Name: XM Review
Rating: 4.2
Author: Broker Reviews

XM is a Cyprus-headquartered forex and CFD broker operating since 2009, with more than 10 million reported clients across over 190 countries. We opened funded accounts, placed more than 50 trades on a live $500 balance, ran two withdrawals and tested three support channels across four weeks in the first quarter of 2026. This review reports what we measured, what has changed since, and where XM is genuinely weaker than its rivals.

Disclosure: we may earn a commission if you open an account through links on this page. It does not affect our scores, our findings, or the order in which brokers appear. Read how we make money.

Overall rating	8.3/10
Founded	2009
Headquarters	Limassol, Cyprus
Main licences	CySEC 120/10, ASIC AFSL 443670, DFSA F003484, FSC Belize 000261/397, FSCA 49976
Minimum deposit	$5
Spread from	0.0 pips (Zero account, commission applies)
Maximum leverage	Up to 1:1000, entity-dependent (1:30 under CySEC)
Instruments	1,400+
Swap-free account	Ultra Low and Shares, with no substitute administration fee
Retail loss rate	75.33% of retail investor accounts lose money

XM website homepage — XM’s own website, captured while we were testing the account.

Pros and cons

Four weeks of live testing produced real strengths in accessibility and education, and real costs to price in before funding. The rating above is re-derived from our six weighted categories rather than carried across from an earlier edition; the weightings are set out in how we rate brokers.

Pros

Strength	Detail
Multi-jurisdiction regulation	Five licences including CySEC, ASIC and DFSA, all confirmed active on the public registers
$5 minimum deposit	Among the lowest entry points in the industry on Standard, Ultra Low and Zero
Swap-free with no substitute fee	Unlike most rivals, XM charges no administration fee in place of overnight swaps
Fast withdrawals in testing	Our $350 e-wallet withdrawal cleared in under six hours on 10 February 2026
Deep free education	Daily live webinars in 23+ languages from 77 instructors, plus daily research
1,200+ commission-free shares	An unusually wide equity range for a forex-first broker

Cons

Weakness	Detail
Closed to UK residents	XM does not onboard UK clients; they are redirected to sibling brand Trading.com
Inactivity fee starts early	Charges begin after 90 days of dormancy, where most rivals wait 6 to 12 months
Gold spreads well above rivals	2.7 pips on Ultra Low against roughly 1.5 pips all-in at IC Markets in February 2026
Dealing desk execution	No genuine ECN or STP account, creating a theoretical conflict of interest
High Shares account entry	$10,000 minimum, a large step up from the $5 required elsewhere
Slippage on news	1 to 3 pips on EUR/USD during the February 2026 US payrolls release

The inactivity fee is not a cosmetic complaint: a trader who funds an account and forgets about it can lose a meaningful share of a small balance before noticing. The larger risk is the trading itself — most retail clients lose money on CFDs, and XM’s published figure is 75.33%.

Who this broker suits (and who it does not)

XM is not the best broker at any single thing. It is a competent generalist with two standout features, and that shapes who should consider it.

It suits beginners on a small balance, given the $5 minimum, a demo account with no expiry and a large free education library. It suits traders who need swap-free pricing, because XM charges no substitute administration fee where most competitors do — the clearest single reason to choose it over a cheaper rival. And it suits anyone wanting shares and forex under one login, with 1,200+ equities alongside 55+ currency pairs.

It does not suit UK residents, who cannot open an account at all. Professionals wanting raw ECN pricing will find better fits at IC Markets or Pepperstone. Infrequent traders will be exposed to the 90-day inactivity charge, and active gold traders will pay noticeably more per round trip than at a spread-focused competitor.

Licensing and regulation

We checked each licence against the relevant public register rather than taking XM’s word for it. In January 2026 CySEC licence 120/10 was listed as active for Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd, and AFSL 443670 was active on the ASIC register. We re-ran those checks in July 2026: both remain active, with no enforcement action recorded against any XM entity.

Regulator	Licensed entity	Licence	Tier	Scope
CySEC (Cyprus)	Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd	120/10	Tier 1	EU and EEA
ASIC (Australia)	Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Ltd	AFSL 443670	Tier 1	Australia
DFSA (Dubai)	Trading Point MENA Ltd	F003484	Tier 2	DIFC
FSC (Belize)	XM Global Limited	000261/397	Offshore	International clients
FSCA (South Africa)	XM ZA (Pty) Ltd	49976	Tier 2	South Africa

The group’s entity list has since grown to include CMA Kenya (TPXMGLOBAL Kenya Limited, licence 233, granted February 2026), FSC Mauritius (XM International MU Limited, GB23202700) and FSA Seychelles (XM (SC) Limited, SD190). None are tier-one regimes, so they widen geographic reach without raising the protection floor.

Which entity will you actually get?

Most reviews skip this, and it determines almost everything about your protection. EU and EEA residents are onboarded under the CySEC entity: MiFID II conduct rules, client-money segregation, negative balance protection and Investor Compensation Fund cover up to €20,000. Most clients outside the EU, Australia and the DIFC are routed automatically to XM Global Limited in Belize, where there is no statutory compensation scheme. XM applies segregation and negative balance protection across all entities as policy, but policy is not a government-backed safety net.

Two entity-level facts changed after our original testing. First, XM does not accept UK residents; registration redirects to Trading.com, a separate FCA-authorised brand under the same parent. Second, the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority licence obtained in late 2025 (number 20200000322, held by XM Financial Products Promotion L.L.C) is a Category 5 permission, which authorises promotion and client introduction but not order execution or holding client money onshore. Regulated client-facing activity in the UAE still runs through the DFSA entity inside the DIFC. Our earlier edition described that licence as adding a local protection layer, which overstated it.

On Australia, AFSL 443670 remains on the ASIC register, but whether XM is currently onboarding new Australian retail clients under it was not verified at the time of publication — sources conflict. Australian readers should confirm at signup before assuming ASIC-level protection applies.

Verifying a licence yourself takes about three minutes. Search “Trading Point” on the CySEC register, search AFSL 443670 on ASIC Connect, and search the firm name on the DFSA public register. If a site claiming to be XM quotes a number that does not resolve, that site is not XM.

Opening an account and verification

Registration took under 10 minutes in January 2026 and the account was live within one business day of document upload. The form collects the standard KYC set, then a second stage covering investment experience and financial circumstances.

Document	Accepted	Notes
Proof of identity	Passport, national ID, driving licence	Clear colour image, both sides
Proof of address	Bank statement, utility bill, card statement	Issued within the last six months

Our documents were approved in roughly 18 hours, faster than the one to three business days typical across the industry; other reviewers report longer waits, so expect variation by country and document quality. Swap-free is selectable at registration with no additional paperwork, where several competitors require a supporting declaration. Note that switching account type later means opening a new account rather than converting one. A free demo with no expiry needs no document upload.

Account types

We funded and traded two of the four account types — Ultra Low and Zero — to compare real trading costs rather than advertised ones.

Feature	Standard	Ultra Low	Zero	Shares
Minimum deposit	$5	$5	$5	$10,000
Spread from	1.0 pip	0.6 pip	0.0 pip	Market spread
Commission	None	None	$3.50 per lot per side	Per exchange
Minimum trade	0.01 lot	0.01 lot	0.01 lot	1 share
Maximum leverage	Up to 1:1000	Up to 1:1000	Up to 1:500	1:1
Swap-free available	No	Yes	No	Yes
Platforms	MT4, MT5	MT4, MT5	MT4, MT5	MT5 only
Negative balance protection	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Ultra Low is the sensible default: 0.6 pip spreads, no commission and swap-free eligibility. Zero becomes cheaper on majors past roughly five lots a day, when the tighter raw spread outweighs the fixed commission. The awkward gap is that swap-free is unavailable on Zero and Standard, so a high-volume trader who needs swap-free pricing has no ideal option here.

Leverage varies dramatically by entity: 1:30 on forex under CySEC per ESMA rules, against up to 1:1000 under the Belize entity. Leverage magnifies losses exactly as much as gains, and a 1:1000 position can be wiped out by a move of a fraction of a percent.

Fees and trading costs

We sampled spreads across three sessions in February 2026 — the Asian session, the London–New York overlap, and the US payrolls release — and Ultra Low tracked its advertised pricing closely. The figures below are session averages measured then and will have moved since.

Instrument	XM Ultra Low	XM Zero (all-in)	IC Markets Raw	Pepperstone Razor
EUR/USD	0.8 pip	0.7 pip	0.72 pip	0.80 pip
GBP/USD	1.0 pip	0.9 pip	0.93 pip	1.0 pip
USD/JPY	0.9 pip	0.8 pip	0.87 pip	0.90 pip
AUD/USD	1.0 pip	1.0 pip	0.82 pip	0.87 pip
USD/CHF	1.2 pip	1.1 pip	1.05 pip	1.10 pip
Gold (XAU/USD)	2.7 pip	2.2 pip	1.5 pip	0.05 pip

On the majors XM is competitive and within a rounding error of the raw-spread specialists. On gold it is not close, and that gap compounds quickly at volume.

Commissions. Standard and Ultra Low are commission-free with cost built into the spread. Zero charges $3.50 per lot per side, $7 per standard round turn — roughly 0.7 pip on EUR/USD, matching IC Markets and Pepperstone on their raw accounts.

Overnight financing. The swap-free Ultra Low account carries no swap and no substitute administration fee, the strongest cost feature XM has. Competitors typically levy $5 to $15 per lot after a grace period of one to seven days. On standard accounts swaps are mid-market: on 15 February 2026 we measured EUR/USD at -$6.42 long and +$1.18 short per standard lot.

Funding and inactivity. XM charges no deposit or withdrawal fees and absorbs the transfer cost, the sole exception being bank transfers under $200 where intermediary charges fall to the client. The inactivity fee is the weakest point in the schedule: charges begin after only 90 days with no account activity, at a published $5 to $15 per month depending on the stage of dormancy, where Pepperstone charges nothing and IC Markets waits six months.

Desktop platforms

XM runs MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 on desktop plus a browser-based WebTrader. There is no proprietary platform, which cuts both ways: MetaTrader is familiar, stable and heavily supported by third-party tools, but the experience is identical to that of every other MetaTrader broker.

Feature	MT4	MT5	WebTrader
Technical indicators	50+	80+	30+
Timeframes	9	21	9
Expert Advisors	Yes	Yes	No
Depth of market	No	Yes	No
Economic calendar	No	Built in	No
Share trading	No	Yes	Limited
TradingView charts	Yes	Yes	No

Across two weeks on Windows in February 2026, chart loading and timeframe switching were smooth, with MT5 noticeably quicker on historical data and more flexible on pending orders. XM has since layered TradingView charting and an in-platform AI assistant onto the stack. The TradingView integration is the more useful, removing the need for a separate charting subscription; the AI assistant answered basic market questions quickly but was shallow.

Mobile apps

We tested the Android app in February 2026 and placed 15 trades from it over a week. Execution speed was indistinguishable from desktop, and price alerts were reliable — an alert set on EUR/USD at 1.0850 fired within seconds of the level printing.

Store	Rating	Downloads
Google Play	4.5/5 (98,000+ ratings)	10 million+
App Store	4.5/5	Not published

Deposits and withdrawals run from the embedded client portal, and funding via Skrill from the phone behaved exactly as the website did. The limitations are the expected ones: charting is cramped, Expert Advisors cannot run from the app, and changing account type or pulling a full statement still needs the browser portal. The standalone MetaQuotes MT5 app offers slightly more analytical depth than MT4 (38 indicators against 30).

Trading tools

XM lists more than 1,400 instruments, placing it between Pepperstone (around 1,200) and IC Markets (around 2,250). The distinguishing feature is not the headline count but the equity range.

Asset class	Count	Examples
Forex pairs	55+	EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY
Global shares	1,200+	US, European and Asian listings
Indices	30+	US500, UK100, DE40, JP225
Metals	8+	Gold, silver, platinum, palladium
Energy	5+	WTI, Brent, natural gas
Agricultural	8+	Cocoa, soybeans, wheat, corn
Crypto	Entity-dependent	BTC/USD, ETH/USD where permitted

More than 1,200 commission-free shares on Standard and Ultra Low is genuinely unusual for a forex-first broker, and execution on large-cap US technology names was clean at reasonable spreads. The weak spot is crypto: the range is thin and availability depends entirely on which entity holds your account, so a digital-asset strategy will need a second platform alongside XM.

Order execution

We placed 50 trades on the live account. The overwhelming majority filled in under a second and we had no order rejections during normal sessions. XM advertises a 99.98% execution rate, and nothing in our testing contradicted it.

The structural caveat is the execution model: XM runs a dealing desk and acts as counterparty to client trades rather than routing straight to liquidity providers. We saw no evidence of price manipulation across four weeks, but the model creates a theoretical conflict of interest an ECN account does not. It is not automatically worse — a market maker fills orders in thin conditions where an ECN book may not — but traders who want that conflict removed should look to the brokers that route straight through to liquidity providers.

Under stress the picture changed. During the February 2026 US payrolls release, spreads widened sharply and we recorded 1 to 3 pips of slippage on EUR/USD, normal for most brokers on high-impact data but a cost news traders should budget for. All standard order types are available on both MetaTrader builds. Stop-loss and take-profit orders are not guaranteed — in a gap, such as a Monday open or a sudden geopolitical event, an order can fill well away from the level set.

Deposits

We funded $500 by Skrill, which credited in under a minute, and $200 by Visa, which credited within a few minutes. XM charges no deposit fees on any method.

Method	Minimum	Fee	Processing time
Visa / Mastercard	$5	Free	Instant
Skrill	$5	Free	Instant
Neteller	$5	Free	Instant
Bank transfer	$200	Free above $200	2–5 business days
UnionPay	$5	Free	Instant
WebMoney	$5	Free	Instant

The funding menu is conventional and slightly dated. We found no Apple Pay, PayPal or instant local bank rail among the options — everything routes through cards, two legacy e-wallets or a standard bank transfer. Anyone used to instant account-to-account funding will find this a step backwards. E-wallets were the faster round trip in both directions.

Withdrawals

This is where XM performed best. We requested a $350 Skrill withdrawal at 11:00 on 10 February 2026 and the funds landed at 16:30 the same day — under six hours. A second withdrawal of $500 by bank transfer, requested on 17 February 2026, cleared in three business days. XM charges no withdrawal fees and absorbs the transfer costs.

Method	Minimum	Fee	Processing time
Visa / Mastercard	$5	Free	2–5 business days
Skrill	$5	Free	Same day
Neteller	$5	Free	Same day
Bank transfer	$200	Free	2–5 business days

Our experience was clean, but it is not universal. XM holds 3.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot across more than 2,500 reviews, roughly 46% five-star and 31% one-star — a polarised distribution. Recurring complaints concern deposit delays from certain regions and slow email support rather than refused withdrawals. Specialist sites score it higher, with ForexBrokers.com giving 93 out of 99 for trust. That spread suggests experience varies by region and entity.

One rule catches people out: withdrawals must return by the deposit method. If you funded by card, the deposited amount goes back to that card first, and only profits above it can go elsewhere. That is standard anti-money-laundering practice, not an XM quirk. Verifying identity fully before your first request removes the most common cause of delay.

Customer support

We tested three channels in February 2026 and logged response times rather than relying on impressions.

Channel	Availability	Measured response
Live chat	24/7	Under 2 minutes across 4 contacts
Email	24/5	8 hours to a detailed technical reply
Phone	24/5	Not tested directly

Live chat was consistently strong and the answers were specific rather than canned. Asked about leverage configuration and margin requirements on individual instruments, the team returned exact figures for our account rather than generic policy text, which suggests product training rather than a script. Support covers a wide range of languages including English and Arabic. Email was weaker: an eight-hour reply beats the 12 to 24 hours typical across the industry, but responses were more templated. Use chat first for anything complex.

Research and education

Education is XM’s strongest non-price feature, and it is not close. The broker runs free daily webinars in more than 23 languages delivered by 77 instructors, including recurring series such as Forex Power Hour and Indicators Masterclass. We sat in on a technical analysis session and found it professionally delivered and pitched at beginner to intermediate traders.

Resource	Availability	Level
Live webinars	Free, daily	Beginner to advanced
Market analysis	Daily	Intermediate to advanced
Trading signals	Daily	All levels
Video library	On demand	Beginner to intermediate
Trading academy	On demand	All levels
AI assistant	In platform	All levels

Alongside the webinars sits a daily research desk covering major pairs, commodities and indices with Reuters and Dow Jones data, a structured academy graded beginner to advanced, XM TV for live market coverage, and free trading signals delivered to the platform or by email. Those signals are technical suggestions, not recommendations, and carry no guarantee of any outcome. Education reduces avoidable mistakes but does not change the underlying odds of leveraged trading: roughly three quarters of retail CFD accounts lose money regardless of how good the tutorials are.

Fund safety and protections

XM holds client money segregated from its own operating funds at tier-one banks, so in an insolvency client balances should not form part of the liquidation estate. Negative balance protection applies across all entities. Both are mandatory under CySEC and ASIC rules and XM extends them to its other entities as policy. They are the first two layers of fund safety to establish about any broker; the third, a statutory compensation scheme, is where XM’s entities diverge sharply.

Protection	CySEC	ASIC	DFSA	FSC Belize
Segregated client funds	Yes (mandatory)	Yes (mandatory)	Yes (mandatory)	Yes
Negative balance protection	Yes (mandatory)	Yes (mandatory)	Yes	Yes
Compensation scheme	Up to €20,000 (ICF)	None	None	None
Annual financial audit	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

The compensation row is the one that matters, and it is why the entity question is not academic. Only the CySEC entity carries a statutory compensation scheme; clients on the Belize, Seychelles or Mauritius entities have segregation and negative balance protection but no state-backed backstop if the firm itself fails.

The site runs 256-bit SSL and the client portal supports two-factor authentication, with a new device triggering email verification during our testing. We found no publicly reported data breach and no regulatory penalty relating to client money across more than 16 years of operation, though past record is no guarantee of future conduct. One live warning is worth knowing about, and it is not against XM: the FSCA in South Africa has published an alert about fraudsters impersonating XM ZA (Pty) Ltd via WhatsApp to solicit deposits. Only fund through the official domain, and check any licence number quoted to you against the regulator’s own register.

Verdict

After four weeks of live testing and a re-verification pass in July 2026, XM reads as a well-regulated, competently run generalist with two standout features and several real limitations. The standouts are the swap-free account with no substitute administration fee, and an education programme among the deepest in the industry. The limitations are gold pricing well above specialist rivals, an inactivity fee starting after only 90 days, a dealing desk execution model, and — for many English-speaking readers — the fact that UK residents cannot open an account at all.

Category	Weight	Score	Comment
Regulation and licensing	25%	8.5/10	Five verified active licences, clean enforcement record, but no UK access and offshore routing for most international clients
Trading costs	20%	7.6/10	Competitive on majors, expensive on gold, early inactivity fee
Withdrawals and fund access	20%	8.7/10	Sub-six-hour e-wallet withdrawal, no fees, but polarised user reports
Platforms and execution	15%	7.8/10	Solid MetaTrader build, no proprietary platform, dealing desk model
Customer support	10%	8.8/10	Under two minutes on chat, eight hours by email, product-literate answers
Research and transparency	10%	9.0/10	Industry-leading education, published fees, opaque entity assignment at signup

That weighting produces 8.3 out of 10, on the same scale we apply across our broker reviews. The category that moved against XM since our original assessment is regulation and licensing: the closure of the UK route, and the finding that the UAE SCA licence is a promotional Category 5 permission rather than an execution licence, both narrow the protection available to specific groups of readers — even though every licence we checked is active and no regulator has taken action against the firm.

Risk warning: CFDs are complex leveraged instruments carrying a high risk of rapid loss. XM publishes that 75.33% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with it. Nothing here is investment advice or a prediction of returns. Do not trade with money you cannot afford to lose.

Is XM trustworthy?

Is XM a scam?

No, not on any objective measure. XM holds five licences we independently verified as active on the regulators’ own registers, including CySEC 120/10 and ASIC AFSL 443670. We deposited real money, traded it and withdrew it, with the e-wallet withdrawal clearing in under six hours. No regulator has taken enforcement action against any XM entity. The distinction that matters is between a fraudulent broker and one that may not suit you.

Can I actually get my money out?

In our testing, yes, twice, with no obstruction. Some Trustpilot reviewers report delays, and the pattern in those complaints points to incomplete identity verification or bonus-terms breaches rather than refusal. Verify fully before your first request and withdraw by the method you deposited with, and you remove the two most common causes of delay.

Is XM regulated in the UK?

No. XM is not FCA-authorised and does not accept UK residents. UK traders attempting to register are directed to Trading.com, a separate FCA-authorised brand owned by the same parent, Trading Point Holdings. Trading.com is a different product with its own pricing and platform, so nothing in this review transfers to it.

Which XM entity will hold my money?

It depends on your country of residence and it is decided for you at signup. EU and EEA residents get the CySEC entity with €20,000 Investor Compensation Fund cover. Most other international clients are routed to XM Global Limited in Belize, which has no compensation scheme. Check which entity your client agreement names before funding — it is the most consequential detail in the paperwork.

Has XM ever been fined or warned by a regulator?

We found no enforcement action, fine or public warning issued against XM by CySEC, ASIC, the DFSA or the FSCA as at July 2026. The FSCA has published an alert about third parties impersonating XM’s South African entity, but that is a warning about fraudsters, not about XM.

Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum deposit at XM?

$5 on the Standard, Ultra Low and Zero accounts, among the lowest in the industry. The Shares account requires $10,000. A $5 minimum makes the platform accessible, but it is not a realistic starting balance for risk management — a position sized against $5 leaves no room for a drawdown.

Does XM offer swap-free accounts?

Yes, on Ultra Low and Shares. The distinguishing feature is that XM levies no substitute administration fee in place of the overnight swap, where most competitors charge $5 to $15 per lot after a short grace period. It is selectable during registration with no extra documentation, and is not available on Standard or Zero.

How long do XM withdrawals take?

When we tested in February 2026, a Skrill withdrawal requested at 11:00 arrived at 16:30 the same day, and a bank transfer requested on 17 February cleared in three business days. XM’s published times are same-day for e-wallets and two to five business days for cards and bank transfers, with no withdrawal fee on any method.

What is the maximum leverage at XM?

Up to 1:1000 under the Belize, South Africa and Dubai entities, up to 1:500 under ASIC, and capped at 1:30 on forex for CySEC clients under ESMA rules. Sixteen settings are available between 1:1 and 1:1000. Leverage magnifies losses as much as gains, so conservative settings are the more defensible choice while learning.

Which platforms does XM support?

MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 on desktop, mobile and browser, with TradingView charting and an in-platform AI assistant layered on top. There is no proprietary XM platform. MT5 is required for the Shares account and offers more timeframes, depth of market and a built-in economic calendar.

Does XM charge an inactivity fee?

Yes, and it starts early. After 90 days with no trades, deposits or withdrawals, monthly charges of $5 to $15 apply depending on the stage of dormancy. That is stricter than most of the market: Pepperstone charges nothing and IC Markets waits six months. If you plan a break, withdraw the balance or trade a small position every couple of months.

Item	Detail
Brand	XM Group
Parent company	Trading Point Holdings Ltd
Founded	2009
Headquarters	Limassol, Cyprus
Clients	More than 10 million (company figure, 2025)
EU entity	Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd (Cyprus)
Australian entity	Trading Point of Financial Instruments Pty Ltd
International entity	XM Global Limited (Belize)
DIFC entity	Trading Point MENA Ltd
Sister brand	Trading.com (FCA-authorised, UK)

XM Review: Is It a Trustworthy Broker?