IC Markets

Score breakdown

Scores follow our public methodology — fees 30%, platforms 20%, trust 25%, markets 15%, support 10%. How we score

The short answer

IC Markets is a raw-spread CFD broker for scalpers and high-volume algorithmic traders, and we score it 8.7 out of 10. Its Raw Spread account publishes an average EUR/USD spread of 0.1 pips plus $3.50 per lot per side on MetaTrader ($3 per $100,000 traded on cTrader), which puts it among the cheapest venues retail traders can use. The main catch is regulation: no IC Markets company is authorised by the FCA, its EU arm says its website is not for UK residents, and the FCA has warned that IC Markets Global is not authorised — so a UK resident gets no FSCS cover, no Financial Ombudsman and no spread betting.

Who IC Markets is actually for

IC Markets, founded in Sydney in 2007, competes on one thing above all: the cost of the trade. Its Raw Spread account posts an average EUR/USD spread around 0.1 pip — before the $3.50 per-lot commission — which puts it among the two or three cheapest venues available to retail traders anywhere.

That focus defines the audience precisely. High-volume forex traders, scalpers whose edge is measured in fractions of a pip, and algorithmic traders running expert advisors around the clock are the people this broker was built for. A beginner looking for education, or an investor wanting to own actual shares, is holding the wrong tool — this is a CFD specialist with essentially no teaching layer, and platforms like XTB serve that profile far better.

Getting started: a low minimum and one big choice

The minimum deposit depends on the entity: €200 at IC Markets (EU), while the global site’s account page listed no minimum on its main accounts in October 2026. Account opening follows the familiar verified-identity flow. The decision that matters is account type:

• Raw Spread account — spreads from 0.0 pips plus $3.50 per lot per side on MetaTrader, or $3 per $100,000 traded on cTrader. This is the account the broker is famous for, and the one almost every serious user picks.
• Standard account — commission-free with spreads from 0.8 pips. Only worth it if you trade rarely and prefer all-in pricing.

The global entity has also opened early-access Raw Pro ($1.50 per side, $5,000 minimum) and Raw Pro+ ($1.00 per side, $100,000 minimum) tiers for very large accounts. Commission and average spreads vary a little by platform and pair, so verify current terms on the broker’s site.

IC Markets for UK traders: no FCA licence

This is the section that matters most for a British reader. We checked the FCA register, the FCA’s warning list and IC Markets’ own legal pages in October 2026, and found no IC Markets company authorised by the FCA.

• The EU entity has stepped back from the UK. IC Markets (EU) Ltd (CySEC licence 362/18) had UK access after Brexit under the temporary permissions regime, and an FCA clone-firm warning still lists it under firm reference 827935. That regime closed at the end of 2023, and the footer of icmarkets.eu now says its information “is not intended for residents of Brazil, Belgium, the United Kingdom or the United States”. Search the FCA register for 827935 yourself before relying on it.
• The global site is the one that remains. ic.com does not list the UK among excluded countries, and accounts there are held with Raw Trading Ltd, regulated by the Seychelles FSA (licence SD018). On 1 October 2024 the FCA published a warning that IC Markets Global “may be providing or promoting financial services or products without our permission” and is not authorised; the notice was last updated in August 2026.
• What protection follows: none of the UK’s. No FSCS compensation, no Financial Ombudsman, and no FCA leverage caps — the global accounts page advertises leverage up to 1:5000 on MetaTrader, against 30:1 on major pairs for a UK retail client. IC Markets (EU)’s Investor Compensation Fund cover of up to €20,000 applies only to that entity’s own clients.
• No spread betting. IC Markets offers CFDs only, so the UK’s tax-efficient spread betting wrapper isn’t available.
• Loss rate. IC Markets (EU) shows 73.46% of retail accounts losing money on its CFDs, as shown in October 2026. There is no UK figure, and the global site publishes none.

The leverage point isn’t hypothetical. In 2024 CySEC fined IC Markets (EU) €200,000 for helping clients get around the EU’s 1:30 leverage cap by trading at up to 1:1000 through a related entity outside the EU (the firm said it would appeal), and a further €50,000 over best-execution and cost-disclosure failings. If FCA protection matters to you, an FCA-authorised alternative such as Pepperstone — or one from our best forex brokers — is the sensible route. Before using leverage anywhere, read what leverage means in trading.

Trading conditions: where the money is

Three properties explain why so much algorithmic volume flows through IC Markets:

1. Deep liquidity. Pricing is aggregated from dozens of liquidity providers, so large orders fill with minimal slippage and the raw spread stays tight even through busy sessions. A published EUR/USD average of 0.1 pip is the practical result.
2. Fast, unrestricted execution. Servers in the Equinix NY4 and LD5 data centres keep latency low for co-located EAs, and there are no restrictions on scalping, hedging or news trading — strategies some brokers quietly ban are the core clientele here.
3. Full platform menu. MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradingView are all supported. cTrader’s depth-of-market view pairs naturally with the raw pricing model; MT4/MT5 serve the EA crowd; the TradingView integration covers discretionary chartists.

Instrument coverage is broader than pure-forex rivals: 2,250+ CFDs spanning forex, indices, commodities, bonds, cryptocurrencies and a reasonable list of stock CFDs. Everything remains a CFD — you never own the underlying.

The full cost picture

These are the figures on IC Markets’ account and trading-cost pages and its EU Cost & Charges Policy (version 3.0, March 2026), checked on 23 October 2026.

A worked example makes the Raw account’s appeal concrete: one standard lot of EUR/USD at a 0.1-pip spread costs about $1 in spread plus $7 round-turn commission — roughly $8 all-in, versus $10 or more on a typical 1-pip commission-free account (the Standard account’s 0.8 pips is a minimum, not an average). Trade twenty lots a week and the difference compounds into real money. Our fees score of 9.3 reflects exactly this arithmetic. GBP-based traders should note the EU commission of £2.75 per side is higher than Pepperstone’s £2.25.

Funding, account currencies and the practical details

IC Markets supports an unusually long list of funding rails — cards, bank transfer, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller and various regional methods — with no deposit fees from the broker’s side. The global entity offers ten base currencies (AUD, USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, SGD, NZD, JPY, HKD and CHF); IC Markets (EU) offers EUR, USD and GBP. Matching the account to your funding currency avoids silent conversion costs. Withdrawals are processed back to the original funding method first, per standard anti-money-laundering practice.

Two account variants deserve a mention because they broaden who can use the broker. Swap-free (Islamic) accounts replace overnight interest with a flat administration fee after a grace period, keeping the raw-spread model available to traders who can’t pay or receive swap. And for EA operators, IC Markets actively courts the automation crowd: free or subsidized low-latency VPS offers for active accounts, servers in Equinix NY4/LD5, and no restrictions on any legal strategy. This is one of the few brokers where “we welcome scalpers” is the business model rather than a marketing line.

Safety: the honest trade-off

This is the section that separates IC Markets from similarly priced rivals. The group holds licences from ASIC (Australia) and CySEC (EU) — both top-tier — but many international clients are onboarded under the Seychelles FSA entity, where leverage is higher and there is no statutory compensation scheme comparable to EU or Australian arrangements. Client funds are segregated at top-tier banks across all entities, but the legal protections are simply not equivalent.

During registration, check which entity your country is assigned to and decide with that knowledge. Higher leverage on the offshore entity is a feature for experienced traders and a hazard for everyone else — and the baseline warning stands regardless: CFDs are leveraged products, and the majority of retail CFD accounts lose money. Our trust score of 8.4 prices in the strong fund-segregation practice alongside the offshore reality, the 2024 CySEC fines and the absence of a public listing.

Where IC Markets falls short

• Education is close to non-existent. There is a blog and some webinars, but nothing resembling the structured learning paths at beginner-focused brokers.
• Research tools are thin. You get the platforms’ own analytics and not much more; the broker assumes you bring your own edge.
• CFD-only. No real stocks, no ETFs, no spread betting, no long-term investing use case.
• Support is competent but transactional — fine for account issues, not a substitute for guidance.

None of these are accidents; they’re the cost structure that pays for the spreads.

How it compares at a glance

Against Pepperstone, the pricing is a near-dead heat and the platform menus are identical; the decision usually comes down to regulation (Pepperstone’s FCA, ASIC, CySEC and BaFin licences across nine entities versus IC Markets’ offshore entity for many countries, including the UK) against IC Markets’ slightly deeper reputation among pure scalpers. Against XTB, the roles reverse entirely: XTB wins on platform polish, education and real stock investing, IC Markets wins on raw trading costs by a wide margin. There is no single best answer — only a best answer for your trading volume and jurisdiction.

Verdict

8.7 / 10. If your strategy lives or dies on execution cost — scalping, high-frequency EAs, heavy intraday volume — IC Markets offers about the best pricing retail money can access, on every platform that matters, with free funding. The discount shows up in the wrapper, not the pricing: an offshore entity for much of the world, including UK residents, and zero hand-holding. Cost-focused traders should read the direct matchup in Pepperstone vs IC Markets — Pepperstone’s top-tier regulatory footprint versus IC Markets’ marginally deeper liquidity is the real decision. Beginners should start at XTB or eToro instead.

Ready to try IC Markets?

Open the official site — check the current terms for your country before depositing.

Visit IC Markets