With servers in London (Equinix LD5) and New York (Equinix NY4), IC Markets has established itself as an agency broker for high-frequency algorithmic traders and scalpers who need quick execution and low latency. In March 2021, the monthly trading volume of IC Markets, which was established in 2007, reached $1 trillion.

The affordable pricing and scalable execution of IC Markets make it a great choice for algorithmic traders. Although it supports a wide variety of third-party plugins and tools, IC Markets’ research and educational offerings fall short of those provided by leaders in the field.

Trading Instruments

A total of 3,583 tradeable instruments are available from IC Markets’ entities in Australia, Cyprus, and the Seychelles. The various investment products that are offered to IC Markets clients are listed in the table below.

Trading in cryptocurrency is only possible through contracts for difference (CFDs) at IC Markets; buying the underlying asset directly is not an option. Notably, neither U.K. residents nor retail traders from any broker’s U.K. entity are permitted to trade cryptocurrency CFDs.

• Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) Yes
• Tradeable Symbols (Total) 3583
• Forex Pairs (Total) 61
• U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) No
• Int’l Stock Trading (Non CFD) No
• Social Trading / Copy Trading Yes
• Cryptocurrency (Physical) No
• Cryptocurrency (CFD) Yes
  
  

IC Markets Fees and Accounts

The trading costs of IC Markets are comparable to the best low-cost forex brokers, like IG and CMC Markets, when you take into account the small effective spreads and the low deposit requirement for its commission-based accounts.

Spreads at IC Markets vary based on your account type, the trading platform you use, and the IC Markets entity you’ve chosen. Three regulatory entities are available to IC Markets: the European entity (based in Cyprus), the Australian entity, or its offshore entity based in the Seychelles.

Account types: The commission-free Standard account (spread only), the commission-based Raw Spread, and the cTrader Raw Spread accounts are the three account types offered by IC Markets.

Accounts for cTrader versus MetaTrader: The commission structure for the cTrader Raw Spread and the IC Markets (MT4 or MT5) Raw Spread accounts are almost identical. Platform preference is what determines how much the two cost. The commission for cTrader-linked accounts is slightly less, at $3.0 per side for every 100,000 units, or $6.00 per RT, a difference of about 0.1 pip. One standard lot (100,000 units) of the Raw Spread account, which uses MT4 or MT5, costs $3.5 per side or $7.00 per round turn (RT).

Effective spreads: According to IC Markets, the EUR/USD average spread is 0.02 pips as of August 2021. The total cost is 0.62 pips (or 0.72 on MetaTrader in the Raw Spread account) after adding the commission equivalent of 0.6 pips for the cTrader account, which is reasonable. As an alternative, the Standard account offers a commission-free listing with an average spread of 0.62 pip.

Trades over 100 standard lots per month qualify for discounts from IC Markets, which caters to active traders.

Apps for mobile trading

The three platforms that IC Markets offers—MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and cTrader—all have mobile apps available for iOS and Android as standard. The lineup is strong, but it should be noted that all of the top mobile app developers provide proprietary trading apps.
Tools comparison: Mobile functionality and charting are comparable between the MetaTrader and cTrader suites. Whether you trade manually or use desktop platforms for automated trading systems will probably affect the platform you choose.

Trading Platforms

Thanks to the availability of both the MetaTrader and cTrader platforms, as well as its execution strategies (i.e., no requotes) and the capability to place orders within the spread, C Markets has solidified its position as a top option for algorithmic traders.

Overview of the platforms: MT4 and MT5 trading platforms from MetaQuotes Software Corp. are available through IC Markets, along with the cTrader platform from Spotware Systems. The Advanced Trading Tools package for the desktop version and plugins from AutoChartist and Trading Central are additional add-ons that are available to MetaTrader users. Although these third-party plugins must be installed separately, they are worthwhile because they can improve the MetaTrader experience.
Charting: MetaTrader and cTrader’s charts are excellent, with a good selection of pre-installed default indicators and a much wider selection available from third-party providers. Both the desktop and web versions are available on the IC Markets cTrader platform.

IC Markets Market research

Although IC Markets has improved with daily articles and its Web TV section, research still falls short of the best brokers in this category, like IG and Saxo Bank, in terms of its overall offering.

Overview of the research: Each day, IC Markets publishes several blog posts, including a technical and fundamental forecast. The research’s quality, in my opinion, was about average.

Market news and analysis: IC Markets offers daily updates in its market analysis section as well as internal technical and fundamental analysis content via its blog. In addition to live trading sessions posted to the IC Markets YouTube channel, Trading Central videos and brief recaps of market events can be found under the Web TV section.

Education

With more than 100 written articles and dozens of videos, IC Markets offers a good selection of content for both novice and experienced traders. However, there is no experience level organization of the content, and neither are there any quizzes or progress tracking, which are two features I’ve come to expect from the top forex brokers in this category.

The educational material at IC Markets is divided into six series, including Trading Plan 101 and Forex Trading 101. The articles’ caliber is a little better than average for the sector. In addition, IC Markets has produced the “IC Your Trade” podcast series and maintains a YouTube channel that features a library of previously recorded webinars.

Conclusion on IC Markets

The algorithmic traders who use the MT4, MT5, or cTrader platforms and who require agency execution along with competitive spreads and low commissions are the main target audience for IC Markets.

Because automated trading strategies typically have higher turnover than manual traders, serving high-frequency traders helps IC Markets achieve noticeably higher trading volumes than its competitors.

I generally do not recommend IC Markets unless you are an algorithmic trader or if your manual trading strategy is spread-sensitive. However, access to third-party social trading services like Myfxbook and ZuluTrade helps to round out IC Markets’ overall offering and make it appealing to retail forex and CFD traders.