CMC Markets Review Australia 2026

CMC Markets quick facts

Trading costs and fees

Standard (no-commission) spreads on AUD/USD and majors

The CMC Standard account charges no commission. You pay through the spread. Our 2026 test cycle puts CMC’s Standard pricing mid-pack for Australia: tighter than easyMarkets, AvaTrade and Mitrade, wider than the RAW accounts at IC Markets, Pepperstone, FP Markets and Fusion Markets. On the eight-pair standard-account average, CMC placed second of 21 brokers in our lowest spread rankings, behind only Axi.

FX Active (commission) account

The FX Active account charges a fixed 0.0025% per transaction, which works out to US$2.50 per US$100,000 per side (US$5 round turn per standard lot), and in exchange cuts the spread closer to the underlying market. Spreads start at 0.0 pips on six major pairs: EUR/USD, AUD/USD, GBP/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD and USD/JPY, plus the US$5 round-turn commission. On typical traded spreads, total EUR/USD cost works out to approximately a 1.0 pip equivalent at AUDUSD 0.65. Competitive, but not the cheapest in our 29-broker set.

Other fees AU traders should check

• Overnight holding cost applies to CFD positions held past 5 PM New York. Direction-dependent; can be a credit on certain pairs.
• Guaranteed stop-loss premium is debited when you place the GSLO and refunded in full if the stop never executes (removed, converted to a regular stop, or the position closes first). You only wear the cost if the guaranteed stop is actually triggered.
• Inactivity fee of AUD 15 per month after 12 months of no trading activity. Applied until the account hits zero or you reactivate.
• Currency conversion fee of 0.30% if you trade an instrument in a currency other than your account base. Hold an AUD account if you primarily trade AUD pairs.
• Stockbroking commission (CMC Invest) has a separate fee schedule. AUD 0 brokerage on your first ASX buy under AUD 1,000 per security per day and on US, UK, Canadian and Japanese shares and ETFs; other international markets AUD 59 or 0.59%, plus a 0.60% FX spread on international orders.
• Market data fees apply to advanced data on certain markets. Most retail traders won’t trigger these.

Trading platforms

Next Generation platform

Next Generation is CMC’s flagship proprietary platform and the reason most professional CFD traders rate CMC ahead of MT4/MT5 brokers. It runs on the web, desktop (Windows and macOS) and mobile (iOS, Android). Strengths over MetaTrader:

• 115+ technical indicators built in
• Pattern recognition scanner that flags chart patterns automatically
• Client sentiment data showing position bias on each instrument
• 70 chart patterns and 12 chart types out of the box
• Multi-screen layout templates (the five-minute layout is widely copied)
• Native guaranteed stop-loss orders
• Module-based interface lets you split forex, indices, commodities, equities into separate workspaces

The trade-off is that Next Generation does not run third-party expert advisors. If you want to run automated strategies, you stick with MT4 or look at brokers that offer MT5 (CMC retired MT5 access for AU clients in 2022).

MetaTrader 4

MT4 is available with CMC’s full execution stack, including the commission-based FX Active account. CMC runs a market-maker model that aggregates pricing from 18 feeds, so FX Active gets you tighter spreads plus commission rather than ECN execution. It’s the right choice if you run EAs or have an existing MT4 strategy. The CMC MT4 build does not include the full 12,000-instrument range; you get forex, key indices, gold, silver and oil.

TradingView

TradingView is available to CMC’s Australian clients. You link your CFD account and trade directly from TradingView charts, useful if you already run your analysis there. That leaves cTrader as the only major third-party platform CMC does not support in Australia.

Mobile apps

Both Next Generation and MT4 mobile apps work well, with Touch ID and Face ID authentication on the Next Generation iOS build. That mobile platform won “Best Mobile Trading App” in our 2026 best forex brokers for beginners review.

Trust and safety

Trust score: 9/10, built from regulation, operating history and public-record reputation.

ASIC regulation and global licences

CMC Markets Asia Pacific Pty Ltd holds AFSL 238054 with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. This is a tier-1 regulator and the most relevant credential for an Australian retail trader. The AFSL has been continuously held since 2002. There have been no public ASIC enforcement actions or licence conditions imposed in the last 36 months.

Globally, the parent CMC Markets plc is regulated by:

• Financial Conduct Authority, UK (Tier 1)
• BaFin, Germany (Tier 1)
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (Tier 1)
• Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (Tier 1)
• DFSA, UAE (Tier 2)
• FMA, New Zealand (Tier 2)
• Bermuda Monetary Authority (Tier 3)

That breadth matters: CMC has to satisfy several sets of disclosure rules and capital requirements at once. Regulatory arbitrage is not part of the business model.

Client money and negative balance protection

CMC Markets holds retail client money in segregated accounts at an Approved Australian Bank, separate from the company’s own funds. ASIC requires negative balance protection on retail CFD accounts, so a retail account cannot lose more than the money in it. If a dispute with the broker goes wrong, AFCA can hear claims up to $1,263,000 and award compensation up to $631,500. The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort sits behind that with a $150,000 cap, but it excludes CFD trading losses, so it protects you against unpaid awards for misconduct, not against losing trades.

One carve-out is worth knowing before you chase leverage. CMC Pro clients take the wholesale classification and give up the retail protections with it, negative balance protection included. That trade-off is the whole point of the classification, and it is why we steer most readers away from it. For how CMC sits against the field on protection, see our list of Australia’s safest forex brokers and our negative balance protection guide.

History and ownership

Founded in London in 1989 by Peter Cruddas. Listed on the London Stock Exchange (CMCX) since 2016 with a market cap around £700 million as of late 2024. The Australian entity has been the largest contributor to group revenue across multiple recent annual reports.

Australian context that matters:

• CMC Markets Stockbroking Limited (now branded CMC Invest) is the white-label provider behind ANZ Share Investing, a trust signal in its own right
• Featured in Australian Financial Review broker coverage
• Member of AFCA for retail dispute resolution
• Segregated client funds held with an Approved Australian Bank

Public reviews

CMC Markets holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.2 out of 5 from 3,279 reviews, which Trustpilot labels great, captured July 2026. The profile has been claimed by the broker since March 2018.

AU-specific reviews skew slightly higher. The positives that come up most: platform stability, breadth of products, support quality. The gripes: support hours, share CFD financing rates.

What other review sites say

CMC Markets' iOS app rates 3.33 out of 5 from 148 ratings on the Australian App Store (July 2026), listed as CMC: CFD Trading.

TradingView users rate CMC Markets 4.3 out of 5 from 1.1K reviews (July 2026).

App Store AU

3.33

148 ratingsJuly 2026

TradingView

4.3

1.1K reviews10K Traders via TradingViewJuly 2026View on TradingView

Account types and minimum deposit

Account options for AU clients

The CMC Pro account (Professional/Wholesale) requires you to meet the Corporations Act wholesale client criteria. If you qualify (broadly: net assets of at least AUD 2.5 million, or gross income of at least AUD 250,000 in each of the last two financial years, certified by a qualified accountant), you can request leverage up to 500:1. Pricing is the same as retail, with cash rebates on top based on forex turnover: 5% on AUD 25M to 100M per month, 10% on 100M to 200M, 15% on 200M to 300M and 20% above 300M. The trade-off is that Pro clients give up retail protections, including negative balance protection. This is not a retail product.

CMC runs no swap-free (Islamic) account, confirmed with the desk in July 2026. If Sharia-compliant trading is a requirement, that rules CMC out before you get to the pricing, whatever else the platform does well.

CMC Invest pricing

The stockbroking arm, formerly CMC Markets Stockbroking, now operates as CMC Invest (CMC Markets Stockbroking Limited, AFSL 246381). Pricing is sharper than most traders realise: AUD 0 brokerage on your first ASX buy order under AUD 1,000 per security per day, AUD 0 brokerage on US, UK, Canadian and Japanese shares and ETFs, and AUD 59 or 0.59% on the other 11 international markets. A 0.60% FX spread applies to international orders. Coverage runs to 40,000+ shares and ETFs across 16 markets.

Minimum deposit

CMC requires no minimum deposit to open an account. You’ll need to fund the account before placing trades. Most active traders we surveyed start with AUD 500 to 2,000. The platform will let you trade fractional positions at smaller balances, but margin requirements still apply. Before funding, the unlimited CMC demo is worth a run; it placed third in our best demo trading accounts comparison.

Funding and withdrawals

Deposit methods (AU clients)

Withdrawals

$0 fee on all standard withdrawal methods. CMC requires withdrawals to use the same method as deposit where possible (anti-money-laundering compliance). Processing time is 1 to 2 business days for bank transfers; same-day for card refunds.

Account opening

Account opening is fully online and AUSTRAC-compliant. You need one form of ID (driver’s licence or passport) and a second proof of address (utility bill, bank statement). Most AU applications are approved within 24 hours. Our test team rated CMC’s onboarding 8/15, solid but slightly more documentation requested than the lightest-touch onboarding flows (Plus500, eToro).

Product range

Range is CMC’s strongest card and the only category where it scores 10 out of 10 in our testing. More than 12,000 CFDs sit behind one login, from forex through to government bonds, and CMC Invest adds real ASX shares on top of that. Only IG covers comparable ground under an ASIC licence. For how each class works before you pick one, start with CFD markets explained.

Forex is the deepest single line at 330 plus pairs, six of them AUD crosses. The commodity book runs past 100 markets, from gold and silver through to WTI, Brent and the agricultural softs. There are 39 crypto CFDs here, and the ETF list passes 1,000 contracts.

Share CFDs and CMC Invest share trading

CMC lists 10,000 plus share CFDs across ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE and the EU exchanges, among the deepest ASX coverage of any AU broker, and pairs it with CMC Invest for real ASX stockbroking. CFD and ownership under one brand is the strength the verdict leans on; Invest pricing sits in the account section above, and its coverage runs to 40,000 plus shares and ETFs across 16 markets on the same login. For how that range sits against the rest of the field, see our share CFD range comparison.

Indices

The index set covers the ASX 200 and S&P/ASX SPI 200 plus every global major. ASIC’s 20:1 retail cap applies to the majors. Our guide to index CFD depth sets out how the AU field compares.

Treasuries and rates

CMC carries real depth in rates: the Australian 10 year bond, US T-Notes, German Bunds and UK Gilts all trade as CFDs, a class most AU brokers skip entirely. If you want to see who else lists them, our guide covers bond and treasury CFDs across the AU field.

Leverage for AU traders

CMC applies the ASIC caps on the CFD side, and CMC Invest sits outside them entirely: real shares bought through Invest are unleveraged holdings, which is the structural difference the two product lines carry.

ASIC caps retail CFD leverage at 30:1 on major forex pairs, 20:1 on minor pairs, gold and major indices, 10:1 on commodities other than gold, 5:1 on share CFDs and 2:1 on crypto assets. The caps come from a product intervention order that ASIC has extended to 23 May 2027, so they apply at every ASIC broker, not just CMC Markets. CMC Markets offers higher leverage to wholesale clients who pass the eligibility tests: up to 500:1 through the CMC Pro account, on the Corporations Act criteria set out under account types above.

ASIC requires every CFD issuer to close out a retail client’s positions once account equity falls below 50 percent of the total initial margin on all open positions. The rule is set by the product intervention order and applies to CMC Markets the same way it applies to every ASIC-licensed CFD issuer. Positions cannot be netted off against each other to reduce that figure, and a gapping market can close a position below the 50 percent level.

If you are weighing that trade-off, read our guide to leverage first, then our comparison of high leverage options in Australia.

Customer service

Phone, live chat and email. Hours: 24 hours, Monday to Friday Sydney time (closes Saturday morning AEDT, reopens Monday morning AEDT). Average live chat response in our testing: under 90 seconds. Knowledge of platform features: strong. Knowledge of tax treatment: agents correctly defer to “speak to your accountant” rather than guess.

Support languages: English, Mandarin, German, French, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Spanish.

The closed-weekend support window is the main customer service negative. Pepperstone, IG and Plus500 all offer some form of weekend support. If you trade weekend crypto markets and want live phone support, CMC isn’t the right fit.

Research and education

Education content

• Beginner course covering forex, CFDs, technical analysis basics
• Intermediate webinar series with in-house analysts
• Glossary of trading terms
• Trading guides for each platform
• YouTube channel with regular market analysis

Market research

Integrated into Next Generation:

• Morningstar fundamental research
• Reuters news feed
• CMC TV (in-house technical analysis videos)
• Economic calendar
• Client sentiment data

Few AU brokers bundle research this deep. It matters most if you trade equities and indices alongside forex.

How CMC compares to alternatives

The direct rival comparison is covered head to head in CMC vs IG compared. For the full field, see our best forex brokers in Australia guide.

Should you open an account with CMC Markets?

Open a CMC account if breadth is the decision: 12,000 plus CFDs, the deepest ASX coverage of any AU broker, and integrated share investing through CMC Invest. Skip it if raw forex pricing drives your costs, because the Standard spreads on majors trail the RAW brokers and there is no cTrader; Pepperstone and IC Markets price tighter for active FX traders. The demo runs Next Generation in full.

Open a CMC Markets demo → (affiliate link, see our advertiser disclosure)