IC Trading review

Our rating

IC Trading scores 7.0 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 9.4, its weakest is education at 3.2. Whether that gap matters depends entirely on which of the six you were going to use.

Regulation and safety7.4/10

IC Trading lists its authorisations as Financial Services Commission of Mauritius (FSC), GB21026834. Those are offshore authorisations. Offshore licensing is not a synonym for dishonest, but it does mean lighter reporting, higher permitted leverage and, usually, no compensation scheme - the trade is protection for flexibility.

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. Its registration can be checked directly on the Mauritius FSC register, licence GB21026834. 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 regulated banking institutions - so that if the business fails, client balances are not part of what its creditors can reach. Negative balance protection applies, so a gap through your stop cannot leave you owing the broker money.

No statutory compensation scheme stands behind it. If the firm fails, recovering client money is an insolvency process rather than a claim - which is the practical difference between an offshore licence and a tier-one one.

IC Trading does not accept clients from United States, Canada, Israel, New Zealand, Iran, North Korea and jurisdictions where services would contravene local law. Restriction lists move, so confirm your own country before you spend time on an application.

What it costs to trade9.4/10

IC Trading advertises spreads from 0.0 pips. Commission is $3.50 per side / $7 round turn, Raw Spread, 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 approx. 0.1 pips, Raw Spread, and approx. 0.3 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 financing charge, which is irrelevant to a day trader and compounds for anyone holding for weeks. 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.

Platforms and tools9.1/10

IC Trading 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, MT4/MT5 Expert Advisors and cTrader automated trading. There is API access (yes, cTrader Open API/FIX and institutional connectivity) for anyone connecting their own software. Copy trading is available through yes, which is the alternative to writing rules yourself.

Charting runs to 30+ MT4, 38+ MT5, extensive cTrader/TradingView indicators and custom indicators. Additional tools include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView. On mobile: third-party.

Markets, leverage and execution7.7/10

IC Trading covers Forex, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Metals, Energies, Cryptocurrencies, Bonds, Futures. That comes to 2,850+ instruments in total. On the currency side specifically it lists 60+ 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 runs to 1:500 on the entity that offers most. That does not improve your expected return; it lowers the deposit a given position requires, and shortens the move needed to close you out. 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 eCN-style / Raw pricing, liquidity-provider execution, routing orders to external liquidity rather than pricing them internally. Measured speed is under 40ms. Its servers sit in Equinix NY4 and LD5, which is what determines latency more than any software choice.

Order types available: market, limit, stop, stop-loss, take-profit, trailing stop and platform-specific advanced orders. 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, Raw Spread cTrader, Islamic/Swap-Free, Demo. 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, 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 typically a few minutes.

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 Visa, Mastercard, bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, cryptocurrency and regional payment methods. They clear in many electronic methods instant.

Withdrawals go out by bank transfer, cards, e-wallets and supported original funding methods. Expect typically processed within 1 business day. The minimum withdrawal is $1 equivalent. 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 country-specific bank transfers and regional electronic payment methods - 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 education5.2/10

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, Help Centre. Live chat typically answers in under 2 minutes. Support is offered in multilingual.

Its education is substantial - trading education, webinars, platform tutorials, articles, forex education and trading guides - which is the difference between a broker that will teach you and one that will simply take the deposit. Research output covers market analysis, technical/fundamental commentary, trading calculators, market news and trading insights.

The company behind the brand

The company behind the brand is Capital Point Trading Ltd, registered as Mauritius Global Business Company. It operates from Mauritius. It launched in 2022, which makes it only about 4 years old - there is not yet much of a track record to examine, and that is a real consideration rather than a technicality.

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. 50-200 range.

You may also see it under 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.