HFM Review 2026: Is It Safe for Traders in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa?

Who HFM suits, and who should look elsewhere

HFM may suit you if:

• you live in Kenya and want a broker whose Kenyan company is on the CMA register;
• you live in South Africa and want an FSP number that the FSCA itself has cited;
• you want a cent account, or an account with no minimum deposit;
• you want a balance in naira or Ghanaian cedi and understand the conditions of the InfinityX account.

Look elsewhere if:

• you want a local payment method in Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa that the broker documents itself; we found none on HFM’s official pages;
• you hold positions for days and want swap-free terms with no possible carry charges;
• you need fast bank withdrawals: HFM gives 2 to 10 business days for bank transfers.

What this review is based on

We review HFM the same way as any other broker: from regulator registers and the broker’s own published information.

HFM’s website blocked our direct access on 8 November 2026. We read the Kenyan licence on the CMA’s register ourselves. Most other HFM details come from search-engine extracts of hfm.com pages and HFM’s terms, so treat them as HFM’s own claims until confirmed. According to HFM’s site, the broker was founded in 2010 and changed its name from HotForex to HFM on 2 May 2022. We haven’t tested HFM on a live account. See how we review brokers.

Which HFM company serves you

Whether HFM is “safe” for you comes down mostly to which HFM company holds your money and who regulates it. No broker makes trading itself safe: you can lose your deposit with any of them.

HFM is a group of companies. The one that holds your account depends on where you live, and it decides which regulator, if any, oversees your money.

Company	Regulator	Licence	How sure we are
HFM Investments Limited (trading as HF Markets)	Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Kenya	155	Listed on the CMA register, read directly
HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd	FSCA, South Africa	FSP 46632	Cited by the FSCA in a 2024 warning; register not checked by us
HF Markets Ltd	FSC, Mauritius	C110008214, according to HFM’s site	Not checked on the regulator’s register
HF Markets (Seychelles) Ltd	FSA, Seychelles	SD015, according to HFM’s site	The company is listed on the FSA’s register, which shows no licence numbers
HF Markets (SV) Ltd	None listed	Registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines (22747 IBC 2015)	Runs HFM’s international site, according to HFM

Kenya

HFM Investments Limited, trading as HF Markets, is on the CMA’s register under licence 155 as a non-dealing online forex broker. Exness (162), XM (233), FXTM (135) and IC Markets (199) also have CMA-licensed Kenyan companies. We couldn’t confirm the maximum leverage or payment methods HFM offers Kenyan clients. Our Kenya page explains what the CMA’s rules require of licensed brokers.

South Africa

HF Markets SA (PTY) Ltd holds FSP 46632. The FSCA cited that number itself in a 2024 warning about people impersonating HFM. Among the brokers we compare, that’s the South African number with the strongest official backing we’ve found short of reading the register. According to HFM’s site, this company acts as an intermediary for HF Markets Ltd, the Mauritius company. That suggests your trading contract may sit with the Mauritius company rather than the South African one, so read the client agreement. See forex trading in South Africa.

Nigeria and Ghana

None of HFM’s listed companies holds a Nigerian or Ghanaian licence. HFM’s international site is run by HF Markets (SV) Ltd, a business company registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines, for which HFM lists no licence. We haven’t confirmed from HFM’s pages which company holds accounts for Nigerian and Ghanaian residents, so check the client agreement at sign-up. Our Nigeria page explains where Nigerian rules on online forex stand.

Accounts and minimum deposit

According to HFM’s site, it has five account types:

Account	Minimum deposit	Maximum leverage
Cent	USD 0	1:2000
Zero	USD 0 (one HFM FAQ says USD 25)	1:2000
Pro	USD 100	1:2000
Premium	USD 0	1:2000
InfinityX	USD 500	“Unlimited”, with conditions

A USD 0 account minimum doesn’t mean you can deposit any amount. HFM’s bank transfer minimum is USD 100, so the payment method may set your real starting point. The Cent account lets you trade much smaller positions; see cent accounts. We couldn’t confirm HFM’s spreads or commissions per account.

InfinityX: naira and cedi balances

According to HFM’s InfinityX page and terms, the account currencies include USD, EUR, NGN and GHS, among others. For a trader in Nigeria or Ghana, a balance in your own currency means your deposits needn’t be converted into dollars. The catch is that InfinityX is also HFM’s highest-risk account: it needs USD 500, and it comes with “unlimited” leverage subject to lot thresholds that HFM can adjust. If a naira or cedi balance is what you want, make sure you understand the leverage before you open one.

Leverage

According to HFM’s site, Cent, Zero, Pro and Premium accounts go up to 1:2000, and InfinityX offers “unlimited” leverage under conditions HFM can change. We couldn’t confirm the limit for Kenyan clients.

Leverage magnifies losses as much as gains. At 1:2000 or more, a small price move against you can close your positions and empty a small account within minutes. Read leverage and margin explained and size positions with the margin calculator.

Swap-free (Islamic) terms

According to HFM’s site and terms, seen as search extracts:

• swap-free status is offered on Cent, Zero, Pro, Premium and InfinityX for clients who observe Sharia law, on specific instruments only;
• HFM’s rollover policy and terms allow carry charges once a position has been rolled over for a number of consecutive days, and extra commission;
• the table of those charges is only in HFM’s client area;
• HFM can revoke swap-free status.

We couldn’t confirm how you request it. If you plan to hold positions for several days, ask to see the charge table first, so you know what replaces the swap and when it starts. Our Islamic accounts guide compares HFM’s approach with other brokers’. Scholars differ on forex and CFD trading, and whether a swap-free account meets your religious requirements is a question for a qualified scholar.

Platforms and copy trading

According to HFM’s site, you can trade on MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, the HFM App and HFM WebTrader. HFM’s copy trading service, HFcopy, runs on MT4, MT5 and the HFM App, with MT5 added in December 2025. HFM’s copy trading agreement is issued by HF Markets (SV) Ltd, the company with no licence listed. If you copy another trader, their losses become yours.

Deposits, withdrawals and support

According to HFM’s site:

• HFM charges no deposit fees;
• bank transfers have a USD 100 minimum and take 2 to 7 business days to deposit and 2 to 10 to withdraw;
• support runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, in more than 20 languages.

We found no Nigerian, Kenyan or South African local payment method on HFM’s official pages. HFM’s deposit page may show different methods depending on where you register, so check your client area before you deposit, and test a small withdrawal early. Your own bank may charge fees, and if your account is in dollars, the exchange rate is part of your cost.

HF Markets (SV) Ltd says it doesn’t serve residents of the USA, Canada, Sudan, Syria, Iran, North Korea, the UAE and Türkiye. Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Ghana aren’t on that list.

How HFM compares with Exness

Exness is the broker we recommend. Both brokers have CMA-licensed Kenyan companies (HFM 155, Exness 162). HFM is ahead in South Africa: the FSCA itself has cited its FSP number, while Exness’s FSP 51024 comes from Exness’s own site and we haven’t checked it on the register. Both have cent accounts and no-minimum account types. Exness documents its own local methods, naira online bank transfer with a USD 10 minimum and M-Pesa on exness.ke, according to its help centre; we found none on HFM’s pages. On swap-free, HFM’s terms allow carry charges, while Exness’s help centre describes status on a published list of instruments without an application. Our Exness vs HFM comparison goes point by point, and the forex broker comparison adds XM, FXTM, IC Markets and Octa.

Before you open an HFM account

1. Read the company name in the client agreement shown at sign-up.
2. Look it up on its regulator’s register: the CMA list in Kenya, the FSCA register in South Africa.
3. If you want swap-free, find the carry-charge table before you hold positions overnight.
4. Practise on a demo, then make a small deposit and a small withdrawal before you add more.

How to choose a forex broker explains each check.