IC Trading

FSC Regulation: Australian traders will be onboarded through IC Trading’s Mauritius-based entity, authorised by the Financial Services Commission, which provides a low level of regulatory oversight.

We found IC Trading excels in its account opening process.  It is straightforward and hassle-free, and accounts are generally ready for trading within a day.

All Australian residents can open an account at IC Trading as long as they meet the minimum deposit requirement of 200 USD for each account.

The five-step account opening process is fully digital, and accounts are generally ready for trading in one day.  IC Trading offers individual, joint, and corporate accounts, but we will focus on opening an individual account.

How to open an account at IC Trading:

1. Click the ‘Start Trading’ button and register your email address and password.
2. Next, traders must provide their personal details, including date of birth and physical address.
3. The third step requires choosing your preferred base currency, trading platform, and account type.
4. Traders are then required to fill out a short questionnaire detailing their level of trading experience.  This is a responsible move for the broker in an industry that is often accused of an irresponsible approach to consumer protection.
5. The last step is to confirm your identity.  IC Trading will need two documents from you:
   1. A photo ID (passport, driver’s license, or national ID card) and; 
   2. A secondary ID (a bank or utility statement with your full name and address dated in the last three months).

We suggest you read IC Trading’s risk disclosure, customer agreement, and terms of business before you start trading.

Once the customer support team has verified your documents, you can log in and fund your account with your chosen base currency.

IC Trading’s wide range of tradable assets includes 61 Forex pairs and over 2100 stock CFDs.

IC Trading’s trading accounts are available on MT4 and MT5. The Standard Account’s trading costs are included in the spread, while the Raw Spread Account offers tighter spreads in exchange for a commission per lot. Both accounts are available as Islamic swap-free options.

The trading costs of the Raw Spread account are lower than the Standard Account, making it a good choice for traders who are happy to calculate their commissions when trading. Still, the fees on the Standard Account are lower than the industry average, which tends to be around 9 USD per lot traded. This makes IC Trading one of the lowest-cost brokers in the industry.  

We opened and tested IC Trading’s accounts:

Standard Account

The Standard Account is a commission-free account with spreads that start at 0.8 pips on the EUR/USD, which is tighter than other similar brokers.  It is available on the Metatrader 4 and Metatrader 5 platforms, and traders can access leverage of up to 500:1. The Standard Account is ideal for discretionary traders. 

Raw Spread Account

The True ECN Account is for high-volume trading or professional traders, with a minimum deposit requirement of 200 USD. Spreads are tight, averaging 0.10 pips on the EUR/USD. A 7 USD round-turn per lot commission is charged, and leverage is up to 500:1. This account is only available on the MetaTrader platforms.

We found the cTrader app more straightforward to use than MT4 and MT5, as it has a more modern and intuitive interface.  

Mobile Apps: All three of IC Trading’s trading platforms are available on both Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets. 

Mobile features: The IC Trading MT4 and MT5 apps allow traders to work from anywhere, with nine timeframes, 30 indicators, and interactive currency charts. Unfortunately, algorithmic trading is unavailable through the mobile versions of the MetaTrader and cTrader platforms. 

Mobile apps focus on basic order types and core features like price monitoring, order placement, and account management and generally lack advanced tools for complex strategies.  That means a mobile trading app is good for monitoring trades and possibly exiting them, but that’s really about it. You must be very careful when entering a trade from a mobile trading app. 

Like its mobile trading offering, IC Trading offers MT4, MT5 and cTrader. All platform choices are free to use, can be downloaded to your PC or Mac, and have web versions of the platform. 

Traders who want more EAs and don’t mind the dated interface should consider using one of the MetaTrader products. cTrader is often a favourite for beginner traders as it requires less setup, has a more modern interface, and offers more advanced order types.

Platforms overview: MT4 is still undoubtedly the world’s most popular trading platform for forex traders due to its ease of use, feature-rich environment, and automated trading ability.  The newer version of the MetaTrader platform suite, MT5 is being adopted by more traders all the time.  MT5 incorporates all of the key features of MT4 and an optimised environment for EA trading. 

cTrader is one of our favourite trading platforms, and IC Trading is one of a handful of brokers that supports it. It is one of the most beginner-friendly third-party trading platforms available, with a modern interface, integrated educational content, and innovative risk-management features. The cTrader mobile app offers the best features available on the desktop version, including the complete range of order types, trade analysis, and watchlists. 

Charting: All three platforms offer excellent charting tools, including a large range of technical indicators, excellent drawing tools, and multiple chart setups. They also allow traders to build their own custom indicators. 

Algorithmic trading: One of the main benefits of using MT4 and MT5 is automated trading with trading robots called Expert Advisors (EAs). Traders can build (using the MQL4 or MQL5 coding language) or purchase EAs, which will trade within the parameters of a pre-set algorithm. There are also many more EAs available for MT4 than any other platform worldwide.

Like MT4 and MT5, cTrader supports automated trading through cTrader Automate, a feature for developing and backtesting trading robots called cBots. cTrader also has an integrated copy trading function called cTrader Copy, allowing traders to copy the trades of other traders. Due to its fast trade execution, IC Trading caters to serious algorithmic traders. Its MetaTrader 4 and 5 servers are located in the NY4 data centre in New York and are collocated with its price providers, including 50 banks and dark pool liquidity venues.

In line with Anti-Money Laundering rules, IC Trading does not process payments to third-party accounts. All withdrawal requests from a trading account will be funded to a bank account or source in the trader’s name.   

Trading Account Currencies: IC Trading offers trading in ten base currencies, including EUR, USD, GBP, AUD, SGD, NZD, JPY, CHG, KHD, and CAD. However, these vary depending on the funding method. We weren’t charged any currency conversion fees because we were depositing AUD from our Australian bank account into our AUD-based trading account. 

Deposits and Withdrawals: IC Trading offers a range of account funding and deposit methods, including bank transfer, debit cards/credit cards, and various eWallets.  Deposits are free on all funding methods and are processed immediately, or within 12 hours, except broker-to-broker transfers, which may take up to five days.  Withdrawal requests received before noon AEST/AEDT are processed the same day, and IC Trading does not charge any additional withdrawal fees.  Other fees may apply depending on the payment method.

IC Trading offers several useful trading tools, including a free VPS service, Trading Central, and advanced MT4 trading tools. Zulutrade and Autochartist are available through the IC Trading’s partner programme, but there is an extra cost associated with using these services.  See below for more: 

VPS

If minimum trading volumes are met, IC Trading will sponsor the cost of a VPS up to USD 35 per month. You can email its support team or contact them on live chat if you feel that you will meet their criteria.

VPS hosting allows traders to run automated algorithmic strategies, including expert advisors 24 hours a day 7 days a week on a virtual machine. VPS services have the advantage of never suffering connectivity issues and have extremely low latency due to their proximity to major international exchanges. 

MT4 Advanced Trading Tools (Multiterminal)

IC Trading offers 20 exclusive trading tools available on the MT4 platform.  The MT4 Advanced Trading Tools help traders manage their risk, control all trades from a single terminal and view the correlations between currency pairs and other CFDs. The complete set of tools includes sophisticated alarms and broadcast facilities, a correlation matrix, a sentiment trader, a session map, and up-to-date market data and functions, among others. 

Zulutrade

Zulutrade, a third-party platform, is a peer-to-peer social trading application where traders can choose among thousands of registered traders from 192 countries. Traders are ranked using “ZuluRank” according to various metrics, including their overall performance, stability, maturity, exposure, and minimum equity required. 

To use this service, traders will have to pay a relatively high 2.2 pip mark-up on the spread.  

Autochartist

Autochartist is an automated analysis tool offered through IC Trading’s partnership programme, so there is an additional cost for using the service. Traders should contact customer support for more details.  

Autochartist monitors 250+ CFDs 24 hours a day and automatically alerts traders on key trading opportunities and trends with the highest probability of hitting the forecast price.  Some of Autochartist’s key features are:

• Chart pattern recognition
• Fibonacci pattern recognition
• Key level analysis
• Pattern quality indication

Overall, Autochartist is one of the best technical analysis tools on the market.  

Trading Central

Trading Central is available to clients who register a live account.  A third-party tool, Trading Central’s professional analysts use the most advanced technical analysis tools in the industry to curate relevant information. This tool essentially supports traders without the technical know-how to make trading decisions.  Trading Central is one of the most popular trading tools available and provides excellent market analysis, and IC Trading does well to offer this service to its clients.

Overall, IC Trading provides more trading tools than most other brokers, which should keep most traders satisfied. However, some of the tools are only available on the MetaTrader platforms.

IC Trading has a dedicated support department operating 24/7 via live chat, email, and phone. Unfortunately, the live chat feature is currently run by a chatbot, making it difficult to find answers. 

Traders can contact IC Trading via telephone, but only through a number based in Mauritius. Customer service can assist with any general questions and queries. However, queries addressed to specific departments, such as the accounts department, are only available via email.