Important Facts
- Regulatory Authority: Regulated by the Financial Services Commission of the Republic of Mauritius
- Instruments: Primarily Forex, Commodities and limited Stock CFD’s available
- Leverage: Up to 1000:1
- Unique Features: Islamic Accounts, MT4 & Zulu Trade
- Minimum Deposit: $5 for a Micro Account, $40,000 for a VIP Account
The Platform
HotForex uses the very popular MetaTrader 4 platform as the primary platform for trading the instruments on offer at the site. The HotForex MetaTrader platform is the standard MetaTrader affair and works perfectly well for those who wish to trade the instruments available on HotForex. However MetaTrader isn’t the most intuitive trading platform out there and newcomers may get a bit lost, though anyone who has previously used MetaTrader will take to it like a fish to water. Those who like automated trading will be pleased to know that HotForex offers support for expert advisers which is always nice. The HotForex platform is also available to Ipad/Iphone users as well as Android users allowing you open and close trades on the move, which is essentially if you cant always be at a computer in order to manage your positions. Unfortunately there is currently no support for those who have a Blackberry smart phone, however according HotForex a platform is currently being developed for those who want to use a Blackberry smartphone to trade. All of the platforms for mobile devices are perfectly functional and allow you to easily execute trades.
Special Features
There is not much particularly remarkable about the offering from HotForex however there are a couple of things worth noting. HotForex offers Islamic Accounts allowing those who follow the Islamic faith the ability to trade Contracts for Difference without breaching the tenets of their faith. Another nice feature of the HotForex is that they support Zulu Trade. Zulu Trade provides automated Forex signals that individuals can follow. Allowing a trader to automatically place trades by following a system created by other Zulu Trade members. While Zulu Trade is not really my thing as I like to devise my own trading systems and not be reliant on trading system I didn’t create or understand, many traders may be interested in trying out Zulu Trade and seeing how it works for them.
Spreads
While the spreads on offer at HotForex aren’t the best in the industry they are also not the worst. And as you can see the spreads offered vary quite a lot instrument to instrument, with some instruments being very competitively priced while others being quite uncompetitive. I would recommend that you monitor the spreads on the instruments you wish to trade before jumping in and opening a HotForex account. If your targeting one instrument and HotForex offers a competitive spread it may be worth opening account, its always important to understand that the tightness of spreads can have a serious impact on your profitability.
Customer Service
Customer Service seems to be pretty good at HotForex with a number of cost free telephone numbers available for various different countries. HotForex also has a live chat feature which is available 24/5 allowing you to quickly and easily contact someone at the company. For those who are not adept at English HotForex offers foreign speakers in a number of languages. What I also like is the fact that HotForex outlines both there business addresses in Mauritius which is nice as this provides the customer with some transparency.
Regulatory Authority
HotForex is regulated by the Financial Services Commission of Mauritius which is the body responsible for regulating non-banking financial services in the jurisdiction of Mauritius. This seems an interesting move and I can only presume that HotForex decided to become regulated in Mauritius rather than say becoming regulated in Europe due to the fact that MiFID regulation involves a high capital requirement and other significant barriers to entry. Though it may be in part that HotForex is known for catering to the Asian market so it may be due to this they decided to become regulated in Mauritius rather than compete in the competitive European marketplace. However due to the fact HotForex is regulated in Mauritius it is unable to take US Customers.
Overall, I’m relatively impressed with the offering from HotForex however personal if I was an EU Citizen I would probably opt to trade with a European MiFID regulated broker-ship. For those in Asia and China HotForex may be an excellent choice.
