Minimum Deposit: $200
Maximum Leverage: 1:500
Trading Commissions: 0%
Regulated: CySEC, FSA Seychelles, ASIC.
Investor protection plan: Yes
Market Asset: 2000+ assets available only for Forex and CFD trading.
Customer support: 24/5
Deposit Fees: 0
Insurance: Upto $1,000,000
IC Markets is the finest Forex CFD provider, and the world’s low-capital traders are inspired by this broker platform. This is because of its terms and conditions, where it provides all major trading options for all level of traders. It does not differentiate the traders in the means of their investments and the account type they choose.
The following are the specialities of IC markets:
- IC markets platform handles over 180,000 active clients worldwide.
- Over 500,000 trades per day with over two-thirds of all trades coming from the automated trading system.
- More than 1.04 trillion trading volume per month and $15 billion average per day proving how busy their market will be.
- It is a multi-asset trading platform best for high volume traders, scalpers and robots.
- True ECN Forex Spreads from 0.0 pips.
- Islamic accounts are provided for the traders’ needs.
- Free deposit and withdrawal.
- No inactivity fees
IC Markets was founded in 2007 in Australia registered under the name of International Capital Markets Pty Ltd serving as a Forex broker globally. It is safe and regulated by the Australian Securities and investments commission (ASIC).
Let us discuss further Regulations, Trading Platforms and more about IC Markets.
Image 1: The Home Page of IC Markets website.
Regulation and trustability
IC Markets is based in Australia and is regulated by the Cyprus securities and exchange commission (CySEC), the Seychelles financial supervisory authority (FSA Seychelles) and the Australian Securities and investments commission (ASIC) from 2009 under licence number 335692.
Clients can choose any one among these two platforms whichever is comfortable for them.
IC Markers also operates two other regulated brands which are namely,
- IC Markets (SC) – owned by True ECN Trading Ltd and regulated by FSA Seychelles.
- IC Markets (EU) – for European Traders regulated by CySEC.
The Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) protection scheme is also available to protect the clients’ investments. Investor protection differs based on the clients’ country. Here we will list you few of the Investor protection schemes,
- European Economic Area (EEA) has investor protection of €20,000 IC Markets [EU] Ltd, regulated by CySEC.
- The rest of the countries which have regulations from FSA Seychelles and ASIC does not have an investor protection plan.
- In addition to ASIC regulation, IC Markets is also a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service(FOS) which gives an additional layer of protection for the traders.
IC Markets have the best track record till now which in itself proves its standard and popularity. It provides Negative Balance Protection for all retail traders to protect against losing more than what they have in their account.
Investments, Products, and Instruments
IC Markets offers 2000+ tradable instruments focused CFDs. The markets available in the IC market for trading in CFDs are Forex, Commodities, Indices, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks and Futures. But direct trading on assets like stocks, commodities, ETFs are not available here. When compared to other trading instrument providers, CFD and crypto selection are wider in IC Markets.
In Detail, IC Markets offers 61 Currency pairs, 25 Stock index CFDs, 1659 Stock CFDs, 30 ETF CFDs, 22 commodity CFDs, 11 Bond CFDs and 13 Crypto CFDs (Note: Crypto CFDs are not available for UK entities).
Stock CFDs are available only on MetaTrader 5 and not in Meta Trader 4. Clients can change the leverage size of the product while trading which is a useful feature to lower the risk of trading.
Trading Platforms
IC Markets provide the best trading platforms such as MT4, MT5, and cTrader which are supportive. We will review them one by one.
All these three are available across worldwide trading platforms because of their best and speedy execution of trades that convince the traders’ needs. Virtual Private Server (VPS) is available for traders so they can place more standard lots.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4)
Available as both MT4 web (Online) and MT4 desktop (Downloadable) versions. The downloadable desktop version allows the trader to use its add-on features and plugin from various providers like AutoChartist and Trading Central.
Both web and desktop versions are Highly Customisable and available in many languages. Handy, but the traders should train themselves to access all the information which is available in MT4. Adding favourite assist in the watchlist, technical indicators, and much more are the best.
MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
The advanced and updated platform from MT4 is Metatrader 5 (MT5), which comes with a separate commission structure. MT5 is also available as MT5 web (online) and MT5 desktop (Downloadable) versions. MT5 enhances the trading by providing additional features and more accessible through various third-party trading supportive tools such as FX Blue LLP and more.
MT4 and MT5 can be downloaded especially for MAC OS also.
cTrader
IC Markets also provides the cTrader platform. cTrader is available as both cTrader Web (Online) cTrader Desktop (Downloadable) and cTrader cAlgo (automated trading). cAlgo offers API trading which uses the C# language. cTrader copy for social copy trading is also available in IC markets.
For auto-trading and copy trade, clients can choose from Zulu Trade, Myfxbook’s Auto Trade and Signal Trader’s mirroring technology. This cTrader is not available in IC Markets (EU).
Mobile Trading
A Well designed, User-friendly, Good search function and Price alerts are the key features of mobile trading application presented by IC Markets. Developed concerning about the importance of mobile in this modern technological world.
IC Markets mobile trading application is available for both iOS and Android. All three trading platforms MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader are standard in mobile trading. Copy-trading on mobile works in support of a trading platform called the ZuluTrade Mobile app.
Automated trading is not possible in the mobile trading application. Meta Trader and cTrader are the same in both the desktop and mobile versions. But their functionalities in the mobile trading application are different where you can only monitor or manage the existing positions and place trade manually.
Account Types
IC Markets provides three different account types which are,
- True ECN with Metatrader,
- True ECN with cTrader and
- Standard Account.
Clients can choose one from these three types of accounts depending on their needs and their demand for regional regulations. All the types of trading accounts are not much different from each other and have similar structure and functionality.
In Detail, True ECN with MetaTrader commission is $7 per lot for opening and closing the positions whereas True ECN with Ctrader commission is $6 for the same option. Spreads for both the ECNs are Low.
Individual trading, Joint trading and Corporate trading can be done in both the ECNs and standard account. The difference in the standard account from both ECNs is that it has no commission per lot with high spreads.
Islamic account is also available in IC Markets which is a wonderful opportunity for the clients who are particularly searching for this type of account. It has all the features available like the other accounts in the IC markets with cTrader, MetaTrader and Standard account. Islamic accounts are also called swap-free accounts.
Demo Accounts are available in IC Markets. Customers can use this demo account which has virtual money. They can place trades as a trial or practice them to test their analytical skills in trading and trade planning. It also helps the clients to experience how the different platforms of the IC market work and executes the trades.
Fees, Commission, and Bonus
Deposit and withdrawal are favourable for all level of traders. The service for deposit and withdrawal is great in IC Markets by availing them free of charge to the traders.
The Minimum Deposit is $200.
IC Markets provides 15 different options of deposit with 10 different base currencies such as EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, SGD, NZD, JPY, CHG, KHD and CAD. It helps the traders to have their investment in their desired available currency.
This feature helps the trader to avoid conversion fee if their trading base currency is the same as their bank account currency. Also, clients can avoid conversion fee by opening a multi-currency digital bank account by understanding the terms and policies of the banks and their country of origin.
Bank transfer, Credit/Debit card and electronic wallets are available in deposit with zero fees. Bank transfer can take 3 to 4 days to get deposited in a trading account whereas credit and debit card will fund your account in less than 5 minutes after you have authorised your payment.
Withdrawals in IC Markets can be done in the same way as deposits. Withdrawal to Credit/Debit card, Bank transfer to Australian bank account and electronic wallet is free. A fee of A$20 is charged if the bank transfer is an international transfer.
As we have discussed above, IC Markets offers low trading fees and they do not charge for non-trading accounts.
Fees, Spreads, Leverage details of IC markets are as follows,
- Low forex fees. Some examples are, EUR/USD → $3.5 per lot plus spread cost → 0.1 pips average spread cost GBP/USD → $3.5 per lot plus spread cost → 0.4 pips is the average spread cost.
- The maximum lot size is 1, but the trader can trade multiple lots.
- The best leverage is 500:1.
Insurance is the best part of IC Markets, and there is also additional protection on your funds. This helps you to continue trading with more confidence and concentration.
The insurance from IC Market will cover up to US$1 million per client. This insurance coverage includes the available balance and the open CFD positions of the client. The insurance coverage is available to all the IC Markets’ clients of Raw trading Ltd and will be triggered only in an unlikely event of Raw trading Ltd’s insolvency.
Image 4 : Information about the Client Funds Insurance from the IC Markets.
Customer support
IC Markets have Phone, Email and Live support via its website. Phone support and email support is good compared to other broker platforms. All three supports are available 24/5 and they avail multi-language support-based service on customers’ region and operation.
The advanced and updated FAQ is available to answer the frequent questions on all categories like trading, products and more. As an end note, customer service is satisfactory.
Education and Research
IC Markets is the best in educating about trading by offering great tools like Demo account, Trading platform tutorial, Quality educational articles, Webinars, Podcast, and Web TV.
Educational videos and channels can be found in the Education section of the website. For example, under its 101 series, materials are available on the topics such as trading psychology, technical analysis and more.
Image 5 : Video Tutorials in IC Markets website. Access this page via IC markets Homepage → More → Education section →Video Tutorials
Research tools provided in IC Markets are valid and useful. Tools are available under the section called trading tools in the client’s login, Meta Trader 4 and Meta Trader 5 trading platforms. IC markets provide trading tools like MAM/PAMM (Multi Account Manager Software), Virtual Private Server like Forex VPS, Beeks FX VPS, New York City Servers, Trading servers and MT4 Advanced Trading Tools.
Charting in IC Markets provides 31 technical indicators and technical tools like trendiness and Fibonacci retracement.
News and stories provided by third-party news sites such as ForexLive and tickerreport.com are listed in the news feed called Market Buzz. Market Buzz offers news analytics and sentiment indicators.
Image 6: Education Hub of IC Markets. Access this through IC Markets Homepage → More → Education section → Trading Knowledge.
