ic markets
Regulation rating90%
90%
Instruments rating100%
100%
Platforms rating100%
100%
Account types rating100%
100%
Funding rating100%
100%
Support rating100%
100%

PROS:

✅ Broker long lifetime
✅ Good trading conditions
✅ Responsive customer support
✅ cTrader platform available

CONS:

❌ Minimum deposit 200$

ic markets

IC Markets Review

IC Markets is a well-known and reputable broker that is located in Sydney, Australia. The company was founded in 2007 and since the beginning is operated by the International Capital Markets PTY entity.

The broker could be considered as a top-5 in Australia among with competitors like Pepperstone and OANDA. It offers the highest available leverage in Australia (up to 1:500), very low, competitive spreads and fees, and other features.

IC Markets offers its clients forex currency pairs, as well as indices, metals, cryptocurrencies and commodities. Even bonds and futures could be found among the offered instrument for trading.

Regulation

IC Markets is not being listed on any stock exchange. Being an Australian broker, the company is granted with a license by the Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC). Additionally, it operates accordingly with a license by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), and also has an offshore license of the Seychelles Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).

Feature Condition
Foundation year 2007
Publicly Traded on Exchange
Tier-1 Licenses CySEC
Tier-2 Licenses ASIC
Tier-3 Licenses FSA

Regulation rating90%

90%

Instruments

IC Markets allows customers to trade totally almost 300 instruments. Among Forex there are 55 currency pairs, including major, minor and exotic ones with tight spreads that start from 0.0 pips on Razor accounts.

Indices are represented by 17 instruments and don’t have any commissions for the opening and closing of positions. IC Markets offers a wide range of commodities including energy, agriculture, and metals. Moreover, there are also available Spot (perpetual) and futures CFDs (traded as 3-months contracts).

As an industry average, IC Markets allows to get access to large-cap stocks in a form of CFDs. Mostly, these are the securities that are included in S&P500 index and are traded on American exchanges like ASX, NYSE, and NASDAQ.

Being an instrument of large hedge funds, banks and long-term investors, bonds are also available. IC Markets gives an opportunity to buy CFDs  for bonds from Europe, US, Japan, UK, and Germany.

Popular nowadays cryptocurrencies are in the list of instruments of IC Markets. Most popular ones like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash are allowed for trading.

Feature Condition
Major forex pairs
Minor forex pairs
Exotic forex pairs
Cryptocurrencies
CFD  
Metals
Energies
Agricultural
Shares  
UK shares
US shares
German shares
French shares

Instruments rating100%

100%

Trading platforms

IC Markets claims itself as a friendly broker for both manual and algorithmic traders and thus offers 3 desktop platforms:

  • cTrader
  • MetaTrader 4
  • MetaTrader 5
  • FIX API

cTrader

In our reviews, we tend to analyze if a broker provides a cTrader terminal because it is very suitable for traders that automate their strategies. It has built-in C# support which is placed in Top-5 of the most popular coding language all over the world.

cTrader terminal, provided by Spotware Systems, has a very intuitive and stylish design. It is well-known for its high-speed execution and even ability to connect using FIX API. Using this terminal, traders can get access to deep liquidity on more than 60 currency pairs and also to 15 major equity indices.

One of the main features is that traders can get Level II pricing with full market depth which is not available for forex nor in MetaTrader 4 neither in MetaTrader 5 terminals.

cTrader terminal is available for use on desktop, being the most common way of using it. Applications for mobile (both Android and iOS) are provided also.

MetaTrader 4/5

IC Markets offers MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 terminals that are an industry standard nowadays. All the instruments provided by IC Markets are available in both versions in comparison to cTrader which has few limitations on that front. MetaTrader 4/5 are provided to all customers and it does not depend on the chosen regulation by the user, while cTrader is not available for the European entity of the broker – IC Markets EU.

For the desktop versions of MT4/5 there is provided an Advanced Trading Tools package. It offers various add-ons, along with some useful plugins that are created by AutoChartist and Trading Central being well-known lately. We also like to remind that there are useful indicators and tools provided by TradingKit that help to get an edge in trading.

WebTerminal is also in the list of terminals of IC Markets and it allows customers to get access to trading from the browser without the necessity to install any terminal on PC.

iOS and Android versions of MetaTrader4 and MetaTrader 5 are in the trader’s suite of the broker also. The terminals do not differ from broker to broker beside the trading conditions and number of instruments itself.

FIX API

Being an industry standard and used by hedge funds, banks, and other institutions, FIX API is also offered in IC Markets. It allows customers with big volumes and experience in trading to connect to the broker’s infrastructure and get access to a deep liquidity pool.

Feature Condition
MetaTrader 4
MetaTrader 5
MetaTrader 4/5 iOS/Android
FIX API
Web Terminal
cTrader

Trading platforms rating100%

100%

Account types and conditions

Among the account types, there are 3 options available:

  • cTrader Account
  • Raw Spread Account
  • Standard Account

Each of these account types has its own and unique features that make them suitable depending on the trader’s goals.

The cTrader account is self-explanatory and allows to trade using the cTrader trading platform. It will not be possible to connect to MetaTrader 4/5 with the credentials of the cTrader account and vice versa.

On the contrary, Raw and Standard accounts let customers use the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms.

The Standard account is treated as the commission-free (spread only). The Raw spread is an account with two commission-based pricing (spread and commission) though the spreads the Raw account start from zero.

The minimum deposit amount is 200$ or equivalent in other currencies.

Feature Condition
Demo account
cTrader account
Raw Spread account
Standard account

Trading conditions rating100%

100%

Commissions and spreads

Commissions on the cTrader account type start at $3. On the Raw account there is charged at least $3.5. As stated earlier, there is no commission fee on the Standard Account, i.e. it is a truly zero-commission account type.

IC Markets aggregates liquidity sources from more than 20 institutional-grade providers. Therefore, the spreads are as tight as possible and the main benefit of it could be achieved on Raw accounts. Therefore, it is suitable for day trading adherents who produce plenty of trades on the daily basis, and spreads must be cost-effective. Obviously, it is also very suitable for scalpers and expert advisors as well.

The cTrader account has a 0.1 smaller commission than it is available on the Raw Spread account. The Raw Spread account charges $3.5 per side (7$ for a round turn) for every 100k units (1 standard lot) of a currency pair. While cTrader there is $3.0 per side or $6.00 per standard round turn.

IC Markets claims that its average spread on the EUR/USD currency pair is 0.1 pips on Raw spread accounts. After adding the commission equivalent, which is equal to 0.6 pips, the all-in costs turn around into 0.7 pips on cTrader accounts. On MetaTrader accounts, it will be around 0.8 pips, which could be considered as competitive.

Commissions rating90%

90%

Deposits and Withdrawals

Customers of IC Markets have a fairly wide range of options available to them when making deposits and withdrawals. There are all the methods that mighe be required by traders:

  • Wire Transfers
  • Credit/Debit cards
  • Neteller
  • PayPal
  • Skrill
  • UnionPay
  • FasaPay
  • POLIPay
  • Rapidpay
  • Cryptocurrency payments

IC Markets also provides a web-form to fill for a broker-to-broker transfer. If you want to transfer funds from some other broker to IC Markets, then you should fill this form and provide it to the other broker.

In overall, each of the mentioned above options has different processing times. Currencies that are available within each method also vary and among the popular ones there are EUR, USD, JPY, CAD, CHF, GBP, AUD, NZD, and SGD.

The withdrawal period varies depending on the method also. Popular systems like PayPal, Neteller, or Skrill allow instant withdrawals after approval of the finance department of the broker. While it takes usually 3 – 5 business days when making withdrawals to credit/debit cards or bank transfers.

The main benefit is that for deposits or withdrawals IC Markets does not charge any additional fees.

Feature Condition
Bank wire
Debit/Credit cards
Skrill
Neteller
Paypal
WebMoney
Crypto payments

Deposits & Withdrawals rating100%

100%

Customer Support

You can contact IC Markets via one of the following methods:

  • Live chat
  • Phone
  • Email

The live chat has a built-in automated bot that might help to find answers to some basic questions. Though for more complex cases live operators are available. The average response time varies from a couple of minutes during regular business hours up to ten minutes during the weekend. That is acceptable taking into account the information that not all the brokers have 24/7 customer support.

IC Markets is in fact very good phone support. It is even faster in terms of response that Live Chat and the operator might start helping you within a minute after the start of the call.

Email support meets the average industry standards. Usually, all of them are responded within a day regardless the complexity of the question. Most complex ones are resolved purely using email service, not live chat or phone.

Feature Condition
Live Chat
E-mail
Phone

Customer Support rating100%

100%

IC Markets Overview

Eventually, IC Markets is a well-known broker that during more than 10 years proofs its reliability and friendship approach to its customers. It expands its number of regulations, adds trading instruments, integrates new deposit and withdrawal methods also. It has a decent number of trading terminals that will be suitable for both novice and professional traders, that are used to trade with a manual or algorithmic approach.

The broker has very competitive costs and trading conditions for its customers. It claims itself an ECN which is fairly true.

Customer support is also on a decent level with phone, email and livechat options available with qualified support team and fast response time.

Pros

· Broker long lifetime

· Good conditions for trading

· cTrader terminal available

· Responsive customer support

Cons

· Minimum deposit of 200$