IC Markets

IC Markets is headquartered in Australia and is one of Australia’s biggest forex brokers competing with Pepperstone. IC Markets has become one of the forex brokers known around the world thanks to spreads, competitive pricing and high-quality customer service. So I decided to write an IC Markets review that I think would be useful for investors.

IC Markets, like Pepperstone, is one of Australia’s biggest forex brokers. Ever since I opened this review blog, I have often been asked to do ICMarkets reviews. The company owns a large number of investors from different countries around the world.

Due to similar features, many investors are comparing IC markets vs Pepperstone. Both offer quality service, but the IC Markets website has about 4 times more visits. Probably the number of investors is about 4 times higher than Pepperstone. In this ICMarkets review, you can find the differences between the two brokers.

IC Markets was founded in 2007 in Sydney-Australia. The broker is regulated by 3 different financial regulators:

1. Raw Trading Ltd registered in Seychelles with registration number: 8419879-2, is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA) with License number: SD018.
2. 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.
3. IC Markets (EU) Ltd is a limited company registered in Cyprus and is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec) with License No. 362/18.

Australia’s ASIC regulation is one of the most reliable regulators in the world. 

ASIC requires licensed brokers to comply with various rules and to meet specific requirements. Clients’ money is to be held in segregated trust accounts, separated from the companies’ operating funds. As for the minimum capital requirement, forex brokers must keep at least $1 million to prove their good financial standing and to operate legally.

IC Markets also has an insurance agreement for the protection of investors as Professional Indemnity Insurance with Lloyds of London. The company works with Australian National Bank and Westpac Banking Corporation from Australia’s top-tier banks. The client money is held in the client-segregated trust accounts in these banks. ICMarkets broker cannot use these funds for any operational expenses or purposes.

IC Markets is a member of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). FOS is an approved Australian external dispute resolution scheme that fairly and independently resolves disputes between consumers and member financial services providers.

I can say it is a reliable broker for those who are worried whether is IC Markets scam or not.

IC Markets presents 3 types of accounts to their clients which each give different choice for trading conditions to choose from.

These accounts are:

Raw spread account: this account takes place on the Metatrader platform, with 0.0 pips for the spread rate, in addition to having a commission of $3.5 per lot per side. The minimum deposit for this type of account is $200 where the maximum offered leverage is 1:500. The Maximum number of position orders per account to be opened is 200. With 61 currency pairs to be traded in and a 50% stop-out level, the raw spread account offers a one-click trading option in addition to the possibility of trading via Islamic accounts that are swap-free account types. This account tpe is suitable for EAs and scalpers.

Raw spread on cTrader account: This account takes place on the cTrader platform where the spreads are also 0.0 pips however, the commission added on trading with this account is $3 per lot which makes $6 per lot round-turn. The minimum deposit and the maximum leverage offered here are the same as the amounts offered on the raw account on MetaTrader which are $200 as a minimum deposit amount plus 1:500 as the maximum leverage offered. The maximum number of position orders per account within the cTrader raw account is 2000 whereas the Islamic accounts of swap-free trade are available with this account type. The cTrader raw spread account Is suitable for Day traders and scalpers.

The Standard account: where here the trading platform that can be used is MetaTrader with zero commissions added to the transactions made. A spread level of 0.6 pips is found to be applied with $200 as a minimum deposit for opening the standard account. The maximum leverage presented is 1:500 whereas the maximum number of position orders per account is 200. The option to use this account in a swap-free method to follow the Islamic type is available. The standard account is found to be more suitable for discretionary Traders.

All account types give the traders the chance to use them in a demo account type mode where you can use the same conditions yet no real money is invested instead, it’s virtual funds. One of the main reasons traders choose to use demo accounts is for trials, whether that was trials of the trading techniques or knowledge trials, whatever it was it takes place safely within the demo account and so when trading in the real markets there would be risk elimination as much as possible.

ICMarkets support a variety of trading platforms such as MetaTrader4 (MT4), MetaTrader5 (MT5) and cTrader. This is an advantage to offer three popular platforms compared to other brokers which offer just MT4.

MT4 is still one of the best forex trading platforms for traders. You can use the platform on your Mac, iPhone/iPad, Android smartphones and the WebTrader version. MT4 provides all the tools and resources a trader needs: many technical indicators, an advanced charting package, and a wide range of Expert Advisors (EAs). EAs are especially useful for experienced users. When EAs allow the platform of trades, the software does all the work without even having to touch it. There is also a Multi Account Manager (MAM/PAMM) option on MT4.

Besides, IC Markets offers the cTrader platform, which is custom-made for use in ECN environments. The IC Markets cTrader suite includes a PC, web and mobile versions, as well as automated trading software cAlgo.

IC Markets offers different methods for funding and withdrawals from live accounts to make it easier for traders to fund and start trading or to withdraw the gained profits in the easiest and smoothest way. And in order to carry that task out, the broker made sure to provide different channels of payment methods so it’d appeal to different types of traders. Among these channels there are:

While the options for withdrawals are the same. It must be mentioned some notes and conditions regarding the proper ways to withdraw our funds from your live account

1. Despite having the deposits and withdrawals without any extra fees applied byt the broker, banking institutions might apply additional fees fr the transactions, so its advised to check with them before processing your operation.
2. In the case of a bank wire transfer, if it was internationally made, it would take around 14 business days to take place.
3. Credit and debit card withdrawals are processed without any charging fees yet they might take to reach your card.
4. Paypal / Neteller / Skrill withdrawals must be made from the same account from where the funds were sent initially.
5. Any withdrawal requests submitted through the secure client portal by 01:00 GMT (12:00 AEST) will be processed on the same day.

You can also fund with 10 different currencies. These currencies are as follows:

IC Markets offers a large number of trading instruments. You can trade in FX pairs, indices, cryptocurrencies and commodities. Let’s take a closer look at these.

Forex Pairs: You can trade in 61 different FX pairs. Major pairs are all included. The majority of minor parties and some of the exotic parties are also included. Maximum leverage is 1:500 for trading at FX pairs and the minimum deposit is $200. Tight spreads from 0.0 pips, with Deep liquidity and the option to trade 24 hours a day, five days a week are available.

CFDs on Commodities: energies, agriculture and metals are examples of the commodities you can trade with at IC Markets. You can trade commodities as CFD. Energies include Crude Oil, Brent, and Natural Gas which is a great way for trade to benefit from price speculation. Metals include palladium, platinum, gold and silver. Soft commodities like sugar, wheat, corn, soybean, and coffee where they can be traded with 1:100 as maximum leverage.

Indices: The world’s most popular Indices are available on all IC Markets trading platforms. IC Markets offers 25 different indices as CFD for trading with 1:200 maximum leverage and 0.4 spread range. Deep liquidity and no commissions applied. Indices have the advantage of allowing traders to take a wider view of a basket of stocks rather than taking a view of one individual stock alone are all reasons IC traders choose to trade indices. This includes preferred indexes such as the Australian S&P 200 Index, UK FTSE 100 Index, US E-mini S&P 500 and US DJIA Index and more.

Bonds: here you can trade bonds from all over the world like the United States, the UK, Europe and Japan. With 9 bonds available for trade and a leverage of 1:200. Deep liquidity and the absence of commission are making it more and more appealing for traders to add bonds into their trading portfolios. Bonds offer traders the opportunity to speculate on interest rates and risk on/off sentiment, diversify a portfolio or reduce risk and build defensive positions during periods of economic weakness or uncertainty.

Digital currencies/ Cryptocurrencies: volatile, unregulated, decentralised and controlled almost exclusively by retail speculators, cryptocurrencies are taking the world by storm currently in the financial markets due to all the mentioned reasons and more. You can have a leverage of 1:200 on trading cryptos with IC if you were using MT4 or MT5 trading platforms. In case using cTrader as your base platform, you can have 1:5 offered leverage. You can go long or short position which also the traders to benefit from both the rise and fall of prices.

Stocks: ASX, NYSE and NASDAQ are examples of the present stocks available for trade with the broker which can be used when having MT5 as your trading platform. +2100 stocks are presented with fast executions and the ability to earn dividends.

Futures: ICE Dollar Index and CBOE VIX Index are included in the futures offered by IC Markets. When using MT4 and MT5 as your trading platform, you can use futures indices easily. 4 global Futures available for trade in addition to having no commission with 1:200 leverage. Brent Crude Oil Futures and WTI Crude Oil Futures are the remaining types of introduced Futures.

IC Markets supports a wide range of languages. The company has support staff that speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian and Hungarian. Besides these, it provides mail support for 57 different languages. When you simply write down your problem, it is answered in the same language.

IC Markets vs Pepperstone

I want to compare the two Australian forex brokers in this review. Both have advantages over each other. Let’s see which one is better.

The first comparison is about Regulation. Pepperstone is regulated by ASIC and FCA. IC Markets is regulated by ASIC. So, Pepperstone is leading in this step. When we look at the account types IC Markets offers almost the same conditions as Pepperstone. In platforms and tools, Pepperstone is one step ahead. However, regarding the product portfolio, IC Markets is closing the gap.

In this Pepperstone vs IC Markets comparison, I could not decide which one is better but if you are looking for a more trustable broker Pepperstone is for you. It doesn’t mean IC Market is unreliable but Pepperstone has two reputable licenses. You can see all the details in the Pepperstone review about the broker.

Throughout this IC Market reviews, we concluded that the broker is a highly protected broker with some of the best licenses in the forex market and that it’s quite safe to trade with IC.

ICmarkets account types are 3 with various trading conditions to make sure all types of traders can find what they looking for.

In addition, via this IC Markets review, we came in terms of all the different trading tools offered by the broker with all the different conditions for each as you can trade the best investment instruments like forex, indices, futures, stocks, cryptocurrencies and more.

Different trading platforms are offered including the forex markets’ standard which is MT4 and MT5. IC Markets minimum deposit is $200 and the maximum offered leverage is 1:500.

IC Markets’ customer service is very good and multilingual. One of the forex brokers I can recommend. You can click the button below to open an account.

IC Markets

• 1Regulation and Investor Protection
• 2Spreads and Account Type
• 3Trading Platforms
• 4Payment Methods
• 5Trading Instruments
• 6Customer Service
• 7Conclusion

7.9 /10

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