CMC Markets - Can you become a successful trader with CMC?

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Good Points

Look and Feel: The new CMC Markets 'Next Generation CMC Platform' definitely looks very different from others; for one it is very colourful, different and features a unique graphic interface; lots of bells and whistles if you utilise stuff like that. Some will like it, some will not, especially those who hate flash - but the platform does look pretty.
Deep Markets Coverage: CMCMarkets offers all stocks from the FTSE 350 and All Smallcap shares plus top 300 AIM companies. You can also take a view on the performance of major UK stock market sectors. This is great to take a more general view on a number of companies without necessarily having to know the exact ins and outs of each constituent.
Overall Good Spreads: CMC are known to offer competitive spreads for shares although they are not the tightest. CMC Forex, again competitive spreads, 2-3 pips on the majors and a huge selection of currencies (although be warned that spreads are dynamic and linked to the volumes on the underlying markets). CMC Markets claim not to double the size of their headline spreads when the markets get volatile and apparently they are working on introducing variable spreads.
Competitive Margins: Low margin requirements between 0.5% and 1% on main indices, FTSE 100 stocks (10%), US stocks (10%), FTSE 250 stocks (10% to 15%) and so on.
Multi-Platforms: Three platforms are now available - a download software based application, a slimmed-down web version (Marketmaker Web) as well as a mobile platform for those on the move. The latest upgrades to the iPhone/Android and iPad software include the introduction of new functionality. The latest additions include percentage and point change, daily high and low values and current market spread, as well as insights, price alerts and drawing tools. Mobile charting now has a greater price history (e.g. 12 versus 3 months of daily data) and improved price and time axis scaling. Other new features include daily performance values for all instruments, allowing clients to view and sort live performance values for each asset class in both their product library and their watchlist as well as new chart types, complete with built-in chart education.
Execution: Platform seems to operate fine in terms of speed of access. On the execution front CMC have some bold claims. CMC Markets claim 100% automation of trades, no dealer intervention and millisecond execution of orders. No cancelled orders when the markets get tough, all trades filled. We still need to validate this claim out of user experiences.
Good Phone Support: Initially their reputation, or lack of it, on the customer service side was a worry. However whenever I have had to speak to a dealer or ask for assistance they have been great. Also, they have a chat system built into the software which helps rectify issues immediately if they arise.
Platform Customisation: CMC MarketMaker is excellent with good charting facilities if you know how to set up the trading layouts. You can create/save different templates so they can easily display different markets in varying time frames. Additionally, all the panels are movable and resizable so you can arrange the screen layouts however you want. I have the system just showing the FTSE 100 index price in a little floating window up in the top right hand corner of my screen as I write this - allowing me to keep an eye on that and do other things and even better this system will allow you to set alarms when whatever you are watching reaches a certain level! Being able to set up alerts is really useful and there are three types of alerts which can be selected. The first is a visual alert - it throws a bright red box into the centre of the screen - great if you only have half an eye on the screen. The second is an audio alert - it will play audio files and the third is the email alert - I set this to email my mobile if I am going to be away from the PC for any length of time.
One-Click Dealing: The new Next Generation CMC Markets platform supports one-click dealing (which is not on by default to help new clients familiarise themselves with the platform) - go into 'Settings' and choose order tickets and turn off 'placing an order'. This will eliminate ticket confirmation and give you one click trading. You can also switch off auto stops and auto profits from 'Settings' as well in ticket settings. So you can deal using one click without margin stop loss and auto profit and ticket confirmation.
Rolling Dailies keep Rolling without Crystallizing P/L: All positions are automatically rolled over until you close out the position, at which point your profit or loss is then crystalised. This means that CMC's Daily Rolling Cash Bets are open-ended contracts that are automatically rolled over into the next business day. The fact that Daily Rolling bets are rolled over every day without having to open/close the bet every day (with just a small financing charge being charged) is more transparent than having to close/re-open the spread bets every day crystallizing any profits/losses. This is proving so popular that CMC claim that around 90% customers are now using the daily rolling spread bet instead of the standard quarterly futures spread bet.
Stops: Recently started offering 'If Done' and 'One Cancels the Other' orders on the spread betting platform which is good (they have had it on the CFD platform for some time) - an If-Done order is a way of linking two conditional orders together, so that if one of the orders is executed, then the other order is placed in the market as a result. For example, a trade may use a stop-buy order to open a long position with an associated stop-sell order to limit any potential losses. Therefore, if the stop-buy order gets executed, then the stop-sell order is placed in the market. However, if the stop-buy order is not executed, then the stop-sell order does not become active in the market. The new CMC Next Generationi platform also supports automated margin stop loss orders which can be disabled if required.
Guaranteed Stops Availability: Guaranteed stops at CMC Markets are available for all instruments. GSO's must be placed at the same time as entering the market. If you wish to edit the stop, you must close out the position at market and then re-enter with the new GSO attached. CMC also have an additional limitation in that guaranteed stop losses cannot be placed in the last hour of trading. There is no maximum distance you can place the GSO from the current market price. The minimum distance to place a GSO on a share is 5% from the current price (for sectors and indexes it is at 1%).
Streaming Newswires: A realtime Dow Jones news feed is also available to clients which is complemented by expert fundamental market analysis from Multex (part of Reuters) as well as detailed commentaries on the key forex pairs from IDEAglobal. CMC Markets also has good news flow which pops out automatically onto whatever site you happen to be on when a significant economic announcement is made...so latest oil inventory figures or non-farm payrolls or profit warning will be flagged up instantly.
Extras: Clients have access to CMC Plus which comes with daily commentaries from CMC's team of analysts complemented with access to CNBC's three live feeds. Video on demand is also available as well as an economic diary. Recent upgrades includes a feature allowing clients to post charts on a message board to share analysis.
Good Commitment to enhancing the Platform: CMC has invested $60 million in MarketMaker's development over the last few years and it is supported and continually developed by a team approaching 100 in-house staff. More than 13.5 million trades were successfully processed through Marketmaker® last year (boasting 1 trade every 1.7 seconds, 2,117 trades every hour, 50,823 trades every day). Having been a client at CMC for over 3 years now and I have seen that how their software has grown in functionality and stability and how much effort they put on their system. Recent additions include One-Click Dealing, meaning trades can be executed in just one click of the mouse.
Technical analysis has also been upgraded this year (November 2012) with CMC launching 'Next Generation Charting to complement its desktop downloadable trading platform. The new charts are superior to their old charts from Digital Look although the latter are still available for free with the same functions and features as the old Market Maker platform. Next Generation Charting is a professional-level real-time charting comes with colour-coded graphical charts that makes it easier to identify trading opportunities. The Next Gen charting package comes with up to 66 different technical analysis indicators; some of which are not even available at other spread betting providers. The charts are created inhouse and presented in a fresh graphical format with the ability to amend risk management directly from the chart. The last addition is an-inhouse developed pattern recognition scanner programme designed to scan over 120 popular markets every 15 minutes and spot potential trading setups using technical analysis such as triangles and wedges.
Suitability: Excellent to use if you're profitable and a swing-position type trader. There are usually very few problems in my 5 or so years experience with CMC Markets other than when the markets are moving very fast or, presumably at times when everyone is winning!