CPT Markets Review: What Traders Need to Know

Here is our CPT Markets review — a look at a Forex/CFD broker that claims to have been operating in the market for over 17 years. One of the platform’s main advantages, which it loudly promotes, is its registration and regulation in multiple jurisdictions, including South Africa and the United Kingdom. This sounds quite impressive but strongly contrasts with the leverage of up to 1:1000 advertised on the homepage. We investigated whether this is actually possible and whether registered users of the platform might fall victim to yet another scam.

CPT Markets Snapshot

Legitimacy Check

In the footer of the official CPT Markets website, it is stated that three companies operate under this brand:

• CPT Markets PTY LTD, registered in South Africa.
• CPT Global Limited, registered in the Comoros Union.
• CPT Markets UK Limited (“CPT UK”), operating in the United Kingdom.

Each entity has its own official website and different trading conditions. Users may choose which legal entity to work with, or be redirected automatically based on geolocation.

The website cptmarkets.com is operated by CPT Global Limited, so we will focus on the data related to this company. Its registration address in the Comoros Union is listed in the website’s footer.

Documents from the local financial regulator Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority confirm that the company was registered in February 2024 (registration number 15643, which matches the number provided by the broker) and was issued a brokerage and clearing licence No. L15643/CPTG.

At first glance, this may appear to be fully legitimate, but… the Banque Centrale des Comores has repeatedly stated that:

1. AOFA (Anjouan) and MISA (Mohéli) lack any legal authority to issue financial licences, even within the Comoros Union. The BCC is the only body authorised to regulate and licence financial activities, including brokerage.
2. The autonomy of individual islands is not equivalent to sovereignty, so financial regulators like AOFA and MISA cannot issue internationally recognised documents without authorisation from central authorities.
3. Licences issued by AOFA do not meet the standards expected of documents recognised by central banks and reputable regulators.

Thus, even within the Comoros Union, the licence under which CPT Markets operates has no actual legal force. Although it is not officially declared invalid on the international level, it is not recognised by any regulatory authority. It is up to each trader to decide whether such a licence is trustworthy.

However, it should be noted that the level of protection for clients of brokers using AOFA licences is significantly lower than that provided by reputable regulators. This includes risk limitations, dispute resolution, and payouts from compensation funds.

Cptmarkets.com Content Quality

At first glance, the design of the CPT Markets official website may seem original. However, after a few minutes, the bright green interface elements and images on a black background start to irritate, as does the abundance of mostly unnecessary animations. Another questionable “feature” we’d like to “thank” the developers for is the inability to open links in new tabs or browser windows. While we understand their desire to keep visitors focused on the current page, we believe this should be achieved by offering engaging content, not artificial restrictions.

According to the main menu sections, the content of the CPT Markets website should also be of decent quality. At the very least, it suggests that traders will receive all the necessary information. However, expectations were not met.

• The pages under the “Products” section contain a minimum of useful information for traders. Market descriptions and their specifics are practically nonexistent. The educational videos placed on each page do not improve the situation. It’s simply impossible to cover any market in detail in 1.5–2 minutes. The only element that deserves attention is the tables with spreads for some trading instruments. However, they duplicate the data published on the general “Trading Conditions” page. So what’s the point of their publication? To fill empty space? It would be better if the broker focused on publishing missing details, such as swap rates.
• The “Deposits and Withdrawals” page contains no information about payment methods or terms for non-trading transactions (commissions, limits, processing times). The only concrete claim the company makes is that there are zero client-side fees on withdrawals. This applies to payment system fees, which the firm claims to cover itself.
• Of course, we’re thrilled that CPT Markets has been honoured with numerous awards and prizes. However, displaying a ticker with them on every page of the site is, in our view, overkill.
• Among the legal documents regulating the broker–trader relationship, there is no place for KYC and AML policies. This is strange, considering that the platform’s regulator claims these policies, aligned with international standards are one of its key strengths.

We could continue listing the problems with CPT Markets’ content at length. However, what has already been said is more than enough to understand how the broker treats its own web resource. Such an approach is uncharacteristic of solid, regulated companies.

The new client registration process is also of interest. Initially, users fill out a simple form with their name and contact details. After submission and email verification, they gain access to the client portal. However, key functions, such as trading, account funding, and withdrawal requests remain unavailable until the verification process (Proof of Identity document submission) is initiated.

Traders gain access to those functions after applying for verification (even before the documents are reviewed) and completing a short questionnaire. Notably, the broker does not ask for a residential address or any documents to confirm it. A rather strange interpretation of KYC, wouldn’t you agree?

Key Trading Features

CPT Markets publishes its trading conditions across several pages. We began by reviewing the account types. For retail clients, there are only three:

• Classic. Minimum deposit of $20, spreads from 1.4 pips.
• Prime. A classic account with broader capabilities. Minimum balance is $1,000, and spreads are reduced compared to the Classic account, starting from 0.7 pips.
• ECN. The broker claims to use a genuine ECN execution model here, with spreads reduced to a minimum (0.1 pips), but trading commissions are introduced. However, the company provides no information on which ECN network it connects to or how its own ECN infrastructure is organised, including who acts as liquidity providers. It also fails to disclose the amount of commissions.

For other characteristics, the accounts are almost identical:

• Maximum leverage is 1:1000.
• Minimum trade size is 0.01 standard lot.
• Margin Call at 50%, Stop Out at 30%.

It’s clear that this offshore broker wasn’t created to provide quality service to as many clients from different countries as possible. The sole purpose of CPT Markets here is to maximise company profits at the expense of trader losses. This is clearly indicated by:

• Leverage level. At 1:1000, risks become unacceptable even for professional traders. For retail clients, especially beginners, the danger is much greater. Without risk management knowledge, they can (and almost certainly will, in 99% of cases) lose their deposits within the first few trades, especially considering the minimal deposit required for the Classic account.
• Spreads. The company tries to convince us its spreads are competitive. We agree, 0.7 pips on the Prime account looks comparable to top-tier Forex/CFD brokers. But with them, such conditions are usually available to all traders, not presented as a reward for a larger deposit (note: the key difference between Classic and Prime accounts is exactly the spread size).

For Classic account holders, the spreads are twice as wide as those offered by most licensed brokers, starting from 1.4 pips. But even that is only on paper. To verify this, one need only check the tables on the “Products” section pages.

What do we see? Even for the most liquid pair, EURUSD typically used for comparing trading conditions, the current spread is 2 pips, while the average is 2.4 pips. So where are the promised 1.4 pips? Such a “minor” discrepancy results in a 1.7x increase in costs for intraday traders.

Incidentally, the costs for ECN account holders and for those engaged in classic medium- and long-term trading strategies (e.g., swing traders) are impossible to determine before opening an account with the broker. The reason is simple: CPT Markets has not disclosed its trading commissions or swap rates.

On the “Trading Conditions” page, the company only explains what a rollover fee is and when it is applied. It did not dare publish the actual swap values.

The “Trading Conditions” page also includes interesting details about leverage. It turns out that the 1:1000 leverage is available only to traders who haven’t deposited more than $1,000. Once the account balance exceeds that amount, ‌leverage is gradually reduced to more acceptable levels. Traders with $100,000 can trade with a reasonable risk level, while those with over $1,000,000 enjoy minimal leverage levels.

The broker’s message is quite clear: if you don’t want to risk your deposit, deposit a large sum. That’s not exactly the kind of approach one would expect from a fully regulated platform.

CPT Markets Track Record Insight

We are, of course, quite interested in the background of a broker that claims to operate in nearly every part of the world, is officially registered in multiple jurisdictions, and holds several regulatory licences. Unfortunately, the company did not care to share detailed information on its official website.

Still, some facts are mentioned:

• The homepage states that the platform has been operating for over 17 years.
• A corporate client page features some promotional statistics: the firm serves clients from 34 countries who have opened 2.56 million accounts, deposited a total of 15 billion USD, and execute an average of 1.9 million trades per day.
• The images of awards displayed in the ticker at the bottom of every page are all dated 2023. No earlier or later awards are shown.

Based on this, we might assume the broker was established in 2008, although CPT Markets Global appeared significantly later. Let’s explore what can be found about this in open sources.

According to Whois data, the domain cptmarkets.com was registered on August 28, 2017. Yet the broker claims to have been in operation for over 17 years. We discovered that the only company from the list with a 2008 registration date is CPT Markets UK Limited, which was originally incorporated under the name Azurite Markets Limited. In 2011, it was renamed Citypoint Trading Limited, from which the current name (CPT) is derived.

However, the UK broker’s website makes no mention of any of the other companies listed in the footer of cptmarkets.com. The connection between them and the UK firm is questionable (as we’ve already noted). One thing we can say for certain: the broker operated by CPT Global Limited has no relation to the 2008 founding date.

Since the domain registration in 2017, only the subdomain za.cptmarkets.com the website of the South African broker was active. www.cptmarkets.com became available later, and the current version of the site was launched in 2024, presumably after the company was registered and licensed on the island of Anjouan.

Customer Service Overview

The CPT Markets contact page can be considered relatively comprehensive. In addition to the feedback form, users will find:

• Registration details of the companies operating under the unified brand.
• Several email addresses: for customer support, complaints, career opportunities, and media inquiries.
• Multiple links to chat with company representatives via various messengers: WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, etc.

The website also features a built-in live chat. However, there are no phone numbers or links to social media accounts. The absence of phone support is understandable, after all, the broker offers several channels for quick communication. But the lack of social media presence is genuinely puzzling. Is the platform not interested in reaching social media audiences? Or is it truly impossible to allocate resources from the claimed $15.6 billion in deposits and 1.9 million daily trades to create and maintain active groups or channels? It seems the broker is hiding something from users.

Our Verdict

After completing our review of CPT Markets, we still cannot deliver a definitive verdict. The broker behind cptmarkets.com does operate under an official licence, but this licence is recognised neither by top-tier regulators nor by industry experts. The trading conditions advertised by the company turned out to be far less competitive than claimed, and the platform’s background remains murky. While we cannot definitively label the company a scam, we would personally refrain from doing business with it.

About the author

Alex Banks

Financial Analyst

Alex Banks is a seasoned financial analyst with over 15 years of experience in the trading industry. He has worked with several top-tier investment firms, specializing in long-term investment strategies and market analysis. Alex is now known for his in-depth research and ability to identify stable and reliable brokers that offer consistent performance over extended periods.