Is CMC a good trading app for CFDs & spread betting?

Is the City Index trading app any good?

Yes, when I traded on the City Index app I was able to able to access asset overviews, news, and alerts as well as key market info. But, one of the stand-out features of the City Index app is the inclusion of Performance Analytics. Performance Analytics gives the full breakdown how where you have been profitable or not in the past and provides feedback on whether or not you are sticking to your trading plan. Both, mean that the app has a bit more use than just a way to monitor the market when not in front of your normal trading screens.

It’s a well laid out trading app, with the major instruments front and centre, but also the peripheral markets like sectors, thematic indices (like blockchain, NFTs and cannabis), trending markets and options quickly available. The app also has quick access to popular markets, so you can keep an eye on where the days trading volumes are going.

Using and navigating the app is intuitive, with icon-based menus for markets, watchlists, alerts etc. There is a news feed and economic calendar, as well as technical analysis from Trading Central. You can draw and edit charts on the app and add up to four indicators to them. The mobile charting package includes logarithmic sizing and switches between landscape, there is the usual suite of technical indicators from Trading View, but you can’t execute direct from the chart on mobile yet.

Overall City Index’s trading app is a good addition to it’s main platform and should suit traders looking for stimulus and research on the go.

• Read our full City Index review

Is FOREX.com a Good Trading Platform?

FOREX.com won Best Forex Broker in the 2025 Good Money Guide Awards.
Plus, as well as being regulated by the top tier FCA in the UK, FOREX.com is regulated by CySEC, NFA, CIRO, MAS, ASIC, CIMA, and FSA with access to over 7,000 markets, exclusively via CFDs.

24-Hour FOREX.com Test

I took FOREX.com out for a 24-hour test drive, to trade with real money and try out some of the key features on the streets of the City of London. Here’s what happened…

“For FX sake”, I thought to myself when faced with writing a review about a forex broker. Firstly because all these brokers do is offer access to the forex market (or so I believed). Secondly, because I’ve never had much success with forex trading.  I find the nuances of intra-day technical analysis too complicated.

I’m an old-fashioned trader – I like to look at the market and think it’s either overvalued or undervalued and, in my mind anyway, that’s easier when looking at a company’s share price, an index or even a commodity. But for some reason, with forex trading, I’ve never really got the hang of it.

Having said that, I have dealt currency for about 20 years now, but more as a broker rather than as a trader. For instance, I used to do some prime brokerage for institutions that would hedge their currency exposure when buying aeroplanes.

But I was so frustrated with how opaque pricing was in currency trading, that I decided to start up my own currency brokerage specialising in high-value currency transfers (£250,000 upwards) and undercutting everyone. It was called Berry FX, you can still see the demo on YouTube. Basically, personal service with the best rates anywhere ever. But now I just let other currency brokers compete for clients by trying to offer the best exchange rates.

But you want to know what I think of FOREX.com.

24 Hour Test

I took FOREX.com out for a 24-hour test drive around the City of London, putting some real trades on whilst going about my business to see if I could make any money.

I started out at the Bank of England with £10,000 on account at 11:30am. Lunch was a few minutes’ walk from the tube station, so I took the opportunity to put some trades on using FOREX.com’s trading signals. I’ve used these for years; back in 2018, they were known as GetGo and it was a standalone forex trading app. When I reviewed it then, I said these were the future of forex trading signals but are they still?

There are a couple of things that make these signals better than the rest.

• They tell you the success rate.
• The signal is linked to an order ticket.

When I was walking down King William Street to L’Antipasto to meet some contacts for lunch, I put a few trades on. First, I looked at the traders that had a historic success rate of over 50% and followed them. Then I looked at trading signals that had a success rate of less than 50% and traded against them. It’s a pretty simple strategy that generally works (not always, though). I used the classic stop/limit risk/reward ratio, aiming for twice the potential loss as a potential win. Again, simple forex trading strategies. The market is not hard to call, but if you get a trade right, it often pays to let it run for longer, but if it’s wrong, close it sooner.

Trading Central

On the way to my next meeting, I took a few moments on London Bridge to look at some of the other signals on FOREX.com: Trading Central. Now, Trading Central has been providing technical analysis to brokers for decades and supplies a constant stream of manually and automatically updated trading ideas throughout the day to give traders an indication of where the markets may go.

It’s not as fluid as the trading signals, as you have to put the trades in manually, but still gives you a bit of stimulus. This is great for someone like me because I generally have an idea of what I want to do from eyeballing a chart (I did, after all, run a technical analysis division for 5 years), but it’s nice to get confirmation of your thoughts one way or another.

Execution

When you are actually trading there are some great other features on the app:

• Swipe to trade: a bit like Tinder (so I hear)
• Chart on tickets: with a quick tap, you can bring up a chart when on the order ticket (to double-check)
• Working orders on charts: when looking at a chart, you can see your working orders and positions
• Position potential: as well as seeing what margin is required when placing a trade, you can also see and set your stops and limits as a potential monetary amount instead of pips

Post-Trade Analytics

Once you’ve done a bit of trading, you can review your trading history and see where you do well and where you can improve. This is a great feature as it can break down how well you trade by time of day, markets or volatility.

You can also set up “Play Maker” if you have a trading strategy and want to stick to it. Obviously, you can’t get that sort of data in a 24-hour test drive, so I’ll have to revisit that another time.

Demo Account

FOREX.com has a pretty good demo account. In fact, it’s hard to tell the difference between the demo and live trading platform. You get the same functionality and as trades are OTC, the same prices.

However, when I opened a demo account to test it, I already had a real account. So after I got my demo account login details, I clicked through to the “Webtrader” portal and (funny or alarming, depending on how you look at it) my live account details were auto-filled in by Google Chrome.

Now, had I not been checking my email, to ensure that the platform had sent me through my credentials, I might not have noticed that I was logging into a live account. It could have been disastrous if I’d started trading away thinking it was paper money. Even more so as you get £10,000 in demo funds and I’d deposited £10,000 in my live account when I took FOREX.com on a 24-hour trading signal test drive.

It reminded me of when a trader thought that he was trading on a demo account and put $1bn worth of orders through and then sued his broker because it voided his €10m profits.

TradingView & MetaQuotes

I had a good play about with TradingView, as it’s now the go-to destination for traders. TradingView is a sort of social network for traders where you can view charts (they are excellent) and post trading ideas (take with a pinch of salt). As TradingView has grown, it has also become an execution venue, so you can link your FOREX.com trading account and deal straight from the charts. This shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for most traders as the charts on the app and web-based platform are provided by TradingView (which, incidentally, is one of the largest financial-based websites in the world now).

You can also trade on MT4 or MT5 (but only MT5 in the EU), if you are into that sort of thing…

Am I a Forexpert?

I did make money on day one, mainly thanks to putting on a GBP-USD trade that covered most of the losses from some of the other trades. When I used the trading signals 5 years ago, I also made money. Day 2 wasn’t so good. On my way to an investor show, I gave back a few pennies but still ended up on top. But I have to admit my traders were calculated guesses rather than heavily researched positions.

I don’t like holding positions overnight, as day trading reduces not only your margin requirements but also increases the amount of sleep you get because you don’t wake up with cold sweats in the middle of the night worrying about Asian interest rates.

Overall would I recommend forex.com? Yes, if you are going to trade forex and don’t know where to start, as it’s a massive brand with global reach and owned by a listed brokerage with an institutional pedigree. As far as box-ticking is concerned, it ticks the lot. Or should I say pips the lot…

Is Capital.com any good for trading?

Capital.com has a user friendly and intuitive trading platform and app, that gives access to the most popular financial markets with competitive spreads with the ability to reduce risk by decreasing your leverage. Trading via the app has always been capital.com’s forte, and in 202, it won our award for “best trading app” not in part due to the fact that the company CTO has extensive experience in building engaging apps like Candy Crush.

What makes Capital.com different? Thumbs up, literally

Do you know what one of the most impressive thing about Capital.com is? They put the buy and sell buttons at the bottom of the app.

I don’t mean that in a facetious way, it’s genuinely a brilliant feature.

This may not sound like much but it’s a good example of how Capital.com has integrated decades of analytics, experience, feedback and customer data into creating a very easy-to-use intuitive trading app from scratch.

When Capital.com first became authorised by the FCA back in 2018, I visited their offices in London to have a chat about what they offer. The two main things we discussed were button placement and AI.

Trading App

But anyway, if you’ve updated your iPhone to the latest iOS you’ll notice that Apple has started moving things to the bottom of the screen, the search bar for instance. This is because, phones are getting bigger, and your thumb can’t reach the top of the screen if you are holding it with one hand. This is something that Capital.com figured out would make trading easier 5 years ago. I’ve just been through a bunch of other trading apps on my phone and still, amazingly enough, none of the other brokers have done this yet.

Capital.com was also the first to integrate artificial intelligence to help you improve your trading, they say, based on the Martingale theory. When I spoke to Chris Demetriou, the head of sales in the UK, he said that the system should give you prompts based on your previous trades. So for example, if you are about to do a trade that is similar to ones you have constantly lost on before, you should get a “are you sure you want to do this” notification.

Leverage Control

Everybody knows, that one of the main reasons people lose money when trading is overleverage. This could be either from not having enough free cash on account to give your position breathing space, or simply putting on trades that are too risky. One really good feature is that you can change your leverage based on asset class. The default leverage is the max that retail traders in the UK are permitted, but you can change this to 1:1 so you need to fully pay up for positions. A sensible thing to do if you are just getting started, which can help reduce excessive losses. As your experience grows you can increase your leverage accordingly.

Hedging

You can also set the platform to put on hedging positions, so you can be long and short the same thing at the same time. Why you ask? Well, it can help you run longer-term positions and short-term hedges. This in fact is the very point of CFDs. They were originally hedging tools, and still a good way to protect your long-term investment portfolio against short-term market corrections without having to close off your positions.

Customer Support

Customer support is pretty good too, you can get in touch via the chat widget on the platform, whatsapp or telegram. When I tested it I got a response within a minute and the issue I had was dealt with quickly (uploading ID to verify my account if you must know).

TradingView

You can’t trade from the charts, but when you have open positions they are overlayed along with your stops and limits, which you can move by dragging and dropping. But, if charting is your thing, you can join the other 78,000 Capital.com customers using and trading from TradingView.

Proprietory Tech

One thing I quite like though is that instead of relying on third-party software, the Capital.com trading platform is built in-house, and if you want something you can ask for it. For example, previously on the app you could see where an asset is as a percentage relative to the daily range. But, a customer asked, if you could see it in points too. So, that was quickly integrated so that you can now toggle between percentages and points. A small thing, but indicative of a broker that can do things and does do things, rather than just logging a helpdesk ticket.

Refinitiv

There are no trading signals on the platform or app, but you do get access to Refinitiv reports on US stocks, which give you a good overview of historic and potential future financial health. A good feature for those looking at slightly longer-term positions.

Overnight funding

Talking of long positions, or longer long positions, Capital.com also display quite clearly what your overnight financing rates are going to be on a daily basis. I’m sure this is a regulatory obligation anyway, but it’s done in a way that you can actually see what the price is, rather than an opaque formula. It gives a bit more transparency about how much a position is going to cost you.

Investmate

If you are new to trading, they have a stand-alone app called Investmate, which puts you through a series of bitesize courses that explain the financial markets. Capital.com also own currency.com if you fancy a punt on crypto, and shares.com so we can expect to see more comprehensive physical investing options soon.

Is Plus500 a good broker?

Yes, Plus500’s trading platform has evolved nicely over the years from a simple interface to an intuitive execution venue for CFDs on the major markets and stocks.

1. Submit some documents to the company (identification, residence verification, etc.)
2. Read through several documents and complete a questionnaire
3. To be able to trade, you will need to fund your account (in the UK, the minimum initial deposit is £100).

Pricing: It’s dynamic so moves with the market for minimum spreads.

Plus500 does not charge any trading commissions when you place a CFD trade. However, there are some fees you need to be aware of including:

• Overnight funding fees – This is either added to or subtracted from your account when holding a position after a certain time
• Currency conversion fee – There is a fee (0.7%) for all trades on instruments denominated in a currency different to the currency of your account
• Guaranteed stop-loss order fees – If you request a guaranteed stop loss on a trade, there will be a small fee
• Inactivity fees – If you do not log in to your trading account for three months, a fee of up to USD $10 per month will be applied to your account.

Withdrawals are free of charge no matter how many you make per month.

Deposits are also free of charge.

Market Access: Very good, Plus500 are always first to try new asset classes

With Plus500, you can trade CFDs on a range of assets and instruments including:

• Shares (e.g. Lloyds Bank, Tesla, Apple)
• Currencies/forex (e.g. GBP/USD)
• Commodities (e.g. gold, oil)
• Options (exchange-traded options)
• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
• Indices (e.g. FTSE 100, S&P 500, ESG indices)

Overall, there are over 2,800 assets you can trade with CFDs.

The maximum amount of leverage you can use with Plus500 varies depending on the asset class as shown in the table below. If you are trading forex, you can potentially borrow up to 30 times your own money. For shares, you can only borrow up to five times your own capital.

Plus500 margin rates:

• Shares – 1:5
• Forex – 1:30
• Commodities – 1:20
• Indices – 1:20
• Options – 1:5
• ETFs – 1:5

Platform & Apps: Basic execution, but it does the job well

Plus500 trading apps and platform also offers several tools to help traders manage risk including:

• Stop-loss orders – Traders can use these orders to automatically close out a losing position at a specific level
• Guaranteed stop-loss orders – A guaranteed stop-loss puts an absolute limit on your potential loss from a losing trade
• Trailing stop-loss orders – This type of stop loss moves upwards as the price of the security being traded rises
• Take profit orders – Traders can use these orders to automatically close out a winning position at a specific level.

Customer Service: Plus500 doesn’t have a phone option, but its live chat is sufficient

Plus500’s customer service options are limited to online chat, email and WhatsApp. So, you can’t contact the company by telephone. However, don’t let that put you off. We contacted the company via online chat and were very impressed with the service and support offered. 

It’s worth noting that support is available 24/7. This is a big plus – some other CFD providers only provide support during the week.

If you are a larger or professional trader you can get access to Plus500’s Premium Service Package which includes:

• A dedicated premium service client manager.
• Periodic emails containing expert analysis of upcoming trading events.
• External trading webinars.
• A premium service customer support team.

The premium service is invitation only. To become a premium customer, you must have a real-money trading account.

However, if you want better margin rates but are not interested in the premium package you can upgrade to a professional account. The Plus500 professional account is an account designed for professional traders. With this account, you have access to higher levels of leverage (e.g. 1:20 for shares).

To be eligible for a professional account, you must meet two of the following three criteria:

• You’ve performed an average of at least 10 transactions per quarter, of significant size, over the previous four quarters on the relevant market (with Plus500 and/or other providers)
• You have a portfolio worth more than €500,000 (including cash savings and financial instruments)
• You have worked in the financial sector for at least a year in a professional position that requires knowledge of the related transactions or services.

Research & Analysis: Some sentiment, but limited education and analysis. Plus500 offers a range of additional features designed to help traders make money, including:

• Charting tools – Plus500’s platform offers charts with a wide range of indicators and drawing tools to help traders identify and capitalise on patterns and trends (there 13 charting tools and over 100 indicators)
• Market news – On its website, there is a section dedicated to news and market insights
• Alerts – With Plus500, you can set up real-time email, SMS, and push notifications for trade alerts (e.g. price alerts or % change alerts)
• An economic calendar – The economic calendar is designed to help traders prepare for important economic data (e.g. inflation data, retail sales data, job reports, PMI data)
• +Insights – This is a feature that allows Plus500 users learn more about market trends based on the company’s internal data (e.g. most bought stocks, most sold stocks)
• Watchlists – Users can manage multiple watchlists.
• Trading Academy – Plus500’s Trading Academy offers a range of educational products including eBooks, videos, and FAQs
• Webinars – Plus500 offers regular webinars to its professional clients
• A free unlimited demo account – With the demo account, novice traders can learn to trade CFDs without risking real money.

Does Pepperstone have a good trading app?

Pepperstone has a good version of the MT4 app for tight spreads on forex and is one of only two brokers to offer spread betting via TradingView in the UK.

Pepperstone’s version of the MT4 trading app, will connect you to your MT4 account with Pepeprstone but when I tested it the algo and automatic trading functions of the desktop version are not available through the app.

The cTrader Pepperstone App, though is feature-rich including, market sentiment, market depth economic calendars, and technical analysis from Autochartist which displays regularly updated trading signals.

There is no stand-alone trading signal feed, but once you are looking at a market, Autochartist will display the most recent signal from 15 minute, 30 minute, 1 hour and 4 hour time frames and automatically display a buy or sell one-click order button based on if it is a long or short signal.

The app also breaks down your trading statistics based on previous trades per asset. So for example, if you are trading a US stock on the app, it will tell you how well you have done in the past with your overall net profit, what commission you have paid, your best and worst trades and how long you generally hold a position in that stock for.

Market access is narrow and pricing is tight.

• Read our full Pepperstone review

Is Spreadex's trading app any good?

Yes, the Spreadex trading app, as with the main trading platform, offers some of the best customer service and is suited to traders who just require a click-and-trade app and won’t be using it for research or signals.

The watchlists, highlight, popular market, the risers and fallers, but there is not much in the way of cluttered educational content or analysis. you can view market updates, weekly analysis, and financial trading blogs, but these are just links to webpages from the app.

One good feature I found when testing it though is that you can talk directly to customer support via live chat through the app. This is one area where Spreadex has always excelled as a smaller UK broker, offering good customer service where you can get in touch with someone who knows what they are talking about quickly.

Overall, the app is a good compliment to Spreadex’s service.

• Read our expert full Spreadex review

Is IG's trading app any good?

Yes, IG is one of the best trading app for market range and DMA trading.

It was nice to see that when I used the IG trading app I could also get access to trading signals from Autochartist with entry, exit and stop levels that can be executed on mobile with the signal data on the same screen as the order ticket. IG’s trade analytics package is also available so you can review your trading win rate, return, and profit and loss ratio as well as see whether you are a better short or long-term trade, the app will also highlight your best and worst markets. The app trade analytics will also show your total financial exposure and your most recent trades.

The app’s news, section, whilst not as comprehensive as the web version can be filtered down by asset class, you can see what is most relevant to you. There is also a macroeconomic event calendar and a diary of company announcements so you don’t get caught off guard with unexpected figures or can take advantage of upcoming market volatility.

One key advantage of the IG app is that IG provides markets over the weekend so you can trade to reduce or increase your exposure on the move and out of normal market hours. You can also see level-2 data and trade DMA on shares. The app syncs with your accounts so watchlists and recently traded and viewed markets will be easy to see. Charting, is good, landscape and portrait, plus you can trade directly from the charts, as well as drag and drop, stop and limit levels.

Overall, IG’s trading app is one of the best out there, with more features and markets than most of the competition.

Is CMC Markets trading app any good?

Yes, CMC Markets’ trading app lets you trade over 12,000 markets via CFDs and financial spread bets. It’s suitable for active traders and has the same fast-paced feel as the main platform.

One of the things that makes CMC Markets app stand out for me when I tested it is the focus on media as well as execution. Instead of providing an app that is just a slimmed-down version of the main platform, there is a huge amount of educational and news content available as video. So the app provides a bit more than just a way to stay connected to the markets, it can be a resource and a way to learn whilst on the move.

The analysis section provides insights and intraday updates, news from Reuters, economic calendars and CMC TV can keep you informed and entertained. There are also some quite good platform tour videos, so you can get to know the platform better, some educational videos on how to trade and you can join live events.

The app quite nicely highlights trending, popular and typical markets, which are ranked by activity so you can see the most liquid markets and what is being traded.

One of the standout features though is CMC Markets’ client sentiment data, which is displayed around the order tickets. When you bring up an asset you can see what percentage of clients are long or short, related products and also break it down between which way the profitable and non-profitable clients are trading.

Overall, CMC Market’s trading app is an excellent resource for active traders on the move.

• Read our full expert CMC Markets review

Is XTB's trading app any good?

Yes, XTB has some pretty good trading apps. They offer MT4, MT5 and xStation Mobile, for traders to trade on the move. Of those, I would say that XTB’s xStation mobile is very good, especially compared to basic CFD mobile trading apps like eToro.

Specifically, the app highlights your favourite markets, and what is “hot” at the moment so you can see what traders are trading as well as sentiment indicators for those most popular markets. You can filter XTBs client trader sentiment by buyers and sellers, and also by asset class, so you can see where order flow has been going and decided if you want to follow or take a contrarian position.

Charting is nicely layed out, but you cannot trade from the charts on the app (you can on desktop), but the crosshairs feature, does give you a visual of where your orders are relative to support and resistance on the same screen, which is a nice touch.

I did find when trading on the app though there is a good “Discover” section where you can view popular markets such as stocks that have exposure to “inflation protection”, environmental assets, top ETFs that are being traded and also a tab for stocks and markets that are being talked about on Reddit.

You can get access, via the app, to XTBs educational videos, such as their Masterclass, and interviews with people like Jamie Rogozinksi from WallStreetBets.

Overall, the app has some good features and is a good complement to the main trading platform.

• Read our full XTB review and ratings

Is Saxo's trading app any good?

Yes, Saxo Markets’ trading app very good but compared to another institutional-grade platform like Interactive Brokers, it’s not quite as good. Saxo’s app is excellent for professional and institutional traders who want to trade DMA, and is essentially a mobile version of Saxo’s excellent TraderGo platform. But, whereas Saxo only have one app IBKR, has a huge range of apps for all different types of investors including private investors, algo traders, options strategists and ethical investors.

Even though Saxo is traditionally a trading platform for short-term speculation on the markets going up or down. It is also an excellent choice for longer-term investors as Saxo is a very well-capitalised company, heavily regulated in the UK and all the regions they operates in, and has excellent customer service for small and large customers.

When I used the Saxo markets trading app I got access to a lot of the functionality of the main platform including, level-2 prices, positions, orders, watchlist, trade blotters, charting, options chain tables, stock screeners, price alters, and SaxoSelect Investments. SaxoSelect lets you invest in longer-term capital-grown investment products run by leading asset managers such as Blackrock and Morningstar who create automated portfolios based on your investment objectives. So, as well as having full access to Saxo’s full range of derivatives products you can also manage your investment portfolio from the app.

The SaxoTraderGo app also provides access to Saxo’s research services where you can view Saxo Wire, and get an overview of the major market movers per asset class, news is filtered by what is trending in the “Hot Topics” section. There is quite a good integration of Autochartist as well where you can trade directly from the signals, choosing if you want to add stops and limits.

There are also some quite good educational videos on topics such as technical analysis, risk management, fundamental analysis, and some general “how-to” guides on how to get the most out of the platform. Through the app, you can view live and previous webinars including Saxo’s quarterly outlook and new feature training.

Overall, one of the best trading apps on the market suitable for experienced and sophisticated traders who want more than just trading and charting.

• Read our full Saxo Market review

Is Interactive Brokers' trading app any good?

Yes, IBKR is one of the best app for sophisticated and professional traders is the IBKR Mobile as which replicates some of the functionality of the Interactive Brokers desktop TraderWorkstation platform.

IBKR Mobile is the mobile version of the main trading platform and has the most functionality, where you can view your derivatives and investment portfolio, view charting, trade options, futures, and CFDs. You can also access the iBot feature which helps you search for things like dividend dates, corporate earnings reports, and economic events around stocks or markets you are interested in trading. Charting is initially simple, but under the settings, you can add indicators, show live orders, and annotations and change the bar size and chart type.

There is also the IMPACT lens features that measures your portfolio and gives it a ranking based on how ethical your positions are. The news section also lets you filter and search for IBKR news and analysis from The Fly Swawkbox, Real Vision (an excellent premium analysis vlog from Raoul Pal) and Bloomberg.

IBKR GlobalTrader has a slightly easier feel and is focussed more on stock traders. You get inspiration for investing in stocks, based on their sector, price moves, news flow. News is also filtered down based on the positions in your portfolio.

For more ethical investors the IMPACT app is focussed on helping you make more ethical investment decisions. You get access to the same markets to trade in by the app ranks your portfolio by how ethical they are. It will also show you a more ethical alternative, with a similar investment profile which you can switch to with the click of a button.

Overall, Interactive Brokers’ trading apps, are some of the best around with excellent functionality and access to one of the widest selection of markets and investment products around.

• Read our full expert Interactive Brokers review