IC Markets – CFD & Forex Broker Review [+ Data Sheet] – 2018

Get the inside information on IC Markets, are they really the fastest most cost-effective broker?  We reveal our 39 Point Analysis to help you assess if they meet your needs.

IC Markets (International Capital Markets) is our outright Winner in the 2018 Review of CFD & Forex Brokers. Find out why they scored so well and what you need to look out for…

For A Full Data Sheet of the IC Markets offering see the bottom of the page.

IC Markets: Best for Traders wanting  Auto Trading, Algorithmic & Copy Trading, Direct Market Access, Great Customer Support and a Perfect Customer Approval Rating.

This is the detailed and in-depth review of IC Markets conducted as part of our 12 Biggest & Best CFD Brokers Review for 2018.

IC Markets: Foreign Exchange (fx), Crypto Currency Services

The Foreign Exchange market is the biggest most liquid market on earth with an estimated $5.3 Trillion traded per day, which is about 30 times the size of the stock markets $28 Billion. We also include Crypto Trading comparisons, which essentially mean “does the broker allow you to trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Etherium which are based on the blockchain technology”.  Also at what levels of leverage.  Please see our note on CFD Risks

IC Markets won outright in our 2018 Review & Comparison of Forex Brokers, they offer 60 currency pairs and $7 per lot, with a superior leverage of 1 to 500.  They also offer 5 cryptocurrencies (and growing) with a leverage of 1 to 20.

IC Markets: CFD Brokers Stocks, ETFs & Options Trading Services

IC Markets again lead the top, although having fewer shares on offer the commissions are excellent. They offer lightning-fast execution on 22 Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) Stocks, 49 New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Stocks and 49 NASDAQ Stocks.  They also off 200 to 1 Indices leverage on 15 Indices and daily financing, producing a package that is extremely cost effective.

IC Markets: Commodities, Bonds & Treasuries Trading Services

IC Markets also offers the full suite of commodities and bonds, with 17 commodities offered at 1:100 leverage and 9 different Bond & Treasury Vehicles at again 1:100 leverage.  IC Markets Commodities include:

• Spot Energy Contracts – Crude Oil, Brent, and Natural Gas
• Metals – Gold, Silver & Platinum
• Soft Commodities – Sugar, Coffee, Corn, Wheat, Soybean, Cotton, Orange Juice & Cocoa

IC Markets: Funding & Company Size

IC Markets do not sponsor fancy football teams and they do not offer sports cars as prizes, what they do offer is world class execution and an established track record.

They do not divulge the number of clients they have, because they do not need to.  Our visitors vote with their actions and IC markets for traders is the most popular choice.  What we can say is that in 3 years IC Markets trading volume has grown from $50 Billion in 2015 to over $339 billion in 2018, solid growth.

IC Markets: Investor Protection & Regulation

Are one of the few Forex Brokers, completely residing in Australia, they are open, transparent about their business model and banking services.  They have a full indemnity insurance with the worlds leading insurer, Lloyds of London, and only use Top Tier Australian Banks to host the segregated funds.

IC Markets: Trading Platform Software Comparison

IC Markets offer a huge selection of tools, MetaTrader 4 & 5 and cTrader and ZuluTrade, but what separates them from the crowd is their focus on institutional pricing and tools.

You can locate your IC Markets Virtual Private Server (VPS) directly in the NY4 & LD5 IBX Equinix Data Centers in New York and London, meaning you get the lowest latency for your transactions.  If you are a high volume professional algorithmic trader, utilizing scalping and robots then this is the solution you need.

IC Markets also enabled a True ECN setup, which means you can even get access to institutional pricing for Foreign Exchange from 0.0 pips.

As IC Markets explains on it’s website:

“IC Markets, a forex ECN broker utilizes the True ECN pricing for all of it’s account types, this means that you the forex trader are offered direct access to our interbank prices feeds from over 50 different bank and dark pool liquidity providers. Trading in a True ECN marketplace allows traders to benefit from the best possible prices available from Tier-1 banks and dark pool liquidity providers.”

IC Markets: TRUST – Online Followers, Tweets & Ratings

In this section, we look at the customer’s experience with IC Markets.  This can be a challenge to gauge.  We sifted through thousands of tweets, used twitter sentiment systems and trawled the internet forums for feedback on these brokers.

Three things are clear:

• 1: Twitter Followers: Do they have enough twitter followers to make the analysis of tweets meaningful?
• 2: Negative Tweets: How many negative complaint tweets did the company receive in the last 3 months?
• 3: Ratings:  There is a great site called TrustPilot in the UK where many CFD Traders have been very vocal, we added up all the Average & Above Ratings to provide a final % Rating

IC Markets takes the industry lead here with a perfect score of 98% average rating or above based on 292 Trustpilot Reviews.  This means only 2% of their customers were unhappy, a very good result by any standard.

They also did not have a single negative tweet in the last 3 months (to May 2018).  Trust is everything in the CFD and Forex Brokers Industry and IC Markets have outstanding customer loyalty.

IC Markets Review Summary

IC Markets offer a solid selection of 60 Fx Pairs and 5 Cryptocurrencies with very high potential leverage options (1:500) for those with experience.

Add to this 17 commodities and 9 Bond options and the market selection is excellent.  Combined with direct market access starting at 0.0 pips commission the mix is excellent.

They topped the charts in terms of customer satisfaction ratings in TrustPilot with a 98% Approval based on 292 ratings, and not a single negative tweet in the previous 3 months.

IC Markets is based in Australia, banks with the best top-tier banks and is insured by Lloyds of London.

You can open a demo account in literally a few minutes and download the fantastic suite of tools, so you can test out the functionality for yourself.

Open an IC Markets Demo Account for Free

IC Markets 39 Point Service Offering Data Sheet

CFD 's :Share, ETFs, Options Comparison
Shares #	101
Shares Leverage	1:20
Shares Commission	0.01% of Trade
Indices #	15
Indices Leverage	1:200
Indices Commission	Daily Financing
ETF #
ETF Leverage
FX, Crypto Comparison
fx Pairs	60
fx Leverage	1:500
fx commisions	$7 per lot
Crypto Trading	5
Crypto Leverage	1:20
Commodities, Bonds, Treasuries Comparison
Commodities / Futures	17
Commodities Leverage	1:100
Bonds / Treasuries #	9
Bonds Leverage	1:100
Funding & Company Size
Minimum Balance	$200
Established	2007
Number of Clients	N/A
Investor Protection
Investor Protection	Insured by Lloyds of London Segregated Client Accounts Banking with top tier Australian Banks NAB & Westpac
Regulated By	ASIC Australia
Parent Company	International Capital Markets Pty Ltd
Trading Software
Broker	IC markets
Software	Metatrader 4 & 5 cTrader eLab Trade Mam/Pamm myfxbook Autotrade ZuluTrade
Mobile Software	Yes
Customer Support, Research & Education
Broker	IC markets
Customer Support	Live Chat & Phone Support
Research / News	Market Analysis
Education	Yes, but limited
Twitter Followers	3500
Negative Tweets 3 months	0
Trustpilot (% Average Rating & Above	98%

CFD Risk Notice - ESMA & FCA Risk Warning - "CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 80% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Capital at risk"