IG Review

IG Overview

IG offers the ultimate comprehensive trading package, featuring excellent trading and research tools, industry-leading education, and an extensive range of tradeable markets.
A trusted multi-asset broker, IG is publicly traded and regulated across the globe. Its fantastic all-around experience has us ranking IG as the best overall broker in 2022.

• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Australian Financial Security Authority (FSA)
• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySec)
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of UK
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
• The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) of New Zealand
• The Financial Sector Commission Authority (FSCA) of South Africa

IG Pros & Cons

IG has a well-designed and user-friendly web trading platform that is easy to customize. You will find many useful educational tools on the website. Funding and withdrawing money is easy and there are multiple options. On the other hand, IG’s trading fees are high for forex and stock CFDs. The product portfolio is limited, as in most countries IG offers only CFD and options trading. Customer support could be better.

IG Pros:

• First-class web trading platform
• Superb educational tools
•  Great deposit and withdrawal options

IG Cons: 

• High forex and stock CFD fees
• Limited product portfolio

IG Regulation

Trading with a regulated broker will limit the potential for fraud and malpractice. I always recommend traders to check for regulation and verify it with the regulator by checking the provided license with their database. IG Markets presents clients with one regulated entity for US traders, which is also the only necessary regulation for Forex brokers operating out of the United States.
IG Markets US officially launched in 2019, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulates this broker. It is also a member of the National Futures Association (NFA), created by the CFTC. IG Markets US follows the industry standard for US regulations but has faced criticism in 2021.

In January 2021, a spike in market volatility caused outages at IG Markers US, and traders could not manage their positions, leading to avoidable trading losses. Reports from two sources indicated that IG Markets US failed to provide customer support and did not answer phone calls. At the same time, it was quick to react to commentary to protect its image and deny accusations made by clients.

Since IG Markets US is a Forex broker, it does not offer traders Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) protection, which does not cover currencies. However, since IG Markets US is part of IG Group, publicly listed in the UK on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and a member of the FTSE250 index, I do not consider this an issue. Traders can confidently trade with IG Markets US and trust this broker with deposits and portfolios.

IG Login

If you’d like to sign up for an IG Share Trading account, click one of the “Go to site” links on this page to be securely redirected to the IG share trading website. You can then open an account by filling out an online application.

It takes around 5-10 minutes to apply and you will need to provide:

• email address and phone number
• residential address (you must be an Australian tax resident)
• username and password
• A photograph or scanned copy of your Australian driver’s licence or passport
• Once the IG accounts team has approved your application, you will then be able to fund your account and begin trading shares.

IG Trading Platform

Most traders when joining IG will sign up with an IG Trading account. With this account, IG clients will get access to all the standard features the broker offers. Only traders looking for specialised features will have a need to consider an alternate account. Reasons to consider a specialised account include:

• Require guaranteed stop-loss trading on all trades (through a limited risk account available to IG’s Australian, Swiss, South African, Singaporean and Dubai clients)
• Stock trading (available for Australia traders – IG’s UK can use the IG trading account)
• Swap-free trading (available for IG’s Dubai clients)
• Higher leverage – (available in the IG’s professional account for UK traders)
• Options trading (IG’s European clients outside the UK and Switzerland)

When using the IG Trading account, clients can choose between IG’s standard or DMA trading execution.

Standard Trading Execution – commission-free trading
CFD trading in the case of IG means dealing desk/market maker trading execution. With this type of trading are no commissions when trading instruments such as forex, indices and cryptocurrencies as the primary trading costs are included in the spreads. Stock CFD trading, however, will have commission fees. See Trading spreads for more information.

DMA Trading Execution – Forex Direct
A forex direct market access (DMA) account is similar to straight-through processing (STP) or electronic communication network (ECN) trading execution. With this type of trading execution, IG connects you directly with liquidity providers. Removing the middle man means tighter spreads, access to more liquidity and IG’s fastest available trading execution.

To keep spreads tight, forex direct has a different cost structure to the standard execution. With this account, IG clients pay commission and these commissions will be reduced the more the client trades in the month. See Trading Spreads for more information.

Spread Betting – UK clients only
In addition to CFD trading, UK traders have the option of spread betting. This type of trading is very similar to CFD trading in that one speculates on the movement of an asset’s price. As the trader is only betting on the movement, it differs from CFD trading where you buy or sell a contract that represents the value of the asset. You can learn more about spread betting platforms on the best UK forex brokers page.

Disclaimer: This type of trading is popular in the UK as there are tax benefits.

IG Account Types

IG can be broken down into three key sections – CFDs, spread betting and share dealing. As such, this CFD and forex broker provides several trading account types.
let’s look at each account type:

Share Dealing Account
Firstly, IG’s share dealing account is only available for UK-based clients. The share dealing account provides access to ETFs, traditional stocks, mutual funds and investment trusts. Simply put, with a share dealing account you can buy and sell traditional shares and other financial instruments. The key difference between a share dealing account and CFD derivative trading is that with the former you take ownership of the underlying asset and therefore get shareholder rights including dividend payments.

There are three further sub-categories of trading accounts within the share dealing department:

• The standard dealing account
• The stocks and shares ISA account protects the initial £20,000 invested every year from dividend tax.
• The smart portfolio ISA has a minimum deposit of £500.
• CFD Trading Account
• There is no minimum balance to open a CFD account with IG. After you have deposited funds into your brokerage account you can start trading with the click of a button and the main charge
• on each trade is the spread or a commission for share trades.

With an IG CFD account, you can control your exposure through a variety of risk management tools, such as guaranteed stop orders and automated price alerts. Beginner traders can also practice their trading strategies and familiarize themselves by using the paper trading account before opening trades with a live trading account.

When it comes to margin trading with a CFD trading account this starts from 0.25% for forex trading and 5% for shares and indices.

• Spread betting account
• Spread betting allows you to speculate on rising and falling prices in financial markets without having to take ownership of the underlying asset.
• Spread betting is a popular trading strategy in the United Kingdom as profits are tax-free.
• With a spread betting account you can access more than 17,000 markets, trade without having to pay capital gains tax or stamp duty tax, take advantage of long and short trading opportunities, and you can open trades on margin.

IG Commission and fee

IG has low non-trading fees such as no deposit or withdrawal fees. With access to thousands of markets and heaps of derivatives trading methods to choose from, IG’s fee structure can be rather convoluted, especially for beginners.

There are different fee models for the different types of asset classes which are as follows:

Share CFDs, real shares, and options incur trading commissions
The trading fees are built into the spreads when it comes to stock index CFDs, commodity CFDs, bond CFDs, and forex trading.
Smart Portfolios incur an administration fee and you pay the trading spread.

IG’s size allows it to provide scalable execution across the board – regardless of the product being traded. While IG can’t be considered a discount broker, it shines for the active trader pricing available through its Forex Direct accounts, and its ability to execute large orders. Spreads on its main account offering are closer to the industry average in 2021, with spreads averaging 0.828 the majority of the time (23 hours a day) during September 2021.

CFD account average spreads: For both mini and standard-size contracts, typical spreads during the main trading session (22 hours each day from 0000 – 2200 GMT) averaged 0.768 pips for the month of September 2021 – which is slightly better than the industry average. It is worth noting that – just like with most forex brokers – IG’s spreads during low-liquid times can be higher than normal, averaging 0.994 pips when including the remaining hours in the trading day (2100 to 0000 GMT) during the same timeframe as the above September 2021 data.

CFD account active trader rebates: For volume traders who qualify as professionals under EU rules, IG offers pricing discounts via its three-tier active-trader rebate program. In tier one, you can earn a 10% spread rebate if you transact over £50 million worth of forex volume per month. Meanwhile, if you trade over £300 million per month, the rebate jumps to as much as 20%. To put this into a different context, 20% off of 0.76 pips is 0.17 pips, which would result in an all-in cost of just 0.60 pips – a very competitive spread.

DMA account (Forex Direct): For the savviest traders seeking more significant discounts than what is offered in the CFD account, the DMA account is an even better option than the active trader rebates on IG’s spread-only pricing. This commission-based offering, Forex Direct, is available via the DMA account and provides traders access to the L2 Dealer platform. The DMA account requires just a £1,000 minimum and uses a tiered pricing scale based on the trader’s previous month’s trading volume.

DMA account average spreads: With average spreads of 0.165 on the EUR/USD for the 12 weeks ending March 19th, 2019, the all-in spread is 1.3 pips using the base tier of $60 per million for traders that do less than $100 million per month. Traders that do over 1.5 yards (one yard = $1 billion in volume) see their per-side commission drop to $10 per million ($20 round-turn), resulting in an effective spread of 0.365 pips – using the 2019 data.

Execution method: Forex Direct streams from interbank liquidity providers where IG acts as an agency broker. IG doesn’t add on any additional spread, instead adding a commission to each trade you make .

IG Banking

Deposit
Making deposits is very simple, as it should be. Traders can deposit funds via credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, debit), bank wire transfers, and PayPal. Credit card payments are processed immediately while bank wire transfers can take up to three days. The minimum deposit required is £250 while the maximum deposit per day is £20,000.

Withdrawal
Withdrawals can be made via credit cards, bank transfers, and PayPal. In terms of how to withdraw funds, navigate to the ‘live accounts’ tab, and then select ‘withdraw’ funds.

Withdrawals to a card take between two and five working days. Withdrawals to PayPal are usually instant while bank transfers are often the same day if processed before midday, but may take up to three days, depending on bank processing details. The minimum withdrawal is £100.

IG FAQ

Is IG Markets US Forex available in the USA?

IG Markets US exclusively caters to US Forex traders and does not offer other assets.

Is IG Markets US good for trading stocks?

IG Markets US does not offer stock trading and is a pure Forex broker.

Is IG Markets US trading regulated?

The CFTC is the regulator of IG Markets US, which is also a member of the NFA.

Is IG safe?

CFD accounts on IG are provided by IG International Limited which is licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority to conduct investment and digital asset business.

IG is authorized and regulated by a wide range of financial regulators including the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and National Futures Association, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Bermuda Monetary Authority, and the Financial Services Authority of Japan.

IG also offers negative balance protection for CFD and forex spot trading for EU-based clients. Moreover, all client funds are held in segregated accounts at regulated banks. UK residents are protected up to £85,000 by the Financial Conduct Authority should the broker go into insolvency.

IG Verdict

Overall, this is a high-quality broker. IG Group has been around for decades, and it is a globally recognized presence. It even accepts American traders, which is not something you see everyday from firms like IG. If you want a tried-and-true company with a lot of offerings and education tools, IG Group is for you. Though the minimum account deposit isn’t as low as it could be, it pays off when you look at all the other features—particularly APIs and the IG Academy—that you get.