IG Markets Review

Review

IG Markets, domiciled in London UK, is part of IG Group Holdings Plc, a global organization founded in 1974 when they began as IG Index, providing an innovative way for retail investors to speculate on the price of gold. They have been online since 2003 and currently maintain offices in 16 countries, boasting nearly 140,000 active clients worldwide. IG is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Asic in Australia and is considered to be one of the leading providers of CFDs and financial spread betting worldwide as well as UK's largest retail Forex provider.

The IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of the FTSE 250 market index.

Accounts

There are only 2 types of trading accounts at IG--a standard account for ordinary traders and a premium account or high net worth traders. The standard account has a minimum trade of $1 and the maximum per option is $300.

They also offer a complete trading solution for corporate and institutional clients, complete with easy access to over 10,000 markets, direct market access solutions, 24-hour technical support, transparent charging and tiered margining.

IG also offers advanced traders a DMA account. This is suitable for those looking to trade market depth with algorithms and traders looking to participate in the pre-market and post-market auctions. By trading shares with DMA traders get execution into multiple liquidity venues, including broker and MTF dark pools, dedicated market makers, exchange and MTF-lit trading venues.

Features

There is a wide range of investment instruments to choose from at IG. Traders can spread bet or trade CFDs on over 10,000 markets from all over the world. Their spreads are the same for CFDs and spread betting, except when it comes to shares. Share CFDs directly reflect the underlying market price and are subject to a commission. Share spread bets are commission free, but are subject to a spread on the opening and closing price of the bet. However, the overall cost is virtually the same for share spread bets and share CFDs.

IG Markets Spread Betting

As a Forex provider, IG offers low spreads on over 90 pairs using several unique trading platforms.

When it comes to the indices, IG offers competitive spreads on a wide range of global indices with low margin and high leverage. Their stock index spreads vary by the time of day. During the underlying market hours they offer their standard and tightest spreads e.g. 1 point on the FTSE 100. On an out-of-hours market, they offer a wider spread.

Traders can choose from over 6000 global shares and IG offers spreads as low as 0.1% on spread bets and commissions from 0.1% on CFDs, depending on the host country for the stock.  Margins begin at 5%.

Not to be left out of one of the fastest growing financial instruments, IG also offers binary option trading with timescales from as short as 60 second trades to monthly timeframes. Commodities such as metals, energies and agriculturals are also available.

To round off the plethora of different possibilities, IG makes the following markets available: Interest rates, bonds, sectors, exchange traded products (ETPs) and house prices.

I was pleased when doing this IG review to see that a demo account was offered to traders wishing to practice their trades before putting any of their personal funds at risk. And besides the demo account, IG gives new traders an opportunity to try out one of their platforms online with an interactive preview. I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to navigate.

Education

IG provides its account holders with access to a comprehensive range of market data, charts, news and analysis. Their news and analysis page includes a daily market update and several live updates presented by their team of financial analysts.

EUR/USD Live Market Data

IG Markets News Section

IG Markets Market Screener

Video guides offer platform walk-throughs as well as how-to explanations on a number of topics. In addition, there are lessons on understanding the various markets, trading concepts and technical analysis.

Seminars are scheduled in Dublin and London several times each month and their website is flush with high quality articles and guides to help build up trading skills. Their economic calendar is complete and current.

IG Markets Educational Artices

Deposits/Withdrawals

Funds can be deposited into account via credit and debit cards and bank transfers. Withdrawals are made via the same methods.

Customer Support

I was especially pleased with their extensive help and support page which lists a wide range of help topics as well and questions and answers.  In addition, their support is available 24/5 by Chat, email and telephone. They are also be accessed on Facebook and Twitter.

To accommodate traders wishing to trade on the US stock market which is opened from 2:30pm to 9pm London time, IG allows their clients to trade CFDs and spread bet on dozens of key US stocks during key hours--up until 1am Mon-Thurs and 10pm Fri (London time).

An interesting feature at IG is the opportunity to trade out-of-hours on the FTSE, Germany 30 and Wall Street on Sundays and weekday positions on FTSE, Wall Street and Germany 30 will not be affected in any way. Stops and limits will not be processed on Sunday.

The website is available in English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Conclusion

All in all, IG has an amazing amount of offerings. Website navigation is quick and easy and opening an account takes barely a minute. It is somewhat disappointing that there is only one available account for the majority of traders but they make up for this by providing different platforms for both beginner and advanced traders.

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Features

The numerous features at IG have made this broker into one the world’s leading providers of online trading services for Binaries, Forex, CFDs and Spread betting. Especially worth mentioning is their choice of different trading platforms which are geared to both beginner traders and those with more trading knowhow. Not many other brokers offer unique platforms for varying levels of trading experience and this feature is very much appreciated. In addition, their tight spreads, excellent customer support and premium services serve to make trading with IG an enjoyable event.

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Platforms

IG offers a choice of several platforms.

ProRealTime

Their ProRealTime platform is web-based and provides integrated access to a web-based charting package engineered by global charting specialists using advanced and reliable charts straight from your chosen market and over 100 indicators. The platform offers full market depth with DMA access for FX, stockbroking and equity CFDs and deals are executed in 0.1 seconds or less.

IG Markets ProRealTime Web-based Platform

MetaTrader 4

Ig uses the ever popular MetaTrader 4 platform which offers ultra-fast trading with no third-party bridges, Autochartist and Trading Central add-ons, tight spreads from 1.2 pips on over 70 CFD and spread betting markets and EAs that execute trades even when your PC is off.

Advanced Platforms

For traders looking to get an extra edge, IG offers advanced trading platforms.  Their L2 Dealer platform was designed specifically for traders who are happy to participate directly in the market. It offers greater liquidity on shares trading through access to primary exchanges, market makers, brokers and MTF dark pools. Traders can trade Forex via Forex Direct by connecting to the liquidity pools of major banks and Currenex and receive market depth from a range of providers.

IG Markets L2 Dealer Platform

The L2 Dealer Wide offers a range of available order types: pegged, fill or kill, execute and eliminate, good for auction and the ‘Iceberg’ facility which breaks up large shares orders into smaller tranches.

Its enhanced technology allows for automated trading using algorithms created in Excel, ladder dealing customizable, professional DMA interface, ‘One-click’ trading tools and many other features.

Mobile Apps

IG offers mobile trading apps for iPhones, Androids, iPads, Tablets and Windows. These apps can be downloaded from Google Play and Windows Store.

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User Reviews

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