Broker Review

IG Broker Review: Can They Keep up Their Good Reputation After 40+ Years?

Last Updated: October 8, 2020

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Author

Lawrence Pines

Risk Warning: Your Capital is at Risk.

Overview

IG is an online broker that offers four types of trading products, namely CFDs, spreadbetting, barriers, and vanilla options. As a subsidiary of public company IG Group Plc, IG has been in operation since 1974.

The company offers Contracts for Difference (CFDs), derivatives securities without actual ownership of the asset, on a variety of products. These include forex, indices, shares, commodities, cryptocurrencies, options, interest rates, and bonds.

With over 40 years of experience as a broker, IG has been re-regulated after the company underwent scrutiny with ESMA following a failure to comply in 2018. IG is now back online and accepting both retail, professional, and institutional account holders.

This IG review gives readers a thorough overview of the broker’s services and platform.

History of IG

Here is a brief timeline of IG’s history as a brokerage firm:

• 1974 – Founded by Stuart Wheeler, offering spreadbetting on gold
• 1998 – Established the first online spreadbetting platform
• 2002 – Opened first overseas office in Australia
• 2015 – Developed the first trading app for the Apple Watch
• 2017 – Launched a new customizable platform for beginners and seasoned traders
• 2018 – Launched a Swiss bank in Zurich (also one in Geneva in 2014)

IG Group has its headquarters in London, United Kingdom, and sales offices in 15 other countries, with a recently obtained license to open an office in China.

See IG Group’s regulatory licenses here.

Shares of IG’s parent company, IG Group plc, are publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange. As a public company, IG Group must make full disclosures about its financial health.

Where Does IG Operate?

IMPORTANT: CFDs are not available in the USA due to local regulation, and regulated brokers do not accept US citizens or US residents as clients.

IG operates globally across five continents. The major countries served by IG include:

Banned countries include Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, North Korea, Turkey, and Brazil.

IG offers different products in different countries, so traders may wish to contact customer support to confirm the type of trading they can do. The support team is available via email, phone, live chat, and Twitter.

Languages: English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Who Is IG Regulated By?

IG offers a regulated environment for trading financial instruments. As a global operator, the broker receives regulatory oversight from many agencies.

In 2018, the IG Group suffered a ban due to a failure to comply with the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) newly introduced legislation. The company has since bounced back, is fully regulated and offers products to customers worldwide.

Each company within the IG Group is subject to regulation by the appropriate bodies in the territory where it operates.

IG must also adhere to regulation and legislation relating to technology, the provision of internet services, and use of the internet.

All Regulatory Licenses Held by IG Group

The IG Group has several subsidiaries with multiple licenses worldwide, including the following.

IG Markets Limited (UK Company, no. 04008957) licensed by:

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – No. 195355
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) – No. 200510021K
• Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) – No. C109565
• Register of Community Investment Companies (Italy) – No. 06233800967
• Autorité des Marchés Financiers and Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Resolution (Banque de France) – No. 18343
• Finansinspektionen (Sweden) – No. 516405-3430
• Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) – No. AFSL 220440
• Financial Markets Authority (FMA) – No. FSP 18923

IG Index Limited (UK Company, no. 01190902) licensed by:

• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – No. 114059
• Gambling Commission (UK) – No. 066-002628-R-103649-002
• Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) – No. C111543

Other Licenses

The IG Group owns several companies, too.

• IG Bank S.A. (Switzerland, Geneva, no. CH-660-3073013-1) licensed by the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority
• IG Asia Pte Limited (Singapore) licensed by:
  • Monetary Authority of Singapore – No. CMS100049-5
  • International Enterprise Singapore – No. IGA/CBL/2015
• IG Securities Limited (Japan) licensed by:
  • Japanese Financial Services Authority – No. Chief of Kanto Local Finance Bureau (Kinsyo) 255
  • Ministry of Energy, Trade, and Industry – No. 20161108 syo 10
  • Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries – No. MAFF Order 28 syokusan 3988
• North American Derivatives Exchange Inc (Delaware, US) overseen by the CFTC
• IG Markets South Africa Limited licensed by the Financial Services Board – No. FSP No 41393
• IG Limited (Dubai) licensed by the Dubai Financial Services Authority – No. F001780

IG has similar regulatory oversight in the other regions where it operates.

What Can You Trade With IG?

IG clients have access to over 16,000 markets worldwide. The four products offered by IG are:

• CFDs – includes all of the below asset classes
• Spread betting – includes all of the below asset classes
• Vanilla options – indices, forex, commodities
• Barriers – indices, forex, commodities, and shares

Traders wanting to trade options and barriers use a separate platform to those looking to spread bet or trade CFDs.

Here is a comparison of the products and markets offered by IG alongside two other leading online brokers, Plus500 and AvaTrade:

Below is an overview of the trading products offered by IG.

Indices

Customers can place trades in cash indices, futures indices, indices denominated in GBP, and micro indices, which have smaller contract sizes.

Shares

IG clients can trade more than 12,000 international shares CFDs. Traders receive the dividends for share CFDs that are long. In addition, traders have the ability to short shares in many cases.

Forex

IG’s most popular forex markets include EUR/USD, AUD/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY. Here is the complete list of forex products traders can trade on the platform.

Commodities

IG customers can place trades via CFDs on the following commodities groups.

Bonds and Rates

IG offers a selection of government bonds and global interest rates for traders.

Cryptocurrencies

IG offers a total of 11 cryptocurrencies for traders, including major ones like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Other Products

IG Index offers other categories of trading products too, namely:

• Digital 100s – Binary (yes or no) volatility bets on different markets
• Vanilla Options – Traders can buy or sell CFDs on options on indices, commodities, and currencies.
• IPOs – Traders can speculate on prices of companies that are about to go public
• Sectors – Traders can speculate on strength or weakness in a particular sector. IG offers 35 UK and Australian sectors including banking, mining, and retailing.
• ETPs (Exchange Traded Products) – Traders can buy or sell CFDs on instruments that track another investment instrument such as commodities, currencies, share prices or interest rates
• ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) – Bundles of securities across a variety of asset classes.

Note: Spreadbetting is tax-free to UK residents.

IG Account Types and Requirements

IG customers choose a retail account based on the type of instruments they intend to trade. Traders can open a CFD trading account, spreadbetting account or share dealing account. A share dealing account allows traders to buy and sell the actual shares of companies without using CFDs.

Traders who want access to all of these instruments can open an account that combines all three.

Opening a live account is free and clients can start trading after making a minimum deposit of $/£/€300 or equivalent.

All traders can also open a free demo account to practice working with financial instruments. Demo accounts begin with £10,000 in virtual funds and allow traders to test strategies both on a desktop platform and with IG mobile apps.

Professional Account

IG offers a professional account option to traders with a portfolio of over $/£/€500,000, at least one year of experience in the financial sector, and a regular trading history.

The benefits of an IG Pro account are:

• Lower margins (up to 90%)
• More available products
• Cash rebates

That said, professional traders lose negative balance protection and beginner-targeted tutorials.

Traders with a professional account get the following margins:

• Major Forex and Indices – 1:222
• Gold – 1:158
• Other Commodities – 1:74
• Cryptocurrencies – 1:22
• Equities – 1:22

Sign-Up and Verification

Signing up for a demo requires only an e-mail and a password. However, when traders want to open a live account, the registration requires more details and the account must be verified. Here is a simple explanation of the process:

After you click the green Create Account button on their website, IG asks you a few questions:

1. Your personal details
2. Which products you want to trade in your account (spreadbetting, CFDs or shares)
3. Your financial status
4. Your trading experience

These questions prompt traders to demonstrate that they understand the trading products and the risks associated with them — they do not imply criteria.

During the account opening process, traders can choose whether they want a CFD account, a spreadbetting account or a share account.

After completing this information, traders are asked to submit additional information to verify their identity. Traders can choose from one of the following three options:

1. Passport
2. Two government-issued photo IDs
3. One government-issued photo ID and one utility bill or bank statement

Fees Overview: Deposits and Withdrawals

IG makes money as a business by charging particular fees. Traders should be aware of these fees to avoid any unwanted charges.

Deposits and withdrawals can be made via:

• Credit/debit cards (Processing time: 2 to 5 days)
• Bank transfers (Processing time: Up to 3 days)
• PayPal (Processing time: Up to 24 hours)

There are various minimum and maximum withdrawal limits for different methods and currencies.

Here is a full list of additional charges traders may incur with IG:

Overnight Funding Fees

IG charges traders who keep positions open past 11PM CET. This applies to barriers, daily funded bets, and cash CFDs.

The funds are deducted from the trader’s account automatically. Alongside the overnight funding fees, additional administrative charges may apply on a yearly basis.

IG Spreads and Commissions

IG traders pay a spread on every trade. Spreads are not fixed, and the exact spreads depend on the time of day the trade is placed.

Market spreads also vary based on whether the CFDs are cash CFDs, or futures/forwards products. Traders should refer to the IG website for up-to-date details.

More, traders pay commissions on every share CFD and also on share trades. The minimum spreads for some of the most popular products are shown below.

Commissions on Shares

When traders trade cash CFDs with shares, IG charges the following fees per country’s market and product:

*Euro includes: Belgium, Eire, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain

Margin Requirements and Margin Calls

IG margin requirements allow traders to trade on a margin of up to 1:30 on some products.

However, traders who use excessive leverage on trades risk getting margin calls and having their positions closed prematurely.

IG notifies traders by email when they fall 99% below the required margin.

Traders receive a second email when equity falls below 75% of the IG margin requirements. IG automatically closes a trader’s position if the equity falls below 50% of the required margin.

IG Mobile Platform Review

You can download IG’s mobile app from Google Play for Android devices and the App Store for iOS devices.

This review is based on the Android app — some differences may apply to the iOS version.

Markets and Watchlists

After you log in, you’re presented with a default watchlist of popular markets — this is one of the three primary tabs at the bottom of your trading app.

By clicking on the top menu’s arrow next to ‘Watchlists’, you can begin to add markets and products of your choice to keep track of. Assets can be added to a watchlist by tapping the ‘star’.

Asset browsing is difficult to find at first. As traders tap the ‘search’ icon, the market categories are presented as suggestions through which traders can browse products freely. The main product categories are split into sub-categories.

Overall, asset browsing has poorer navigation compared to other mobile apps like City Index and Plus500, but it does the job.

Executing Trades

The trade execution window has the exact same feature-set as the desktop counterpart. When buying or selling, traders must define compulsory and optional trading criteria.

The types of trades are presented as a slider on the top half of the screen, where traders can navigate between six tabs:

• Market details: contains a charting feature along with market statistics
• New deal: contains the trade execution tab with trade configurations
• New order: trade execution for future orders
• Set alert: alert management for the chosen asset
• News: analytics and news from relevant outlets to that particular asset
• Market info: an aggregation of statistics and good-to-knows about the chosen asset

Position Management

Traders can manage positions via the ‘Trades’ tab. Each position and order are listed in separate tabs, along with closed positions where traders can navigate past contracts.

Open positions have immediate indicators like stop/loss limits, the live asset price, and a live profit/loss indicator.

Account Funding and Settings

The third tab, ‘Accounts’, allows traders to configure account settings and deposit funds.

Funds can also be transferred between different account types, namely the Options/Barriers account and the CFDs/Spreadbetting account.

The mobile accounts section is well organized and simple to navigate. Support and learning material is directly accessible. All trading and transaction history can likewise be viewed.

Accounts can be funded by tapping the ‘Add Funds’ button in the mobile accounts section.

IG’s Responsive Web Trader

Alongside the apps available at the Google Play and App Stores, IG also offers a responsive web trading platform where users can access IG accounts via their web browser of preference.

Traders who value quality mobile trading could find Plus500 and AvaTrade suitable alternatives brokers to consider.

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 71.00%-89.00% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

IG Desktop Platform Review

Upon logging in, traders are presented with a choice of two platform types — a CFDs/Spreadbetting platform, and an Options platform. The two are fundamentally the same in infrastructure, with minor differences in layout and available functionalities.

The CFDs and Options platforms can be navigated via the upper right hand menu.

Note: In this platform review, we refer to the CFD/Spreadbetting platform.

The ‘Workspace’

The main page contains panels with search functions, instrument prices, trading positions, charts, trading tickets, watch lists, and alerts. Traders can drag, drop, and resize these panels to customize their trading experience. IG refers to this as the ‘workspace.’

The search panel in the upper left is the tool traders will use most to locate new instruments to trade. Directly underneath is a list of market categories.

Traders can access lists of instruments by clicking on the categories. Then, traders can open an advanced trading panel where the individual instruments chart and relevant analyses are presented.

This panel allows traders to execute a trade and to add the instrument to the main workspace in one click.

The dashboard is completed by a news panel on the right and a top bar, showing statistics like available funds, account options, and deposit buttons.

Trade Management

This section allows traders to manage and track products of interest, manage trades, and track the trading history. Features include:

• Watchlist – traders can customize multiple watchlists for tracking markets or trade ideas. Traders can customize each list, give it a name, and keep a separate window open for it.
• Order management – to keep track of pending orders
• Position management – to keep track of open positions
• Order history – information about past orders and trades

Trading Tickets: Executing Trades

The IG trade ticket allows traders to quickly and easily send orders into the marketplace. At the same time, the system allows more advanced traders to enter orders with various contingencies.

Choices include:

• Order size
• Stop/Loss limits
• Order expiry (good-till-cancelled)
• Custom alerts (based on price, rate of change, and timeframe)

In total, traders can choose from five types of orders: limit orders, market orders, stop-loss orders, trailing stop orders, and guaranteed orders. Guaranteed stop orders ensure that a trader’s order will be filled at the stop price.

Deal and Order Tabs

Aside from the alert tab, the IG trading ticket has two tabs – “Deal” and “Order to open”. Traders entering market orders must use the deal tab, while limit orders need to be entered on the order to open tab. This creates unnecessary confusion that the platform designers should have avoided.

Traders can choose to get partial fills on orders. 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.

When traders have an existing bet on a market and want to open another position in the opposite direction, the ‘force open’ option needs to be checked upon execution.

Charting Features

IG offers traders a variety of different technical indicators and drawings with charts, including Bollinger bands, moving averages, pivot points, Fibonacci variations, Elliot waves, and candlesticks. Traders can name these charts, save them and pull them up as needed.

The charting tools have little icons next to each of the technical tools. These pictures are a great way for novice traders to see what each of the functions does before drawing a chart.

The charting features are available as individual workspace items or can be used while browsing instruments on-the-go.

Platform Settings

The panel located on the left offers a ‘settings’ option, through which traders can toggle various options to customize the platform and trade tickets.

Some of these settings are practical, like which configurations are presented on a trading ticket, while others are cosmetic, like the color of the trading dashboard.

The deal settings include:

• Deal size – the trade ticket can remember the last deal size and save it.
• Notion value – a display of the notion value on the ticket.
• Stop/Loss limits – save the last stop/loss limit used in a trade.
• Net Off or Force Open – the default option whether trades on an already open instrument should net off (close any opposing positions in the opposite direction) or force open (open a new position irrespective of the other open trade).

Other platform settings allow for a light or dark theme, alert sounds, and price tick indicators to be customized.

News and Analytics

The IG platform offers a detailed news and analytics panel that traders can open and close from the side-menu, or even keep open in the workspace at all times.

The panel includes ten news categories, both in written and video format. Traders can also search for specific news to support trading decisions.

News notifications are presented on the right side of the home dashboard, along with a Twitter feed of industry news outlets.

IG Community

IG Community is a subsidiary website that can be accessed through IG.com. It is aimed at traders looking to get started with IG, as well as intermediate traders who are open to learning.

The sister website contains:

• Community forums
• Blogs
• Tutorials
• Knowledgebase articles
• Member statistics

More, IG offer what they call the ‘IG Academy’, an online course with dozens of pages of free material aimed at beginners.

Alternative Platforms

IG presents the option to trade with MetaTrader 4 and ProRealTime. Both trading software are integratable with traders’ IG accounts and offer a variety of trading tools.

Pro RealTime allows traders to automate trades and build customized trading algorithms. It comes with over 100 indicators and 16,000 markets. Traders can install the software on Linux, Windows, or Mac.

FAQs

Choosing a broker can be confusing, so here are a few common questions and answers to help you get started.

Is my money safe with IG?

Trading in itself carries risk and cannot be described as a ‘safe’ activity. That said, IG Index is a regulated international broker with active compliance to guidelines set up by several financial regulators and organizations. See the full list of regulators here.

How much does IG charge per trade?

IG’s charges and fees vary based on the asset class and product traded. IG makes money on the spreads of trades, as well as commissions on products like shares. More, trades may be subject to irregular fees like overnight funding fees.

Does IG charge commission?

Yes, IG charges a commission for trading shares. Commissions on shares start at 0.1% and are subject to the country to which the share is tied to. See the full list of commissions charged by IG on international shares.

What are alternative brokers to IG?

The best alternative broker to IG will depend on the traders’ individual needs. However, Plus500, AvaTrade, and City Index are all internationally regulated brokers with a wide range of products. All three offer CFDs, while AvaTrade and City Index also offer options trading. Plus500 only offers options CFDs.

What leverage does IG offer?

IG Index offers a maximum leverage of 1:50.

Credits: Original review written by Lawrence Pines. Major updates in June 2020 by Marko Csokasi with contributions from the Commodity.com editorial team.