Complete IC Markets Review 2022

It is not that simple for a beginner trader to find a trustworthy broker that will ensure the safest conditions and excellent service on the market. Is IC Markets one of them? In this IC Markets review our aim was to analyze the broker’s trading tools and conditions to help traders to decide whether it is a valid option or not.  

Summary Of IC Markets

Regulation Authority	Australia, Cyrus
Trading fees	Low spreads
Trading Platforms	MT4, MT5, cTrader
Minimum Deposit	$200
Withdrawal/Deposit fees	$0
Trading instruments	Forex, CFD
Trading Products	Spreads, indices, commodities, cryptocurrency

An Australian forex broker, IC Markets was established in 2007. The company is regulated with the tier-1 regulator Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). What is more, IC Markets regulation also includes the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and the Seychelles Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA). Thus, it is a low-risk broker offering high-quality services. Try them for yourself and trade with the most successful outcome.  

Opening The Account In IC Markets

If you’d like to become a trader with IC Markets you will need to open an account on their website. The process of account registration is easy and fast. The user-friendly interface of the website allows you to go through the procedure in a couple of minutes. Just click on the light green button “Get Started” on their Homepage and complete the registration in a couple of steps. The account will be approved within one business day.

The procedure of Account Opening:

1.   Fill in your personal details – country of residence, full name, e-mail, and phone number

2.   Fill in additional information – choose the type of account (Individual, Corporate, or Joint), fill in your date of birth and address; tick a box if you were referred to IC Markets by another broker

3.   Set up your trading account configurations – select trading platform, choose between Standard or Raw Spread account types, and select account base currency (AUD, USD, EUR, and 7 more).

4.   Declaration step – lastly, choose your trading experience (Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced), select a security question, confirm that you have read and agreed with the declaration.

After you go through these steps, you will need to complete a short questionnaire that will provide the broker with additional information on your employment, income, trading knowledge, and experience. This is done to assure that you will get the best services that will satisfy your personal needs.

Finally, you will have to upload the scans of documents that prove your identity (Passport/National ID/Driver’s License) and residence (Utility bill /Phone or Internet bill/Bank statement). After the account is verified, you will be able to make a deposit and start trading.

IC Markets Minimum Deposit Requirements

After creating your account, one more thing that is required from you to start trading is making a deposit. The minimum IC Markets deposit is $200. To deposit money click on the “Deposit” button in the options menu and choose between the available payment methods.

Deposit methods	Funding Time	Fee
Visa	Instant	Free
Skrill	Instant	Free
Wire Transfer	2-5 business days	Free
Broker To Broker Transfer	2-14 business days	Free

As you can see there is no deposit fee IC Markets charges its clients. However, keep in mind that an additional fee may be imposed on you by your bank if you use international banking for transferring money to and from your account. Also, make sure that the name in your IC Markets Account is the same as in your bank account because the broker doesn’t accept any third-party payments.

Standard And Raw Spread Account

There are two IC Markets account types you can choose from depending on your trading strategy. The following features are common to both of the account types:

• Minimum deposit – $200
• Leverage – 1:500
• Currency pairs – 64
• Stop Out Level – 50%
• Islamic Account  – available

The accounts differ in the trading platforms, commission fees, spreads, and other features.

Standard Account works best for discretionary traders. With the account, you can trade only via the MetaTrader forex trading platform. There are no commissions taken per lot.

Raw Spread Account is designed for day traders, EAs, and scalers. The size of the commission depends on the platform you choose: $3.5 per lot for MetaTrader and $3.0 per lot for the cTrader platform. 

Thus, IC Market allows traders to choose the most suitable conditions for trading via different accounts. More experienced traders who’d like to trade high volumes will prefer the Raw Spread Account. Beginners will find Standard Account easier to operate as there are no brokerage CFD fees to calculate. 

IC Markets Spreads And Fee Summary

We consider it very important to include the most relevant and newest information on different kinds of fees in the IC Markets review. The fees can be divided into two general types: trading and non-trading. Trading fees cover forex, stock, CFD fees, conversion fees. The non-trading fee is the type of charge that is not directly related to the process of trading. These are additional fees that can be taken by a broker for banking transactions to and from your account, account maintenance, etc.    

Trading Fees

Fees differ according to the type of account you choose on IC Market. For instance, if you take forex fees of the most popular currency pairs like AUD/USD, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, the minimum forex spread fees for Raw Spread Account will be 0 while it will be 0.6 pips for Standard Account. IC Markets are able to offer tight spreads and liquidity across MT4, MT5, and cTrader since they take into account the pricing of over 25 providers. We included the average prices of the three currency pairs for this IC Markets broker review:

Currency pair	Raw Spread Account	Standard Account
AUD/USD	0.17	0.77
EUR/USD	0.02	0.82
GBP/USD	0.23	0.23

The commissions for spreads starting with 0 pips in the case of the Raw Spread account will be $3.5 (for MT4 platform), and $3.0 (for cTrader platform). The maximum leverage IC Markets offers is 1:500.

It is important to keep in mind that for positions that are held for more than one business day a commission may be taken that is called an Overnight fee (Swap fee/Rollover fee). The fee is not fixed and depends on the currency pair. If you keep the currency pair open the rate will be determined by the interest rate differential. To calculate the swap charge, you will need to take into account the following rates: Number of Lots x Swap Rate (Long or Short) x Point Size x Number of Days (where triple charge for Wednesday is taken). 

Non-trading Fees

IC Markets does not charge any deposit or withdrawal fees when it comes to funding your account or cashing out some money from it. In this IC Markets CFD review, we would like to turn your attention to the fact that for international bank transfers the commission is taken in the size of 20 AUD. As to all other payment methods like bank cards and e-wallets, there is no fee.

There is also no inactivity fee, so you can be sure that if you happen not to refer to IC Markets services for a long time no money would be charged from you.

IC Markets Spread Comparison

If you compare any IC Markets spread to other brokers’ spreads (see the table below), you will see that they are on the lower end. Such attractive conditions are possible because of several reasons. First of all, the broker shows high trading volume each month (usually more than $600 billion).  Also, No Dealing Desk (NDD) allows IC Markets brokers to have direct access to interbank rates meaning that a broker and a trader don’t have a conflict of interest with their trades. Moreover, the broker uses Electronic Communication Network (ECN), an electronic system that automatically matches buyers and sellers who trade securities in the market. It helps to safely perform the transactions without involving a third party in the process. One more benefit worth mentioning of IC Markets that assures low spreads is the direct access to liquidity that includes more than fifty banks and dark pool providers.

	EUR/USD	AUD/USD	EUR/GBP	GBP/USD	USD/SGD
Pepperstone	0.09	0.17	0.27	0.28	1.43
IC Markets	0.02	0.17	0.27	0.23	0.85
Fpmarkets	0.10	0.20	0.50	0.30	1.40
Go Markets	0.20	0.20	0.40	0.50	1.50
AXI	0.44	0.42	0.40	0.85	1.30
IG	0.17	0.30	0.54	0.59	N/A
LOG	0.20	0.40	0.50	0.60	10.00
Admiral Markets	0.10	0.50	0.60	0.60	1.30
FXTM	n/a	0.50	0.60	0.30	3.10
Dukascopy	0.27	1.02	0.74	0.74	1.73

Broker’s Trading Platforms

With IC Markets there is a choice of trading platforms clients can apply for opening positions. With choosing one of IC Markets account types you choose the trading strategy and platform. With Standard Account, you will be able to use MT4 and MT5 platforms. With a Raw Spread Account you will be trading via cTrader. The platforms differ in their features and the possibilities they open to users. What’s more, with IC Markets you will get the marvelous chance to trade via your tablet or mobile without any limits to the functionality of the platforms. Let’s have a look at all of the mentioned options in more detail.

Metatrader 4

MT4 is the CFD trading platform that was founded in 2005. The platform is especially appreciated by traders of beginner and intermediate levels. It was designed to trade Forex but there is a possibility to trade other financial instruments via Contracts of Difference or Contracts of Spread Bets. Therefore, keep in mind that you will not be able to trade Stocks, Indices, ETFs, Futures, Commodities on any MT4 unless they are CFDs or Spread bets.  The type of platform works best for applying scalping – the trading strategy that is based upon gaining profit from small price changes and fast reselling. Thus, you should trade in large volumes to earn an income of a lot of the small profits.  

IC Markets offer the best pricing and trading conditions if you trade with the broker via the MT4 platform. Traders can trade without dealing desk and price manipulations since ESP (Executable Streaming Prices) are sent from IC Markets’ pricing provider to the broker.  One more advantage of trading through MT4 on IC Markets is its user-friendly interface that appears to be quite easy to operate all the platform’s features including advanced charting options, risk management tools, and order management instruments. Expert Advisors that you can download from MT4 Marketplace will serve you well for algorithmic trading. Or, you can create and customize your own EA with the help of the MQL4 programming language.  

Metatrader 5

MT5 platform was founded in 2010 and is an updated version of MT4. While MT4 is designed to deal with Forex and CFDs, with MT5 you can trade Forex, ETFs, Algorithmic Trading, Futures, Stocks, Indices. The platform offers even more trading features and convenient financial research tools. What’s more it allows using trading robots (automated trading systems or algorithmic trading) with the help of which a trader can set specific rules for trade entries and exits, money management regulations. All the processes will be controlled and monitored automatically without a trader having to supervise the processes.  Raw pricing provides IC Markets the possibility to offer tight spreads on the MT5 trading platform. The broker offers a mix of up to 25 pricing providers, low spreads, and fast execution speed making it even more attractive for high volume traders and scalpers.    

cTrader Platform

CTrader is a Forex trading platform with an excellent range of trading features designed to cater to more advanced and experienced investors. IC Markets cTrader platform doesn’t have any restrictions and allows some of the best order conditions that include placing an order between the spread with no minimum distance and a freeze level of 0. Thus, any order can be opened at a price that will be very close to the market price. The tight spreads available at the cTrader platform on IC Markets are provided by asynchronous spot prices, high liquidity, and low latency.

Mobile Trading Options

In the IC Markets review we would like to point out that all the platforms that the broker offers to work with are available in their web-based, Android, and iOS-based versions. You will get access to all the trading platform features via the mobile versions of each platform. The mobile app is adaptable to your personal needs, for instance, there is a broad choice of languages you can select. Just remember that you will need to change the default language in your phone settings to match it to the desired language of the app.

In the IC Markets broker review, we would like to emphasize that there is only one-step authentication and there is no biometric authentication when you log in which is a disadvantage, as the stronger safety measures are the better your sensitive information is protected. Searching via a mobile app is easy: you can search market instruments by typing their names in the search bar or by selecting a product in the category list.  Place orders via IC Markets mobile apps and use the same order time limits as in the web-based version. You can also set up a wide range of alerts and notifications via your mobile app. 

IC Markets Withdrawals Review

In the IC Markets withdrawal review we would like to feature a selection of withdrawal methods:

• Bank cards (Visa and Mastercard)
• e-Wallets (Skrill)
• Bank Transfer

The broker doesn’t charge any fees for cashing out money via these methods. The only thing you need to take into account is that if the bank transfer is performed via an international bank, the fee is 20AUD. The transfers are free through Australian banks.

Forex Pairs & CFDs

There are different IC Markets CFD types available to clients without dealing desk execution. Here is a couple of them:

• Forex – 61 currency pairs, tight spreads starting from 0 pips, up to 1:500 leverage and deep liquidity – these are the conditions that IC Market is ready to provide you with if you trade in the Forex market. You can trade Forex 24/5 taking advantage of the tightest spreads and one of the most liquid financial markets.
• Indices – trade 24/5 with 23 indices from across the world with spreads from 0.4 points. Enjoy the trading via 3 platforms without any commission.
• Commodities – get access to more than 19 commodities like metals, agriculture, energy, etc. IC Markets provide tight prices and flexible lot sizes.
• Stocks – use MT5 platform to trade 1600+ stocks as CFDs from ASX, NYSE, and NASDAQ stock exchanges.
• Bonds – choose from over 11 bonds issued by governments in Japan, Europe, the U.K, and the U.S. Enjoy the opportunity to speculate on interest rates with no commissions and leverage up to 1:200.
• Cryptocurrency – go long or short across CFDs of more than 10 different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. Trade 7 days a week with the leverage 1:5.
• Futures – you will be able to trade 4 global futures without any commissions including ICE Dollar Index and CBOE VIX Index. Available exclusively via the MT5 platform.

IC Markets Leverage Spread Comparison

The leverage IC Markets can offer to its clients depends on the regulatory authorities. For instance, the highest IC Markets leverage from FSA regulators in Seychelles is 500:1. The maximum leverage coming from the Australian division regulated by ASIC is significantly lower – 30:1. Let’s have a look at the difference in leverage imposed by the two regulators:

Market	FSA	ASIC
Major Forex pairs	500:1	30:1
Minor Forex pairs	500:1	20:1
Commodities	500:1	10:1
Major Indices	200:1	20:1
Futures	200:1	10:1
Shares	20:1	5:1
Bonds	200:1	5:1
Cryptocurrency	5:1	2:1

Risk Management Tools

Taking into account that IC Markets offers the highest leverage offshore, it is very important to provide traders with reliable risk management tools. High risk is great if we talk about experienced trading experts who are accustomed to using advanced trading tools like EA. However, beginners should be cautious and apply the risk management instruments the broker offers. We would like to feature two of such instruments in this IC Markets review.

Guaranteed Stop-loss Orders

Guaranteed Stop-loss Order is the risk management tool that allows you to set the maximum amount of money you can afford to risk on an individual trade. Thus if a market position makes an unfavorable move, an investor’s loss will not go further, it will be limited automatically according to the predefined amount of money in the stoop-loss settings. One of the main benefits of this instrument is that you don’t have to monitor your positions daily.

Negative Balance Protection

Negative Balance Protection implies that the balance on your account can’t go negative. If the losses exceed the money on your account the system automatically closes your position. Even if you lose your account money you will not owe anything to IC Markets. Yet, in some cases extreme market events like the floating of the Swiss Franc, the software can’t indicate as fast as it is needed to prevent exceeding losses.  

Research Tools And Support

With IC Markets you will get access to a fine range of research tools:

• Trading Ideas –the research tool that is based on indicators, price levels, and other trading tools. You can find it in “Trading Central” or “Featured Ideas”.
• Charts – use charting tools with 31 indicators like trend lines and Fibonacci retracement.
• Market Buzz – this is the News Feed where you can find news analytics and sentiment indicators.

IC Markets Education Content

A very important feature that a beginner trader has to consider when choosing is the range of educational tools a broker provides. That is why we tested the tools and included them in our IC Markets review. You can improve and learn with IC Markets using the following resources:

• Demo Account – learn how to trade in real conditions without any risk to your funds
• Platform tutorial videos – step-by-step video guides to trading
• Webinars – be updated about the newest market trends with the webinars
• Educational articles – read articles on various trading topics

Unfortunately, IC Markets does not provide its clients with Fundamental Data instruments.

Customer Support Levels

For the IC Markets review, we have tested different channels of customer support. You can reach the IC Markets customer support team via live chat, e-mail, and phone. The support is available 24/7. Usually, you will get a response via email within a day. Live chat is a bit slow taking around 10 min between the answers. However, the information you get is always up-to-date and helpful. You can be sure that when you refer to CS agents your issues will be resolved and questions answered.

IC Markets Pros And Cons

Pros	Cons
Highly regulated	No non-EU trader protection
Offers good risk management	Slow chat support
Tight spreads	Limited product selection
Choice of different trading platforms
Beginner-friendly
Good educational materials

Final Verdict

IC Markets is a forex and CFD broker that offers great conditions on the market. Our IC Markets review showed that it is a completely legit and trustworthy platform. It is a beginner-friendly broker that provides the new traders with the opportunity to start with a demo account and opens access to a marvelous range of educational materials. There is a web-based version of the online platform, Android and iOS applications with easy-to-navigate interfaces that make the IC Markets accessible wherever you go. Very convenient search possibilities and plenty of trading tools available via the three trading platforms, MT4, MT5, and Ctrader, offer IC Markets clients to acquire the best experience and high chances to succeed. The choice of products, unfortunately, is limited to forex and CFDs. But the range of CFDs you can choose between is broad. The pricing is on the lower and the leverage is quite high allowing experienced traders who like to play it big to the risk and earn a larger income. On the whole, when testing IC Markets features we were left very satisfied and can recommend the broker.

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