FXTM (ForexTime) review 2026: real costs, deposits and withdrawals, and who it suits

Cyprus's investor compensation fund, capped at 20,000 EUR, only covers clients of a Cypriot investment firm that still holds a licence. FXTM's Cypriot legal entity has given up its licence, so that layer of protection does not come with an account opened through this broker.

Vietnamese clients usually sit under the Mauritius legal entity anyway, where there is no equivalent fund. That is why you should read the name of the legal entity in your account terms before depositing.

This says nothing about how the broker treats its clients. It says that the paperwork you can check for yourself at FXTM is thinner than at the brokers listed above.

The short answer: FXTM is not a scam operation, but its name is blank on both the ASIC register and CySEC's active list, so most of its regulatory record sits in the state of “the broker declares it, you check it yourself”.

Founded 2011, headquartered in Cyprus / Mauritius. Declared licences: FCA, CySEC, FSC (the broker's own disclosure lists FCA, CySEC, FSCA and Mauritius). Platforms: MT4, MT5, and that is all, no in-house platform. Minimum deposit from 50 USD. The strengths the broker claims for itself: a flexible range of accounts and a good analysis library.

Neither the ASIC register (6,510 licences) nor CySEC's list of Cypriot investment firms (247 firms) has an entry under the name FXTM or ForexTime.

For ASIC, a blank result says nothing unfavourable, because the broker does not claim an Australian licence. CySEC is different. Its second list, the list of former investment firms, shows: Forextime Ltd, licence 185/12, noted Voluntary Renunciation.

This means the Cyprus licence was real and was valid from 13/12/2012, but the legal entity gave it up itself rather than having it revoked. Searching by name in the active list comes up blank, because the name has moved to the other list.

This means the broker's CySEC claim needs you to check it again at the source instead of taking it on trust. The FCA and Mauritius licences are the broker's own declarations.

The leverage figure at FXTM gives the structure away by itself: the FCA branch caps retail clients at 30:1, the FSC Mauritius branch goes up to 1000:1. If your account is offered leverage in the hundreds, you do not need to ask further to know you are in the offshore branch, where the level of protection is quite different from the other two.

Most Vietnamese clients fall into exactly this branch. Read the name of the legal entity in the terms before depositing; that line decides your rights more than the list of licences on the home page.

The account range is something FXTM does properly. Micro is for newcomers with small capital, with a deposit threshold of around 50 USD.

Advantage pulls spreads down from 0.0 pip in ECN/raw style and charges commission, for people who trade often and count costs closely. Advantage Plus goes the other way: no commission, the fee is built into the spread, for people who prefer a single number.

Do not choose between Advantage and Advantage Plus on the feeling that “0.0 pip sounds cheaper”: work out the total cost of one lot (spread in money plus commission) on the exact pair you trade; that ten-minute calculation is the real answer. The Advantage fee structure has several layers, so read the fee table carefully before opening.

Channels: local bank transfer, cards, e-wallets. E-wallets and crypto arrive faster than banks; speed also depends on your verification status, so finish KYC early, before you need to withdraw urgently.

The only platforms are MT4 and MT5. For most users that is enough, with no shortage of indicators and EAs; but if you need integrated TradingView or cTrader, this broker does not offer them.

It is not a scam operation: an FCA licence, a Mauritius legal entity and fifteen years of operation since 2011 do not fit the profile of a broker set up to take the money and run.

Negative complaints about FXTM mostly fall into three familiar boxes for the industry: misunderstanding account conditions, blowing the account with high leverage, and being asked for more documents when withdrawing a large amount, the last of which is a compliance procedure. The broker is not licensed in Vietnam; the choice and the risk are yours.

People who want a broker they can grow into: start with Micro, move to Advantage as volume grows, with an analysis library to learn from.

Not a good fit: anyone who needs a platform other than MT4/MT5, and anyone who puts Tier-1 regulation for their own account first, because with leverage up to 1000:1 you are almost certainly in the Mauritius branch. Beginners: small capital, keep leverage tight yourself, trade a trial first and only then scale up.

XM is in the same segment but has a 5 USD entry point and a thicker licence record; FXTM answers with ECN/Raw spreads from 0.0 pip for people who count costs closely.