GCM Forex Review South Africa – Unbiased Pros & Cons Revealed ( 2023 )

WHAT IS GCM FOREX?

According to research in South Africa, GCM Forex was established in 2012, hence doesn’t have much of an operational history yet. Its headquarters are in Istanbul.

With tremendous capital invested in the company and a local license to provide advisory and brokerage services for financial derivatives, it awaits a bright future.

It is authorised by the local authorities in Turkey (Capital Markets Board) but doesn’t have any regulation for international clients that are not residents of Turkey.

GCM Forex offers its clients the MetaTrader4 platform, which allows them to execute one-click trades. The GCM Forex website contains a variety of information resources, including charting tools and advising services, but the website is only available in Turkish.

Traders who can meet the $2,500 deposit requirement are granted access to the MYFX console at no additional charge.

SAFE OR SCAM?

One of the best means of determining the safety of a broker like GCM Forex, is to establish which regulating authorities are watchdogs over its actions.

GCM Forex was established a few years back in 2012 and being relatively new to the industry is one of the biggest challenges faced by any brokerage.

Turkey is however one of the members of the G20 and ranks amongst the world’s top 15 for having the largest GDP.

The Capital Markets Board or CMB or the Sermay Piyasasi Kurulu (SPK) acts as the country’s regulatory body which monitors, supervises and reports on the country’s financial markets.

Any business that wants to operate any financial operations in Turkey, like GCM Forex, has to obtain a license and approval from the CMB first.

To obtain such a licence is quite a challenge and businesses like GCM Forex are threatened by the CMB with legal action if they don’t meet the stringent requirements that the regulatory body imposes.

Being allowed to operate in the country actually means that GCM Forex is successfully living up to this challenge and that traders shouldn’t have to worry about their legal rights.

Evident from their professional conduct towards traders, GCM Forex is making a genuine effort to provide the highest level of professional trading services.

GCM FOREX REVIEW OF PRO AND CONS

LEVERAGE

Leverage is a facility that enables you to get a much larger exposure to the market you are trading ON than the amount you deposited to open the trade. Leveraged products, such as forex trading, magnify your potential profit – but also increase your potential loss.

Leverage is expressed as a ratio, for instance 50:1, 100:1, or 500:1. Assuming that you have $1,000 in your trading account and you trade ticket sizes of 500,000 USD/JPY, your leverage will equate 500:1.

Margin is the amount of collateral to cover any credit risks that may arise during your trading operations. It is expressed as the percentage of position size (e.g. 5% or 1%), and you have to have funds in your trading account to ensure sufficient margin.

Exact leverage is not disclosed when you open an account with GCM Forex, but the whole instruments list exists in the Trading Conditions section.

For all trading assets, the leverage is 1:10, which is considered very low. Most of EU brokers will offer 1:30. VOIP Account leverage is up to 1:30.

GCM Forex offers a maximum leverage of 400:1, with a minimum deposit of $100 and minimum deal size of 1,000:1.

ACCOUNTS

A forex account at GCM Forex is a trading account that you will hold and that will work similarly to your bank account, but with the difference that it is primarily issued with the purpose of trading on currencies.

Forex Islamic accounts are also known as swap-free accounts as they imply no swap or rollover interest on overnight positions, which is against Islamic faith.

Often, the number and type of accounts that a trader can open with a broker company differs depending on the country in which it operates and the regulation authorities under whose jurisdiction it falls.

In the case of GCM Forex they offer you a Trial Account and a Real Account, the Trial Account being the usual demo. There is also a VOIP Account, designed for futures and options trading on the Istanbul Exchange.

Real Account

The real (standard) account features low spreads, a personal sales manager and other advantages. The minimum account size is $100, and spread is medium and fixed. Forex, gold and silver, CFDs, oil, stocks, indices, metals and commodities can be traded.

Trial Account

GCM Forex’s trial account or a demo gives 100,000 virtual currency but will be closed after 30 days. A new demo can be obtained, and it is possible to open multiple accounts.

VOIP Account

The VOIP Account offers more than 30 instruments with leverage, tax advantages, and bi-directional trading, featuring Turkey’s big companies as well as the Istanbul Exchange (Borsa) 30 Index.

MARKET INSTRUMENTS

The most popular market instruments available from most brokers for trading include:

Forex

Forex trading, currency trading, or FX trading describes the currency exchange market which refers to the global, decentralised marketplace where individuals, companies and financial institutions exchange currencies for one another at floating rates.

Commodities

Along with currency exchange markets, commodity markets offer many investment opportunities for traders.

Soft commodities have been traded for centuries and investors’ preference for these financial derivatives is credited to their major role in portfolio diversification and risk management.

Investing in contract-based tradable goods is a reliable way to mitigate risk during times of inflation or economic uncertainty.

Indices

Equity indices, or stock indices, are actual stock market indexes which measure the value of a specific section of a stock market. They can represent a specific stock market, or they can represent a specific set of the largest companies of a nation.

Precious metals

The trading of gold and other precious metals, along with crude oil, copper or petroleum, are hard commodities that play a major role in the commodities market and are contract-based tradable goods.

Apart from forex trading, long-term investing in gold and other precious metals is worldwide a popular way of portfolio risk management during times of inflation or economic or political uncertainty.

Energy

The typical feature of energy prices is high volatility due to the influence of political and environmental factors, supply and demand, extreme weather conditions and global economic growth.

Such conditions can decrease or increase demand for consumer services related to these energies.

GCM Forex offers 51 currency pairs, 14 stock indexes, 3 Bonds, 20 commodities and 88 shares.

FEES

Due to its various account types GCM Forex may offer different fee structures too. Costs also depend on different factors, like spread and margins.

The spread of a currency pair is the difference between the bid and the ask rate. A pip represents the smallest increment that an exchange rate can move. One pip is 0.01 for currency pairs with JPY as the term currency and 0.0001 for all other pairs.

Margin is the amount of money required in your account in order to open a position. Margin is calculated based on the current price of the base currency against USD, the size (volume) of the position and the leverage applied to your trading account.

GCM Forex does not charge commissions for the standard account. The swaps are very low with frequent positive figures on one side.

Inactivity fees are charged if a trader does not have any open positions and did not open any new positions for three months. It is then considered non-performing and will be charged $3 or €2 monthly.

Trading futures and other derivatives on VOIP is subject to banking and insurance transactions tax (BITT) of 0.0005%.

DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL

The minimum required deposit is 50,000 TRY or around 8500 USD. This is a high barrier of entry for most traders but considering the lower leverage, it may be needed.

Only bank transfers are possible as method of funding and related costs will depend on the bank. Currencies that can be used are USD, EUR and TRY.

Withdrawals can also only be made by bank transfers. The withdrawal form will require you to provide an IBAN number and other bank details.

Withdrawal processing takes one business day by the broker, but the transfer itself may take up to 7 days.

TRADING PLATFORMS

A forex trading platform is in essence the software provided by GCM Forex to its clients to carry out their trades.

A multi-asset trading platform is one that allows clients to trade forex but other asset classes, including CFDs on stocks, stock indices, precious metals, and cryptocurrencies as well.

The decision about which platform to choose will always depend on what a client would like to trade.

GCM Forex offers the MetaTrader4 platform for standard trading and MetaTrader5 for options and futures. Platform languages are Turkish and English. Web Trader and an Android and Apple mobile trader are also available.

MT4 is compatible with Mac, Windows, Mobile, Web, iPhone and iPad

Webtrader and mobile versions are available to download for Windows, Android and iOS but not for Mac. GCM Forex also supports an additional web platform, Sirix, a simplistic platform that is easy to be adopted by beginners.

The MT4 platform is connected to four live servers and one demo distributed in several global locations in the UK, Netherlands, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Ireland.

HOW TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT

The GMC Forex review process of opening a new account is fully digital, hassle-free and fast.

Similarly to a bank, if you want to register a forex trading account with GCM Forex for the first time, you will be required to go through a basic “know your customer” process.

This will allow GCM Forex to make sure that your submitted personal details are correct and the safety of your funds and your account details are ensured.

After the initial registration you will normally be emailed your login details that will correspond to a login on a trading platform matching your type of account. Real Account is available in EUR, USD and TRY currency.

The two-step registration procedure will list many worldwide countries, but in the next step, you will be given to select only cities from Turkey and ID registration in Turkey.

Once you are comfortable and confident enough to start live trading,

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Potential traders need to make sure the broker they choose will offer support whenever they may need it in order to help customers easily find the exact answers to their questions and offer them the best user experience.

In the case of GCM Forex traders can find support through email, phone and a chat service. It is not available in English and is not 24/7, just during working hours in Turkey.

EDUCATION

Before starting to trade, potential clients of GCM Forex should avail themselves of all possible information and trading skills needed to be successful in the world of forex and commodity trading.

If GCM Forex’s website itself does not provide enough means, a trader should explore other informative websites and means to obtain that knowledge. GCM Forex shows analysis and tools on different pages across its website.

A Forex training section contains both fundamental and technical analysis, webinars, videos, and written material, while an analysis manual that describes how to interpret the reports and indicators is also provided.

Seminars, online trainings (webinars) and Youtube live streams provide learning information while training videos for the use of GCM MetaTrader4, the GCM Sirix Web Trader and GCM cTrader are also available.

RESEARCH

To be able to trade with confidence and success, potential traders should do as much possible research about this kind of speculative trading before commencing, but also preceding every daring deal.

This will ensure that they don’t lose money unnecessarily but make their trade as profitable as possible.

GCM Forex offers several Forex documents in the form of eBooks and articles; Basic analysis of interest rates, central banks and political developments; Technical analysis with indicators, chart types and the language of graphics.

The analysis is published daily and a timeline graphic shows traders what analysis is coming up. Expert opinions are also published and contain short but quality content.

AWARDS

Since being an awarded company instils extra confidence in traders, GCM Forex can show the following awards accumulated during its years in business:

• High Transaction Volume Award in 2015
• Best Order Transmission from Forex Report Magazine
• Best Forex Broker in 2014

CONCLUSION

GCM Forex can be summarily described as a worthwhile company for potential traders, as it is a market maker broker that has a good range and transparency.

GCM Forex offers some additional value for clients from Turkey as most of their services are adapted to them, including the futures and options trading.

The minimum deposit is very high for most traders, considering that this is a locally licensed broker and not necessarily globally popular.

The fact that the company website is not available in English, makes it more difficult for potential traders to get acquainted with what GCM Forex has to offer.

DISCLAIMER

GCM Forex warns all potential customers that Forex and CFDs trading always carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

Before deciding to trade the products offered by GCM Forex, potential traders are advised to carefully consider their investment objectives, financial situation, needs and level of experience before investing money they cannot afford to lose.

GCM Forex warns that margin trading involves the potential for profit as well as the risk of loss and that movements in the price of foreign exchange and commodities are very unpredictable.

Therefore GCM Forex cannot guarantee a maximum loss that a trader may suffer, according to research in South Africa.

Featured SA Shares Writer and Forex Analyst.