HYCM Review 2023

HYCM or Henyep Markets is a global forex and CFD broker based in London. It’s especially good for clients in the Middle East as it offers accounts with base currencies in AED and allows customers to have several accounts with different base currencies. HYCM is regulated by Britain’s FCA, among others, which gives it the FX world’s highest mark of safety. Spreads are a bit wider than usual in its two no-commission accounts, but all-in cost is low in its commission-based account.

The selection of products available to trade is somewhat limited – no actual stocks, for example – but it does offer an unusual number of cryptocurrencies, and clients can access other products through other members of the Henyep group without opening another account. You can choose either of two commission-free accounts or a raw account that offers tighter spreads in exchange for a commission per trade. Traders can have several accounts with different base currencies under one profile. There are substantial educational resources, including live webinars and excellent research. There are no deposit or withdrawal fees. HYCM isn’t for the occasional trader – the inactivity fee kicks in after 90 days. MT4 and MT5 are the only trading platforms available and there is no capability for copy trading. The multilingual support team is available 24/5.

Is HYCM a good broker?

Yes, HYCM is a good broker for people who want to trade. Both new and experienced players looking to trade forex, CFDs, and especially cryptos will find a lot to like with HYCM. Pricing is good and it’s regulated by Britain’s FCA, the gold standard for FX regulation. It’s especially good for clients in the Middle East as it offers accounts with base currencies in AED and occasional seminars in Dubai and Kuwait, while Indian clients may be surprised to note that they can trade INR and a CFD based on the NSE Nifty 50 index, which few major brokers offer. Clients can trade most of the products that the average trader would want and can access more, including actual stocks, through other members of the Henyep group without opening another account. There’s a lot of educational information too. There are no deposit or withdrawal fees. The trading platforms are only MT4 and MT5, which may be an attraction (if you’re just beginning, or if you already know how to use them) or a disadvantage (if you’re accustomed to some other platform), depending on your circumstances. Downside: no copy trading options and no passive investment vehicles, such as PAMM or premade portfolios. HYCM is for traders, not necessarily for investors.

What is HYCM?

HYCM or Henyep Markets is a global forex and CFD broker based in London. It’s the online trading division of Henyep Capital Markets, part of the Henyep Group, a Hong Kong-based financial conglomerate. It launched its online trading platform in 2007. 

Broker pros and cons

Is HYCM safe?

Yes, the firm seems quite safe as far as we can tell. It’s regulated by the UK FCA (among others), which is the “gold standard” for regulation in the forex world. The parent company is not listed on any stock exchange and no financial information is publicly available, but it’s a huge financial conglomerate that’s been in business since 1977, so it’s one of the oldest firms in the business and has weathered many storms. (But then again, Baring Brothers was founded in 1762 and went belly up 233 years later, so as always, past performance is no guarantee of future performance. This is not to say that I expect anything to happen to HYCM; I don’t, in fact. But I’m just saying that it’s not impossible.)

Is HYCM regulated?

Good news and bad news. On the one hand, HYCM is regulated by several financial authorities, including the top-tier FCA for UK clients and the second-tier CySEC for EU clients. Great! These clients get all the usual protection accorded to clients under those regulators, such as negative balance protection and an investor compensation scheme in the unlikely event that the company should go bust. 

On the other hand, clients outside the UK and EU are onboarded via HYCM's legal entity in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, which is regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA). Accordingly its clients don’t get the same protection that UK and EU clients do.

A separate branch of the company, Henyep Capital Markets (DIFC) Ltd, is authorized and regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. 

Is HYCM legal in USA?

No, HYCM does not accept clients living in the US, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Pakistan, Turkey, and some areas of Canada (British Columbia, Quebec, and Saskatchewan). Nor does it accept people with US or Hong Kong nationality no matter where they are (like me, alas).

Where is HYCM based

The headquarters are in London and another main office is in Limassol, Cyprus. There are offices in Dubai, Kuwait, and the Cayman Islands.

Headquarters of the HYCM Group are in Hong Kong.

Who owns HYCM

HYCM is a subsidiary of the Henyep Group, a Hong Kong-based financial conglomerate. The company started out in 1977 as Henyep Gold Dealers. It subsequently diversified into many other fields, such as stocks, commodities, real estate, futures, and property. The company set up in the US in 1980, relocated its trading operations to London in 1994, and was licensed by the UK’s FCA in 1998, making it one of if not the oldest firm in the retail FX brokerage business. It launched its online trading platform in 2007. The Henyep Group is now well established in the UK, China, Japan, and many other countries. In addition to its financial activities, it’s also prominent in education and charitable activities. 

Can HYCM be trusted?

We believe so! Its parent company is a major financial conglomerate that’s been around since 1977, making it one of the oldest companies in the business. It’s regulated by four regulators, including Britain’s FCA. And we can’t find any indication that it’s ever been in any problems with the authorities. (But as always, allow me to remind you: past performance is no guarantee of future performance.)

Leverage

At HYCM, EU and UK clients cannot change leverage levels, which is a drawback. It’s fixed for them at 1:30 for major forex pairs, 1:20 for stock indices CFDs, and 5:1 for stock CFDs, which are the legal limits in those regions. Elsewhere, the sky’s the limit (almost); leverage is capped at 500:1 (but you can reduce it). 

Accounts

There are three main types of trading accounts at HYCM: Fixed, Classic, and Raw. The main difference between them is their pricing structure. Otherwise they all have the same minimum deposit ($20), the same minimum volume per trade (0.01 lot), and all offer the same base currencies (EUR, USD, GBP, AED, JPY) in MT4 and MT5. 

All three account types are available shariah-compliant (although fees are levied after a position has been held open for more than two weeks). HYCM allows all trading strategies, including hedging, scalping, and copy trading.

HYCM also offers special accounts for VIP and Corporate clients who actively trade larger volumes. 

Fees

Fees for trading FX were mentioned above in the “Accounts” section. 

Non-trading fees: You can’t beat no deposit or withdrawal fees. The inactivity fee is kind of high as it kicks in after 90 days (in many other brokers it’s after a year) and it’s $10 a month. But if you can’t manage one trade every three months, you should just close out your account anyway.

Swap Fees: These can be found in the “contract specifications” tab next to each instrument. Swap fees vary a lot depending on the position taken and the rate differentials of the two currencies involved. 

Net net, the company’s trading costs on the Fixed and Classic accounts are somewhat above average and below average on the Raw account. The non-trading fees are relatively low as long as you keep trading occasionally. 

Spreads

Spreads in the Fixed account are slightly higher than average but it’s not a killer. The 0.2-pip spread plus $4 per lot commission in the Raw account compares favorably to other brokers if you trade a lot. (It can work out to around 0.6 pip, which is pretty good.) I can’t really evaluate the cost of the Classic account because spreads vary, by definition, according to market volume and volatility. The firm only publishes its starting spreads, not its averages. 

Trading Instruments

HYCM is a CFD broker. You can trade forex and CFDs on commodities, stock indices, futures, and single stocks. The 70 or so FX pairs include few EM currencies, with INR being the unusual stand-out (HKD, HUF, MXN, PLN, SGD, TRY, and ZAR are the others.) No AED or RUB even though you can use them as the base currency for your account.

I counted 146 single stocks, mostly American, plus a few UK, European, and Chinese companies, which is not much compared to the competition, and 28 stock market indices, which is about right for the industry. (A CFD based on India’s NSE Nifty 50 index, which few brokers offer, stood out as one you don’t see very often.) Their crypto offering shines with 29 ways to lose money in that field. Note that the UK regulators don’t allow UK residents to trade CFDs on cryptos, so they are deprived of this great opportunity. (As you may have guessed I’m not a big crypto fan, but then again that may be why I’m still working at my age.) For commodities, they offer a good selection of precious metals, as one might expect from a company that started out as a gold trader, but not that much else: copper, several agricultural commodities (cocoa, coffee, cotton, and sugar), and energy (Brent, WTI, and natural gas). No fixed income.

Exchange-traded securities (non-CFD) are available through a separate platform, Henyep Securities.

Overall I’d say this offering is about average, which should be good enough for 99% of all clients. You should trade what you know. Spreading your trading around a lot of different assets would only enable you to find new ways to lose money.

Account opening and Minimum Deposits

Like at most brokers, opening an account is pretty simple. It’s all done on line, fully digital, and only takes a few minutes. Accounts are usually verified within one day. 

The minimum deposit for Fixed and Classic accounts is $100, about average, and for Raw accounts $200.

You’re supposed to select your desired trading platform (see below: MT4 or MT5) and account type when opening an account, but you can open additional accounts later under the same label so you’re not stuck with those if you decide to change later. 

Provide the required personal details, like your name, email address, phone number, date of birth and physical address.

HYCM offers free and fast deposit and withdrawal options, including traditional methods such as bank transfer and credit card funding as well as various e-wallets. 

HYCM only offers six base currencies, which isn’t very much, but they include three unusual ones. In addition to the usual USD, EUR, and GBP, you can use CAD, RUB, or AED as your base currency. Furthermore, once you’ve opened your account it’s easy to open more accounts with different base currencies under your profile. That would make it easier for you to fund your trading account without paying a conversion fee. And international users (not those under FCA or CySEC regulation) with USD accounts are able to fund their account using Bitcoin. 

Why does this matter? Because if you fund your trading account in the same currency as your bank account or you trade assets in the same currency as your trading account base currency, you don't have to pay a conversion fee (usually 0.5% both ways, meaning you have to make 1% on your trading just to break even).

For funding, they accept the usual wire transfers and debit/credit cards, plus Skrill, Neteller, China Union Pay, Perfect Money, Web Money, and Interac, as well as Bitcoin in some cases. The minimum transfer for most methods is $20, except $250 for bank wires and $30 for Bitcoin. Most transfers are processed in an hour except bank transfers, which can take up to seven working days. 

There are no fees for deposits. 

Withdrawals

HYCM does not charge withdrawal fees, with two exceptions: 1) bank transfers of less than $300 are charged a handling fee of $3 while withdrawals over $5,000 via Skrill and Neteller incur a 1% processing fee. 

Trading Platform

This is the easiest review of a brokerage platform that I’ve done, mainly because HYCM doesn't have its own proprietary trading platform. Its mobile app functions as a client portal, just to provide client information and analysis – you can’t trade through it. Clients have to use MT4 or MT5. 

Trading Tools 

Because of the limits of Metatrader, HYCM accepts all the basic types of orders but not the more sophisticated ones. The available orders include:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Trailing Stop (only in the MT4 desktop version)
• Good 'til canceled (GTC)
• Good 'til time (GTT)

Charting: Just what’s available on MT4 and MT5. 

LanguagesEnglish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, Indian

Trading tools: HYCM only offers the usual economic calendar, trading calculator, and what’s available on Trading Central. Having said that, Trading Central is pretty complete in itself, so as I’ve said elsewhere, there’s little reason for brokers to reinvent the wheel. Nonetheless, for people who have their preferences, there are brokers that offer more, such as the technical analysis tool Autochartist. HYCM also doesn’t offer Virtual Private Server (VPS) services.

HYCM does offer a newsfeed, but unfortunately it’s not very well structured or filtered. It’s hard to find the news that’s relevant for you. There are better third-party news feeds.

Social trading

No social trading and no access to copy trading platforms such as Zulutrade or Duplitrade.

Education and information

HYCM has excellent research and education. 

Clicking on their “Education” tab brings you to “Forex education,” “Webinars and workshops,” and “Seminars.”

“Forex education” gives you a large variety of videos on trading tools (trading psychology, capital management, market analysis, etc), tutorials (how to use MetaTrader), trading strategies (trend signals, tunnel strategy, etc), ebooks on the forex market, and a beginners course (basic forex terms, types of orders, glossary, etc). The videos I clicked on were by MTE Media, a third-party provider of such materials. These will probably be of more interest to the beginning trader. 

“Webinars and workshops” brings you to their “FX Week Ahead” webinar every Monday with the firm’s Chief Market Analyst, Giles Coghlan. There’s also a workshop every Wednesday, during which Mr. Coghlan trades while explaining what he’s doing in real time so you can watch and learn his decision-making process. 

The firm also has seminars in hotels, mostly in Dubai and Kuwait, as far as I could tell.

Then there’s the “Blog” tab, which gets you the firm’s market commentary. Their comments are concise, market-oriented bits that any trader should find useful and interesting. There are various categories such as “Market Fundamentals,” “Live Analysis,” “Opinion,” and “Education.” Each category also has its sub-categories. I was impressed with the research. However, all the articles were unsigned, making me wonder where they came from: are they done in-house or are they from Trading Central? If Mr. Coghlan is doing all of this by himself then he deserves a raise. 

Customer Support

HYCM offers the usual three client service channels (phone, email, and live chat) 24/5. This may disappoint people in the Middle East who may want to trade on the weekends, but it is the industry standard. The live chat is staffed from 0500 GMT to 1800 GMT, which may be discouraging for clients in South America. 

You can also contact customer support through a variety of messaging services, such as Telegram and WhatsApp. 

One unusual feature: HYCM has a dedicated Help Center website, with a searchable “knowledge bank.” This covers not only questions related to HYCM (“how do I open a demo account?” “Do you offer Bitcoin trading?”) but also trading knowledge (“What is a CFD?” “How can I learn more about forex trading?”)

Is HYCM a good broker for beginners?

Yes, HYCM would be a good choice for beginners, particularly those in the Middle East (who can use AED as their base currency), India (who may want to trade INR and the NSE Nifty 50), and the UK, where some traders may prefer spread betting to CFDs for tax purposes. The research offering, including live webinars, would be a big help in learning to trade, something that I feel passionate about. MT4 and MT5, the only trading platforms available, enable expert advisors and automated trading. There are only two points that the beginner should be wary of. One, there aren’t many options for passive investing or copy trading. This is a broker for traders, not long-term investors. Secondly, the inactivity fee kicks in after 90 days. But if you’re looking to get down to work trading, you should definitely check out HYCM.