IC Markets Review 2024

Trust

In our trust category, we place the most importance on how a broker is regulated. This section will cover how the different entities of IC Markets are regulated and how this impacts you as a trader. We rate regulators on a scale of 1 to 3, with 1 reflecting the highest level of trust.

• Raw Trading Ltd is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA) with Securities Dealer’s license number SD018. We rate FSA as a Tier 3 regulator.
• International Capital Markets Pty Ltd with registration number 123 289 109, is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) with License No. 335692. We rate ASIC as a Tier 1 regulator.
• IC Markets (EU) Ltd is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with License No. 362/18. We rate CySEC as a Tier 1 regulator.

Why is it important to know where your broker subsidiary (entity) is regulated?

Different regulators provide different levels of protection. For example, IC Markets clients in the European Union benefit from the oversight of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). Under CySEC regulation, clients are mandated to have negative balance protection, ensuring that the traders cannot lose an amount exceeding their initial deposit.

In addition, when trading with a broker authorized by the CySEC, client funds are protected by the CySEC investor compensation fund (ICF) up to €20,000 if a firm becomes insolvent. A trader working with a broker entity regulated offshore would not necessarily have these benefits. In the case of IC Markets, client accounts at the offshore entity are privately insured for up to $1 million. You can view the certificate here.

The table below lists the protections and benefits by entity, regulator, and region.

Regulatory requirements are subject to change. I gathered the data listed above in May 2023.

Is it Safe to Trade With IC Markets?

• I assessed that the EU and Australian entities are relatively safe to trade with due to the protections guaranteed by CySEC and ASIC. Negative balance protection, segregated accounts, and a compensation fund for EU traders provide a degree of security.
• Clients with the offshore entity have fewer protections guaranteed by the Seychelles FSA. However, accounts are privately insured by Lloyds of London for up to $1 million. Clients of FSA-regulated entity are not protected from having a negative balance.

Stability and Transparency

In our tests for the Trust category, we also evaluate factors relating to stability and transparency. Here, we focus on how the broker’s longevity in business, company size, and the level of transparency they provide with readily available information.

IC Markets has a long operating history of 16 years, placing it among the older forex and CFD brokers. According to its LinkedIn page, the company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and has 51-200 employees.

In my research, IC Markets showed good transparency in its regulatory status, with a clear explanation on the Regulation page. The regulator is also listed in the footer of the website.

Spreads and commissions of different financial instruments are detailed on the Spreads page. Traders can see the minimum and average spreads across all assets and the commissions for each account type. The Terms and Conditions legal document is provided in the footer of the website.

The About IC Markets page thoroughly covers the company history, mission statement, and regulatory compliance. Overall, I rate IC Markets as having a high level of transparency, better than the average for the industry.

To conclude, I regard IC Markets as a stable and trustworthy broker due to the following factors:

• Regulated by two Tier 1 agencies.
• Holds client money in client-segregated trust accounts with Westpac and National Australia Bank (NAB).
• Lengthy operating history of 16 years.
• Good level of transparency.
• Accounts with the Raw Trading Ltd entity are insured for up to $1M by Lloyds of London.

Fees

Trading Fees

I tested the spreads at IC Markets across different asset classes using the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms at 8:00 a.m. GMT and 4:00 p.m. GMT on 27 May 2023. I measured the spreads at two different times of day to allow for a greater perspective. 8:00 a.m. GMT is the London open when there is high liquidity in the forex market and tighter spreads in currency pairs. 4:00 p.m. GMT is during the New York trading session.

Standard Account

MetaTrader 4 Raw Spread Account

Commissions

MetaTrader 4 Raw Spread Commission Rates

cTrader Raw Spread Commission Rates

The commission charged on the cTrader platform is $3 per side ($6 round turn) per 100,000 USD traded. The USD commission amount is converted to the base currency of an account at the current spot rate.

Note: In the Raw Spread accounts commissions are only charged in forex, metals, and shares.

Standard and MetaTrader 4 ECN Account Comparison

Using the data above from our tests, trading a full-sized lot of EUR/USD would cost you $3.50 per side with the ECN account and $7 with the Standard STP account.

Swap Fees

Swap fees (the cost of holding a position overnight) were average at IC Markets.

In the table below, you can see the Swap Long (the cost/credit of holding a buy position overnight) and the Swap Short (the cost/credit of maintaining a sell position overnight) for one full-sized contract. A full-sized contract is 100,000 units of the base currency (the first currency quoted in the pair). I recorded the data on 29 May 2023.

Non-Trading Fees

IC Markets does not charge any account maintenance fees or inactivity fees.

Are Fees at IC Markets Competitive?

In both the Standard and ECN accounts, spreads are highly competitive. They are especially competitive in some forex pairs such as EUR/USD, and indices—for example, the Dax 40 with an average spread of 0.5 pips. Commissions in the ECN account are also low.

As shown by the comparison table, the costs for trading some instruments, such as currency pairs, can be much lower when using the Raw Spread account. In multiple tests, I experienced a cost per side of $3.50 for EUR/USD, far better than the industry average.

Platforms and Tools

IC Markets Platforms Walkthrough

MetaTrader 4 Desktop

IC Markets offers MetaTrader 4 for desktops, which includes advanced functions such as copy trading and automated trading.

Traders can access the platform in 39 different languages, from Arabic to Vietnamese. Here are some of its essential features:

• Alerts. This feature updates traders when an instrument reaches a specific price level.
• Watchlists. Traders can create a list of their favorite instruments and follow live quotes in a market watch panel.
• One-Click Trading. This feature allows traders to execute orders with a single click and no secondary confirmation. It enables traders to operate faster and is especially useful for short-term traders.
• Trading from the Chart. MT4 also allows users the convenience of trading directly from the chart.

MetaTrader also delivers when it comes to the range of available order types. The platform offers the following order types:

• Market Order. Traders use market orders to buy or sell an instrument at the best current price.
• Limit Order. Traders use limit orders to buy or sell an instrument at a specified price or better.
• Stop-Loss Order. Traders use stop-loss orders to buy or sell an instrument when its price reaches a specified level.
• Trailing Stop Order. Traders use trailing stop-loss orders as a stop-loss order at a defined percentage or dollar amount away from an instrument’s current market price. This order type allows traders to secure profits when they are in a winning trade while not having to exit the position.

Charting features are robust. MetaTrader 4 offers:

• 30 Technical Indicators. These include classic trend indicators, volume indicators, and oscillators.
• 23 Analytical Objects. These include lines, channels, Gann, and Fibonacci tools.
• 9 Time Frames. Traders can choose from nine time frames, from one minute to one month.
• 3 Chart Types. Traders can use Bar Charts, Japanese Candlestick Charts, and Line Charts.

MetaTrader is also popular due to its copy trading and automated trading features.

• Trading Signals. Signals in MetaTrader 4 allow users to copy other traders’ activity in real-time.
• Automated Trading. MetaTrader 4 allows users to develop, test, and apply Expert Advisors (EAs). EAs are programs that monitor and trade markets using algorithms.

The MetaTrader 4 desktop platform is one of the most feature-rich and popular trading platforms. It does not have a slick interface and requires some time and effort to learn, but that is typical of advanced platforms.

MetaTrader 4 Web

The MetaTrader Web Platform (Web Trader) is a slightly stripped-down version of the desktop platform. It allows you to trade without any additional software, only an internet connection is required. The Web Platform allows users to trade directly from any browser and operating system.

Popular features include

• One-click trading
• Trading from the chart
• Watchlists with real-time quotes
• Trade History
• Advanced charting with 30 indicators for technical analysis

Copy trading and automated trading are also only available on the MT4 desktop platform.

MetaTrader 4 Mobile App

IC Markets offers the MetaTrader 4 mobile app for mobile trading, which is available for Android and iOS. The app offers popular features such as alerts, 1-click trading, and trading from the chart.

The MetaTrader 4 mobile app also provides many order types, including pending and stop orders. However, trailing stop-loss orders are only available from the desktop. From my experience, to change the language of the MT4 app, you must change the language for your entire phone. As with the desktop and web platforms, the interface is not highly intuitive, but the MT4 app offers an above-average range of features.

cTrader

cTrader is a platform with an intuitive interface that can cater to beginners and advanced/algorithmic traders. It is designed to replicate an institutional trading environment, with features such as Level 2 DoM (Depth of Market). The depth of market feature shows incoming liquidity from liquidity providers.

One-click trading and trading from the chart are available via cTrader. Another popular feature is alerts. The platform can alert you when the market reaches a set price. Market sentiment data is available and displayed below the QuickTrade buttons. Market sentiment indicates the percentage of client accounts that are long (buyers) or short (sellers). The information is collected from all available cTrader servers across multiple brokers.

Various order types are available, including market, limit, stop loss, stop limit, and trailing stop. Time-in-force conditions such as Good ‘Til Canceled (GTC) are available for pending orders.

Charting via the desktop platform is robust, with 26 available time frames, four chart types, 76 indicators, and more than ten drawing tools. A news feed and integrated economic calendar are built into the platform.

cTrader can be used for automated trading and strategy backtesting. cBots are automated trading robots that can automate your trading strategies in cTrader. To use a cBot, you can simply drag and drop it on the symbol you want to trade and set your preferred parameters (initial volume, stop loss, and take profit). Any cBot built-in cAlgo will automatically be available in cTrader, and custom robots can also be downloaded from the cTrader website. cAlgo is a programming language that enables you to build cBots and custom technical indicators using C#.

To conclude, cTrader has many of the advanced features of MetaTrader within what I judged to be a better-designed and more user-friendly interface.

Tradable Instruments

CFDs (Contracts for Differences) are financial derivative products that allow traders to speculate in various markets without owning the underlying assets. I found the range of tradable instruments at IC Markets to be better than average. Here are the major categories of tradable assets available at IC Markets:

• 61 Currency Pairs. A currency pair combines two different currencies, with the value of one currency quoted against the other. For example, EUR/USD, which reflects the value of the euro measured in dollars.
• 44 Commodities. Commodities are raw products, such as gold and oil.
• 2100 Global Stock CFDs. IC Markets offers trading in stock CFDs from exchanges ranging from the NASDAQ to the Hong Kong stock exchange. A stock is a security that represents partial ownership of a corporation.
• 25 Indices. Available instruments range from Japanese to UK stock indices. An index is a basket of trading instruments that are used to gauge a market sector, stocks within an exchange, or the economy of a country.
• 21 Cryptocurrency CFDs. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are digital currencies that are secured by cryptography.

*Keep in mind that when trading CFDs, you are speculating on the price of an asset without actually taking ownership of the underlying asset.

In the tables below, you can see a selection highlighting the variety of CFD instruments available at IC Markets:

Forex Major	Forex Minor
GBP/USD | USD/CHF | USD/JPY | EUR/USD	CAD/JPY | AUD/CHF | EUR/GBP | NZD/CAD

Forex Exotic	Indices
CHF/SGD | EUR/TRY | GBP/DKK | USD/THB	India 50 | Japan 225 | Canada 60 | Spain 35

Metals	Energies
Silver | Gold | Platinum | Palladium	Brent Oil | Natural Gas | Crude Oil

Soft Commodities	Crypto
Corn | Cotton | Orange Juice | Sugar	Dogecoin | Cardano | Moonbeam | Ethereum

Bonds	Futures
Euro Bobl | UK Long Gilt | US T-Note | Japan JGB	US Dollar Index | Volatility Index

Stocks	ETFs
Boeing | Rolls-Royce | L’Oreal | Electronic Arts	Invesco QQQ Trust | iShares India 50 | iShares 20+ Years Treasury Bond

Customer Support

IC Markets provides support 24/7 via email and live chat. I grilled support with dozens of questions over two weeks, covering themes such as fees, regulations, platforms, and account types. Responses were fast: same day for email and within a minute or two via live chat. On any channel, I received thorough and satisfactory responses.

Though, the general support phone number for the global entity (+248 467 19 76) did not work, and I repeatedly got a recorded message saying, ‘The party is not answering, goodbye’. Despite this, I still rate the support at IC Markets as better than average for the industry.

Deposits & Withdrawals

In the tables below I break down the fees and processing times for each deposit and withdrawal method.

Deposits

Withdrawals

Once a withdrawal is processed, it may take several business days to receive funds, depending on your withdrawal method.

• In the case of bank wires, once IC Markets have processed the withdrawal request, it can take up to 3-5 business days for funds to arrive in your account and up to 14 days in the case of international transfers.
• Credit/Debit Card withdrawals can take 3-5 business days to reach your credit card after being processed by IC Markets.
• Paypal, Neteller, and Skrill withdrawals must be made from the same account from where the funds were sent initially. These transactions are processed free of charge and are instant once processed by IC Markets.

Account Types and Terms

Account Application

To open an individual account at the Raw Trading Ltd entity, prospective clients must provide the following information.

• Basic background info: country of residence, name, email, date of birth, and address.
• Account type: individual, joint, corporate.
• Preferred Trading platform: MT4, MT5, cTrader.
• Account type; Standard, Raw Spread.
• Base currency: AUD, USD, EUR, GBP, CHF, NZD, JPY, SGD, CAD, HKD.
• Employment and income: employment status, investment amount, nature of transactions, annual income, net worth.
• Trading knowledge and experience.
• Government ID and proof of residence.

Account Types

The table below breaks down the main features of each account type.

Demo Accounts

IC Markets offers demo accounts for MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and cTrader. Demo accounts are especially important for beginners as they allow them to practice their strategies and get comfortable with the trading platform without risking real money.

The demo account features live quotes and simulates live market conditions in assets such as forex and CFDs on commodities, indices, and stocks. Once users are up to speed on a demo account, they can easily switch to a live version.

Islamic Accounts

IC Markets offers a swap-free Islamic account that adheres to the principles of Sharia law.

Leverage

One of the reasons that traders are attracted to the forex and CFD markets is the high degree of available leverage. Leverage is the use of borrowed funds to increase the size of your trading positions beyond what would be possible using only the cash in your account.

The maximum leverage at the global entity of IC Markets is 1:500. This means that with an account of $1,000, you can control up to $500,000 worth of positions in the market. Leverage is often described as a ‘double-edged sword’ as it can hurt you as much as it helps you. Traders must remember that it can amplify both their profits and their losses.

Order Execution

IC Markets considers itself a forex provider offering the ECN pricing model, as pricing is sourced from external unrelated liquidity providers. These prices are passed on to clients with no dealing desk intervention. IC Markets does not offset every position with its liquidity providers.

Supported Countries

IC Markets takes clients from the majority of countries globally. However, clients are not accepted from the following restricted and/or sanctioned countries and states:

Abkhazia, Afghanistan, American Samoa, Angola, Bolivia, British Columbia (Canada), Burma, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Chatham Island (New Zealand), Cuba, Cuba (Guantanamo Bay), Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo – Brazzaville, Congo – Kinshasa, Cook Islands, Diego Garcia, Gambia, Guam, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Martinique, Mayotte, Nevis, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue Northern Mariana Islands, Ontario (Canada), Puerto Rico, Reunion, Saint Barthelemy Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tanzania, Tokelau, U.S. Virgin Islands, United States of America, Wake Island, Wallis and Futuna, Yemen, Zanzibar, and Zimbabwe.

Research

IC Markets got a perfect score in this category thanks to its regularly updated technical and fundamental research and practical trading ideas via Trading Central and Autochartist.

The Information Hub for Serious Traders on the website posts regular market reports, which help to orient traders for the day. The Fundamental Forecast covers key news events and what reaction can be expected from various instruments. Meanwhile, the Technical Outlook and Review help traders stay on top of major support and resistance levels across different markets. I assess the reports as insightful and easy to digest.

IC Markets offers award-winning content from Trading Central, which combines automated investment analytics and analyst research. Key features of Trading Central include:

• Analyst views: this covers trading ideas, technical updates, support/resistance levels, and ideas across forex, stocks, commodities, and indices.
• Featured ideas: this lists opportunities and provides direction for your trades.
• Technical insights: after choosing your preferred technical indicators, candle patterns, or oscillators, Trading Central scans the markets to find opportunities that match your criteria.

IC Markets also provides free trading signals from third-party provider Autochartist. Autochartist automatically identifies chart patterns and key price levels, using this information to predict the most likely direction of the trend.

Education

IC Markets checks all the boxes in the education category. The Information Hub for Serious Traders has an excellent range of educational articles covering topics like trading psychology, general market analysis, and forex. Coverage of advanced material, such as Algorithmic Trading, is also available. The layout of the Information Hub could be improved as you have to dig a little to find the different categories of educational articles.

I liked the platform tutorial videos that help novice traders to use MetaTrader 4 which is not the most intuitive platform. Regular webinars from industry experts cover topics like trend trading and how to set up a trading journal. A recent addition is YouTube live streams such as the Sunday Pre-Market Analysis with Desmond, which guide traders in planning and preparing for the upcoming week.

The Bottom Line

IC Markets has earned a place among the world’s top forex and CFD brokers for good reason. I consider its trading costs to be among the very lowest available in the industry. With cutting-edge trading platforms, low latency connectivity, and ample liquidity, I can confidently say that IC Markets’ trade execution is nothing short of first-class. While the regulatory oversight may be light at the offshore entity, I found great reassurance in the fact that IC Markets provides $1M account insurance coverage from Lloyds of London.

What sets IC Markets apart is the extensive range of trading instruments they offer, providing traders with a diverse array of markets to work with. From my thorough examination, the broker’s available platforms and tools are robust enough to cater to market professionals, while newcomers can also get up to speed quickly, thanks to reliable customer support and extensive educational resources.

To conclude, I firmly believe that IC Markets is a well-rounded broker that offers an exciting mix of low costs and high technology. Serious traders, like myself, can undoubtedly benefit from their exceptional services and seize valuable opportunities in the market.

FAQ