Macro Markets Review: Offshore Ambition With Tier-1 Links but Bronze-Level Safety

Macro Markets review helps you gauge this offshore broker’s safety and trader fit; learn why its Bronze rating matters before you open an account.

Macro Markets sits in a crowded corner of the online forex and CFD world, where high leverage, glossy marketing and complex group structures often blur the line between opportunity and risk. The brand is part of “Macro Group”, which links several entities in Australia, Seychelles and the Comoros, and is advertised as “the world’s safest top-tier broker” on the group’s Hong Kong site, MacroFX. That language comes from the company’s own marketing, not from regulators.

Behind the trading name “Macro Markets” is Macro Markets Solutions Ltd. Public filings and industry data show this entity has operated from the Autonomous Island of Anjouan in the Union of Comoros, under an offshore license from the Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority (AOFA), and more recently through a Seychelles company with a Securities Dealer licence from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) under number SD232. The wider group also includes Macro Global Markets Pty Ltd, an Australian firm with an ASIC licence (AFSL 363972), and a bullion arm with a Hong Kong Gold Exchange membership.

For a casual trader, all of this can be hard to untangle. Our task is to identify which entity actually holds your money, what real protections stand behind you, and how this broker compares with peers. Using our evidence-based rating framework, Macro Markets falls into the Bronze Standard band. That means it combines some strengths—such as a recognised Australian licence at group level and established trading platforms—with offshore regulation, high leverage and a patchy reputation that call for caution.

What follows breaks down regulation and safety, trader feedback, operational strengths and weaknesses, and then offers a clear verdict on who, if anyone, Macro Markets might suit.

Regulation & Safety

Who actually regulates Macro Markets?

Public disclosures and registry checks indicate that the Macro brand is spread across several entities:

Corporate and licensing structure (simplified)

• Macro Global Markets Pty Ltd
  • Regulator: Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
  • Licence: Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) 363972
  • Tier: Tier 1 (on-shore, major regulator)
• Macrofx (Seychelles) Limited
  • Regulator: Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA)
  • Licence: Securities Dealer licence SD139 (group entity)
  • Tier: Tier 3 (offshore)
• Macro Markets Solutions Ltd – Comoros
  • Regulator: Anjouan Offshore Finance Authority (AOFA)
  • Licence: L16030/MMSL, for OTC derivatives and leveraged spot FX
  • Tier: Tier 3 (offshore, lightly supervised)
• Macro Markets Solutions Ltd – Seychelles
  • Trading name: Macro Markets
  • Regulator: Seychelles FSA
  • Licence: Securities Dealer licence SD232, listed under the trade name “Macro Markets” with website macromarkets.sc
  • Tier: Tier 3

ASIC, in Australia, is the stand-out here. It clearly licences Macro Global Markets Pty Ltd and holds detailed information on the firm’s AFSL 363972. This is a Tier 1 regulator in our framework: it licenses FX and CFDs, enforces client fund segregation, sets leverage caps for retail traders, and actively supervises firms through audits and enforcement actions.

By contrast, Seychelles and Comoros are classic offshore venues. The Seychelles FSA does issue securities dealer licences and sets some conduct rules, but it does not cap leverage for retail forex and does not explicitly mandate negative balance protection. Industry data show that most FSA-licensed FX brokers can offer leverage up to 1:500 or higher, and Macro’s own materials and third-party data confirm leverage at that level for its Standard and ECN accounts.

The Comoros AOFA licence adds an extra offshore layer. AOFA supervises a range of international finance activities but offers limited public disclosure or detailed product rules. In our “Four Floor Tests” this sort of regulator often fails or only weakly passes the tests on retail product controls and active oversight.

Which entity are you really dealing with?

For most retail traders using the Macro Markets brand, the operational entity is unlikely to be ASIC-licensed Macro Global Markets Pty Ltd. Instead, account opening links and marketing funnels often point to offshore entities such as:

• Macro Markets Solutions Ltd (Seychelles, Licence SD232), or
• Macro Markets Solutions Ltd (Comoros, Licence L16030/MMSL).

This distinction matters. If you open an account through an offshore entity:

• You do not benefit from ASIC’s retail protections on leverage, product intervention and complaint handling.
• Negative balance protection, if offered, is a policy choice, not a regulatory requirement.
• Dispute resolution may run through local or private schemes with fewer powers than ASIC or the U.K.’s FCA.

Investor alerts and domain confusion

A further wrinkle is the number of impersonation and warning notices linked to Macro-branded websites. In August 2025, ASIC’s official investor-alert list flagged multiple sites as “Impersonation of Macro Global Markets Pty Ltd”, including macrofx.com, macroglobalmarkets.com, macrogm.com and macromarketssolutions.com.

BrokersView and other monitoring sites repeat this warning and state that ASIC believes these versions of “Macro Global Markets” may be offering financial services without proper authorisation. This does not mean the licensed Australian company itself has lost its authorisation, but it does show that the brand has attracted imitators—or that domains tied to the brand are operating in ways ASIC finds unacceptable.

For a retail trader, the net effect is the same: you must be extremely careful which website you use, and you should always cross-check the domain against the regulator’s own register.

Practical safety takeaways

Putting this together:

• Client money – FSA and AOFA licences generally require some form of client money segregation, but the documentation is less detailed and less transparent than at Tier 1 regulators.
• Leverage and margin – Leverage up to 1:500 greatly magnifies both gains and losses and is normally not allowed for ordinary retail clients under FCA, ESMA or ASIC rules.
• Negative balance protection – Not mandated by the Seychelles FSA; offered only if the broker chooses to do so.
• Supervision – ASIC oversight is strong where you are under the Australian entity. Oversight from Seychelles FSA and AOFA is thinner, with no public record of detailed execution statistics or client-outcome disclosure for Macro Markets.

On our regulatory scale, this mix—Tier 1 at group level but Tier 3 at the point where many retail clients actually trade—scores as moderate at best and sits well below Gold or Silver brokers that keep clients inside pure Tier 1 or Tier 2 frameworks.

Trader Reputation & Market Presence

Macro’s online footprint is wide. The group promotes itself as having “over 10 years of professional experience” in Hong Kong’s financial markets, processing more than US$100 billion in monthly volume, and serving over a million clients across forex, stocks, indices, metals, commodities and cryptocurrencies. These claims come from the company’s own marketing sites and are not independently audited.

What clients say

Client feedback is mixed and highly fragmented across domains:

• Trustpilot (macrofx.com – “Macro”)
  • 8 reviews, TrustScore 2.2 / 5, all of them one-star.
  • Recent comments include warnings like “Be warned. They’re a real issue” and references to outside “recovery” services.
  • The sample is small, but the pattern is clearly negative.
• Myfxbook (Macro Global Markets)
  • Shows Macro Global Markets with a 4.2 / 5 score, but based on only one user review describing the overall experience as “OK”.
  • This is too thin to rely on, yet it suggests at least one trader had a workable experience.
• WikiFX and WikiBit
  • WikiFX reports a score of 8.87 / 10 for MACRO MARKETS, labelled “Regulated”, and lists ASIC, Hong Kong Gold Exchange and Seychelles FSA as oversight bodies, along with Standard, ECN and Cent accounts on MT4/MT5.
  • WikiBit and related sites highlight positive points like broad product range and platform choice, but also note “multiple exposures” and “negative disclosures” in regulatory databases.
• Chainbits and older broker-review blogs
  • Some reviews describe Macro Markets as ASIC-regulated and “safe”, echoing the group’s use of the AFSL licence and praising features such as a US$100 minimum deposit, MT4 platform access and “fair withdrawal policy”.
  • Many of these articles pre-date ASIC’s 2025 investor alerts and rely heavily on the brand’s own claims.

Across these sources, two themes stand out:

1. Positives
   • Access to familiar platforms (MT4/MT5).
   • A wide, multi-asset offering that includes forex, metals, commodities, indices and cryptocurrencies.
   • Some users report acceptable trading conditions and customer support.
2. Negatives
   • Repeated complaints about withdrawals and account recovery on Trustpilot.
   • ASIC alerts about impersonation and unlicensed activity linked to Macro domains, which raises concerns about brand governance and marketing controls.
   • Review-site warnings that the Seychelles FSA licence is “offshore” and carries higher risk.

Compared with many established, single-jurisdiction brokers, Macro Markets therefore has a noisier and more polarised reputation profile. There is evidence that some traders use the platform without drama. There is also enough negative feedback—and enough regulatory smoke—to justify a cautious stance.

Strengths & Weaknesses

To help beginners weigh the trade-offs, it helps to set the main pros and cons side by side.

Strengths

• Group link to a Tier 1 licence
  • Macro Global Markets Pty Ltd holds an ASIC AFSL (363972), which shows the group has met strict standards in at least one major jurisdiction.
• Broad product line-up
  • Third-party data and company materials show access to:
    • Major and minor FX pairs
    • Precious metals
    • Commodities and energies
    • Stock indices
    • Cryptocurrencies (through CFDs in some entities)
• Multiple account types
  • STANDARD, ECN and CENT accounts are listed, with variable spreads and support for Expert Advisors (EAs), scalping and hedging.
  • Some reviews mention tiered accounts (Standard, Pro, Premium, ECN) with minimum deposits from US$100 upwards, though the broker’s own sites do not present a single, consolidated table.
• Recognised trading platforms
  • MT4 and MT5 are available across desktop, web and mobile.
  • WikiFX notes that Macro has full MetaTrader server licences (not simple white-label logins), and that the platforms support a wide range of languages.
• High leverage for advanced users
  • Maximum leverage of up to 1:500 appeals to experienced traders who run small accounts with tight risk controls.

Weaknesses

• Primary reliance on offshore regulation
  • Retail clients under Macro Markets Solutions Ltd (Seychelles or Comoros) are not protected by ASIC-style product rules or complaint schemes.
  • The Seychelles FSA does not cap leverage at 30:1 for retail FX as ESMA and the FCA do, and does not require negative balance protection by law.
• Regulatory alerts and brand confusion
  • ASIC has explicitly listed multiple Macro-branded sites as impersonations of its licensed entity, including macrofx.com and macrogm.com.
  • Some review sites now label Macro Markets as “offshore” and warn of higher risk, even while noting its licences.
• Weak public client-review scores
  • Trustpilot’s 2.2/5 score, with 100% one-star ratings in a small sample, signals serious dissatisfaction among those who felt strongly enough to write reviews.
• Limited transparency on fees and execution
  • Public materials and review sites list spreads (for example, from 1.2 pips on major pairs for Standard accounts and 0.0 pips for ECN), but detailed fee tables, typical spread data and audited execution statistics (such as slippage and fill times) are not published in one clear source.
• Marketing tone outpacing evidence
  • Group sites describe Macro Markets as a “world’s safest top-tier broker” and highlight very high volumes and client counts, yet the broker’s main regulatory footprint for retail clients remains offshore.

For beginners who value simplicity and regulatory clarity, these weaknesses carry significant weight.

Overall Verdict

On balance, Macro Markets presents a mixed risk profile.

On the positive side, the broader Macro Group is not a pure fly-by-night operation. An ASIC-licensed entity with AFSL 363972, a Hong Kong bullion membership and FSA licences show that the group has made genuine efforts to obtain regulated status in several places. The trading stack is based on widely used platforms, and the product range is broad enough for most retail strategies.

However, most ordinary traders who encounter “Macro Markets” online are steered toward offshore entities with high leverage, light product controls and weaker investor protection. ASF investor alerts around Macro-branded domains, poor user-review scores on key sites, and the lack of consolidated, audited data on execution and fees all add to our cautious view.

Under our four-pillar methodology—which weights regulation (35%), execution quality (30%), client feedback (25%) and staff insight (10%)—Macro Markets reaches a composite score of about 43 out of 100, placing it firmly in our Bronze Standard band alongside other brokers that combine offshore regulation with uneven reputation data.

Who might Macro Markets suit?

• Traders who already understand offshore risk and want:
  • MT4/MT5 access
  • A wide multi-asset menu
  • High leverage up to 1:500
• Users who are comfortable doing extra due-diligence on:
  • Which exact entity and website they use
  • How withdrawals are processed
  • Whether negative balance protection applies to their account

Who should probably look elsewhere?

• New or cautious investors who:
  • Prefer Tier 1 regulators (FCA, ASIC, CySEC/ESMA, MAS, FINMA) as their primary oversight.
  • Want clear, audited disclosure on spreads, slippage and execution quality.
  • Do not need 1:500 leverage and would rather trade under stricter risk controls.

Within the Bronze band, Macro Markets is not the weakest name we track, but it is far from the safest either. For many beginners, a tighter-regulated alternative will offer a simpler and more transparent starting point.

Expert Review Notes (Staff Insight)

Our research team’s qualitative observations do not override the hard data, but they add some nuance:

• Complex branding demands extra caution
  The Macro ecosystem is unusually fragmented. Domains, entities and marketing brands overlap, and even experienced traders may struggle to see which licence applies. We see this as a structural risk, especially when one of the group’s strengths (an ASIC licence) is frequently cited in marketing for offshore entities.
• High leverage is a double-edged sword
  Leverage up to 1:500 can make sense for very disciplined traders with small accounts. For casual investors, it usually increases the chance of rapid losses and margin calls. Combined with offshore oversight, that leverage profile reinforces our conservative stance.
• Client-service quality appears uneven across channels
  Some users on Myfxbook and review platforms report acceptable or even good support; others describe serious difficulties resolving withdrawal issues. This suggests that service quality may vary by region, language or entity.
• Information asymmetry favours the broker, not the client
  Key details—such as which legal entity holds your funds, which regulator oversees your account, and what happens in a dispute—are scattered across multiple sites and footnotes. In our experience, brokers that prioritise long-term trust usually make this information front-and-centre and easy to verify.

Taken together, these soft factors explain why our staff-insight component is cautious rather than enthusiastic, even though the group has some genuine strengths.