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IC Markets is the world’s largest true ECN trading broker offering a wide range of trading instruments across multiple markets on the most popular trading platforms. They give you access to trade with tight spreads from as little as 0.0 pips and deep liquidity from a range of liquidity providers ensuring you can get fast trade execution speeds at the best possible price every time.

The broker is regulated in many jurisdictions and offers commission-free accounts, multiple free account funding options, excellent customer support and a range of educational resources to help traders. your daily trading activities.

If you are looking for a trustworthy broker with a solid reputation and plan to trade regularly with industry-leading conditions, then they have everything you need to get started. I have had many trading accounts with them over the years and have always considered them one of the best forex brokers I have used.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Choose from powerful trading platforms that you can choose to use across multiple devices
• Wide selection of trading instruments on different markets
• Free deposit and withdrawal options to fund your account quickly and easily
• Low fees and low spreads help reduce trading costs
• Institutional-grade liquidity means fast execution speeds at some of the best prices
• The ECN model truly offers a superior trading environment
• A wide range of trading tools to support your market analysis
• Educational resources like tutorials and videos can help you if you are new to trading
• They do not place any restrictions on your trading strategy – hedging, scalping and automated trading are allowed
• Social trading platform where you can copy signals from other traders
• Connecting to the FIX API through cTrader can be a good solution for institutional clients
• There are no inactivity fees or hidden costs
• Great 24/7 customer support, including live chat, who always respond quickly

Cons

• There is no Autochartist or Trading Central
• The $200 minimum deposit is not the lowest

Beginning

IC Markets is an Australian trading broker established in 2007 with headquarters based in Sydney and has since become one of the largest trading brokers in the world. They are a truly multi-regulated ECN broker providing trading solutions to both retail and institutional clients globally.

IC Markets gives you worldwide access to trade thousands (over 2,000) trading instruments across multiple markets on the most popular trading platforms, MetaTrader 4/5 and cTrader. Trading instruments include Forex, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, Stocks, Shares, Indices, Metals, Energies, Bonds & CFDs.

IC Markets is famous for its low latency connectivity and outstanding liquidity. This means online traders have access to deep liquidity pools for superior pricing that was previously only available to banks and high net worth individuals. Their ECN model uses the latest cutting-edge technology, offering low spreads and high liquidity for fast trade execution.

I like the fact that they have been around for so long and are one of the most established brokers out there. It gives me confidence that my money will be safe and they must be doing something right to serve so many customers in the long run. I have seen many brokers come and go over the years, but IC Markets has continued to grow during this time, constantly expanding their products and services to stay current with market trends and technology. newest school.

Trading conditions

IC Markets has some of the best hand-picked liquidity providers (LPs). New LPs are being added regularly to ensure trading conditions continue to be among the best available to traders. When a broker has multiple liquidity providers, they can pool them together. When you place a trade, they dip into the liquidity pool and find the best price available to you at any time. This means you can get the best quotes and execution speeds around the clock from a variety of sources, instead of relying solely on brokers for house liquidity. In general, the more liquidity a broker has, the better the trading conditions tend to be.

ECN technology allows IC Markets to aggregate all of its LPs to build an order book that can sort and rank prices in real time to provide the best prices to its customers. This creates competition among LPs to offer lower prices and meet the modern trader’s needs for low spreads, deep liquidity pools, price transparency and anonymous order execution, low slippage and low latency.

Therefore, if you are using an automated trading or scalping system, IC Markets could be a great choice. I have used them to run forex expert advisors (EAs) in the past on their MT4 platform on both demo and real accounts. I found them to be one of the best brokers I have ever used and still keep a few accounts with them today.

True ECN connectivity allows traders of all levels to trade on institutional-grade liquidity from a wide range of major LPs such as investment banks, hedge funds and dark pool venues. There are over 50 different LPs with no dealing desk intervention so traders have direct access to raw spreads and order execution speeds without price manipulation, requotes or hidden fees. This makes them one of the best brokers of choice for high volume traders, day traders and scalpers.

IC Markets has an average order execution speed of under 35ms with a low-latency fiber cross-connect to LP. The order matching engine located at the New York Equinix NY4 data center processes hundreds of thousands of transactions for clients every day with billions of trading volumes processed daily by IC Markets. According to Finance Magnates, IC Markets is the world’s largest forex broker by forex volume (excluding Japan).

Regulations

IC Markets is a global CFD broker, with offices in a variety of jurisdictions to suit your needs. You can choose the entity with which you want to open a trading account when registering.

The main differences between brokerage entities are who they are regulated by and the products you have access to. Your choice will depend on what matters most to you, whether it’s leverage, regulation or available tools. Some regulators impose restrictions on what brokers can offer, so you need to consider the importance of regulation over your freedom to trade as you wish.

Personally, I like to have as many options available to me as possible when it comes to trading. Therefore, my account belongs to the international branch of IC Markets because there are fewer restrictions there. However, I am also confident that my money is safe because the broker is regulated in many jurisdictions and has been in operation for many years.

IC Markets is regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), the Seychelles Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), the Bahamas Securities Commission (SCB) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

This strict regulation can help you rest assured that you are using a trustworthy and transparent broker that can be trusted.

Trading platforms

IC Markets offers MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader platforms. These are the 3 most popular and user-friendly trading platforms today. The true ECN trading model is integrated into all platforms at no additional cost for all levels of traders. Regardless of the size of your investment, you can access the best possible trading conditions they have.

Personally, I like the MetaTrader platform simply because MT4 was the first platform I was familiar with. Most trading brokers offer MT4 or MT5 platforms, so that means I am not limited when looking to try another broker. On the other hand, cTrader has some additional capabilities but is not as widely used in comparison.

Trading on the go is possible through the broker’s mobile trading apps. This is useful for people who need to access their accounts and manage their locations on the go from anywhere in the world where they have an internet connection. If I’m on the go or traveling, it’s nice to be able to open my trading app and see what’s happening in the markets without having to fire up my laptop.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

MT4 is one of the most popular online trading platforms used by millions of traders globally. It is free to use and can be downloaded as a desktop platform or run directly in your web browser without the need to download or install any additional software. It is also available as a mobile investing app for Android or iOS devices and can be downloaded for free from relevant app stores.

MT4 is considered a powerful trading platform with a range of built-in tools for analyzing charts to find potential trading opportunities across a variety of markets. It is intuitive and user-friendly enough for new traders while having enough advanced capabilities to suit more experienced traders.

It has evolved from a trading platform into a global community where traders’ needs are met by technology providers’ innovations. IC Markets has partnerships with many of these technology providers and is proud to offer you the next generation MetaTrader 4 platform, designed to take your trading to the next level.

IC Markets clients can experience lightning-fast order execution speeds and flexible trading conditions on the award-winning MetaTrader 4 platform. Both IC Markets Standard and Raw Spread accounts are available on the MetaTrader 4 trading platform.

MetaTrader 4’s features:

• Market leading spreads and low commissions
• Flexible deposit and withdrawal options
• Flexible leverage
• Fully customizable user interface & charts
• Many trading tools for market analysis
• Real-time quotes in the market watch window
• Automated trading with expert advisors (EAs)
• Strategy tester to backtest EAs
• MQL4 programming language for coding custom indicators, scripts & EAs
• Online community where you can copy trading signals and download additional tools
• Price alerts via email, SMS, and platform pop-ups
• Desktop, web and mobile compatibility

MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

MetaTrader 5 is an all-in-one platform for trading forex, stocks, indices, bonds, cryptocurrencies and commodities. IC Markets’ raw pricing helps make it one of the most robust trading platforms for active traders. I believe MT4 will be enough for those who just want to trade forex, but if you are looking for a stock trading platform, then you will probably prefer MT5.

The MT5 platform is an updated and improved version of MT4 which remains the industry standard for many traders around the world. MetaTrader 5 implements advanced charting technology along with sophisticated order management tools that can help you track and control your positions quickly and efficiently. This is a powerful platform packed with a range of useful features aimed at improving your trading experience. MT5 is available for free on both IC Markets account types: Raw and Standard pricing.

MetaTrader 5’s features:

• Raw price connection
• Extremely fast order execution
• No transaction restrictions
• Level II Valuation – Market Depth
• Spreads from 0.0 Pips
• Automated Trading (EAs)
• Integrated technical & fundamental indicators
• Desktop, web and mobile compatibility

cTrader

The cTrader platform is designed for high-speed execution when trading global markets online. It has a unique design that implements an elegant user interface while its range of advanced features makes it a favorite for discretionary forex traders.

The cTrader platform deploys cutting-edge technology that combines the speed of a high-performance trading platform with the deep liquidity of IC Markets, providing clients with the ultimate trading solution. If you are scalping, day trading or holding positions for a long period of time, this platform is more than capable of handling all types of trading strategies you can throw at it.

Just note that if you choose cTrader, it is not offered by many online brokers. Therefore, if you decide to switch providers and want to continue using cTrader, your options will be limited. On the other hand, MetaTrader is a much more widely used platform. That being said, cTrader remains an exceptional platform highly regarded by retail and institutional traders. You can also download both MetaTrader and cTrader platforms through RoboForex.

IC Markets’ cTrader platform gives you access to a deep liquidity pool in over 64+ forex currency pairs along with 16+ major equity indices. Active traders around the world appreciate trading with cTrader’s superior functionality and collated streaming prices from multiple global banks.

cTrader’s features:

• Real-time Forex and CFD quotes
• Market leading spreads and low commissions
• Extremely low spread
• Extremely fast order execution
• No transaction restrictions – Allows for scale expansion
• Level II pricing with full market depth
• Stop trading smartly
• Servers in the Equinix LD5 IBX Data Center
• Micro lot trading – Minimum lot size is 0.01 and there is no maximum
• Flexible deposit and withdrawal options
• Many types of orders
• Detachable chart
• Show expanded icon
• Real-time reporting
• One-click trading
• Desktop, web and mobile

Tools

IC Markets offers traders a range of useful trading tools and trading applications that can support detailed market analysis and help enhance the overall trading experience. These tools include economic calendars, alerts, technical indicators, market data, VPS and more.

However, they do not have the popular market analysis software Autochartist or Trading Central. You can check out GO Markets if you want access to these specific tools to help you find trading opportunities on thousands of assets.

You will find that the platforms already have a lot of trading tools built in which I feel will be enough if you are just a casual trader. However, if you have more complex trading strategies and programming skills, you can install and build custom indicators, scripts, and robots. The sky truly is the limit, with endless possibilities to develop your own trading strategy based on a combination of indicators.

Don’t worry if that seems overwhelming, you can also just activate a chart and place/manage trades without any complications. I love testing trading tools and trying new strategies on my own. Sometimes I can go through hundreds of tools before finding a useful one, but this trial and error can improve my trading in the long run.

MT4 advanced trading tools

IC Markets MT4 traders have access to 20 exclusive institutional quality trading tools to support their trading. These include Depth of Market (DoM), spread monitoring, trade risk calculator, ladder trading, custom order templates and more. They are integrated into the MetaTrader 4 platform to improve the trading experience, compared to other brokers that only offer the platform without any additional tools. I think this helps IC Markets stand out from the competition.

• Alarm Manager: This is a personal trading assistant that can notify traders or even their followers on social media.
• Correlation Matrix: This gives you market information on different time scales and can help you make more informed decisions.
• Correlation Trader: This allows you to compare the correlation between two symbols and trade the emerging difference.
• Trade terminal: This is a feature-rich analysis and trade execution tool, providing accurate trading, order templates and more.
• Market Management: This gives you full control over your symbol watchlist and all your order activity from one small and convenient window.
• Mini Terminal: This displays trade tickets similar to the Trade Terminal in the context of a specific trading chart.
• Sentiment Traders: This shows market sentiment based on actual open positions: the number of traders currently buying or selling.
• Session Map: This tool gives you a quick overview of the market through key markets around the world and their time zones.
• RTD in Excel: This handy app lets you enter up to 5 account numbers, then automatically displays a dashboard of equity and balances, etc.
• Stealth Orders: This is another useful app that allows you to hide pending orders from other market participants with more functionality.
• Tick ​​Chart Trader: This displays a variety of tick charts, including traditional line charts, timed tick charts, and tick bars/candles.

Virtual Private Servers

A virtual private server (VPS) can run your trading platform in the cloud. It allows traders to run automated trading strategies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with the fastest possible connection to IC Markets trading servers.

This is very useful for those of you who don’t have the best internet connection and those who want to run automated systems that need to be on around the clock without needing to turn on your home computer.

If you plan on using trading robots, combining IC Markets’ excellent trading conditions with their free VPS, is the best solution in my opinion.

Having a VPS available helps ensure that you can run your EA in a secure environment without the need for any additional computer hardware, backup internet or power supply. IC Markets recommends VPS providers co-locate inside Equinix data centers with direct cross-connection to their trading servers in Equinix NY4.

If you open an account with IC Markets and your trading volume exceeds 15 lots (spins) per month, they offer you the option to get a free low-latency virtual private server (VPS) from a from the following providers:

• Forex VPS
• Beeks FX VPS
• NYCServers

VPS can be used to run your trading platforms around the clock, which makes them a popular choice for traders running robots that constantly monitor the charts. Considering a good VPS starts around $30 per month, this may not be a great savings but is still something I’m quite happy to take advantage of to run my automated systems.

ZuluTrade

ZuluTrade is a social trading platform where followers can copy other traders’ trading signals. You can use ZuluTrade to copy trades directly into your IC Markets trading account. You can filter trading signal providers according to your own risk preferences. Signals can be added or removed to your trading portfolio at any time.

I am not the biggest fan of copy trading. This is because I want to know exactly why a position is being taken in the market. For me, part of the trading experience and enjoyment comes from analyzing the markets and following the news to spot potential trades. There is also a sense of accomplishment that comes from being on the right side of a trade. I don’t really want to put my hard earned money on other people’s trading strategies when I can learn it myself. If you are spending time looking for third-party trading signals, you could be wasting valuable time spent educating yourself and practicing your own strategies.

MyFxBook AutoTrade

This works in a similar way to ZuluTrade. You connect your IC Markets account to the popular social trading site Myfxbook and can then choose different strategies to copy trading signals. Just remember, there is no telling how well or how badly the signal will perform because no one can predict the future.

I have been using Myfxbook for many years now. While I think it is a good tool for analyzing my own manual and automated trading systems, I would not rely on it for trading signals. There are too many poor strategies out there that use dangerous money management and have been provided by people who want to make quick profits from others. No doubt there can be some gems if you dig around but I want to master my own trading strategies. In addition to signals, Myfxbook also has some great free tools for market analysis, especially sentiment outlooks and price action tools.

MAM/PAMM

IC Markets Multi Account Manager allows you to manage client funds with flexible allocation methods and real-time reporting on performance and commissions. The MAM software communicates all allocation settings directly to the IC Markets MetaTrader 4 server. This means money managers only have to worry about trading through the MetaTrader 4 Master Account, all other processes are handled seamlessly by the MAM software.

The software is ideal for traders or money managers using Expert Advisors (EAs) and enhances the functionality of the MetaTrader 4 platform by allowing multiple accounts to be managed from 1 simple interface. Block orders can be executed with 1 click from the Master Account with pre-set allocation methods. Thousands of accounts can be traded with 1 click and with virtually no additional latency. Attribution methods allow the software to act as a MAM, PAMM, or LAMM with some variation of each.

MAM/PAMM features:

• MAM Manager to adjust trading parameters in real time
• Unlimited trading accounts and deposit amounts
• Trade – Full, Mini & Micro Lot accounts for the best allocation advantage
• Allocation to accounts of at least 0.01 lots (1000 units)
• All common order types accepted: Market, Stop, Limit
• All single order types are accepted: Trailing Stop, Close by and Close all
• Manage multiple key accounts with different strategies
• Allows trading of Expert Advisor (EA) accounts managed from the client side
• Each Sub-Account has an output report for screening
• Market monitoring window in MAM
• Oversee direct order management in MAM including P&L
• STP on main account for bulk order execution, with instant allocation to sub-accounts
• Monitor commissions and performance in real time
• Manage monthly, quarterly and annual client reports through MetaTrader Manager

Money Management features:

• Ability to add and/or withdraw funds without affecting trading activity
• Professional reporting analysis is displayed for you and your customers
• Solution for EA managers and manual managers

Education

IC Markets has a wide selection of educational materials including basic and advanced trading guides and instructional videos. This can help you if you are a beginner and want to learn some of the most important aspects about online trading including how it works, technical and fundamental analysis, market influences, platforms trading platform and more.

I found the instructions and trading videos provided really useful and believe they will significantly help beginners prepare to trade online. You can also open a free demo account to practice what you have learned in a risk-free trading environment.

Trading instructions

IC Markets has lots of free trading guides on their website. They are aimed at new traders looking to learn more about online trading. Articles cover a wide range of topics including different markets you can trade, market analysis, trading psychology and more. Nothing beats experience in my opinion.

Web television

IC Markets has WebTV introduced alongside Trading Central and provides unprecedented coverage on global stocks, currencies and commodities. It includes actionable trade ideas and market commentary in short video format.

Webinars

IC Markets hosts a series of webinars covering a variety of industry topics, hosted by experts in the field. I am always open to learning more from experienced people and feel these webinars will help provide guidance to traders who need it.

Instructional videos

IC Markets has a selection of useful educational videos to help traders new to the trading platform. These video tutorials will give you an overview of how to install the platform, analyze the market and place different types of orders.

Account types

IC Markets offers 2 different account types, a real ECN account and a standard account. Minimum deposits start at $200, which is pretty much average across major brokers.

Generally, I find tight spreads and deep liquidity 24/7 with true ECN accounts due to 50+ different liquidity sources. IC Markets offers 1:30 leverage for their European and Australian entities, with up to 1:500 leverage available for their global entity.

IC Markets allows you to open multiple trading accounts. You can open an additional trading account through your client area. I have opened multiple accounts with them and have not had any problems doing so.

The account you choose will likely depend on what you want to trade and your trading style. If you just want to trade forex, then either MT4 account will do the job. However, if you are scalping or using forex robots and are not worried about commission fees, then you may want to choose an ECN account with raw spreads. On the other hand, stock traders can take a closer look at cTrader accounts.

Real ECN account

True ECN accounts have the tightest spreads that can vary from as low as 0.0 pips with a small $3.50 commission charged per side.

Standard account

The standard account does not charge commissions but instead has markups on variable spreads starting from 1.0 pips.

Demo account

You can open a free demo account if you want to test different platforms and trading conditions before opening a real account with them. I always recommend a demo account to start with so you can get used to trading online without risk. I also like to see what a broker has to offer before making a financial commitment.

Islamic account

IC Markets is a Muslim-friendly broker that supports Muslim traders with Sharia-compliant swap-free accounts.

Customer support

IC Markets offers 24/7 multilingual support via phone, chat and email. They are quick, efficient and courteous when answering support questions from traders of all experience levels. You can choose to call them using a toll-free number from a list of countries across the globe. I have always found IC Markets support to be among the best of all the brokers I have contacted. They never fail to get back to me quickly and helpfully.

The IC Markets management team comes from a financial background with many years of combined experience across Asia, Europe and North America. This experience means that as traders themselves, they have a deep understanding of what we need.

The broker’s mission is to provide the best trading conditions so that clients can focus on their trading with complete transparency. The company’s core values ​​are built on integrity, trust, honesty and fairness.

Conclusion

IC Markets’ true ECN model means they offer some of the best possible trading conditions available to all levels of traders worldwide, including tight spreads and fast order execution. I find this especially true when using automated trading or scalping systems. If you are a regular trader, IC Markets is one of my top picks.

There is a wide selection of trading tools and user-friendly platforms to meet your unique needs. You get free access to a library of educational materials and extremely useful trading tools to help you analyze the markets. Whatever your trading strategy and preferences, the broker has everything needed for a seamless trading environment.

In addition to their industry-leading trading products and services, they also have 24/7 support and strict regulation that gives you peace of mind that you are using a trustworthy broker. I have been working with them for many years now and will continue to happily use them for my trading needs.