HF Markets Review 2024 (HotForex)

Rating 8.9/10

Max. Leverage

1:2,000

for Forex

Minimum Deposit

$0 (R0)

EUR/USD Spread

1.4 pips

Benchmark

Visit HF Markets South Africa

HotForex is a Forex Broker that offers Forex Trading & CFD Trading on metals, energies, bonds, cryptocurrency, commodities, indices, ETF, and stocks.

HotForex is licensed with multiple Top-Tier regulations including FSCA in South Africa. In May 2022, HotForex rebranded into HFM, which is short for HF Markets.

This review of HotForex will cover their account types, available tradable instruments, deposit/withdrawal options, trading/non-trading fees, and customer support.

HF Markets is considered low-risk for traders based in South Africa because they are registered in South Africa and their parent company ‘HF Markets Group’ has been licensed by multiple Top-Tier regulators. HF Markets is authorized by the following regulators:

1) FSCA: The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa has licensed HotForex as ‘HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd’. HF Markets is registered as a Financial Service Provider (FSP) in South Africa, with FSP number 46632, issued in 2016.

2) FCA: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom has authorised ‘HF Markets (UK) Limited’ to provide financial products and services with Reference number 801701, issued in 2018.

3) DFSA: Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has authorised ‘HF Markets (DIFC) Ltd’ to carry on financial services in the UAE since 2018.

4) FSA: Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Seychelles as ‘HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd.’, licensed as a security dealer.

Negative balance protection is available for all of HFM’s retail clients. There is local protection for South African traders if you open a rand denominated account. According to the FSCA’s regulation, your money will be kept and protected by South African laws if you open a ZAR trading account.

Typical leverage on HF Markets can be up to 1:2,000, depending on the account type. Traders can choose floating leverage or fixed leverage option to operate with. The maximum leverage of 1:2,000 applies only to major forex pairs, other instruments have lower leverage limits.

With leverage of 2,000, you can open a trade position worth up to 2,000 times the value of your deposit. For example, with a deposit of R100, you can place a trade of R200,000.

Note: Trading with leverage is very risky, and you must avoid using more than 1:30 leverage on forex. The availability of a floating leverage option is an advantage, and you must never use 1:1000 leverage. As a caution by HF Markets, leverage is adjusted when your equity exceeds $300,000.

HF Markets has 4 main account types for traders and 1 investment account. HF Markets also offers Swap-free Islamic Account and a demo account which features unlimited options and is risk-free for beginners to use and familiarise themselves with the trading platform before they open live accounts.

The account types on HF Markets and their basic features are:

1) Premium Account: The HF Markets Premium Account is designed for retail clients. This account allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, crypto, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

This account is spread only and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions. Spreads start from 1.2 pip and you do not pay swap fees whenever you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time, this applies to most instruments except shares.

The Premium Account on HF Markets does not have a mandatory minimum deposit, the required minimum trade size is 0.01 lot and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:2,000.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account. If a trade position is unsuccessful and you have a loss, any negative balance on your account will be reset to zero.

2) Pro Account: The HF Markets Pro Account is also designed for retail traders who are experienced and allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, crypto, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

This account is spread only and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions. Spreads start from 0.5 pips and you pay swap fees whenever you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

The Pro Account on HF Markets requires a minimum deposit of R1,800, with a minimum trade size of 0.01 and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:2,000.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

3) Zero Account: The HF Markets Zero Account is designed for retail clients who trade high volumes, use EAs and want to pay lower spreads. This account allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, crypto, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

You pay commissions for opening and closing trades per side on this account. Commission charges for 1 lot is $3 (making $6 for a round turn) for majors and $4 for others (making $8 for a round turn). The spreads on this account start from 0.1 pips for forex, with limits and stops at 2 pips.

The Zero Account on HF Markets does not require a mandatory minimum deposit, minimum trade size of 0.01 is required and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:2,000.

This account offers swap-free trading on select instruments, for a grace period of 7 days, shares trading will still attract swap-fees.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

4) Cent Account: The HF Markets Cent Account is designed for new traders and allows you to trade forex and gold only.

This account is spread only and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions. Spreads start from 1.2 pip and no swap fees apply when you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

The Cent Account on HF Markets does not have a mandatory minimum deposit, account balance is shown in Cents (United States Cents), that is $10 will be shown as 1,000 cents.

This account requires a minimum trade size of 0.01, a maximum of 200 cents lots per position, 150 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:2,000.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

5) Top-up Bonus Account: The HF Markets Top-up Bonus Account is designed for retail clients. This account allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

This account charges spread and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions on most instruments. Spreads start from 1.4 pip and you pay swap fees whenever you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

The Top-up Bonus Account on HF Markets does not have a mandatory minimum deposit, the required minimum trade size is 0.01 lot and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:1,000.

With the Top-up Bonus Account, you get bonus for every deposit you make from 20% and can be up to 50% of your deposited amount. The maximum bonus you can get per deposit is R90,000.

While you cannot withdraw the bonus amount, you can use it to trade and you can withdraw any profits realised from the trade.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

To get the Top-up bonus account, you must first create a trading account on HFM then request the Top-up bonus account from the client area.

6) Swap-free Islamic Account: HF Markets offers Islamic Accounts to Muslim traders that are in compliance with the sharia law of no-riba. These accounts are swap-free (interest-free), which means you do not pay any interest for keeping a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

You can convert your Pro, Premium or Zero Accounts to Islamic status and the same features and fees will apply except for the swap fees. This account also supports only USD or EUR as the base currency.

Note that the HF Markets Swap-fee Islamic Account have a grace period of 7 days, during which no rollover fees are charged. If you keep a position open for more than 7 days, you will incur carry charges on some instruments.

To get a swap-free Islamic Account on HF Markets, first, create a Pro, Premium or Zero Account then contact the HF Markets customer support team to convert your account to a swap-free status.

Currently, the Zero Account offer swap free trading, which translates to Islamic Account features, so you may not need to convert to a special Islamic Account.

HF Markets Investing Accounts:

1) HFCopy Account: HF Markets HFCopy Account is designed for traders who want to copy the trades of experienced and professional traders. Both professionals who allow others to copy their trades, known as; strategy providers’ or those who copy trades, referred to as ‘followers’ can open this account type.

The maximum number of followers per strategy provider is 1,000. Strategy providers earn a performance fee for letting others copy their trades.

This account type supports only USD as the account currency and requires a minimum deposit of $500 for strategy providers and $100 for followers.

You can find the terms and conditions to copy-trading on HF Markets HFCopy Account via this dedicated domain copy.hfm.com.

HF Markets Base Account Currency

Your trades, deposits, profits, losses, and withdrawals on the platform are measured in your base account currency.

The available account base currencies on HF Markets South Africa are the United States Dollar – USD and South African Rand – ZAR.

Fees on HF Markets depend on the instrument you are trading, your account type and the size of your trade. HF Markets is transparent about its fees and you can find details on their website. Find a summary of HF Markets’ trading and non-trading fees below:

1) Spread: Spreads on HF Markets start from around 0.1 pips, which are considered moderate compared to other brokers. HF Markets has no fixed spread and operates a variable spread system, which is basically the difference between the ask price and the bid price.

Typical spreads on HF Markets Pro and Premium Accounts for some major instruments are shown below:

2) Commissions: HF Markets offers commission-free trading on all account types except the Zero Account. The Zero account charges low spreads, but has relatively high commission fees, starting at $3 per 1 lot for majors, which is $6 for a round turn, and $4 per 1 lot for others, which is $8 for a round turn. Rand charges are R40 per lot for majors, making it R80 for a round turn and R55 per lot for others, making it R110 for a round turn.

3) Overnight Fees (Swap): If you keep a trade position open during the closing time of the market, the trade rolls over to the next day and you incur a rollover fee or overnight funding costs, also called swap fees.

Swap fees differ with traded instruments and pairs, account type, trade size and whether your swap is long (buy) or short (sell).

Islamic and Zero Accounts do not pay swap fees, as they are swap-free for a grace period of 7 days, after which admin charges apply. Note that shares attract swap fees on all account types.

It is important to note that HF Markets uses a floating swap policy, which means swap rates change daily. You can use the swaps calculator on the HF Markets website to determine your exact swap fees.

Non-trading fees

1) Deposit and Withdrawal fees: HF Markets offers free deposits and withdrawals. You do not pay any fees when you deposit funds to your account or withdraw from it. This applies to all account types and payment methods. Note that if you deposit less than $100 via bank transfers, you might incur some deposit fees.

2) Account Inactivity charges: HF Markets charges inactive account fees if you do not perform any trade on your account for 6 months. Any balance in your account will be charged a monthly fee of $5. If you do not have any funds in your account, no fees will be charged.

To start trading on the HF Markets platform, you need to open a live account. Follow the steps below to open your trading account.

Step 1) Go to the HF Markets website at www.hfm.com and click on the ‘Open Live Account’ button, highlighted in green colour, at the top right side of the page.

Step 2) Select the client type, either as an individual, corporate or joint, then fill in your information, create a password, select South Africa as your country of residence, check the terms and conditions box after reading, and click on ‘Register’.

Step 3) A verification link will be sent to your email address. Go to your email inbox and click the ‘Activate Account’ link to continue with your registration.

Step 4) When you click on ‘Activate Account’ in the email, your account will be activated, and you will be taken to your dashboard (an example is shown below).

You will also get a confirmation email with your ‘myHF account ID’ after the account is activated.

Step 5) On your dashboard, you will be required to complete registration/profile by supplying some personal and economic information, including your experience level with Forex trading.

Step 6) Next, you will be required to upload a valid ID to verify your identity and a proof of address to verify your address. Then wait for the approval.

Step 7) After your account is approved, you can make deposits, start trading, and make transfers and withdrawals.

*Note that if your account is unapproved, you can only deposit a maximum of R3,052 and will not be able to withdraw any funds. To become fully approved on the Forex platform, you need to upload the required documents. 

Payment methods supported by HF Markets for deposits and withdrawals are bank transfers, e-wallets, crypto and cards. Here is the summary of the deposits and withdrawal options on HF Markets in South Africa.

HF Markets Deposit Methods

Here is a summary of payment methods accepted by HF Markets for deposits.

HF Markets Withdrawal Methods

Here is a summary of payment methods for withdrawals accepted on HF Markets.

What is the HF Markets Minimum deposit?

The minimum deposit is $5 for the card or e-wallet (Skrill) with a maximum deposit amount of $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. Cryptocurrency deposits require a minimum amount of $30 with maximum amount of $10,000 per transaction.

The minimum deposit for ZAR on HF Markets is R100 via local bank transfers with a maximum deposit amount of $10,000.

How do I Deposit Funds?

Step 1) Log in to your dashboard by visiting the HF Markets website or via my.hfm.com/za/login

Step 2) On your dashboard, you will see ‘Deposit’ on the left column menu (desktop view), click on it, then select Bank Transfers and further select Direct Online Banking on the options that appear, to make deposits in Rand.

Step 3) The Direct Online Banking page will require you to fill in the amount of money you want to deposit in ZAR, confirm your address and email, and then click on ‘Deposit’.

Step 4) A pop-up will appear for you to choose Online Bank Wire or QR Code Payment. Select online Bank Wire, then your bank, and follow the prompts to complete your deposit.

Step 5) After making a deposit, the funds will be credited to myWallet, which you will have to transfer to a trading account on your dashboard to start trading.

On your dashboard, locate ‘Transfer Funds’ on the left side menu, and click on it to transfer funds from myWallet to a live trading account or from a trading account to your myWallet.

Enter the amount you want to transfer, click on start transfer and follow the instructions to complete the transfer.

What is the minimum withdrawal amount on HotForex?

The minimum withdrawal from HF Markets is R70 or $10 for local bank transfers or $5 for cards and e-wallets. Minimum withdrawal for crypto is $10.

How to Withdraw Funds from HotForex South Africa?

Step 1) Log in to your dashboard by visiting the HF Markets website or via my.hfm.com/za/login

Step 2) On your dashboard, you will see ‘Withdraw’ on the left column menu (desktop view), click on it, then select Wire Transfer and follow the instructions to withdraw funds in Rand to your South African bank.

Note that you cannot withdraw funds until you have completed your profile information, uploaded verification documents and your account is approved.

HF Markets offers over 1,200 trading instruments, all of which are CFD instruments, find their categories below:

1) HFM WebTrader: This is a trading application developed by HF Markets and is available on desktops for web trading.

2) HFM App: This is a trading application developed by HF Markets and is available on mobile devices only. You can download it from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

3) MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5: HF Markets supports the MT4 and MT5 trading applications for trading financial markets. The applications are available on the web, desktop, and mobile devices (Android & iOS). You can also use EAs as professional clients or other tools.

Podcasts: HF Markets launched trading education podcasts in 2023. It is free and you can listen to it on multiple streaming platforms. According to our review, HFM’s podcast is available on 18 streaming platforms. Here are the platforms in one glance.

At the time of this writing, there are up to 26 different podcasts on HFM’s podcast list. Here are the latest ones.

How To Videos: If you need help downloading/installing any of HF Market’ mobile app, this is what you need. These videos guide you on how to download, HFM App, MT4, and MT5 on your phone (android or iPhone). The guide also covers PC installation.

Live Webinars: HF Markets holds live webinars that can improve your FX knowledge. It does not matter if you are a beginner, intermediate, or an expert trader. There is a webinar for every level. These webinars will improve your trading skills and increase your confidence in forex trading.

Since the webinars are live, you will need to register to book your slot. There are no extra charges for the webinar. On the webinar page, you will find the schedule for each month. You can also select your experience level so that only relevant webinars are recommended for you.

Finally, all webinars end with a Q&A session so you get the opportunity to get answers to your questions from industry expert.

HF Markets takes all reasonable steps to ensure the best possible when executing your orders. Here are some of their best execution factors:

Price: The price for a given financial instrument is provided from HF Markets and it is updated as frequently as possible. Prices are not quoted outside of the broker’s operation times. With HF Markets, there is no guarantee that your orders will be executed at a favorable price. To ensure fairness, HF Markets ensures that their liquidity provider calculates the spread.

Costs: HF Markets charges commission and financing fees. They can be found on their website under contract specifications. These fees are not calculated with the bid/ask spread. They are charged explicitly to your trading account and deducted from your balance.

Speed of Execution: HF Markets strives to offer a high speed of execution within prevailing technological limits. If the reason for a delay in order transmission is due to a poor network connection from your end, your market order might become out of date. In this situation, such an order is declined.

Likelihood of execution: HF Markets reserves the right to decline any type of order. Especially if there is not enough liquidity to execute it. Stop Loss, Take Profit, Buy Limit, Buy Stop, Sell Limit, and Sell Stop Orders on financial instruments offered by the broker are executed at your requested price. In a situation where this is not possible, these orders are executed at the first available price.

HF Markets has responsive customer service support that is available 24 hours on business days. Traders can reach HF Markets support via any of the means below during working days:

1) Live chat: HF Markets live chat is fast, their representative responds within 2 minutes when a chat is initiated and provides relevant answers to questions asked.

Whether you are a registered user or not, you can access the live chat. You can request a call back via their live chat, and a representative will call you, you will have to submit a valid phone number and email address for this to work. Our team submitted a request but didn’t get a callback.

2) Phone number support: HF Markets has an active local phone number support. The phone line is active from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on working days.

The South African phone number is +27-10-443-9924. The HF Markets global support phone number is +44-20-3097-8571, available 24 hours for 5 days.

3) Email Support is fair: You can reach HF Markets via email support at [email protected]. Once you send an enquiry email, you will receive an auto-generated response to show that a ticket has been created for your enquiry.

A representative replied in about 9 minutes, we sent another question and got a reply in less than 10 minutes. The answers to our questions were relevant and satisfactory.

4) Physical office: HF Markets office address in South Africa is on Katherine & WestSuite 18 Second floor 114 West Street, Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to their live chat support, customers can walk into the office to make enquiries, and it is open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Mondays to Fridays.

HF Markets offers bonuses for different activities. Each category of bonuses has its terms and conditions to qualify. Current bonus offerings are:

1) 100% Supercharged Bonus: traders can earn up to 100% cash rebates whenever they deposit $250/R3,200 or more. The bonus is capped at a maximum of $50,000/R600,000.

This bonus is available to all clients using Premium and Islamic accounts. Traders can choose to use the cash from this bonus for trading or withdraw it to a bank account.

2) 30% Rescue Bonus: This is also referred to as Rescue Program. This bonus is offered to traders during a drawdown period, to help manage their losses. A 30% bonus is credited to the client’s accounts for every deposit above $50/R700.

The Rescue Bonus cannot be withdrawn to a bank account but can be used for trading. This bonus is capped at a maximum of $7,000/R90,000 and when traders make a withdrawal, the bonus amount is removed.

3) 100% Credit Bonus: This HF Markets bonus is available to only Pro, Premium, and Islamic account holders. It increases the leverage volume for account holders and can be withdrawn if the minimum volume requirement is met.

This bonus is credited to traders’ accounts upon new deposits of $100 or R1,400. The bonus is capped at $30,000 or R400,000 maximum. Traders can request for the bonus to be released after meeting the volume requirement within 3 months. After 3 months, they lose the right to claim this bonus. It is important to note that not all trading instruments count towards the volume requirements.

4) HF Markets 50% Welcome Bonus Program: To qualify for this bonus, simply make a deposit of at least $50 or 700 and the bonus will be added to your account automatically. You can get a maximum of R14,000 /$1,000 in this way. You cannot withdraw this bonus and you cannot have it at the same time as the 30% Rescue Bonus.

HF Markets offers a 50% Welcome Bonus Program to new traders on their first deposit. With this offer, you get 50% of your deposit balance in additional trading funds. The offer is only available to people who use the MT4 platform.

Do we Recommend HF Markets South Africa?

HF Markets South Africa is FSCA-authorized and regulated in multiple jurisdictions. HF Markets customer support is available in South Africa and they respond quickly to enquiries on business days.

HF Markets South Africa has negative balance protection, have low fees compared to some brokers, and offers bonuses to traders. They also have many account types, so you can choose the features that work best for you.

One downside to trading with HF Markets is that they charge account inactivity fees after 6 months, but you can avoid this if you withdraw all funds, leaving your balance at zero.

Based on these details, we recommend that you check out HF Markets website to see their full details, also chat with the live support to answer any questions you may have to help you make up your mind.

HF Markets South Africa FAQs