IFC Markets Broker Review

Although clients from Britain will be trading through the British Islands-based subsidiary which has less regulatory supervision than IFC Markets’ company based in Cyprus, it segregates its client funds from company funds and provides all traders with negative balance protection. On this basis, we consider IFC Markets a safe broker for British clients to trade with.

The account opening process at IFC Markets is fully digital, fast, and hassle-free compared to other brokers. 

Creating an account at IFC Markets is straightforward. The process is fully digital, and accounts are usually ready within one day. IFC Markets offers corporate and individual accounts, but we will focus on opening an individual account:

How to open an account at IFC Markets:

1. New traders will have to click on the “Open Account” button at the top of the page where they will be directed to register an account.    

2. IFC Markets’ intake form requires clients to fill in their personal details, (including name, country of residence, email, and telephone number). 

3. Next clients must choose to open either a demo or live account and select their account preferences, including trading platform (MT4, MT5, or NetTradex), account type, level of leverage, and base currency.

4. Traders will then have to read and accept IFC Markets’ legal documents (including customer agreement, terms of business, and risk disclosure).

5. Traders can then deposit funds into their accounts.

6. IFC Markets needs at least two documents to accept you as an individual client:

   1. Proof of Identification – IFC Markets accepts all government-issued identification documents such as Passport, national ID card, driving license, or other government-issued ID. The document must be valid and must contain a trader’s full name, date of birth, a clear photograph, issue date, and if it has to have an expiry date, that should be visible as well.

   2. Proof of Address – Proof of residence/address document must be issued in the name of the IFC Markets’ account holder within the last 3 months and must contain a trader’s full name, current residential address, issue date, and issuing authority.

Overall, IFC Markets’ account-opening process is quick, efficient, and accounts are generally ready for trading within one business day. 

The trading fees on the floating spread accounts are significantly lower than those of the fixed spread accounts. However, traders should be aware that on the floating accounts, spreads will get wider or tighter depending on trade volume and market volatility. 

There is also a vast difference between the minimum deposits on the Micro accounts and Standard accounts, which start at 5 USD and 1000 USD, respectively. 

The average cost of trading one lot of EUR/USD at similar Forex brokers tends to be 9 USD or lower. Compared to other brokers, IFC Markets’ trading fees are higher than average on its fixed spread accounts and lower than average on its floating spread accounts.

Swap Fees

In a welcome show of transparency, IFC Markets publishes all swap fees for each instrument on its site.  Swap fees are derived from the current bank interest rates plus a small mark-up charged by IFC Markets.  In the case of Forex instruments, the amount charged depends on both the positions taken (i.e. long or short) and the rate differentials between the two currencies traded.

Account Trading Costs:

We opened and tested a variety of IFC Markets’ accounts:

Metatrader 4 Accounts: There are two different MT4 accounts – the MT4 Micro Account (with a minimum deposit of 5 USD) and the MT4 Standard Account (with a minimum deposit of 1000 USD). Both accounts are fixed spread accounts, with a spread of 1.8 pips on the EUR/USD, which is significantly wider than other brokers, making the MT4 accounts less attractive than the MT5 and NetTradeX accounts.

MetaTrader 5 Accounts: IFC Markets offers two MT5 accounts, which, unlike the MT4 accounts, are both floating spread accounts with a minimum spread of 0.50 pips on the EUR/USD, which is significantly tighter than other brokers. Like the MT4 accounts, the minimum deposit is 5 USD on the MT5 Micro account and 1000 USD on the MT5 Standard Account.

NetTradeX Accounts: IFC Markets offers four NetTradeX Accounts – two fixed spread accounts (a beginner-friendly and standard account) with a spread of 1.8 pips on the EUR/USD, and two floating spread accounts (again, a beginner-friendly account and a standard account) with spreads of 0.50 pips on the EUR/USD. The beginner-friendly accounts have a minimum deposit of 5 USD and the Standard accounts have a minimum deposit requirement of 1000 USD. 

Demo Accounts: IFC Markets’ free demo account mimics the conditions found on both the floating and fixed spread accounts. The demo account is available with a virtual USD balance that can be topped up on request. Demo accounts do not expire and are available on the MT4, MT5, and NetTradeX platforms. 

An FSA-regulated broker, IFC Markets ensures that all Anti-Money Laundering rules and regulations are followed. As such, all non-profit funds are returned to the original deposit source. 

See below for a complete list of payment options and withdrawal times:

At IFC Markets, you can only choose from three base currencies: USD, EUR, and JPY. This is extremely limited compared to most other international brokers operating in Britain.

Because IFC Markets does not support accounts denominated in GBP, traders from the UK will have to pay conversion fees on all deposits and withdrawals. Conversion fees can make trading expensive, and affect profitability.

In this case, it is better for traders that trade in large volumes (more than 10 lots a month) to open an account denominated in USD at a digital currency bank, especially for trading on assets such as the EUR/USD. This is because when trading a USD quoted currency pair with another currency account, there will be a small conversion fee for every trade made.

All three of IFC Markets’ trading platforms are available on both Android and iOS mobile devices and tablets. Beginner traders should be aware that there is some loss in functionality when compared to the desktop trading platforms, including reduced timeframes and fewer charting options.  

However, the trading platforms are generally user-friendly and well-designed. The MT4 and MT5 mobile apps allow traders to close and modify existing orders, calculate profit and loss in real-time and allow tick chart trading.  

The NetTradeX mobile app offers the best features available on the desktop version including the complete range of order types, trade analysis, and expert advisors. 

Overall, IFC Markets’ mobile apps are user-friendly and well-designed and offer most of the features available on the desktop versions.  

Trading Platform Comparison:

Clients can choose between the MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and NetTradeX or use all three platforms at the same time. All platforms offer fast trading and advanced charting tools, expert advisors, customisable charting, and indicators.

The platforms are free to use and can be downloaded to your PC and all have web versions of the platform. They are also available on mobile Android and iOS devices. 

Third-party platforms such as MT4 and MT5 are less user-friendly and more difficult to set up than the NetTradeX platform.  However, traders can take their customised versions of these platforms with them should they choose to migrate to another broker. 

NetTradeX

The NetTradeX platform is available in 17 languages and is very similar to the MT4/MT5 platform, including the custom programming language (NTL+) to develop automated trading solutions. One difference is the use of synthetic assets created by traders (see below for more details on the Portfolio Quoting Method). Along with trading on a wide set of instruments, setting orders, and conducting technical analysis, you can also work with additional order types, create your own trading instruments (a feature unique to the NetTradeX platform), and many more. See below for more details:

• Displaying multiple instruments on the same chart
• Technical analysis tools
• Live news feed directly from Thomson Reuters
• Netting trading mode
• Linked Orders
• Pending Orders
• Personal Composite Instruments 

Metatrader 4

MetaTrader 4 (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.   Features of IFC Markets’ MT4 platform include:

• 50+ preinstalled technical indicators
• 24 analytical charting tools
• Three chart types
• Nine timeframes
• One-click trading.  
• Traders can also add custom EAs and indicators.

While MT4 has great customizability, the platform feels outdated, and some of the features may be hard to find.  In addition, only the basic orders are available, including Market, Limit, Stop, and Trailing Stop.

MetaTrader 5

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. 

Features of IFC Markets MT5 platform include:

• 38+ preinstalled technical indicators
• 44 analytical charting tools
• Three chart types
• 21 timeframes
• Additional pending order types
• Detachable charts
• Depth of Market
• An integrated Economic Calendar

IFC Markets offers a number of trading calculators and its innovative Portfolio Quoting Method. It also offers Autochartist for free, one of the best analysis tools on the market. 

Trading Calculators

IFC Markets offers a number of trading calculators, including a Profit/Loss Calculator, a Margin Calculator, and a Currency Convertor. 

Portfolio Quoting Method

One of IFC markets’ unique selling points is its innovative Portfolio Quoting Method, but this is only available on its proprietary platform. It allows traders to create unique synthetic assets, including equity versus equity quotations. It also allows traders to study the financial markets and analyse their dynamics.   The creation of personalised trading instruments is an emerging trend that will likely become a core service provided by most brokers in the near future. 

Autochartist

Autochartist is an automated analysis tool offered through IC Markets’ partnership programme, so there is an additional cost for using the service.  Traders will have to contact customer support for more details regarding these costs.  

One of the best technical analysis tools on the markets, Autochartist monitors 250+ CFDs 24 hours a day and automatically alerts traders on key trading opportunities and forming 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 

Trading Tools Comparison:

IFC Markets has a competent in-house research team and has partnered with several third-party analysis companies to provide more useful market analysis than is available at most other brokers.

IFC Markets’ research and market analysis is divided into a number of sections, each of which provides a specialised benefit for traders looking for market insight and trading opportunities:

• Market data: IFC Markets provides live rates on all its available markets, including currencies, metals, indices, commodities, cryptocurrencies, stock CFDs, and ETFs. Market data includes detailed information on the live price, daily change, and various charts. This is a great tool to get a broad overview of the live rates on various instruments.
• Weekly Market Overview (Videos): IFC Markets provides a weekly video of the major world events with estimates of their influence on financial markets.  These videos are produced in-house and are presented by expert analyst, Ahura Chalki.
• Market Movers: A unique and powerful analytical tool, Market Movers is able to instantaneously calculate top market movers. It provides 10 different trading instruments that showed the highest increase (Top Gainers) and the biggest decrease (Top Losers) for a selected period of time (from 1 day to 1 year).  Overall, this is an excellent resource.
• Technical Analysis: IFC Markets’ technical analysis is available in written format, curated by in-house analysts. It is detailed and regularly updated, and provides excellent insight. 
• Market Overview: Similar to the weekly market overview, but in written format, the market overview provides a daily look at the various market movements on all assets. It is detailed, accurate and regularly updated.
• Trading Ideas: IFC Markets provides a technical analysis overview of the various instruments and highlights their likely trends. These trading ideas are provided by Autochartist. 

Between the analytical tools and the sheer scale of market research on offer – in both text, and video format – from in-house and third-party experts, IFC Markets’ market analysis is more useful than most other brokers – though is about equal when compared with other international brokers with large research and analysis budgets.

IFC Markets offers a good selection of learning materials aimed at the beginner trader. These include:

• Articles and videos: Articles and videos that introduce traders to the basics of Forex trading, how to choose a trading platform, how to open a trading account, how to start trading, trading strategies, technical analysis, and fundamental analysis.
• e-books: IFC Markets also provides new traders a series of e-books written in-house that cover the Forex basics and different aspects of online trading. The e-books are detailed and comprehensive.
• Blog: IFC Markets’ blog covers a wide range of topics, from analysis and education to indicators, trading strategies, and market outlook. Articles are published on a daily basis and are brief, but well-structured. 
• Trading Glossary: IFC Markets provides a functional glossary of terms to help traders understand the complex terminology of Forex and CFD trading. The most commonly used trading terms, acronyms, and abbreviations are presented, explaining the core ideas and methods used by traders every day. 

Overall, IFC Markets’ education section is well-structured and detailed but caters more to beginners than experienced traders.  

Educational Material Comparison:

Support is available during business hours (Mon – Fri, 7:00 – 19:00 CET) in over 19 languages, via email, live chat, various messenger services, telephone, and call-back services.  Toll-free local phone numbers and local email addresses give clients direct free access to quality customer service. 

For the purposes of this review, we found the live chat agents polite and knowledgeable. They were able to answer most of our questions without hesitation and provided extra reading material where relevant.