Does anyone have anything good to say about CMS Forex? I’ve been using their practice accounts for awhile as I learn and I was considering a live account with them. But when I searched around for them I found some old and more recent reviews that were just plain awful. Does anyone here have an opinion about them or currently using them?
Not sure if the OP is still interested, but to anyone else who wants to know, I have been trading a small live account with CMSfx for the last 2 years and I would describe my experience with them as decent. Here are some of the reasons why:
The Good:
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[li]Their price feed is pretty solid. During my time with CMS I have only seen one unwarranted price spike, and it was fixed within a few hours.
[/li][li]Order execution is also good. I have heard complaints that requotes are common, but in my experience they will only happen if you are using market orders during extreme price movements/major news releases – basically the same policy as any other broker. However, I don’t trade news and I rarely use market orders, so I haven’t experienced a requote.
[/li][li]Swap rates are decent for people who carry trades overnight.
[/li][li]I really enjoy their account options. Their mini and standard accounts are combined into one account, making it very easy to control your risk, and they recently provided the option to open a separate micro account, which seems great for practice trades.
[/li][li]I have communicated with their customer service on several occasions through both email and live chat and have found them to be competent, easily accessible and prompt with their responses.
[/li][li]They also have good capitalization and are registered and regulated by the NFA and the CFTC, so you shouldn’t worry about them scamming you out of your deposit or anything like that.
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Now for some things that I don’t like:
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[li]One reason I chose CMS was because of their fixed pip spreads. Sadly, in recent months those spreads have become unfixed. Although this is not a huge problem, it is not what I expected when I opened my account. Also, even with the variable spreads I believe their rates are still higher than the industry average. As I type this at 10pm EST the spreads on the majors are:
[/li]EUR/USD 1.8-2.2
USD/JPY 1.9-2.4
GBP/USD 3.0-4.2
USD/CHF 3.5-4.5
And they will typically hang around the lower number during active hours.
[li]Deposits were quick and painless and withdrawals were okay, but my primary complaints with their withdrawal process are the limited options and fees. Although there are several options to deposit, you are only allowed to withdraw using check, wire or “BPS” (whatever that is). Then they charge $5 per check request while most other brokers will give at least 1 free check per month. This check fee is not a huge issue, but it still feels like another way to nickel and dime their clients, and is completely unnecessary in my opinion.
[/li][li]Lastly, the charting platform is easily the company’s best and worst feature. On the surface it looks great. It is incredibly customizable with time frames ranging all the way from Tick to Monthly. There is a very large list of indicators that include descriptions of how they work, plus an option to create your own. There is also support for creating/using your own trading systems, in addition to several pre-installed trading systems (never used these so I can’t comment on them). Plus, you have the option to save your charts (and any notes/drawing written on them) as “desktops” so that you can easily recall them later. Sadly this is where the platform starts to breakdown.
[/li]These saved desktops seem to get corrupted ALL THE TIME. This is easily the most frustrating aspect of using this broker. Several times I have lost notes and chart analysis due to this buggy platform. I have recently resorted to saving multiple copies of the same desktop so that I have a backup if one gets corrupted, but this is such a hassle, and if I forget to save one day, then I’m SOL and I lose my work anyway. Fortunately, the number of occurrences has decreased since I first opened my account, but it will still happen occasionally. I have also had several instances (mainly in the past) where I was unable to log into my live trading account due to “trading server unavailable” errors. Although this typically happens over the weekends when market is closed, I would hate for it to happen during the middle of the trading day when I have a live trade open. Is it too much to ask for a simple announcement when the server is going down for maintenance?
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Like I said before, they are not a bad broker. In fact, I believe they are a bit above average and have the potential to be even better - but until they fix their platform issues and stop trying to skim money off of their clients, its hard to give them a better recommendation than that.
platform is crap.
Well I think “crap” is a little strong because it does have some excellent features, but it also has more than it’s share of bugs.
Don’t get the wrong idea though… I have been able to make money with these guys despite the platform issues. Yes, the platform can be frustrating at times, but the price feed, order execution and customer service make it a lot easier to deal with.
(and to their credit, they seem to be working to fix the bugs because I haven’t experienced them as frequently as I used to)
i’ve heard both good and bad things about cms.
but i haven’t tried them myself.
The only time I have had bugs occur is if my PC goes to sleep while the platform is open. The simple solution was to start trading on my desktop PC (which never sleeps) instead of my laptop.
i did try their demo platform the other day, and it is rather different to mt4, i think it will take time to get used to. not fond of it really.
I have to say that the VT Trader is a friendly platform to trade from. I’ve been using it now for the last few weeks and it’s intuitive and I haven’t received a crash yet.
The only issue I have come across is if the machine goes to sleep or if your net connection drops and comes back up, then the platform does require a reboot. There also is a small delay when closing trades if the market is volatile.
all in all, I consider CMSFX a friendly broker with an intuitive platform. Besides, no platform is without issue.