HF Markets Review 2024 (HotForex)

Rating 8.7 /10

Max. Leverage

1:400

for Forex

Minimum Deposit

$0

EUR/USD Spread

1.4 pips

Benchmark

Visit HF Markets Kenya

HotForex is a Forex Broker that offers Forex Trading & CFD Trading on metals, stocks, energies, bonds, commodities, indices, ETF, and physical stocks.

HotForex is licensed with multiple Top-Tier regulations including CMA in Kenya. In May 2022, HotForex rebranded into HFM, which is short for HF Markets.

This review of HotForex will cover their account types, available tradable instruments, deposit/withdrawal options, trading/non-trading fees, and customer support.

HotForex is considered low-risk for traders based in Kenya because they are registered in Kenya and their parent company ‘HF Markets Group’ has been licensed by multiple Top-Tier regulators. HotForex is authorized by the following regulators:

1) CMA: Capital Markets Authority (CMA) Kenya has licensed HotForex as a non-dealing online foreign exchange broker under the name ‘HFM Investments Limited’ with CMA license number 155.

2) FCA: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the United Kingdom has authorised ‘HF Markets (UK) Limited’ to provide financial products and services with Reference number 801701.

3) FSCA: The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa as ‘HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd’. Hotforex is registered as a Financial Service Provider (FSP) in South Africa, with FSP number 46632.

4) DFSA: Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has authorised ‘HF Markets (DIFC) Ltd’ to carry on financial services in the UAE.

5) FSA: Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Seychelles as ‘HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd.’, licensed as a security dealer.

6) FSA SVG: HF Markets is incorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) as an International Business Company with registration number 22747 IBC 2015.

Negative balance protection is available for all of HFM’s retail clients. While there is no compensation scheme for Kenyan traders, HF Markets is locally regulated. CMA’s investor protection covers Kenyan traders.

All account types have maximum leverage of 1:400 in Kenya, in line with the CMA regulation. Traders can choose to use floating leverage or fixed leverage option. The maximum leverage of 1:400 applies only to major forex pairs, other instruments have lower leverage limits.

With leverage of 400, you can open a trade position worth up to 400 times the value of your deposit. For example, with a deposit of 1,000 KES, you can place a trade of 400,000 KES.

Note: Trading with leverage is very risky, and you must avoid using more than 1:30 leverage on forex. The availability of a floating leverage option is an advantage, and you must never use 1:400 leverage. As a caution by HF Markets, leverage is adjusted when your equity exceeds $300,000.

HF Markets has 4 main account types for traders and 1 investment account. HF Markets also offers Swap-free Islamic Account and a demo account which features unlimited options and is risk-free for beginners to use and familiarise themselves with the trading platform before they open live accounts.

The account types on HF Markets and their basic features are:

1) Premium Account: The HF Markets Premium Account is designed for retail clients. This account allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

This account is spread only and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions. Spreads start from 1.4 pip and you do not pay swap fees whenever you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time, this applies to most instruments except shares.

The Premium Account on HF Markets does not have a mandatory minimum deposit, the required minimum trade size is 0.01 lot and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:400.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account. If a trade position is unsuccessful and you have a loss, any negative balance on your account will be reset to zero.

2) Pro Account: The HF Markets Pro Account is also designed for retail traders who are experienced and allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

This account is spread only and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions. Spreads start from 0.6 pips and you pay swap fees whenever you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

The Pro Account on HF Markets requires a minimum deposit of Ksh13,000, with a minimum trade size of 0.01 and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:400.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

3) Zero Account: The HF Markets Zero Account is designed for retail clients who trade high volumes, use EAs and want to pay lower spreads. This account allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

You pay commissions for opening and closing trades per side on this account. Commission charges for 1 lot is $3 (making $6 for a round turn) for majors and $4 for others (making $8 for a round turn). The spreads on this account start from 0.1 pips for forex, with limits and stops at 2 pips.

The Zero Account on HF Markets does not require a mandatory minimum deposit, minimum trade size of 0.01 is required and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:400.

This account offers swap-free trading on select instruments, for a grace period of 7 days, shares trading will still attract swap-fees.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

4) Cent Account: The HF Markets Cent Account is designed for new traders and allows you to trade forex and gold only.

This account is spread only and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions. Spreads start from 1.2 pip and no swap fees apply when you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

The Cent Account on HF Markets does not have a mandatory minimum deposit, account balance is shown in Cents (United States Cents), that is $10 will be shown as 1,000 cents.

This account requires a minimum trade size of 0.01, a maximum of 200 cents lots per position, 150 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:2,000.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

5) Top-up Bonus Account: The HF Markets Top-up Bonus Account is designed for retail clients. This account allows you to trade forex and CFDs on metals, energies, bonds, commodities, indices, ETFs, and stocks.

This account charges spread and you do not pay any commissions when you open or close trade positions on most instruments. Spreads start from 1.4 pip and you pay swap fees whenever you keep a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

The Top-up Bonus Account on HF Markets does not have a mandatory minimum deposit, the required minimum trade size is 0.01 lot and a maximum of 60 standard lots per position, 500 maximum open orders, and maximum leverage of 1:1,000.

With the Top-up Bonus Account, you get bonus for every deposit you make from 20% and can be up to 50% of your deposited amount. The maximum bonus you can get per deposit is K700,000.

While you cannot withdraw the bonus amount, you can use it to trade and you can withdraw any profits realised from the trade.

You have negative balance protection with this account, which means you cannot lose more than the amount of money in your trading account.

To get the Top-up bonus account, you must first create a trading account on HFM then request the Top-up bonus account from the client area.

6) Swap-free Islamic Account: HF Markets offers Islamic Accounts to Muslim traders that are in compliance with the sharia law of no-riba. These accounts are swap-free (interest-free), which means you do not pay any interest for keeping a trade position open past the market’s closing time.

You can convert your Pro, Premium or Zero Accounts to Islamic status and the same features and fees will apply except for the swap fees. This account also supports only USD or EUR as base currency.

Note that the HF Markets Swap-fee Islamic Account have a grace period of 7 days, during which no rollover fees are charged. If you keep a position open for more than 7 days, you will incur carry charges on some instruments.

To get a swap-free Islamic Account on HF Markets, first, create a Pro, Premium or Zero Account then contact the HF Markets customer support team to convert your account to a swap-free status.

Currently, the Zero Account offer swap free trading, which translates to Islamic Account features, so you may not need to convert to a special Islamic Account.

HF Markets Investing Accounts:

1) HFCopy Account: HF Markets HFCopy Account is designed for traders who want to copy the trades of experienced and professional traders. Both professionals who allow others to copy their trades, known as; strategy providers’ or those who copy trades, referred to as ‘followers’ can open this account type.

The maximum number of followers per strategy provider is 1,000. Strategy providers earn a performance fee for letting others copy their trades.

This account type supports only USD as the account currency and requires a minimum deposit of $500 for strategy providers and $100 for followers.

You can find the terms and conditions to copy-trading on HF Markets HFCopy Account via this dedicated domain copy.hfm.com.

HF Markets Base Account Currency

Your trades, deposits, profits, losses, and withdrawals on the platform are measured in your base account currency.

The available account base currencies on HF Markets Kenya are the United States Dollar – USD and Kenyan Shilling – KES.

HF Markets is transparent about its fees and you can find details on their website. Some trading fees have been reviewed below:

1) Spread: Spreads on HotForex start from around 0.1 pips, which are considered moderate compared to other brokers. HotForex has no fixed spread and operates a variable spread system, which is basically the difference between the asking price and bid price.

An example of HF Markets spreads with the Premium and Pro Accounts is shown on the table below:

2) Commissions: HF Markets offers commission-free trading on all account types except the Zero Account. The Zero account charges low spreads, but has relatively high commission fees, starting at $3 per 1 lot for majors, which is $6 for a round turn, and $4 per 1 lot for others, which is $8 for a round turn. Shilling charges are KSh330 per lot for majors, making it KSh660 for a round turn and KSh440 per lot for others, making it KSh880 for a round turn.

3) Overnight Fees (Swap): If you keep a trade position open during the closing time of the market, the trade rolls over to the next day and you incur a rollover fee or overnight funding costs, also called swap fees.

Swap fees differ with traded instruments and pairs, account type, trade size and whether your swap is long (buy) or short (sell).

Islamic and Zero Accounts do not pay swap fees, as they are swap-free for a grace period of 7 days, after which admin charges apply. Note that shares attract swap fees on all account types.

It is important to note that HotForex uses a floating swap policy, which means swap rates change daily. You can use the swaps calculator on the HotForex website to determine your exact swap fees.

Non-trading fees

1) Deposit and Withdrawal fees: HF Markets offers free deposits and withdrawals. You do not pay any fees when you deposit funds to your account or withdraw from it. This applies to all account types and payment methods. Note that if you deposit less than $100 via bank transfers, you might incur some deposit fees.

2) Account Inactivity charges: HF Markets charges inactive account fees if you do not perform any trade on your account for 6 months. Any balance in your account will be charged a monthly fee of $5. If you do not have any funds in your account, no fees will be charged.

To start trading on the HotForex platform, you need to open a live account. Follow the steps below to open your trading account.

Step 1) Go to the HF Markets website at www.hfm.com and click on the ‘Open Live Account’ button, highlighted in green colour, at the top right side of the page.

Step 2) Select the client type, either as an individual, corporate or joint, then fill in your information, create a password, select Kenya as country of residence, check the box beside ‘I have read and accepted the privacy policy’ after reading, and click on register.

Step 3) A verification link will be sent to your email address. Go to your email inbox and click the ‘Activate Account’ link to continue with your registration.

Step 4) When you click on ‘Activate Account’ in the email, your account will be activated, and you will be taken to your dashboard (an example is shown below).

You will also get a confirmation email with your ‘myHF account ID’ after the account is activated.

Step 5) On your dashboard, you will be required to complete registration/profile by supplying some personal and economic information, including your experience level with Forex trading.

Note that the system automatically sets KES as your account currency and you can change it to USD at this point.

Step 6) Next, you will be required to upload a valid ID to verify your identity and a proof of address to verify your address. Then wait for the approval.

If you cannot upload the documents, you can send them via email to HotForex back-office via [email protected] using your myHF account ID as part of the email subject line.

Step 7) After your account is approved, you can make deposits, start trading, make transfers and withdrawals.

Note: that if your account is unapproved, you can only deposit a limited amount and will not be able to withdraw any funds. To become fully approved on the Forex platform, you must upload the required documents. 

Payment methods supported by HF Markets for deposits and withdrawals are bank wire transfer, mobile payments, cards, e-wallets and wire transfers. Here is the summary of the deposits and withdrawal options on HF Markets in Kenya.

HF Markets Deposit Methods

Here is a summary of payment methods accepted by HF Markets for deposits.

HF Markets Withdrawal Methods

Here is a summary of payment methods for withdrawals accepted on HF Markets.

What is the HotForex Minimum deposit?

The minimum deposit is $5 with cards or e-wallets (Skrill & Neteller) with a maximum deposit amount of $10,000.

The minimum deposit for KES on HF Markets is Ksh700 via mobile money transfers with a maximum deposit amount of Ksh 1,400,000 per transaction. The minimum deposit for bank wire transfer is KES 11,000 or US$100.

How do I Deposit Funds in HotForex Kenya?

Step 1) Log in to your dashboard by visiting the HF Markets website or via my.hfm.com/ke/login

Step 2) On your dashboard, you will see ‘Deposit’ on the left column menu (desktop view), click on it.

Step 3) Several payments options will be shown to you, click on the method you want to use for deposits (we will use bank transfers for this example).

Step 4) After clicking Bank Transfers, further select wire transfer, you will then be required to choose to make your transfer deposit to HotForex in KES or USD or EUR.

Step 5) Select KES transfer, then proceed to make a direct transfer to HotForex account number with African Bank Corporation Ltd in Kenya. It is recommended to use your account ID as part of the description for the transfer.

After making the transfer, send an email to [email protected] with your myHF account ID and transfer details for your wallet to be credited.

What is the HotForex Minimum withdrawal?

The minimum withdrawal from HF Markets is Ksh600 or $5 for mobile money payments, cards and e-wallets. Minimum withdrawal amount to bank accounts is Ksh11,000.

HotForex only approves withdrawals to the same method/source from which the deposit was made. This means if you deposit funds through a bank transfer, you can only withdraw through a bank transfer to the same account. The same thing applies to other payment methods.

How to Withdraw Funds from HotForex Kenya?

Step 1) Step 1) Log in to your dashboard by visiting the HF Markets website or via my.hfm.com/ke/login.

Step 2) Fill in your myHF account number and myHF password then click login.

Step 3) On your dashboard, you will see ‘Withdraw’ on the left column menu (desktop view), click on it.

To withdraw funds in Shilling to your Kenyan bank, select Wire Transfer, fill out the amount, your bank account, and other information on the form that appears, then click ‘Withdraw’ and follow the instructions to complete the withdrawal.

You can select other withdrawal and deposit options, then follow the prompts/instructions to complete the deposit or withdrawal.

HF Markets offers over 1,200 trading instruments, all of which are CFD instruments, find their categories below:

1) HFM WebTrader: This is a trading application developed by HF Markets and is available on desktops for web trading.

2) HFM App: This is a trading application developed by HF Markets and is available on mobile devices only. You can download it from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

3) MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5: HF Markets supports the MT4 and MT5 trading applications for trading financial markets. The applications are available on the web, desktop, and mobile devices (Android & iOS). You can also use EAs as professional clients or other tools.

HF Markets takes all reasonable steps to ensure the best possible when executing your orders. Here are some of their best execution factors:

Price: The price for a given financial instrument is provided from HF Markets and it is updated as frequently as possible. Prices are not quoted outside of the broker’s operation times. With HF Markets, there is no guarantee that your orders will be executed at a favorable price. To ensure fairness, HF Markets ensures that their liquidity provider calculates the spread.

Costs: HF Markets charges commission and financing fees. They can be found on their website under contract specifications. These fees are not calculated with the bid/ask spread. They are charged explicitly to your trading account and deducted from your balance.

Speed of Execution: HF Markets strives to offer a high speed of execution within prevailing technological limits. If the reason for a delay in order transmission is due to a poor network connection from your end, your market order might become out of date. In this situation, such an order is declined.

Likelihood of execution: HF Markets reserves the right to decline any type of order. Especially if there is not enough liquidity to execute it. Stop Loss, Take Profit, Buy Limit, Buy Stop, Sell Limit, and Sell Stop Orders on financial instruments offered by the broker are executed at your requested price. In a situation where this is not possible, these orders are executed at the first available price.

HotForex has responsive customer service support. Traders can reach HotForex support via any of the means below during working days:

1) Live chat: HotForex live chat is fast, their representative responds within 2 minutes when a chat is initiated and provides relevant answers to questions asked.

Whether you are a registered user or not, you can access the live chat. You can request a call back via their live chat, and a representative will call you, you will have to submit a valid phone number and email address for this to work. Our team submitted a request but didn’t get a callback.

2) Phone number support: HotForex has an active local phone number support. The phone line is active from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM on working days.

The HF Markets phone number in Kenya is +254-203894292. The HotForex global support phone number is +44-20-3097-8571, available 24 hours for 5 days.

3) Email Support is fair: You can reach HotForex via email support at [email protected]. Once you send an enquiry email, you will receive an auto-generated response to show that a ticket has been created for your enquiry.

A representative replied to our test enquiry email in about 9 minutes, we sent another question and got a reply in less than 10 minutes. The answers to our questions were relevant and satisfactory.

4) Physical office: HotForex office address in Kenya is at The Oval Building, Corner of Jalaram Road/Ring Road Westlands, 5th floor, Office 2-7, Nairobi, Kenya.

According to their live chat support, customers can walk into the office to make enquiries, and it is open from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Mondays to Fridays.

Podcasts: HF Markets launched trading education podcasts in 2023. It is free and you can listen to it on multiple streaming platforms. According to our review, HFM’s podcast is available on 18 streaming platforms. Here are the platforms in one glance.

At the time of this writing, there are up to 26 different podcasts on HFM’s podcast list. Here are the latest ones.

How To Videos: If you need help downloading/installing any of HF Market’ mobile app, this is what you need. These videos guide you on how to download, HFM App, MT4, and MT5 on your phone (android or iPhone). The guide also covers PC installation.

Live Webinars: HF Markets holds live webinars that can improve your FX knowledge. It does not matter if you are a beginner, intermediate, or an expert trader. There is a webinar for every level. These webinars will improve your trading skills and increase your confidence in forex trading.

Since the webinars are live, you will need to register to book your slot. There are no extra charges for the webinar. On the webinar page, you will find the schedule for each month. You can also select your experience level so that only relevant webinars are recommended for you.

Finally, all webinars end with a Q&A session so you get the opportunity to get answers to your questions from industry expert.

HotForex offers bonuses for different activities. Each category of bonuses has its terms and conditions to qualify. Current bonus offerings are:

1) 100% Supercharged Bonus: Traders can earn up to 100% cash rebates whenever they deposit $250/Ksh27,500 or more. The bonus is capped at a maximum of $50,000/Ksh5,500,000.

This bonus is available to all clients using Premium and Islamic accounts. Traders can choose to use the cash from this bonus for trading or withdraw to a bank account.

2) 30% Rescue Bonus: This is also referred to as Rescue Program. This bonus is offered to traders during a drawdown period, to help manage their losses. A 30% bonus is credited to the clients’ accounts for every deposit above $50/Ksh5,500.

The Rescue Bonus cannot be withdrawn to a bank account but can be used for trading. This bonus is capped at a maximum of $7,000/Ksh770,000 and when traders make a withdrawal, the bonus amount is removed.

3) 100% Credit Bonus: This HotForex bonus is available to only Pro, Premium, and Islamic account holders. It increases the leverage volume for account holders and can be withdrawn if the minimum volume requirement is met.

This bonus is credited to traders’ accounts upon new deposits of $100 or 11,000 KES. The bonus is capped at $30,000 or 3,300,000 KES maximum.

Traders can request for the bonus to be released after meeting the volume requirement within 3 months, after 3 months, they lose the right to claim this bonus. It is important to note that not all trading instruments count towards the volume requirements.

4) HotForex 50% Welcome Bonus Program: To qualify for this bonus, simply make a deposit of at least $50 or Ksh5,500 and the bonus will be added to your account automatically.

You can get a maximum of Ksh110,000 /$1,000 in this way. You cannot withdraw this bonus and you cannot have it at the same time as the 30% Rescue Bonus.

HotForex offers a 50% Welcome Bonus Program to new traders on their first deposit. With this offer, you get 50% of your deposit balance in additional trading funds. The offer is only available to people who use the MT4 platform.

Do we Recommend HotForex Kenya?

HotForex is CMA-authorized and regulated in other top-tier jurisdictions. HotForex customer support is available in Kenya and they respond quickly to enquiries on business days.

HotForex Kenya has negative balance protection, have low fees compared to some brokers, and offers bonuses to traders. They also have many account types, so you can choose an account with features that work best for you.

One downside to trading with HotForex is that they charge account inactivity fees after 6 months, but you can avoid this if you withdraw all funds, leaving your balance at zero.

Based on these details, we recommend that you check out HF Markets website to see their full details, also chat with the live support to answer any questions you may have to help you make up your mind.

HotForex Kenya FAQs