Is IC Markets a Reliable Brokerage Firm?
A number of reliable review sites label the brokerage firm, IC Markets as an “average risk” firm with it garnering a total of 80 out of the highest 99 as trust rating in the Forexbrokers.com.
Now this is not considered to be a bad rating, but admittedly, a lot is left to be desired with this kind of image. With this kind of trust level, it had become rather curious to the review team as to what aspects of the brokerage had lent to this not-so impressive figure. Early reviews actually laud multiple offers of the brokerage, these are:
- Its regulatory status
- Low Forex fees
- The trading platforms IC Markets provides
- The available commissions and the fees that it charges
- A number of additional trading tools
With these being disclosed, some reviews even see IC Markets as a highly-reputable firm alluding to it being regulated by the ASIC, (making it trustworthy), possessing competitive spreads, and liquidity possessing institutional grade.
But of course, this could only be confirmed through actual usage and the availing of all its offers and services. It is to this cause that this review has been conducted.
What to Expect from This Review
This review is a result of months spent with IC Markets.
The review team had conducted an exhaustive examination of the firm’s many offerings through its site and trading accounts. The review aims at rendering a pointed and informed assessment of the brokerage’s over-al capabilities.
The examination of IC Market’s services focused on the following:
- The regulatory bodies that sanctions all of IC Markets’ trading activities
- The trading instruments that the firm gives its clients access
- The trading accounts that IC Markets makes available to its clients
- The trading platforms that it offers
- The fees that it charges for its services
About IC Markets
Established back in 2007, IC Markets is a brokerage firm that specializes in Scalping and providing platforms for speedy trading execution. The firm is not traded publicly and does not operate a bank.
As of writing, IC Markets daily executes an estimate of 500,000 trades. Statistics have it that the 60% of these trades are driven by an algorithm which is equivalent to a total of $15 Billion with consideration to daily volume.
IC Markets’ relative “safe” label is owed to its authorization by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC), a leading and trusted regulatory authority.
Offers and Services
Accessible Trading Instruments
IC Markets trades a total of 61 Foreign Exchange Currency Pairs and 230 CFDs. The firm also offers Spot Trading, Social or Copy Trading and trades Cryptocurrencies as they are and as CFDs.
Available Trading Accounts and Fees Charged
IC Markets offers three distinct account types:
- The Standard Account
This type of account is commission-free unlike the succeeding two.
- Raw Spread Account
This account has commission-based pricing. Here, either the MT4 or the MT5 may be used. It charges $3.5 per side for standard lot ($7.00 per RT)
- The cTrader Account
This account only charges $3.0 per side ($6.00 per standard RT). However, it is the same with the Raw Spread account in that it has about a tenth of a pip lower with consideration to commissions.
Apart from these account offerings, IC Markets also makes the following available:
- Average Spread on the EUR/USD at 0.1 pips
- Average Spread of 1.1 pips on the EUR/USD for the Standard Account
- Execution is based on agency; orders are subject to positive or negative slippage
- Discounts to traders who monthly trade over 100 lots per month
What’s noteworthy about signing up with the brokerage firm is that it only requires $200 to open an account, something that the review team had found to be a generous offer.
Offered Trading Platforms
The positive remarks that IC Markets received in light of its p[latforms and additional trading tools are justified in that it had chosen to enlist the services of noteworthy platforms such as:
- MetaTrader 4 and 5
The MT4 and MT5 offer the Advanced Trading Tools package alongside the AutoChartist and Trading Central. Apart from these the platforms have the following capabilities:
- Highly-flexible charts
- An intuitive user interface
- Increased levels of security
- All trader types
- Real-time data feed
- cTrader
This trading platform provides its clients with the following:
- cAlgo for automated trading
- cTrader Copy for Social Trading or Copy Trading
Within the cTrader Copy application, the Myfxbook and ZuluTrade platforms are also offered as options for copy trading.
However, the cTrader suite is not offered through IC Markets EU.
Trading With IC Markets
There are a number of things that attracted the review team to the broker, seeing them as viable to build impressive investment portfolios and altogether foster good trading conditions. These are as follows:
- The provision of the MT4, MT5, and the cTrader as trading platforms
- Agency on execute spreads and low commissions
- Its venue for high-frequency traders
All in all, trading with IC Markets might prove to be a profitable endeavour especially for algorithmic traders.
