in their native language, and this is reflected in their multi-lingual customer service and website content. Finally, HotForex’s dual regulatory status, segregation of client funds and state of the art encryption technology make this broker safer to open a live trading account with.