ThinkMarkets Review

ThinkMarkets Overview

ThinkMarkets is a leading online trading broker providing clients in over 180 countries access to trade a wide range of trading instruments across multiple markets including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies CFDs.

ThinkMarkets was established in 2010 and is headquartered in London and Melbourne, with offices located all over the world including Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe and South America. Multilingual client support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They provide a variety of flexible trading accounts to suit different trader needs, including zero commission accounts as well as trading guides, trading tools, news and analysis.

They have a partnership with Equinix who are the world’s largest trading data centre with locations in London and Hong Kong that connect ThinkMarkets vast liquidity pool directly to your trading platforms. This high-end technology enables them to provide fast and reliable trade execution under all market conditions with the best possible prices and tightest spreads from just 0.1 pips.

ThinkMarkets offer some of the most popular and advanced trading platforms including their very own ThinkTrader platform that was voted as the Best Mobile Platform at the prestigious Forex Magnates Awards. They have won awards in multiple categories including Best Forex Trading Experience and Best Forex Trading Innovation at the UK Forex Awards in 2017. Think Markets were awarded “Best Value Broker in Asia” at the 2020 Global Forex Awards.

ThinkMarkets operates in a transparent manner with emphasis on looking after client’s own interests and safety. They are regulated by some of the most strict and respected regulatory bodies including the FCA and ASIC. Eligible clients are also covered by the FSCS compensation scheme whilst client funds are held in segregated accounts.

ThinkMarkets Regulation

ThinkMarkets is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom and therefore must comply to strict regulatory requirements including providing regular financial reports and annual audits. They are also regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Seychelles.

In addition to strict regulation, ThinkMarkets are a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which is the UK’s statutory deposit insurance and investors compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms. Eligible clients may be entitled to compensation of up to £85,000 from the FSCS if ThinkMarkets has any claims against it that they cannot pay in case of default or insolvency. If a client complaint exceeds this threshold, they also have investor protection and compensation rights of up to £1 million through an insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London.

ThinkMarkets keep client funds in segregated accounts with top-tier banks such as Barclays to ensure that they are not used for any other purposes such as operating costs. Whilst most brokers in the industry use a standard approach to protect clients, ThinkMarkets take that extra step to ensure client safety. This helps to give clients additional peace of mind that they are using a trusted and reputable broker.

ThinkMarkets Countries

ThinkMarkets accepts clients from over 180 countries, although they do not accept client from residents of the United States, Canada, Japan and some other countries or jurisdictions where there are legal and regulatory restrictions.

Some ThinkMarkets broker features and products mentioned within this ThinkMarkets review may not be available to traders from specific countries due to legal restrictions.

ThinkMarkets Platforms

ThinkMarkets have a range of powerful and advanced trading platforms to meet the needs of different traders. Platforms are available for desktop, web and mobile. Mobile platforms are useful if you need to access your trading account on the go.

MetaTrader 4

ThinkMarkets offer the hugely popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) trading platform that is well known throughout the industry for its user-friendly interface, quick learning curve and multiple built-in trading tools.

MT4 has many features including technical indicators for chart analysis, trading strategy templates, fully customisable interface and charts, multiple time frames, automated trading solutions (expert advisors) and a large online community. It is available on desktop (Windows / Mac), web and mobile (iPhone / iPad / Android / Tablet).

MetaTrader 5

Think Markets provide the MetaTrader 5 (MT5) platform which is similar its predecessor although it has increased features and functionalities. The MT5 interface as a similar layout however it comes with many additional timeframes, services and advantages.

MetaTrader Time Frames

MT4 has 9-time frames while MT5 has 21-time frames which include 11 types of minute charts, 7 types of hourly charts and daily, weekly yearly time frames, which allows room for more analysis of the market.

MetaTrader Pending Orders

MT4 offers 4 types of pending orders, whereas MT5 offers 6 types.

MQL4 MQL5

MQL4 – MetaQuotes Language 4 is a built-in language for programming trading strategies.

MQL5 – MetaQuotes Language 5 is a high-level language designed for developing technical indicators, trading robots and utility applications.

MT4

• Allows only hedging
• Offers technical analysis tools which allow you to analyze markets of any complexity level – 30 built-in indicators and other 2000 free custom indicators and 700 paid
• No Market depth
• No Economic calendar

MT5

• Allows both hedging (by request) and Netting
• Offers 38 technical indicators, 44 analytical objects, 21 timeframes and an unlimited number of charts
• Provides Market depth
• Provides an economic calendar

ThinkTrader

ThinkMarkets also offer their own in-house developed award-winning ThinkTrader platform for desktop, mobile and tablet. ThinkTrader features include over 80 indicators, 50 drawing tools, 14 chart types and a 4-window split screen view to follow multiple markets consecutively. You get 200 free cloud-based notifications (based on price action/indicators) and can analyse the markets for high probability trades using the TrendRisk Scanner which will also give stop loss and take profit price suggestions. There is also a real time news feed to keep up to date with the latest market news.

Data Centres

ThinkMarkets servers are hosted with the robust infrastructure of Equinix who operate over 100+ data centres globally and host servers of more than 450+ financial exchanges, execution venues and banks. Clients trades placed through the MT4 platform are routed to counterparties within milliseconds with speed and reliability.

Virtual Private Server (VPS)

ThinkMarkets offer a VPS running over a secured cloud computer system that gives you flexible 24-hour access to your account from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. A VPS can offer improved performance, helping to reduce trading latency and increase execution speeds. To qualify for a free VPS, clients must trade a minimum amount of lots per calendar month.

ThinkMarkets Trading Tools

ThinkMarkets have a selection of trading tools that can be used to assist with your trading and to keep up to date with the latest market news.

Market News

ThinkMarkets have an in-house team of experts who deliver the latest market news, daily insights and analysis. They cover detailed technical and fundamental analysis across multiple markets and trading instruments.

Economic Calendar

The ThinkMarkets economic calendar is constantly updated so that you can track the latest economic news releases that affect the markets. News releases can be filtered by date, country, category and volatility impact.

FX Wire Pro

FX Wire Pro is one of the leading news agencies that delivers real-time market news from thousands of trading professionals around the globe. You can keep up to date with the latest economic analysis to see what is moving the markets with event alerts and potential impact.

Autochartist

ThinkMarkets have the powerful pattern recognition software Autochartist which can supplement your technical analysis activity for fast and efficient market analysis over multiple instruments. Autochartist can alert you when new potential trading opportunities are identified and can be customised to search according to your own trading strategy. The PowerStats feature can assist with evaluating a positions risk and help to identify suitable stop loss and take profit levels.

Trading Central

ThinkMarkets offer Trading Central’s suite of tools for smarter trading. Trading Central are an industry leader in the provision of actionable trading ideas. Their product suite offers both human and automated interpretation of technical, fundamental and value-based analytics. These insights can help to empower today’s traders, assisting them with generating trade ideas, validating trading decisions and managing risk.

The technical strategies and professional data provided by Trading Central, covers Forex, precious metals, commodities, and indices from market renowned sources such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and Dow Jones, as well as primary trading platforms.

• Long and short entry/exit signals
• 24H global coverage on market news
• Data delivered straight to your inbox
• Long-term forecasts on pivot levels
• Analyst view indicator for direction and key levels

ThinkMarkets Education

ThinkMarkets have a range of educational material suited towards traders of all experience levels. They can be accessed to help increase your trading knowledge and skills.

Trading Courses

There are 3 trading courses for beginner, intermediate and advanced traders covering all aspects of trading such as how to place trades, technical analysis and much more.

Trading Guides

There is a selection of trading guides for all levels of traders that can be downloaded and cover a variety of different topics from technical analysis to market psychology and more.

Trading Glossary

The ThinkMarkets website includes a glossary of trading terms and definitions to help you understand some of the most common trading terminology.

Webinars

You can sign up to one on one webinars that are regularly run by ThinkMarkets in-house markets experts. These webinars can be a useful way to learn more about trading and to stay up to date with the most important trading topics.

ThinkMarkets Instruments

ThinkMarkets offer a selection of trading instruments from multiple markets including Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies CFDs.

Forex Trading

Through ThinkMarkets you can trade major, minor and exotic FX currency pairs with no minimum deposit on the standard account or a $500 minimum deposit on the ThinkZero account. Leverage of up to 500:1 is available with EU leverage capped at 30:1 due to Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) restrictions. Forex spreads start from just 0 pips on the ThinkZero account. As FX currency pairs are always moving, they present plenty of trading opportunities. When trading forex, you trade in anticipation of which direction one currency pair will move in relation to another.

Cryptocurrency Trading

ThinkMarkets offer some of the most popular Cryptos such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Their Crypto spreads are low with no contract expiration and the ability to go long or short. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and traders can speculate on if they believe their value will increase or decrease in relation to the currency of their choice.

Metals Trading

You can benefit from commission free trading on all precious metals including gold, silver platinum. Metals are usually used for those who are interested in diversifying their trading portfolio and are quoted against the US Dollar at ThinkMarkets.

Shares Trading

ThinkMarkets offer commission free trading and leverage of up to 20:1 on a selection of 1500+ global shares and ETFs including some of the most popular such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook Google. Share trading is popular for those who want to take a position on a specific company and sector. Profits are generated by buying a share at a low price and selling it at a higher one or by selling at a high price and buying at a lower one, if you think that the share of a company will decline.

Indices Trading

At ThinkMarkets you can take positions on global indices from just 0.4 points on ThinkTrader or tight variable spreads on MT4. An index is made up of a group of shares and is used to track the performance of a country’s economy, a market sector or an exchange. Some of the most traded indices include the Dow Jones Industrial Average, SP 500, FTSE, DAX, ASX200, NASDAQ, CAC, EuroStoxx and Nikkei 225.

Commodities Trading

You can diversify your portfolio by going long or short on a selection of commodities such as oil, gas coffee, without any commission charged. Spreads on commodities start from as low as 0.4 points. Some commodities are traded in heavy volumes around the clock offering multiple opportunities to online traders.

ThinkMarkets Accounts Fees

ThinkMarkets have a choice of trading accounts to suit different traders needs. There are 2 main accounts which are the standard account and ThinkZero account. The spreads are lowest on the ThinkZero account although there is a competitive commission charged.

In addition to the main accounts, there is a joint account and an Islamic friendly swap free account that complies with Sharia law. They also provide demo accounts if you would like to test the different trading platforms and conditions before opening and funding a real account.

Standard Account

The standard account is the basic account offering that has spreads starting from 0.4 pips with an average FX spread of 1.2 pips. There is no minimum balance required and no commission charged. Maximum leverage of 500:1 is available although EU clients are restricted to 30:1 leverage due to MiFID regulations. There is a free VPS offered to clients who trade a minimum amount of round lots per month.

ThinkZero

The ThinkZero account has spread starting from just 0 pips with an average FX spread of 0.1 pips. The minimum balance required is $500 with a commission charge of $3.5 per side. Maximum leverage of 500:1 is available although EU clients are restricted to 30:1 leverage due to MiFID regulations. There is a free VPS offered to clients who trade at least 15 round lots per month. ThinkZero accounts also qualify for the Autochartist tool and come with a dedicated account manager.

As broker fees can vary and change, there may be additional fees that are not listed in this ThinkMarkets review. It is imperative to ensure that you check and understand all of the latest information before you open a ThinkMarkets broker account for online trading.

ThinkMarkets Support

Multilingual client support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via online chat, telephone or email. The friendly support team can be prompt and efficient at responding to general and technical questions.

ThinkMarkets Deposit Withdrawal

ThinkMarkets offer a selection of deposit and withdrawal methods including online payment processors such as Neteller, Skrill and BitPay which can be useful for quicker processing. Some fees may be charged when using certain payment methods. Bank transfers may take a few business days to clear.

ThinkMarkets Account Opening

Opening an account with ThinkMarkets takes around 5 minutes. You simply complete the online application form and then verify your email address and provide documents for KYC purposes. Once your documents have been verified you will be able to fund your selected trading account and start trading online when you feel ready to do so.

ThinkMarkets FAQ

What is the ThinkMarkets minimum deposit?

ThinkMarkets has a minimum deposit requirement of $0 on the Standard account and $500 on the Think Zero account. This means that you can deposit a modest amount to try out their trading platforms, products, and services. This is a very reasonable amount to get started, especially considering some brokers have a minimum deposit requirement that can reach the thousands

How do I deposit money into ThinkMarkets?

You can fund your account through any of the methods below:

• Bank Wire
• Credit/Debit Cards (Visa and Mastercard)
• Electronic payments gateways: BitPay, Skrill, Neteller, and more.

To initiate funding, log in to your secure client portal — ThinkPortal. Click on Deposit Funds, select your trading account number, select your desired method, then follow the prompts to fund your trading account.

What are ThinkMarkets deposit fees?

ThinkMarkets does not charge fees for depositing funds. However, please note that you will be liable for any fees charged by the banks involved in the transaction for Bank wire withdrawals, including intermediaries.

How do I withdraw money from ThinkMarkets?

To withdraw funds from your trading account, first, select Withdraw Funds in the ThinkPortal. Then select the ‘New Request’ tab and complete the online form. Your withdrawal request will be processed within one business day.

ThinkMarkets has a return to source policy which means funds are typically sent back to the source in the order of deposits up to the original deposit amount. This means, for example, if you deposit through Credit Card, funds up to the original deposit amount must be sent back to the same Credit Card.

What are ThinkMarkets withdrawal fees?

ThinkMarkets does not charge any fees for withdrawals.

What is the ThinkMarkets commission fee?

ThinkMarkets have very low commission fees and even an option for a commission-free account with a small spread mark-up. There is no commission fee on the Standard Account, while a $3.5 commission fee per buy/sell is charged in the Think Zero Direct Account.

Are there any ThinkMarkets inactivity fees?

The broker does not charge any inactivity fees.

What are ThinkMarkets account types?

The broker has two live trading account options:  the commission-free Standard Account and the commission-based ThinkZero Account. The former has no minimum deposit requirement, while the latter requires a minimum deposit of $500 or a currency equivalent.

Is there a ThinkMarkets demo account?

A demo account is available at ThinkMarkets. It comes loaded with virtual funds to enable clients to learn and practice online trading in a real trading environment before opening a live trading account.

The demo accounts have all of the same features and functions as a real account. Still, it does not simulate the real trading market conditions, and it does not consider the psychological impact of trading with real money.

What are ThinkMarkets spreads?

ThinkMarkets offers low spreads starting from 0.0 pips.

Spreads always display the difference between the buy and sell price of any given currency pair to reflect the varying degrees of marketing volatility transparently.

What is ThinkMarkets leverage?

ThinkMarkets offers leverage of up to 1:500.

Leverage increases the risks and rewards of trading. In essence, the larger your account balance, the larger the risks and rewards become on a trade.

What are ThinkMarkets margin stop-out levels?

Margin is the amount required to open a new forex position. It is not a fee or a charge to your account – it is an amount set aside from your free equity to support your new trade. The client’s responsibility is to maintain sufficient funds in their respective accounts to avoid triggering a margin call at a 50% margin level.

Do ThinkMarkets allow hedging, scalping expert advisors?

The broker permits all trading strategies, including hedging, scalping expert advisors.

Is there a ThinkMarkets Islamic account?

Yes, you can open a ThinkMarkets Islamic account. Islamic accounts are also known as swap-free accounts as they imply no swap or rollover interest on overnight positions, which is against the Islamic faith. ThinkMarkets offers Islamic accounts to clients following the Muslim faith.

What are ThinkMarkets trading instruments?

The broker offers the following financial markets: Currency Pairs, Share CFDs, Indices, CFDs, Precious Metals, Commodities, and Cryptocurrency.

How do I open a ThinkMarkets live account?

To open an account, you must complete the online application form on the ThinkMarkets website and then verify your email address and provide documents for KYC purposes. Once your documents have been verified, you will fund your selected trading account and start trading online when you feel ready to do so.

How do I verify my ThinkMarkets account?

To verify your account, you are required to upload the following documents:

• Photo ID: the acceptable forms of photo identification to open an account are a valid passport, a valid government ID, such as a Driver’s License or State ID, or a valid National Identity Card
• Proof of residence: acceptable forms of proof of residence are a utility or landline phone bill or a bank statement.

All proof of residence must be current and not outdated by more than 180 days. The requirement of documents may also vary depending on your country of residence.

What is ThinkMarkets trading platform?

ThinkMarkets provides traders with the following trading platforms: MT4, MT5, and the Think Trader. The MT4 and MT5 are popular standard platforms used by most brokers. They are highly customizable and used by traders who prefer automated trading strategies, known as Expert Advisors or robots.

ThinkTrader is the broker’s proprietary trading platform; it is perfect for new and experienced manual traders. Built with the trader in mind, it focuses on giving you the total ability to take control of your trades and gives you advanced tools and custom indicators that are not commonly found in MT4 and MT5, such as cloud-based alerts and the Trend Risk Scanner. All the platforms are available in desktop, web, and mobile versions.

Where can I download the ThinkMarkets platform?

The WebTrader platform can be accessed directly from the broker’s website via any modern web browser. The desktop applications for Windows and Mac computers can be downloaded from the broker’s website. The mobile apps can be downloaded from the Android and iOS app stores.

Where is ThinkMarkets located?

ThinkMarkets is located in Australia, United Kingdom, and South Africa.

Is ThinkMarkets regulated?

Yes.  ThinkMarkets is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom. They are also regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa, and the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Seychelles.

What countries do ThinkMarkets accept?

The broker accepts traders from different parts of the globe, provided that their countries of origin permit online trading with international brokers.

Is ThinkMarkets a scam?

No, ThinkMarkets is not a scam. Multiple financial authorities — ASIC, FCA, FSCA, FSA — strictly regulate them.

How can I contact ThinkMarkets support?

You can contact the ThinkMarkets support team through telephone, email, and Live Chat.

ThinkMarkets Summary

ThinkMarkets is a well-established and regulated online broker that puts great emphasis on client security. They incorporate top of the range trading technologies and provide advanced trading platforms to clients across the globe. Account types are flexible whilst there is a range of trading tools and educational materials for traders to utilise.