HotForex Review 2021

Hotforex is our recommended FSCA regulated forex broker. They are regulated with top regulators including FSCA (South Africa) & FCA in UK. We like their very low trading fee, zero deposit/withdrawal charges & 100% Bonus. Read our HotForex Review to know more on why you should choose them or not!

HotForex is a reputed forex and CFD broker that was established in 2010. It is the brand name of “HF Markets Group” which serves clients from around 200 countries. It is a popular broker, with more than 2.5 million live accounts registered.

HotForex South Africa is licensed by regulatory authority Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) with FSP Name HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd since 2015. Plus, HotForex Group is regulated by globally reputed Top Tier Regulators including FCA, CySEC. So we consider HotForex as a safe broker for traders in South Africa.

HotForex also offers ZAR Trading accounts, and very low spread for trading with Zero account. They have online bank trasfer option available for funding & withdrawals in SA. They also have local phone number for support.

The platform at HotForex allows to trade a medium range of trading instruments including 49 Forex pairs, 100+ CFDs, and they have a reliably quick execution rate.

We compare the HotForex South Africa’s fees, platforms, account types bonus & more!

HotForex – A quick look

Regulation and safety of funds

HotForex is a FSCA regulated forex broker in South Africa, so we consider it a safe broke.

HotForex is authorized and regulated under various jurisdictions:

1. Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) of South Africa: Hotforex SA is licensed by the FSCA , with FSP number 46632 since 09/02/2016.

2. Financial Conduct Authority of UK: HF Markets (UK) Ltd is regulated in UK by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with the registration number 801701 from 14/11/2018



3. Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC): Hotforex is also regulated in Cyprus by CySEC with license number 183/12 effective from 20/11/2012.
4. Dubai Financial Services Authority: It is regulated by Dubai Financial Services Authority under the license number F004885
5. Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Seychelles: It is registered under FSA with registration number 8419176-1 and regulated under the license number SD015.

Being regulated by FSCA & with multiple globally reputed financial institutions, we believe that it is relatively safe to trade with HotForex.

How are your funds secured at HotForex?

There are a few more things which we believe makes HotForex a standout with regards to the safety of funds:

1. Insurance backed: Errors, omissions, negligence, fraud and various other risks which may lead to financial loss are covered by an insurance program for a limit of €5,000,000.

2. Segregation of funds: In the unlikely event of default of the HotForex, the company cannot use the clients’ funds as they are segregated from the operational expenses of the company.

3. Accounts with major banks: HotForex brand is international and its connections with global banks enables the company to provide high liquidity.

We highly recommend HotForex with regard to the safety of funds. They are regulated in South Africa, 3 other Tier-1 & Tier-2 regulations, so the security of your funds is backed by these top-tier regulators.

HotForex Fees

Fee is important as it is something you pay to the broker every time you place an order. It is therefore helpful to go into the details before your signup with any broker.

We break down the fees into trading & non-trading charges. We’ve compared the fees at HotForex with other brokers.

Let’s explore different charges at HotForex South Africa:

1. Lower Spread with Zero Account: Simply put, spread is the amount you pay to your broker every-time you trade. It is important that the broker offers low spread, else your costs of trading will rise.

   HotForex offers the low typical spread for major instruments, in comparison with other regulated brokers like FXTM, Tickmill; but it is higher than Exness.

   For CFD instrument like XAU/USD, their typical spread is 29 pips with all their 3 account types, and the spread is comparatively similar to other low cost CFD brokers XM, Exness & Tickmill for this instrument.

   For a major pair like EUR/USD, the benchmark typical spread is around 0.1 pips for a Zero account and 1.2 pips for both Premium & Micro accounts, as per their spread comparison table.



2. Commissions with Zero Account ($6 per standard lot for major pairs): Commission is charged by HotForex with their Zero accounts depending on the instrument & number of lots being traded. The commission based structure is very transparent which you can find here.

   For major pairs, the commission fee is $6 per standard Lot i.e. $3 to open the trade & $3 to close it. For other pairs, the commission fee is $7 per standard lot.

3. Rollover fees for overnight positions: Hotforex charges rollover fees for overnight positions. This is the interest paid or earned as a result of holding your position overnight.

   In Forex, the rollover calculation involves the difference in the interest rates of both currencies. Although rollover is small, long-term investors need to consider the interest differential as rollover charges may build up.

4. No Deposits and withdrawal fees: HotForex does not charge any deposit and withdrawal fee, this includes online bank transfer method in South Africa. So you will receive 100% of your deposit & withdrawn amount.
5. Dormant Account Charges: A $5 per month in case the account is dormant i.e. without any trading or financial activity for the past 6 months (only if you have remaining balance in your account). But, Hotforex.co.za does not charge any fees for dormant account if you don’t have any funds in the account.

   A live trading account at HotForex SA is archived after 90-days of Inactivity in the account.

Overall, HotForex’s fee structure is very transparent, and we didn’t find any major hidden charges. Also, we noticed that HotForex offers one of the lowest typical spreads for EUR/USD in the market even with Premium & Micro Account.

HotForex Account Types

HotForex offers different types of Accounts to its clients to suit a wide range of trading strategies. The currency accepted is either the USD or EUR or ZAR. HotForex is a 100% STP broker, all the trades are executed as Market orders which means there won’t be any requotes.

HotForex South Africa has a minimum deposit of $5 or 70 ZAR. This is the deposot required with their Micro Account.

HotForex ZAR Accounts

Hotforex does offer 4 ZAR base currency accounts for traders in South Africa. These are Micro account with the lowest minimum deposit of R70, Premium account with R1400 deposit, Zero Spread account with R2800 deposit & the Auto Account.

HotForex is one of the only few forex brokers that offers ZAR accounts to SA traders. The other brokers are XM, Plus500 & a few others.

HotForex Demo Account

HotForex Demo account is designed to closely resemble the Live account thereby offering a seamless transition to the Live account for anybody new and test the market before putting their real money.

You will receive a $100,000 virtual money when you open a Demo account where you can test your trading strategies under the close to real market conditions.

HotForex Live Accounts

There are 5 different types of HotForex Live Trading accounts.

The following features are offered with all accounts at Hotforex:
1. Negative balance protection: During the events of high volatility, sudden price movements may occur and margin calls or stop loss may not function correctly, which could lead to negative balance in the account. Under HotForex policies, client is not liable to pay back a negative balance.

The minimum deposit required to open Live trading account at Hotforex South Africa is $5 or ZAR 85 approx. The minimum deposit depends on the account type that you sign up for.

Here are the Live trading accounts at Hotforex:
1) Micro Account ($5 Minimum deposit)
Micro Account has a minimum deposit of $5 (70 ZAR), a maximum leverage of 1:1000 & access to all trading instruments on HotForex. You can trade micro lots with this account, at 40% Margin call level and 10% stop out level. No commission involved but you have to account for the variable spread (a benchmark figure of 1.3 pips). You can trade a maximum of 7 Lots per trade upto a maximum number of 150 orders.

2) Premium Account ($100 Minimum deposit)
Premium Account has a minimum deposit of $100 (1400 ZAR), a maximum leverage of 1:500 & access to all trading instruments on HotForex. You can trade micro lots with this account, at 50% Margin call level and 20% stop out level. No commission involved but you have to account for the variable spread (a benchmark figure of 1.2 pips). You can trade a maximum of 60 Lots per trade upto a maximum number of 300 orders .

3) Zero Account (Recommended account for low fees & has $200 minimum deposit)
Zero Account has a minimum deposit of $200 (2800 ZAR), a maximum leverage of 1:500 & access to all trading instruments on HotForex. You can trade micro lots with this account, at 50% Margin call level and 20% stop out level.

This account is more suitable if you are a day-trader who places a lot of trades, as you get very low spreads (a benchmark figure of 0.3 pips), but you need to pay commission based on the volume of the trade. The overall fee in the end is much lower. You can trade a maximum of 60 Lots per trade up to a maximum number of 500 orders.

The commission-based structure is transparent and is based on the currency pair type. This account has very low spreads hence we highly recommend Hotforex Zero account.

How to Open Live account at HotForex

Opening account with HotForex South Africa is very simple and does not take much time. You simply need to follow the below steps to open an account with them to start trading.

Here are some detailed and explained steps that you can follow to open and account with HotForex:

Step 1) Open the home page: First of all you need to open the homepage of HotForex.co.za and after that you need to click on Open Live Account on the top right side of the screen.

Step 2) Open Live Account: Now you will be redirected to Open Live Account where you need to fill some Information as shown in this below screenshot.

Step 3) Click on Register button: After entering the required information while signup you need to agree terms and conditions and then click on Register button at the bottom of the page.

Step 4) Account Opening Confirmation: At last you need to verify the details and email used by you by clicking on the verification link sent to your email.

Step 5) Select Trading account & fill basic KYC details: After verifying your email you need to selecting the trading account type and then fill some basic information to complete the KYC details.

NOTE: We recommend you to start with Premium or Zero account as it comes with lower spread and very low commission fees.

Step 6) Account Verification: Once done with filling the KYC form you need to upload your ID proof and Address proof for the verification.

You can upload your any national ID proof like Driver’s license, Passport, etc. and for Address proof you can upload your Utility bill like telephone bill or electricity bill.

That’s All! After you have submitted your documents, HotForex will normally verify your account in 24-48 business hours and revert to you on your email with account verified message. In case you don’t receive confirmation within this time, you should contact their support for an update.

Hotforex Trading Instruments

Hotforex allows trading under 7 asset classes (the same as most other brokers). But their currency offerings are lesser than other South African regulated brokers.

Moreover, execution desk is available for all open orders, which means the clients can close or manage all their open positions over the phone. It is not available for Market orders or to open new positions.

Here are the instruments you can trade with Hotforex SA:

1. Forex Trading (53 Currency Pairs): Hotforex offers lower number of currency pairs for trading than Exness, XM & FXTM.

   But the spreads are competitive for all the pairs they offer. You can have access to trade on 7 Major pairs and other Minor, Exotic currency pairs. You can even trade South African Rand against the USD/GBP/EUR.



2. No Cryptocurrency CFDs: HotForex does not offer Crypto CFDs now. They offered CFDs on major cryptos in the past but they don’t offer it any longer. But some regulated brokers offer CFDs on Bitcoin & other cryptos; including Tickmill & Exness.
3. CFDs on Metals & Energies Spot & Futures: Metals are often more resistant to various macroeconomic events hence they are a good option to diversify your portfolio. HotForex offers CFD on Precious Metals. Metals are available on Spot market include Gold, Silver against the USD and Euro.
4. CFDs on Indices: Trading Index involves speculation on the movement of a section of a market, instead of individual stocks. Depending on the market movement, there will be potential for profits. You can trade both Spot market Indices (plural for Index) as well as Futures market. Examples of Indices include VIX, Australia 200, France 40, US Wall Street 30 etc. You may refer here for the full details on various Indices on offer on HotForex.
5. DMA Shares CFDs: Share contracts can be traded on HotForex & they offer direct market access. They are different from trading stocks where the parties don’t own the underlying asset but makes profit/loss based on the price fluctuations of the underlying asset.

   They have advantages like low margin requirements, low transaction fee etc. but have a downside in high spreads where profits become less in case of low volatility. As many as 56 share contracts of reputed companies can be traded on HotForex by the time of this writing.

6. CFDs on Energies: Energy Contracts are on offer on HotForex for both Spot and Futures markets. Energies on offer in Futures market include UK Brent Oil, US Crude Oil and US Natural Gas. You may trade UK Brent Oil and US Crude Oil on Spot markets on HotForex.
7. CFDs on Commodities: Commodities are sensitive to political and economic events, which makes them attractive to traders. HotForex gives access to trade on popular commodity markets. You can trade Palladium contracts on Spot markets and variety of commodities like Coffee, Cocoa, Copper, Cotton, Sugar and Soybean Oil contracts on Futures markets on HotForex.
8. CFDs on Bonds: Bond contracts like Euro bond, UK Gilt, US 10-year Treasury note are also available to trade on HotForex.

HotForex MetaTrader platforms

HotForex has trading platforms for all kinds of trading needs, whether it be Desktop or on-the-go using mobile.

They offer MetaTrader4 (MT4)and Meta Trader5 (MT5) trading terminals which are as good a platform as any other (maybe the best). Their platform is perfect for forex and futures trading, and is developed by MetaQuotes Software Company. It comes with versions for PC/Mac, Android/iOS.

We discuss the mobile and web terminal in more detail in this review below:

1. Mobile platform: HotForex supports trading on iPhone, iPad as well as Android MT4 platforms. The beauty of these platforms is the one-click execution of trades which allows you to place trades easily on-the-go. You can even perform a number of trading operations like monitoring, access to trading history, real-time charts, dynamic monitoring of account details etc which makes it very useful.
2. Web/Desktop Terminal: If you do not want to install the platform on your device, you have an option to check out their web platform here. You can access this directly on any browser by just launching it and logging in with your account details, place trades on just a click-of-a-button. You can view your trading activity and analyse using advanced analytical tools and charts at your disposal.

HotForex SA Deposit & Withdrawals

Deposit & Withdrawals of your funds at HotForex is easy with multiple options available for traders in SA. Local bank transfer is the easiest option available.

HotForex Deposit Methods

Online Bank Transfer: HotForex offers deposit via Online Bank transfers in South Africa. Most of the major banks are supported including FNB, Investec, NedBank, Standard Bank, Capitec Bank, Bidvest Bank & TymeBank. There is no fees with this method & funding is almost instant.

Visa/Mastercard and EWallets: You can also fund your account via your credit card, or using Skrill. The minimum amount is 5 USD, and the funds are reflected in your HF account within a few minutes.

HotForex Withdrawal Methods

Bank Transfer: SA traders can withdraw funds via Online transfer in bank account. The withdrawal time is up to 48 hours, but there is no extra fees with this method.

HotForex is one of the few forex brokers that have local bank transfer option for funding & withdrawals. This makes them a better option than any foreign brokers, as you can deposit & withdraw funds in ZAR quickly without any extra fees.

HotForex Bonus

Hotforex has bonus available for South African traders including 30% rescue Bonus with $50 deposits, credit bonus with $100 deposit and a Super charged bonus with $250 deposit.

There are currently 3 active Hotforex Bonus offers available:
1) 100% Super Charged Bonus: HotForex is currently offering 100% bonus for South African traders. The bonus is applies to every deposit of of at-least $250 or higher..

2) 30% Rescue Bonus: This is available for deposits higher than $50. This applies as a ‘Stop Out Bonus’ & cannot be withdrawn..

3) 100% Credit Bonus: This applies only to new deposits or Internal account transfers to Live Trading accounts. The minimum deposit required for this bonus is $100 or ZAR equivalent. The bonus can be withdrawn, provided certain trading volume conditions are met as specified in their terms..

Overall the bonus at Hotforex is good. We advise to contact their support at [email protected] if you have any questions regarding their bonus.

HotForex Customer Support

HotForex customer support staff is very helpful and can be contacted easily via Live Chat Support, Email or by calling at their local South African phone number.

You can contact them any time i.e 24 hours in a day with the Hotforex Customer Support. But during the weekend Saturday & Sunday customer support is not available.

Helpful Live Chat Support (Recommended method for contact): Live Chat Support is available on their website which is very quick responsive. We did not experience about a minute of hold time to connect with Live Chat Support at Hotforex SA during our tests. The chat is available to visitors as well, but they normally ask for Country of Residence before answering the questions. We found the responses to be quite helpful.

Fair Email Support: You can send a mail to Hotforex at [email protected] to contact them regarding any query or issue. There are also different emails for various departments, all of which are mentioned in the Contact Us page of HotForex. Normally they reply back within 12 hours via email.

Hotforex South Africa Contact Form: You can also submit your request to HotForex.co.za by filling the contact us form on their website. It is similar to email and their response time is also same.

Local Phone Support is available: The South African office of Hotforex have a local support line which is 0100207764, and toll-free numbers +27-104439924 and +27-800999265. You can also submit a call back request to their chat or email.

Social Media: You can also drop a message to them at their different social accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

We found Hotforex South Africa customer support to be very helpful & available across multiple channels. Their support is quite good compared to many other CFD brokers in SA, plus they also have local phone support available.

Do we recommend HotForex South Africa?

Yes, we do recommend Hotforex to South African traders.

On the plus side, HotForex is regulated by Top-Tier regulators FSCA in South Africa, FCA in UK, CySEC in Cyprus, DFSA, so it is very safe to trade with them.

Moreover, HotForex is offers one of the lowest spread with their trading accounts out of all the brokers that we have tested so far. For a Zero Account, the benchmark average spread for a major pair like USD/EUR is 0.1 pips, which is the quite low when compared to other brokers, but it is not the lowest though in overall fees which includes $6 commission per lot.

The rollover and commission fees are also very clear and transparent, unlike some others who don’t advertise them publicly.

Plus, their 100% deposit bonus for new customer is unbeatable! Their support is also very reliable. They also have a local phone number for support in South Africa.

But, the support is not available during the weekends. Also, the number of trading instruments could be higher.

To sum up, HotForex offers an end-to-end solution from on-boarding, to execution and settlement of payments. Anybody who wants to signup with Hotforex should give it a shot.

Hotforex South Africa FAQs

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