IG Review 2023: In-Depth Analysis of One of the Leading Brokers

They are popular because you can ‘go short’, which is making a trade the price will go down rather than up, and you can trade with leverage, just like a spread bet. There’s no actual time-limit, you can hold them for as long as you like. With spread bets you will have an expiration date, which is a date when the bet will end. So if the stock price rises, the broker pays you the difference in price, and if the stock price is lower in the future, you pay the broker the difference. It’s very similar to owning the actual share, except you don’t actually own it.

THEY ARE THIEVES,On several occasions, I asked for their commission on each transaction. I asked for a rebate then they started charging extortionate commissions. If you are losing there is no commission but if you start making money they start charging you a lot of commission. Is IG legit features all the key aspects you need to look at to see if a broker is safe and legit.

The spread is how IG makes money, specifically through customer trades that “cross” the bid/ask spread. There is a “commission” charge that comes into play when one is trading CFDs, but it is added to either side of the market spread, and there is an actual commission for every share-CFD trade. Additionally, IG (U.K.) charges a premium for guaranteed stop loss orders that kicks in only if that order is triggered, and there are other extras and third-party charges that are clearly documented on the U.K. IG Markets US offers bank wires, automated clearing house (ACH), and debit cards, a limited selection typical for US-based brokers. I find the choices unacceptable and prefer third-party payment processors. They remain superior and allow traders to keep trading activities and day-to-day transactions separate.

IG operates with some of the high-end trading platforms that add to the credibility of the platform. IG provides you with two options, you can use their own web trading platform or you can use the thrid party software MetaTrader 4. We tested the IG web trading platform and we were impressed, it was very intuitive with clear fee reports and incorporates a two factor authentication for safer trading. It provides all the standard order types and has advanced alert and notifications settings. When traders trade cash CFDs with shares, IG charges the following fees per country’s market and product. Alongside the overnight funding fees, additional administrative charges may apply on a yearly basis.

Is IG regulated?

IG does note though, you will lose certain investor protections with these accounts. The difference is that IG Index offers spread betting to UK customers where as IG Markets offers CFD trading globally (except in America) to retail and professional traders. If you have a professional account you can still trade binary options with IG, which are now called Digital 100s.

Most of the reviews are 5 stars, mentioning the excellent customer service. Your money and assets are also held in a completely separate bank, under your name, and IG cannot use these funds for anything. In the very unlikely case IG were to go out of business, you would get your money and assets returned to you. There’s no live chat, but there is a forum for questions which can be answered by the community. And there’s an excellent help centre on their website which has got pretty much every answer to any question you might have. What you will pay is trading costs, and this comes in the form of a spread fee.

When conducting our IG review, we found creating an account to be fairly straightforward and it can be done within minutes, however the ID verification process can take upto 3 days. In terms of security, there’s a two step login process which requires the user to download the IG Authentication app onto a mobile or tablet device to be completed. Options and turbo warrants are complex financial instruments and your capital is at risk. It’s free to open an account and no downloads are required to use our web-based platform. I’ve been using IG Markets for a number of years now and find them to be good.

Some legal stuff from IG

It is actually impressive for them to be able to offer us so many instruments whilst being regulated in so many jurisdictions. If you want regulation and choice, Markets.com could also be worth consideration. You can explore the upcoming economic and political events which you can add to your trading calendar to ensure you are keeping up with the latest fundamental market analysis.

You never have to miss out on market movements or financial events with IG’s free automated trading alerts. Trading alerts are free, automatic and customisable notifications can be sent to you whenever your specifications are triggered – like when economic events occur, prices move and technical conditions change. By having IG monitor the markets for you, you’ll be able to get on with your day and take advantage of opportunity when it arises.

Alternative Brokers

The company boasts a couple of reputable awards and is widely seen as one of the top overall forex brokers across the globe. IG is an industry-leading broker with over 16,000 tradable assets, impressive educational material and research tools, and competitive rates. There are no withdrawal fees for taking money out of your IG account.

I also like the choice of trading platforms, consisting of a competitive proprietary trading platform, ProRealTime, and MT4. DailyForex.com adheres to strict guidelines to preserve editorial integrity to help you make decisions with confidence. Some of the reviews and content we feature on this site are supported by affiliate partnerships from which this website may receive money. This may impact how, where and which companies / services we review and write about. Our team of experts work to continually re-evaluate the reviews and information we provide on all the top Forex / CFD brokerages featured here.

This platform also hosts shows that have already been shown live on IGTV, with several editions published daily, and all on demand. Watch this station first thing to get the latest updates on major events, and chart analysis. IG offers platform choices to suit web, mobile, iPad, tablet and MetaTrader4 ig broker review users, on both iOS and Android. Non-UK/non-European traders will not be subject to UK and EU protections, such as negative balance protection. On the downside, the company does charge a high stock CFD fee and a steep monthly fee after two years of inactivity, but all fees are clear and transparent.

IG themselves claim to be the World’s No. 1 for CFD trading and spread betting, and boast having an easy-to-use platform. We wanted to see for ourselves, and pass our findings onto you, which is why we’ve tested the platform and created this IG review, with particular focus on IG bitcoin and crypto trading. For example, clients of IG South Africa must deposit at least 4,000 South African rand (ZAR), whereas at IG Japan the minimum is 35,000 Japanese yen (JPY). With IG Australia the smallest deposit for a live account is 450 Australian dollars (AUD); in Singapore, it’s 400 Singapore dollars (SGD). With their basic PureDeal platform let’s say you buy 20,000 shares as a CFD in company XYZ. So you buy 20,000 at the ask which is $1.00, neither you nor IG have bought any shares in XYZ, you are merely entering a contract with them.

Once your account has been verified, you will then be able to fund your account whenever you like and start investing with IG. Professional clients can gain access to account features that are not available to retail clients, but in turn they do lose certain investor protections. As an IG professional client, you’ll be responsible for ensuring that your account doesn’t fall into a negative balance. If it does, you’ll need to make additional payments to bring your balance back above zero.

Spread betting needs to form part of a responsible trading strategy. Say the stock actually went down in price by 10%, so the value of the £250 has reduced by £25, that £25 is 50% of your own initial £50, so you are now down 50%, rather than 10% if you had not used leverage. An author, teacher & investing expert with nearly two decades experience as an investment portfolio manager and chief financial officer for a real estate holding company. IG is regulated by 17 national authorities, including the CFTC, and is publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange, making it safer than any privately-held broker and one of the safest brokers in the world. Trading leveraged products such as Forex and CFDs may not be suitable for all investors as they carry a high degree of risk to your capital.

Charts, however, are superb on mobile, and sync seamlessly with the web platform. IG Markets has recently upgraded its DMA platform to include the ability for traders to benefit from access to UK and European equities via BATS, Chi-X and Turquoise, Europe’s leading MTFs. Now with their PureDMA platform (the L2 dealer system) with Direct Market Access.

• 78%
  of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider.
• It’s actually quite interesting how each country has a specific way it likes to trade the markets.
• The United Kingdom and European traders are offered negative balance protection, which is the default.
• Alike spread betting is available only for UK residents, while Cryptocurrencies are not available for trade-in Japan and UK at all.
• IG’s educational tools are superior to any of the other online brokers that Investopedia has researched.

The panel includes ten news categories, both in written and video format. Traders can also search for specific news to support trading decisions. Other platform settings allow for a light or dark theme, alert sounds, and price tick indicators to be customized. Traders can also choose a “price through current” option, which allows them to pay successively higher prices (up to a predetermined limit) to increase the chances of being filled.

Traders can take advantage of the competitive rebate program offered for higher volume forex trades, in addition to volume discounts for UK share traders. Yes, IG offers a share dealing ISA where you can pick your own shares and also a Smart Portfolio ISA where you buy into a pre-made portfolio that contains a diverse range of investments and is ranked by risk. IG offers spread betting, CFDs, forex and investing accounts through IG Markets. Yes, IG’s trading platform is ranked by us as one of the best in the UK. IG’s trading platform is specifically good for high volume traders that require deep liquidity.

The tools, just like the platform, are available only in English. When you place an order, you have to set a knock-out level, which is the price where your position will be liquidated. Selecting the knock-out level works like selecting your leverage because you have to fund your position up to the knock-out level. If you choose a lower knock-out level, you’ll use higher leverage, while a higher knock-out level means lower leverage. At the time of writing, it was available to clients in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. IG’s options fees are low, although the contract sizes are also smaller compared to regular exchange-traded options.

Globally, IG’s costs (spreads, commissions, and fees) are very competitive, and that holds true for U.S clients, as well. I am disappointed with customer support at IG Markets US and not surprised it came under heavy criticism. https://traderoom.info/ IG Markets US only lists two phone numbers at the bottom of most web pages, one for new clients and one for existing ones. IG Markets US does not provide operating hours and relies on its FAQ section for the bulk of support.