What HYCM costs per trade
ADVERTISEDHYCM's DIFC product schedules show a commission column only against the VIP tier, so neither Standard tier can be stated as commission-free and both render as spread only. VIP is excluded: its USD 4 per lot on EUR/USD is printed without a per-side or round-turn basis. Figures are HYCM’s own published EUR/USD pricing, captured 2026-08-22 from its UAE-facing site, not spreads we have measured on a funded account. One pip on one standard lot of EUR/USD is US$10, which is the contract size and not an exchange rate, so nothing here converts through a currency.
Standard, variable spread costs US$60.00 a month less than Standard, fixed spread at this volume
At 1.0 lot and 20 trades a month on EUR/USD, Standard, variable spread costs US$12.00 per round turn (1.20 pip spread, with no commission figure published), against US$15.00 on Standard, fixed spread.
HYCM publishes no commission figure against Standard, variable spread or Standard, fixed spread, so the amount shown there is the spread alone. Read it as a floor rather than a total, and check the account terms for any charge the pricing page does not print.
Source: HYCM’s published UAE pricing, captured 2026-08-22. Swap, financing, inactivity and withdrawal charges sit outside this figure.
Trading CFDs and forex carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Read the broker’s own client agreement, and confirm the licensed entity you are contracting with, before opening an account.
Our verdict on HYCM
HYCM Limited operates under a real DFSA arranging licence. The entity introduces clients to a sister company that acts as principal, which means the UAE resident does not contract with the DFSA entity as counterparty. The exact contracting entity has not been verified from the signup flow.
The broker publishes a swap-free account with a fee schedule that applies after a 14-day grace period. The UAE-governing customer agreement contains no Shariah language, and the swap-free product is a commercial fee arrangement limited to FX pairs and metals.
All funding methods list USD, EUR, and GBP only. No AED account currency, AED deposit, UAE local bank, or conversion fee is stated. The deposit table data could not be confirmed as specific to the DFSA entity because of an unresolved entity-selection modal on the website.
Pros
- DFSA-regulated under reference F000048 with a clear arranging licence tier.
- Swap-free account available on FX pairs and metals with a 14-day no-charge period.
- MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms are offered.
- Minimum deposit for bank wire and card is USD 20.
Cons
- The exact entity a UAE resident contracts with is unverified.
- No AED account currency, AED deposit method, or UAE local bank is stated.
- Withdrawal details and processing times were not captured.
- No Shariah board or certification is named for the swap-free product.
HYCM score breakdown
3/5 · Good
The overall CFB Score comes from the full methodology, more than 100 data points per broker. The category ratings summarise each area and do not reconcile by simple average.
How is our rating calculated?
Is HYCM regulated in the UAE
HYCM is regulated in the UAE by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. The licensed entity, HYCM Limited, appears on the DFSA public register under reference F000048. In my view, the first thing you should understand is that its permission is limited to Arranging Deals in Investments.
What that means in practice, and what I would want any trader to understand before they go further, is that HYCM Limited introduces you to another group entity which acts as the principal. HYCM Limited does not execute your trades, does not hold your money, and is not the counterparty to any transaction.
We checked the DFSA register on 21 August 2026. I consider this arranging licence tier the single most important structural fact on the page, because it determines custody and counterparty arrangements for UAE residents.
What other review sites say
HYCM holds a Trustpilot rating of 1.8 out of 5 from 141 reviews, which Trustpilot labels poor, captured August 2026. The profile has been claimed by the broker since January 2017.
HYCM's iOS app rates 3.00 out of 5 from 8 ratings on the UAE App Store (August 2026), listed as HYCM Trader.
Android users rate HYCM's Android app 4.1 out of 5 from 184 reviews worldwide on Google Play (August 2026), listed as HYCM Trader.
What trading with HYCM costs
HYCM publishes three account types. The Standard Fixed Spread account lists EUR/USD from 1.5 pips on an advertised basis. The Standard Variable Spread account lists EUR/USD from 1.2 pips, also advertised. I would look first at the VIP Variable Spread account if you trade in volume, because its advertised spread of 0.1 pips plus commission is the only one that hints at a competitive all-in cost.
The VIP Variable Spread account lists EUR/USD from 0.1 pips advertised and carries a commission of USD 4 per lot per side on EUR/USD. The gold commission is USD 5 per lot per side. No typical spread is stated for any account, which means you cannot compare the all-in cost against a live capture figure. I would treat this as a reason to test the spread yourself before committing.
No minimum deposit amount is stated for any of the three accounts, and account currencies are not stated. Our team captured the cost data from the broker’s own published material on 21 August 2026. I would treat that missing deposit figure as something to clarify directly before funding, because a blank field tells you nothing about what the broker actually requires.
Leverage limits that apply to HYCM
HYCM is subject to DFSA rulebook leverage caps for retail clients. The DFSA sets maximum ratios per instrument class. The broker’s published maximum figures match the rulebook caps for every class where a cap exists. I appreciate that HYCM publishes exactly the DFSA caps, because it removes guesswork for you.
For major currency pairs the DFSA cap is 30:1 and HYCM publishes 30:1. Minor currency pairs are capped at 20:1, gold at 20:1, major indices at 20:1, minor indices at 10:1, other commodities at 10:1, and single shares at 5:1. Cryptocurrency carries a DFSA cap of 2:1, and HYCM does not state a published figure for that class. That omission leaves you to infer the 2:1 limit from the rulebook rather than seeing it confirmed on the broker’s site.
The broader UAE onshore regulator, the CMA, has a retail maximum of 500:1 for major forex pairs. The widely circulated 50:1 or 30:1 figures attributed to the SCA or UAE are either US NFA/CFTC structures or DFSA/FSRA free-zone rules misapplied to onshore brokers. The confusion is frustrating, but to be clear: HYCM, as a DIFC firm, falls under the DFSA caps stated here.
| Instrument class | Rulebook maximum | Broker-published maximum |
|---|---|---|
| Major currency pairs | 30:1 | 30:1 |
| Minor currency pairs | 20:1 | 20:1 |
| Gold | 20:1 | 20:1 |
| Major indices | 20:1 | 20:1 |
| Minor indices | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| Other commodities | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| Single shares | 5:1 | 5:1 |
| Cryptocurrency | 2:1 | not-stated |
DFSA rulebook maximums and HYCM broker-published figures for retail clients
Platforms and execution
HYCM offers MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. The apps are the generic MetaQuotes applications, not HYCM-branded versions. No cTrader, TradingView, or proprietary platform is available. I would check whether the generic MT4/MT5 apps are enough for your strategy, because you won’t find a broker-branded version with custom tools.
The execution model is described by HYCM Limited as an Arranger under a tripartite customer agreement. The sister company HYCM Capital Markets (UK) Limited acts as the Principal Service Provider. All clients are clients of that UK entity, and HYCM operates on an execution-only basis without providing investment advice. In my opinion, this tripartite arrangement is the most important thing to understand about how your orders are handled.
Expert Advisors are supported. The broker does not state a VPS offering, a copy trading product, or API access. No numeric instrument count is published; only asset class names are given. A demo account is not mentioned on any page found. This is a gap worth noting before you commit real money.
Funding and withdrawals
HYCM lists three deposit methods: bank wire, Visa card, and crypto. The minimum deposit is USD 20 for all three. Bank wire takes 1 to 7 working days, card deposits up to 1 hour, and crypto deposits up to 3 hours. HYCM states zero fees on its side for deposits.
Deposit currencies are USD, EUR, and GBP. No AED account currency is stated. No AED deposit method, UAE local bank, or AED conversion fee is stated. Mastercard is not shown; only Visa is named. I would treat the absence of an AED funding option as a practical hurdle for many UAE traders. If you are funding from a UAE dirham account, you will wear a conversion cost that the broker does not quote upfront.
Withdrawal methods, minimums, fees, and processing times were not captured. The deposit table data could not be confirmed as specific to the DFSA entity because the website serves an entity-selection modal that obscures which entity’s data is displayed.
Islamic and swap-free accounts
HYCM offers a swap-free account scoped to FX pairs and metals only. The UAE-governing customer agreement, dated March 2025, contains no Shariah language. The product is a commercial fee arrangement, not a Shariah-certified Islamic account. I would not describe this as an Islamic account, and that distinction matters.
A 14-day grace period applies before any replacement fee is charged. After that period, the fee is USD 5 per lot per night on FX and USD 10 on metals for USD accounts. EUR accounts pay EUR 4 and EUR 8. The DIFC entity’s own fee schedule does not include an AED column; a separate group-level schedule lists AED 18 and AED 36 but is footed by the UK and Costa Rica entities, not the DFSA entity.
All other instruments, including equities, energy, and soft commodities, carry the note ‘No Swap Free Available - Please refer to our Standard Finance Fees’. The marketing page does not contradict the terms document on this point.
Which entity you contract with
The DFSA-licensed entity is HYCM Limited. The broker’s own website states that a tripartite agreement makes all clients also clients of HYCM Capital Markets (UK) Limited, which acts as the principal. The exact legal entity you contract with has not been verified, and that is the single most important open question on this page.
On hycm.com, the signup flow presents an entity-selection modal that asks you to choose between the DFSA entity and a Costa Rica entity. The underlying page content could not be confirmed as DFSA-entity-specific. This structural ambiguity means the contracting party is not established from the publicly available material alone.
What this review has not established
The exact entity a UAE resident contracts with remains unverified. The funding table and KYC document list captured may not pertain to the DFSA entity because of the unresolved entity-selection modal.
Withdrawal details, including minimum amount, fees, and processing times, were not captured. The demo account status is not stated. No confirmation of UAE Pass integration or Emirates ID acceptance was found.
The broker’s published instrument count is not stated for any asset class. The inconsistency between the ‘direct execution’ language on product pages and the Arranger framing on the About Us page is flagged but not resolved.
FAQs
Is HYCM regulated in the UAE?
Does HYCM offer an Islamic account?
What is the minimum deposit for HYCM?
Does HYCM support AED accounts?
What leverage does HYCM offer in the UAE?
About the author
Justin Grossbard co-founded CompareForexBrokers in 2014 and serves as Co-Founder and CEO. He has traded forex since 1998. For this site he directs the research and comparison of UAE-licensed brokers. He holds Monash University degrees including a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours and a Master of Marketing. His commentary has appeared in Forbes, Kiplinger, Finance Magnates and Entrepreneur.