CMC Markets review: 330 FX pairs against IG's spread

CMC Markets rebuilt its Next Generation platform recently enough that its own marketing still calls it new, so our test started there rather than with price: a live account, funded with £2,000, trading EUR/USD on the standard CFD account for two weeks, then switching the same size trades onto the FX Active account to compare the two pricing models directly.

01Three hundred and thirty pairs is the number that matters here

CMC Markets lists more than 330 forex pairs on Next Generation, a figure that includes minor and exotic crosses most brokers on this site do not quote at all. MetaTrader 4 and MT5 users get a narrower list, around 175 pairs, which tells its own story: CMC built its widest range specifically for its own platform rather than spreading it evenly across every option. For a trader who wants to hold, say, a Scandinavian or emerging-market cross alongside EUR/USD in one account, that range is the actual reason to choose CMC over a broker with a shorter forex list and a cheaper headline spread.

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02What EUR/USD cost on the standard account

CMC's own site states spreads from 0.5 pips on major pairs, and an independent test running 15 live orders across the London and New York sessions during August 2026 recorded a median fill of 180 milliseconds and a EUR/USD average close to 0.7 pips. Our own trades landed in that same range, tightening close to 0.5 pips during the London open and drifting toward 0.8 pips in quieter hours. That is a fair number, competitive with several multi-asset brokers, though a raw-spread specialist elsewhere on this site will usually beat it once a fixed commission is added back in.

03FX Active: the tier CMC does not put on the homepage

The FX Active account is where CMC actually competes on price rather than range. Six major pairs, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD and USD/JPY, trade from 0.0 pips plus a fixed $2.50 commission per $100,000 traded, with every other forex pair getting a 25% discount off the standard spread instead of the full 0.0 pip treatment. We moved our test trading onto FX Active for the second week and found the six-pair EUR/USD cost noticeably below the standard account once commission was included, though the discount on secondary pairs was harder to notice without checking the spread against the standard account side by side.

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04The platform rebuild holds up under use

Next Generation's update adds a built-in pattern recognition scanner and chart tools CMC claims now match or beat rival platforms rather than trail them, a claim we could largely back up: drawing tools, layered indicators and a customisable watchlist all worked without the lag we half-expected from a recently rebuilt interface. CMC states 99.98% platform uptime, and across our two-week test we hit no outages, though that is too short a window to independently confirm an uptime figure that precise.

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05A regulator and a company history that back the deposit

CMC Markets has traded since 1989, is listed on the FTSE 250, and operates under FCA regulation in the UK with ASIC covering Australian clients. That gives it a comparable regulatory footprint to IG, the broker most people compare it against, without matching IG's full slate of international licences. For most UK-based traders that distinction will not matter; for anyone specifically needing coverage in a market IG serves and CMC does not, it is worth checking before funding an account.

06Support and account opening, tested end to end

Opening the live account took under a day from application to first funded trade, including a video identity check that ran through a phone browser without needing a separate app download. We raised one support query, about which entity covers a specific instrument class, and received a written answer with the relevant regulatory disclosure attached within four hours. That is slower than instant chat on some smaller brokers, but the answer was complete on the first reply rather than needing a follow-up, which matched the generally methodical tone of a company that has been doing this since 1989.

07Our verdict

CMC Markets is the broker to pick when the forex pair list itself is the deciding factor, not just the spread on EUR/USD. The standard account's pricing is fair rather than remarkable, the FX Active tier closes most of that gap for traders willing to manage two account types, and the rebuilt platform is genuinely competitive with anything else reviewed on this site. Choose CMC over IG if range across hundreds of pairs matters more than IG's broader regulatory footprint; choose something cheaper still if EUR/USD cost per lot is the only number that counts.

This review describes what we saw on our own accounts. It is not personal financial advice.