Overall Rating
4.8/5
Rated #62 of
Recommended FX Brokers
Minimum Deposit
USD 500
Regulators
ASIC, FCA
📱 Trading Desk
No Trading Desk
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
–
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
Forex Trading Africa annually reviews forex brokers regarded as the best in the world who accept South African traders. We provide valuable information on the platforms, analysis and tools as well as pricing for you to base your decision on when choosing the right broker for your trading needs.
To trade forex in South Africa, you need to open an account with a regulated broker. Forex is traded over-the-counter through a network of brokers and financial institutions as opposed to a centralised exchange. Forex is a risky instrument to trade. You can minimise the risk by trading through a regulated forex broker who you can trust.
ThinkMarkets is a well-established international forex and CFDs brokerage. The company is located in Melbourne, Australia and has offices in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa, Europe and South America.
TF Global Markets was created by brothers Nauman Anees and Faizan Anees as a currency derivatives provider in 2010; originally trading as ThinkForex. The company was rebranded as ThinkMarkets in 2016 to reflect its evolving product range and its position in the market as a true multi-asset provider.
ThinkMarkets offers retail and institutional clients quick and easy access to a wide range of markets, including forex, CFDs on equities, cryptocurrencies, commodities, indices and shares. ThinkMarkets is a MetaTrader (MT4 and MT5) broker and also has its own proprietary trading technology, ThinkTrader. It recently received the esteemed award for Best Mobile Platform by the forex community.
The brokerage’s product offering is supported by the latest trading technology, best pricing and superior execution speed. ThinkMarkets maintains some of the most competitive trading conditions in the market, including tight spreads, low to zero commissions and a variety of account types. Technology and client education is a key driver of growth and development at ThinkMarkets.
ThinkMarkets is regulated by three esteemed financial authorities and is regarded as reliable, secure and safe to use by forex traders in South Africa. The regulatory authorities are the FCA in the UK, FSCA in South Africa and ASIC in Australia.
Thinkmarkets Fast Facts
Founded
2010
Founded by
Faizan Anees
Nauman Anees
Based in
Melbourne, Australia (Primary headquarters)
London, United Kingdom
Johannesburg, South Africa
Trading name
Thinkmarkets is the trading name of TF Global Markets (UK) Ltd.
Regulation and license
FCA Financial Conduct Authority, United Kingdom
FSCA Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa
ASIC Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Does Thinkmarkets accept forex traders in South Africa?
Yes
Products
Forex
Indices
Energy
Metals
Cryptos
Equities and ETFs
Futures
Spread betting (UK only)
Thinkmarkets is best forex broker for
Thinkmarkets is recommended for retail traders who are interested in trading multiple financial assets, including forex and CFDs. The brokerage is perfectly suitable for beginner, intermediate and advanced traders looking for quick and easy access to the markets via MT4, MT5 or a proprietary platform as well as low forex and non-trading fees.
Trading platforms
MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 5
ThinkTrader
Type of broker
Market Maker (MM)
Straight Through Processing (STP)
Web-based trading platform
Yes
Thinkmarkets is a MetaTrader broker and has its own proprietary trading platform, ThinkTrader.
Mobile trading app
Yes, available for Android and iOS
Minimum deposit
$0 Demo account
$0 Standard account
$500 ThinkZero account
Types of accounts
Demo account
Mini account
Standard account
ThinkZero account
Islamic account
Leverage
ThinkMarkets allows you to trade currencies with leverage up to 400:1.
Spreads and fees
ThinkMarkets takes a fee from the spread which is the difference between the buy and sell price of an instrument.
ThinkMarkets spreads start from as low as 0.1 pips on EUR/USD, even under volatile market conditions.
The minimum spread for trading EUR/USD is 0.5 pips. This is relatively low compared to average EUR/USD spread of 0.70 pips.
Trade executions
ThinkMarkets allows you to execute a minimum trade of 0.01 Lot. This may vary depending on the account you open. The maximum trade requirements vary depending on the trader and the instrument.
ThinkMarkets offers STP execution so you can expect tighter spreads with more transparency over the price you pay to execute trades.
ThinkMarkets is a Market Maker brokerage which means it has lower entry requirements compared to an ECN broker. Market makers offer a lower minimum deposit, smaller minimum trade requirements and no commission on trades.
Requotes and slippage
ThinkMarkets is one of very few brokers to claim to have no requotes. This means you don’t have to be concerned about slippage. Slippage happens when your trades are ordered at a different price to what you expected when you executed them.
Scalping and hedging
Allows scalping
Allows hedging
Deposit methods
Credit cards
Bank transfer
Wire transfers
Skrill
Payoneer
Neteller
BitPay
User base
Approximately 550 000 global users (2020)
Most recent awards
Best Value Broker in Asia : 2020 Global Forex Awards
ThinkMarkets received the award in the categories of the Best Forex Trading Experience of 2017, and the Best Forex Trading Innovation of 2017, awarded by the UK Forex Awards in 2017.
ThinkMarkets has received multiple awards since 2011, including the coveted City of London Wealth Management Award (COLWMA) in 2018.
Customer support
Multilingual 24-hour/5-day week live support via the website or over the phone.
Overall Rating
4.8/5
Rated #62 of
Recommended FX Brokers
Minimum Deposit
USD 500
Regulators
ASIC, FCA
📱 Trading Desk
No Trading Desk
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
–
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
Is Thinkmarkets safe to use
ThinkMarkets is a well-established and regulation-compliant broker. The brokerage is regarded as stable, reliable and safe to use by global traders.
ThinkMarkets is regulated by three esteemed regulatory authorities:
FCA Financial Conduct Authority, United Kingdom
ASIC Australian Securities and Investments Commission
FSCA Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa
ThinkMarkets is the holder of an Australian Financial Services License (number 424700).
TF Global Markets (South Africa) Pty Ltd is an Authorised Financial Services Provider (FSP No 49835).
Bankruptcy cover
In the unlikely event ThinkMarkets goes bankrupt, clients are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). The scheme protects clients to a threshold of £85 000 GBP per trader (not per account).
The FSCA was set up by Parliament in the UK under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and is funded by the financial services industry. FSCS is completely independent and offers its services to financial institutions for free.
ThinkMarkets has also purchased Excess of FSCS Insurance to cover clients whose assets exceed the FSCS threshold. Individual cover funds up to £1 million GBP as standard.
Segregated accounts
As per the requirements of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), ThinkMarkets holds and controls all client funds in segregated bank accounts at regulated banks. This means that in the unlikely event ThinkMarkets default, their clients’ funds should in theory remain unaffected.
MiFID
The Markets in Financial Directive (MiFID) allows ThinkMarkets to operate as a regulated entity throughout the European Union. MiFID II allows investment firms to provide investment and ancillary services within the territory of another member state and/or a third country, provided that such services are covered by the investment firm’s authorisation.
Negative balance protection
ThinkMarkets grants negative balance protection to all its clients. The brokerage may chose not to grant negative balance protection if the negative balance has been incurred as a result of fraudulent purposes or market abuse.
What does Thinkmarkets offer its client
Leverage
ThinkMarkets offers leverage up to 400:1 on forex pairs.
Leverage refers to how much of a position a trader can control with funds allocated to it by the broker. A leverage of up to 400:1 means a ThinkMarkets client can control a position of US$40 000 with only US$100 of his or her own funds.
| Standard account | Maximum leverage of 30:1 for retail traders
Maximum leverage of 500:1 for professional traders |
Competitive spreads and fees
| Standard account | Commission
Spreads on currency pairs Average currency spreads Spreads on metals CFDs |
None
From 0.4 pips 1.2 pips From 25 cents From 0.4 points |
| Think Zero | Commission
Spreads on currency pairs Average currency spreads Spreads on metals CFDs |
$3.5 per side (100 000)
From 0 pips 0.1 pips 8 cents From 0.4 points (No commission) |
Electronic trading platform
Thinkmarkets offers clients the MetaTrader (MT4 and MT5) trading platform and a proprietary platform, ThinkTrader.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
MetaTrader 4 is one of the most popular forex and CFDs trading platforms in the world and allows traders to customise their trading experience and gain a technological edge. Thinkmarkets offers a wide range of MT4 add-ons for free.
MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
MetaTrader 5 is the latest platform by MetaQuotes and is suitable for traders looking for the newest and more advanced trading features. The platform comes with many additional features, including 21 timeframes, 6 pending order types, hedging and netting options and a multi-thread strategy tester for EAs.
ThinkTrader
Clients can use Thinkmarkets’ proprietary trading platform, ThinkTrader, on the Standard account. ThinkTrader has many useful features, including news from FXWire Pro, feature-rich charts, over 1 000 assets to trade and a built-in economic calendar. The TrendRisk Scanner is a powerful risk management tool. The Market Alerts feature helps you keep up-to-date with your trading positions with customizable alerts.
Equinix partnership
ThinkMarkets has a partnership agreement with Equinix which connects the brokerage’s vast liquidity pool directly to your trading platforms. This high-end technology enables ThinkMasters to provide fast and reliable trade execution under all market conditions with the best possible prices and tightest spreads from just 0.1 pips.
ZuluTrade for social copy trading
ThinkMarkets offers ZuluTrade for social copy trading. You need a live account to access ZuluTrade.
ZuluTrade is a popular social-trading platform which allows traders and investors to copy the results of top-performing traders directly in their ThinkMarkets accounts.
ZuluTrade gives you access to a list of experienced traders who share their trading results with their followers. ZuluTrade filters every expert trader using advanced algorithms and a dedicated Trading Desk.
Copy trading is perfect for traders – particularly beginners – who cannot closely monitor their portfolio all the time or who prefer to have their ThinkMarkets account managed entirely by the Certified Portfolio management team at ZuluTrade.
Mobile trading app
ThinkMarkets has an award-winning, user-friendly mobile trading app which is available in both iOS and Android.
Derivative trading instruments
ThinkMarkets offers multiple derivative instruments for forex and CFDs trading
A derivative is a contract between two or more parties where the value of the underlying asset is agreed upon and settled when the contract is closed. Parties do not take ownership of the financial asset, they merely speculate on price changes.
Multi-asset trading
| Forex | Over 38 major, minor and exotic pairs |
| Shares CFDs | Over 1200 shares to choose from, including Amazon, Apple and Google |
| Indices | UK100, GER30, SPX500, US30, AUS200, NAS100 |
| Precious metals | Trade gold, silver, platinum and copper |
| Commodities | Trade oil, natural gas and agricultural commodities |
| Cryptocurrencies | Trade a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH and XRP |
Free demo account
ThinkMarkets offers beginner forex traders a free Demo account that they can use to hone their trading skills before trading on a live account with real money. The ThinkMarkets Demo account allows beginner traders to trade forex and CFDs in real time, test tools and strategies and sharpen your trading skills in a completely risk-free environment as they trade with ‘fake’ money.
Joint account
ThinkMarkets provides its clients the option to open account shared by two or more individuals.
Islamic account
In order to comply with Sharia Law, ThinkMarkets provides Islamic clients the option to open a swap-free account.
MetaTrader trading platforms
ThinkMarkets is a MetaTrader broker and offers both MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). MT4 is the most popular trading platform in the world and offered by the majority of retail brokers.
MT4 and MT5 are available desktop, web trading, multi-terminal trading and trading on mobile devices. This includes Android, iPhone and iPad.
ThinkTrader
ThinkTrader is an in-house proprietary trading platform developed by ThinkMarkets.
| Multi-asset trading | Over 80 indicators, 50 drawing tools and chart types |
| Multiple order closing at one-click | Close all positions on the same Forex pair or even all your running positions with a single click. Exclusive to ThinkTrader. |
| Single multi-device login | Single login and similar interface on desktop, mobile and tablet |
| Technical analysis tools | New ways of analysing the markets with an innovative trading toolkit developed for desktop and mobile |
| TrendRisk scanner | Finds attractive trading opportunities on several timeframes |
| Alerts | 200 cloud-based alerts delivered to your preferred device even when you are offline |
| FX Wire Pro | Real-time market news flashes from an established international news agency |
| Customizable trading history reports | Review your trading history at a glance with the daily, weekly and monthly reports or select a timeframe of your choice |
Autochartist
Autochartist is a programme which can identify chart patterns using technical indicators such as Fibonacci retracements. It monitors the markets 24-hours a day, alerting you to trading opportunities in real time.
Autochartist software hides irrelevant market data and highlights those currency pairs, market data and technical indicators that indicate large market movements.
Autochartist is an important tool to identify relevant movements in the markets. It also provides automated notifications as soon as emerging and complete chart patterns such as “triangles, wedges, tops and bottoms“ are recognised.
Trading Central
Trading Central provides traders and investors with in-depth analyst research with automated analytics such as pattern recognition trading software on a wide variety of markets and in multiple languages.
Trading Central is a global fintech company which was founded in 1999. It was created to help traders and investors make better trading decisions.
Virtual Private Server (VPS)
ThinkMarkets offers free Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. This allows clients to upload and run MT4 Expert Advisors (EAs) and algo bots 24-hours a day without needing to keep a trading terminal running.
VPS hosting allows you to continue using your computer for trading even during power cuts, internet disconnections and unexpected shutdowns.
You simply connect to a remote terminal (server is based near to broker’s servers) and do all your trading from any computer (Windows, Mac OS, Linux) without the need to install any software.
VPS hosting gives you a stable and fast trading environment, which is ideal for traders using Expert Advisors.
Market analysis
Technical analysis
Market News
Economic Calendar
Education
Live webinars
Beginner trading guides
Intermediate trading guides
Advance trading guides
Types of accounts
Standard account
| Minimum opening balance | £0.00 |
| Maximum leverage | Up to 30:1 for retail traders
Up to 500:1 for professional traders |
| Lot sizes | 1.0 (100 000)
Standard and customisable depending on the size of the trade you would like to place. The lowest amount is 0.01 lots. Maximum trade size depends on the amount of margin you have available in your account. |
| Spreads on currency pairs | From 0.4 pips |
| Average currency spreads | 1.2 pips |
| Commission | None |
| Minimum stop-loss/take profit levels | None |
| Trading platforms | MT4
MT5 ThinkTrader |
| Free VPS hosting | Yes |
Professional account
Professional accounts have been introduced to comply with the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) which has introduced a new regulation that caps leverage available to retail traders. The new rule came into effect on 1 August 2018 and it requires retail traders to add more funds should they wish to retain their current trading style. You can avoid this limitation by becoming a professional client.
The ESMA has restricted leverage to a maximum of maximum of 30:1 for retail clients in an attempt to strengthen financial trading and protect retail traders from high risk. These limitations do not apply for ThinkMarkets professional trading accounts or other accounts onboarded under the Australian entity of ThinkMarkets.
In accordance with the FCA regulations, elective professional account holders might be required to provide proof of meeting the criteria for a ThinkMarkets Pro account.
| Eligibility criteria | Opened 40 trades of significant size in the last twelve months
Have a financial portfolio that exceeds €500 000 You work or have worked in the financial sector for at least 12 months in a position that requires knowledge of CFDs and/or spread betting transactions. |
| Maximum leverage | Up to 500:1 |
| Benefits | Access higher leverage
Earn trading rebates Get priority support Invites to exclusive, invitation-only events across Australia |
| Insurance protection | £1 million |
| Mandatory margin close-out rule | No |
| Negative balance protection | No |
| Financial instrument portfolio | Includes cash deposits, savings, shares, options and fund investments; property portfolios are not included |
Think Zero account
Think Zero accounts offer clients minimal or zero spreads between the bid and ask price. This means you get direct access to institutional pricing without any added mark-up by ThinkMarkets. Only a small commission fee is charged on the account.
| Available on | MT4 and MT5 |
| Minimum deposit | 500 units of currency |
| Maximum leverage | Up to 30:1 for retail traders |
| Raw forex spreads | From 0 pips |
| Commissions | Tight with only £2.5 commission per side (100 000); only applies to forex and metals |
| Trading platforms | Available on MT4 and MT5 |
| Insurance protection | £1 million |
Islamic account
In order to comply with Sharia Law, ThinkMarkets provides Islamic clients the option to open a swap-free account.
Key features of this account include straight-through processing and average spreads of 1.0-1.13 pips. The account does not pay or receive swaps for religious Muslim traders.
In Summary
ThinkMarkets is an award-winning international forex and CFDs retail brokerage with a solid reputation for being secure and regulatory compliant. The brokerage is regulated by three top-tier authorities, including the esteemed FCA in the United Kingdom.
The global retail brokerage offers clients quick and easy access to multiple financial assets, supported by advanced trading platforms, comprehensive trading tools and up-to-date market analysis. Trading Central and Autochartist is available on the Standard account.
ThinkMarkets places a strong emphasis on technology innovation and client education as part of its growth and development strategy. In addition, ThinkMarkets has a partnership agreement with Equinix which connects the brokerage’s vast liquidity pool directly to your trading platforms.
This high-end technology enables ThinkMasters to provide fast and reliable trade executions under all market conditions with the best possible prices and tightest spreads from just 0.1 pips.
FOREX TRADING AFRICA DISCLAIMER
Trading forex and CFDs on margin involves a high level of risk and it may not be suitable for all traders and investors. Forex is a highly leveraged financial instrument and these high risk stakes can result in you losing a substantial amount of money. Consider how much your are willing and able to risk before trading forex using real money on a live account.
