IC Markets Review

IC Markets Introduction

IC Markets launched in 2007, just as the online forex and CFD trading industry emerged. IC Markets was one of many brokers that launched from Sydney. Despite strong rivals in the region, the company boasts the title of being one of the largest brokers globally. 

Although originally from Australia, IC Markets is an international forex and CFD broker that has grown to operate across four strategic hubs. The company is licensed and authorized in Australia by ASIC, in Cyprus by CySEC, in Seychelles by the Seychelles FSA and in The Bahamas by SCB.

IC Markets is used by many thousands of traders and ranked one of the largest brokers in the world according to trading volume. Traders using various trading strategies favor IC Markets due to their low pricing, tight spreads, deep liquidity and fast execution. 

The company offers hundreds of trading instruments, numerous account funding methods, multiple trading platforms and 1:500 leverage when trading with the Seychelles regulated entity. 

This IC Markets review explores various factors, such as business practices, regulatory oversight, trading conditions, technology and platforms, customer service, reputation and other important qualities.

IC Markets Trading Accounts Review

One of the reasons IC Markets has grown to become one of the largest forex & CFD brokers globally is its ability to offer a cost-effective trading environment for day traders and scalpers that is consistent and reliable. This section of the IC Markets review explores the company’s trading conditions. 

IC Markets Trading Account Types

IC Markets offers four trading accounts; Standard, Raw Spread, cTrader Raw Spread and Islamic Account. The account type you choose depends on your trading strategy and style.

Standard Account

The IC Markets Standard Account is recommended for discretionary traders, meaning those who trade from time to time rather than daily. The Standard Account is commission-free, but the spreads are higher. Depending on your trading strategy, this could be a weakness or an advantage. It can be simpler to calculate your costs if you don’t pay commissions, but it’s harder to analyse changes in market conditions if the broker has applied a mark-up on the bid and ask prices, also known as the spread. The Standard Account is not available on cTrader. 

Raw Spread Account

The Raw Spread Account is recommended for active traders with scalping, day trading or automated trading strategies. As the name suggests, the Raw Spread Account does not have a markup on the bid and ask prices received from the market. Rather, IC Markets supposedly passes the raw prices to the trader. The broker is remunerated by charging a commission for every trade executed. The commission charged when using this account is $3.50 per lot per side. 

cTrader Raw Spread Account

cTrader Raw Spread Account is essentially identical to the above-mentioned trading account, except the commissions are charged differently. With the cTrader version of the Raw Spread Account, commissions are charged per million dollars of notional value traded, rather than per standard lot traded. The reason is that cTrader calculates commissions differently from the MetaTrader platforms.

Islamic Account

IC Markets offers an Islamic Account option on all account types and platforms. Islamic Accounts are swap-free accounts tailored for Islamic forex trading and designed for traders following Sharia laws. Muslims are prohibited from paying or collecting interest. As Swaps are derived from interest rate differentials, brokers offer Islamic accounts specifically for their Muslim customers. Instead of working with Swaps, IC Markets applies overnight financing charges when traders hold their positions overnight. Unlike Swap rates that can change from one day to the next, overnight financing charges are static.

Demo Account

It’s common for forex brokers to let traders open demo accounts before committing to opening a live account and passing identity verification. IC Markets lets you try any account on any trading platform to help you find the right option. You can keep your demo account indefinitely and continue practicing, even after you open a live account.

IC Markets Leverage

IC Markets’ margin requirements depend on the entity and product. Leverage is restricted due to dramatic product intervention measures introduced through new regulations by ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority in 2018 and later mimicked by new regulations introduced by ASIC in 2020.

The Australian and Cypriot licensed companies are prohibited from offering leverage higher than 1:30 on major forex pairs unless you qualify as a professional client. In comparison, for all clients, the Bahamas entity gives leverage up to 1:200 and Seychelles up to 1:500. 

This table shows a comparison of maximum leverage provided by each IC Markets entity for a snapshot of products.

IC Markets Leverage Chart

Trading Instruments

IC Markets offers over a thousand trading instruments from several asset classes as contracts for difference.

• Over sixty currency pairs consisting of majors, minors and exotic crosses
• 25 index CFDs from North America, Europe, Asia and other major economies
• Several commodities, including precious metals and energy products tradable as CFDs on spot markets
• More than 1600 large-cap stocks from the NYSE, NASDAQ and ASX are tradable as CFDs on the MetaTrader 5 platform
• Several Bond CFDs on US, UK, European and Japanese government-issued bonds
• 13 Cryptocurrency CFDs on the most popular cryptocurrencies quoted against the US dollar
• Several futures CFDs such as the ICE Dollar Index, the CBOE VIX Index and a range of commodities

Deposits & Withdrawals

IC Markets offers a wide range of deposit and withdrawal methods, offering convenient payment methods for traders in different parts of the world. When choosing a forex broker, knowing how you add and remove funds from your trading account is important. Some brokers, especially offshore ones, often use sketchy payment processors. Thankfully this isn’t the case with IC Markets. The company uses numerous well known international companies for processing payments.

IC Markets Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

With IC Markets, all deposit methods are free of charge, regardless of how much you deposit. For withdrawals, every method is free of charge, except for bank wire transfers, where a 20 AUD fee, or the equivalent amount, is charged. Keep in mind that just because IC Markets covers the cost from their side, there is always a chance your bank could impose fees on your side.

IC Markets Minimum Deposit

To activate a live trading account with IC Markets, the minimum first-time deposit is $200. Once you’ve made your first deposit, you can deposit any amount to increase your balance. There might be minimum requirements depending on the payment method. Some methods, such as e-wallets, generally have low minimum deposit requirements, meaning you can usually top up as little as $5 or a similar amount in your local currency.

Account Funding Methods

You can deposit with your bank card (Visa/Mastercard), PayPal, Skrill, Neteller and several other online payment methods. The available payment methods depend on which IC Markets entity you’re trading with and your location. As a general rule, international wire transfers and VISA and Mastercard are available to all traders.

IC Markets Regulation

IC Markets is licensed by four financial markets regulators. As the forex and CFD trading regulatory landscape has undergone a drastic transformation in recent years, brokers are regulated in multiple locations to ensure they can offer a variety of services internationally. 

IC Markets has been licensed by ASIC since 2009. In 2018, IC Markets IC Markets (EU) Ltd. in Cyprus acquired a Cypriot regulator CySEC. A year later, IC Markets established True ECN Trading Ltd. in Seychelles and gained a Securities Dealer License from the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles. Most recently, IC Markets gained a license in the Bahamas. 

IC Markets has the following licenses:

• The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) regulates International Capital Markets Pty with license number #335692.
• The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) regulates IC Markets (EU) LTD with license number #362/18.
• The Financial Services Authority Seychelles (FSA) regulates Raw Trading Ltd with license number #SD018.
• The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) regulates IC Markets Ltd with license number SIA-F214.

Overview of IC Markets Features

Trading Platforms

IC Markets offers the three most popular forex and CFD trading platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader. 

Besides these three trading platforms, IC Markets offers MAM/PAMM accounts under the Seychelles entity, VPS accommodation from leading providers, a suite of advanced trading tools for MT4 and access to popular Autochartist and Trading Central tools.

Trading Education

The extent of trading education offered by a broker is a good indicator of whether they’re invested in their customers becoming successful or not. Based on our research, we can see IC Markets provides various resources to help traders develop their capabilities. 

Forex Glossary

IC Markets Forex Glossary is certainly extensive, maybe even exhaustive. It has definitions for all the words you need to know and a lot you don’t need to know! In any case, while you are browsing through the forums, you will struggle to find a word that isn’t explained concisely in the IC Markets Forex Glossary. A very good effort from the team, we learnt a few words. 

IC Markets Blog

The IC Markets Blog is an oracle of information for any trader, whatever your experience or trading style. Fundamental analysis and technical analysis posts are added daily and go into a lot of depth. For newer traders, the blog offers a comprehensive archive of educational material. For new and experienced traders (it’s always good to brush up regardless of your skills), there is an archive of previous webinars hosted by IC Markets. Whether you are an active trader with IC Markets or not, it’s worth staying informed about their regular webinars.