IG review

Spread from

0.6 pips

EUR/USD spread

0.85 pips

GBP/USD spread

1.84 pips

Commission

$0 on standard forex CFDs

All-in cost, EUR/USD

0.85 pips

Spread type

Variable

Overnight swap

Both: overnight funding charged/credited

Currency conversion

0.5%

Cost is where brokers in the same regulatory bracket actually differ.

Spreads from 0.6 pips suggest an all-in account, where the broker's fee is built into the price rather than charged separately. There is usually no commission on top, which makes the cost easier to predict.

Quoted spreads are best-case figures on the most liquid pair, in normal conditions. What you actually pay widens around news and at the session open.

IG lists a minimum deposit of $0. Treat it as the cost of opening an account, not the cost of trading one - position sizing on a small balance is what tends to cause damage.

Markets

Forex, Shares, Indices, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies, ETFs, Bonds/Rates, Options, Futures

Currency pairs

80+

Total instruments

17,000+

Crypto CFDs

Yes, jurisdiction-dependent

Maximum leverage

1:30

Execution model

Market maker / principal with DMA available on selected markets

Execution speed

Approx. 10ms

Order types

Market, limit, stop, stop-loss, trailing stop, guaranteed stop, working orders

Servers

London and global financial data centres

Leverage is capped at 1:30, which is the retail limit under tier-one regulation. It is a protection rather than a restriction: it caps how quickly a position can move against your balance.

IG covers forex, shares, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, etfs, bonds/rates, options, futures. A wider range matters less than depth in the instruments you actually trade.

Funding options: visa, mastercard, debit card, bank transfer, paypal, bpay and payid depending on jurisdiction. Check withdrawal routes as well as deposit ones - they are often not the same, and the difference only becomes apparent when you try to take money out.

Platforms

IG Trading Platform, MetaTrader 4, ProRealTime, TradingView

Own platform

Yes

Mobile app

Both proprietary and third-party

Browser trading

Yes

Automated trading

Yes; Expert Advisors on MT4 and automated strategies through ProRealTime/API

Copy trading

No

Indicators

100+

Third-party tools

TradingView, ProRealTime, Autochartist, Reuters

API access

Yes, REST API, streaming API and FIX for institutional clients

MetaTrader 4 remains the most widely supported platform for expert advisors. If you rely on an existing EA, this is usually the deciding factor.

TradingView integration lets you trade from charts you may already use, removing the need to run a second platform for analysis.

Regulated by

FCA (195355); ASIC (AFSL 220440); BaFin (148759); FINMA; MAS; FMA New Zealand (FSP18923); JFSA; DFSA; BMA; NFA/CFTC

Regulator tier

Tier 1

Register entry

FCA Financial Services Register, FRN 195355

Client money segregated

Yes

Held at

Regulated banks in segregated client trust accounts

Negative balance protection

Yes, retail CFD clients where required

Compensation scheme

FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; statutory schemes vary by regulated entity

Audited by

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Not available to

United States for OTC CFDs and other jurisdictions where IG products are prohibited or IG is not authorised

Across a hundred brokers, the licence is what separates the field fastest.

IG holds tier-one authorisations from ASIC, FCA, MAS, FMA, BaFin and FINMA. That matters more than any headline spread: it determines your leverage cap, whether losses can exceed your deposit, and what happens to your money if the firm fails.

ASIC caps retail leverage at 1:30, requires negative balance protection, and obliges the broker to hold client money in a separate trust account.

The FCA caps retail leverage at 1:30, mandates negative balance protection, and covers eligible clients under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The DFSA regulates from the Dubai International Financial Centre, a separate legal jurisdiction from the wider UAE.

Client money is held separately from the firm's own money, at Regulated banks in segregated client trust accounts. That separation is what makes your balance recoverable if the company fails, rather than part of the pool its creditors divide up.

Negative balance protection applies, so a losing position cannot take the account below zero and leave you owing the broker money.

Covered by FSCS up to £85,000 for eligible UK clients; statutory schemes vary by regulated entity, which pays eligible clients up to its limit if the firm fails owing client money.

Check the licence yourself: the FCA Register, ASIC Connect, the MAS Financial Institutions Directory, the New Zealand Financial Service Providers Register, the DFSA public register, NFA BASIC.

Minimum deposit

$0

Account types

CFD, Spread Betting, Share Trading, Options, Turbo24, Professional, Demo

Account currencies

GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, SGD, HKD

Islamic account

No

Demo account

Yes

Professional account

Yes

Minimum trade size

0.01 lots equivalent / instrument-dependent

Time to open

Less than 5 minutes

IG runs 7 account types. More choice is not automatically better: the tightest headline spread almost always sits on the account that also charges a commission, so the comparison that matters is the two added together.

Base currencies: GBP, USD, EUR, AUD, SGD, HKD. Holding the account in the currency you fund it with avoids a conversion charge on every deposit and withdrawal - a cost that never shows up in a spread comparison.

The smallest position is 0.01 lots equivalent / instrument-dependent. For anyone starting carefully this matters more than the minimum deposit, because it sets the least you can put at risk on a single trade.

A demo account is available. Worth using for the platform rather than the results: fills are simulated, so it tells you how the software behaves but very little about execution.

Deposit methods

Visa, Mastercard, debit card, bank transfer, PayPal, BPAY and PayID depending on jurisdiction

Withdrawal methods

Bank transfer, debit/credit card and supported original funding methods

Deposit time

Instant for cards; bank transfer typically same day to 3 business days

Withdrawal time

Typically 1-3 business days

Minimum withdrawal

$0

Local payment methods

BPAY and PayID in Australia; Faster Payments in UK; jurisdiction-specific bank transfer methods

Withdrawals are stated at Typically 1-3 business days, against Instant for cards; bank transfer typically same day to 3 business days for deposits. A gap between the two is normal and not in itself a warning sign - identity checks are a legal obligation, not obstruction. What is worth noticing is a withdrawal that keeps meeting new conditions after those checks are done.

Withdrawal routes: bank transfer, debit/credit card and supported original funding methods. Money is usually returned by the route it arrived on, so the deposit method you pick is in effect the withdrawal method you are picking too.

The minimum withdrawal is $0 - relevant if you intend to fund the account lightly, since it sets the smallest amount you can take out at a time.

Support hours

24/5

Contact channels

Live chat, WhatsApp, phone, email

Languages

Multilingual

Telephone

+61 3 9860 1734

Email

helpdesk.au@ig.com

Live chat response

Typically under 2 minutes

Education

Extensive: IG Academy, courses, webinars, seminars, videos, tutorials and trading guides

Research

Extensive: Reuters news, IG analysis, trading signals, technical/fundamental analysis, client sentiment and IG Squawk

Support runs 24/5. Round-the-clock cover matters more than it sounds: a position held over a weekend or through an unexpected halt is exactly when you need somebody to answer.

Reachable by live chat, whatsapp, phone, email. A published telephone number is the one channel that is hard to fake and hard to ignore, so whether there is one says more than the number of channels does.

Languages: Multilingual. Being able to raise a complaint in your own language is worth more than it appears, because complaints are where precision matters most.

Education: extensive: ig academy, courses, webinars, seminars, videos, tutorials and trading guides. Treat broker-published material as an introduction rather than as advice - it is produced by a firm whose revenue rises when you trade more.

Legal entity

IG Markets Limited

Company number

04008957

Headquarters

London, United Kingdom

Founded

1974

Publicly listed

Yes, London Stock Exchange (LON: IGG), FTSE 100

Parent company

IG Group Holdings plc

Employees

2,000+

Also trades as

IG; IG Markets; IG Index; IG Prime

IG has been trading for around 52 years, through at least one full market cycle. Longevity guarantees nothing on its own, but a firm that came through 2008 and 2015 has been tested in a way a recent entrant has not.

It is publicly listed, which brings audited accounts and disclosure duties a private broker does not carry. That is real transparency about the company - though it says nothing about the trading conditions.

The contracting entity is IG Markets Limited. This is the company you would actually have a relationship with, and it is worth checking that it is the same one named on the licence you are relying on: large brokers commonly operate several, and they are not equally protected.

Part of IG Group Holdings plc. A parent adds resources, but the protections that apply to you are the ones attached to the entity that holds your account, not to the group.