IC Markets review

Our rating

IC Markets scores 9.5 out of 10 on our table. That figure is an average of six things we assess, and it hides the shape of the broker: its strongest area is costs at 9.8, its weakest is education at 9.1. Whether that gap matters depends entirely on which of the six you were going to use.

In its favour: tight spreads, fast execution. Against it: customer support can be slow.

Regulation and safety9.6/10

IC Markets lists its authorisations as ASIC (AFSL 335692); CySEC (362/18); Seychelles FSA (SD018); Bahamas SCB (SIA-F214); Kenya CMA (Licence 123). That is a mixed structure, and the mix is the point: it holds at least one tier-one licence alongside offshore entities, and which one takes your account depends on where you live rather than on which you would prefer.

The licence that matters to you is the one held by the entity that opens your account, and at a multi-entity broker that is decided by your country of residence. It is a two-minute check and it is the only way to confirm that the firm taking your deposit is the firm named on the website.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own funds, with top-tier international banks - so that if the business fails, client balances are not part of what its creditors can reach. Negative balance protection applies to retail only, so a gap through your stop cannot leave you owing the broker money.

On compensation: ICF up to €20,000 for eligible EU clients; Raw Trading Ltd insolvency insurance up to US$1,000,000. That covers the broker failing, not your trades losing money - the two are frequently confused and only one of them is insured.

IC Markets does not accept clients from United States, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Iran, North Korea, Belgium, Brazil and other restricted/sanctioned jurisdictions. Restriction lists move, so confirm your own country before you spend time on an application.

What it costs to trade9.8/10

IC Markets advertises spreads from 0.0 pips. Commission is $3.50 per side / $7 round turn (Raw Spread MetaTrader), charged on top of the spread rather than instead of it - which is the normal arrangement on a raw account and the reason its quoted spread can be so low. Put the two together and a EUR/USD round turn works out at approx. 0.8 pips, which is the figure worth comparing against other brokers.

An advertised minimum is the best price a broker has ever quoted, not the price you will get. On our record its measured average on EUR/USD is 0.1 pips (Raw Spread), and 0.4 pips (Raw Spread) on GBP/USD. Spreads are variable, so they move with liquidity and widen around releases and the daily rollover.

Positions held overnight accrue a swap, and swap-free accounts are available for clients who need them. Currency conversion applies where your account and the instrument use different currencies, which is a charge worth avoiding by funding in the currency you actually trade.

There is no inactivity fee, so an account can sit funded and untouched without being eroded.

Platforms and tools9.8/10

IC Markets runs MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView. Both MetaTrader versions are available, which matters more than it sounds: an expert advisor written for MT4 will not run on MT5, so a trader arriving with existing software needs the specific version it was written for. cTrader adds depth of market and level II pricing, and usually accompanies raw-spread accounts rather than commission-free ones. TradingView integration means you can analyse and execute in the same window rather than charting in one tool and trading in another.

Automation is supported: yes. There is API access (yes, cTrader FIX API) for anyone connecting their own software. Copy trading is available through IC Social, which is the alternative to writing rules yourself.

Charting runs to 30+ built-in on MT4. Additional tools include Trading Central, Autochartist, IC Insights, TipRanks. On mobile: both.

Markets, leverage and execution9.4/10

IC Markets covers Forex, Commodities, Shares, Indices, Bonds, Cryptocurrencies, Futures. That comes to 2,250+ instruments in total. On the currency side specifically it lists 61 pairs. Breadth is worth less than depth in the markets you actually trade - a hundred instruments priced well beats a thousand you will never open.

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation - a protection rather than a restriction. Our record for this broker reads "1:30 retail under ASIC/CySEC; higher under international entities", and the difference between those figures is the entity you are onboarded to rather than anything you can choose. Whatever the headline, the number that governs your position is the margin requirement on the specific instrument - it is always lower on shares and crypto than on major currency pairs.

Execution is market execution, routing orders to external liquidity rather than pricing them internally. Measured speed is approx. 35ms on forex. Its servers sit in Equinix NY4, New York, which is what determines latency more than any software choice.

Order types available: market, limit, stop, stop-limit, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop. Stops and limits are table stakes; what separates platforms is whether the ones you rely on are there and how quickly they can be modified once a position is open.

Accounts

Account types run to Standard, Raw Spread, cTrader Raw Spread, Islamic/Swap-Free. The minimum deposit is $200. The smallest position it will take is 0.01 lots, which is what actually governs how precisely you can size risk on a small account.

A demo account is available - note that expires after 30 days of inactivity, which is the cheapest way to find out whether the platform suits you. Swap-free Islamic accounts are offered. Professional classification is available for clients who qualify, which lifts leverage caps and lowers the protections that come with retail status - a trade rather than an upgrade. Opening takes usually minutes to a few hours.

Accounts can be denominated in 10 base currencies. Funding in the currency you trade removes a conversion charge from every position, which is a small saving repeated indefinitely.

Deposits and withdrawals

Deposits can be made by credit/debit card, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, UnionPay, bank wire, Bpay, broker-to-broker, POLi, Rapidpay, Klarna, cryptocurrency, local internet banking. They clear in instant for cards, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, UnionPay and several local methods.

Withdrawals go out by credit/debit card, bank wire, PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, plus applicable original/local payment methods. Expect same-day processing before cutoff. There is no minimum withdrawal. Check the withdrawal routes rather than the deposit ones. They are frequently not the same list, anti-money-laundering rules usually require funds to return the way they came, and the difference only becomes apparent at the point you want your money back.

Local payment methods include Bpay; POLi; Thai Internet Banking; Vietnamese Internet Banking; UnionPay; Rapidpay; Klarna - which matters more than it looks if you are outside the broker's home market, since an international wire is slow and expensive compared with a domestic transfer.

Support and education9.3/10

Support runs 24/7. That is worth more than it sounds on a leveraged account: markets gap at inconvenient hours, and a position you cannot get help with is a position you carry until somebody answers. You can reach them by live chat, email, phone. Live chat typically answers in under 2 minutes. Support is offered in English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese and others.

Its education is substantial - webinars, educational articles, video/Web TV, trading guides, tutorials - which is the difference between a broker that will teach you and one that will simply take the deposit. Research output covers Extensive: Trading Central, Autochartist, IC Insights/TipRanks, market analysis and daily forecasts.

The company behind the brand

The company behind the brand is Raw Trading Ltd, registered as 8419879-1. It operates from Mahé, Seychelles. It has been trading since 2007, so there is about 19 years of record to look at.

It is independently owned rather than part of a larger group. It is privately held, so its finances are not published the way a listed group's are. Headcount is in the Approx. 930 range.

You may also see it under IC; IC Markets Global; IC Trading. Brands and legal entities rarely map one to one in this industry, and the name on the website is not always the name on the client agreement.