IG Review 2022: Is It a Good Broker? Pros and Cons

Overview

1. General Information & Regulation

2. Market Instruments

3. Account Types

4. Margin & Leverage

5. Spreads & Commissions

6. Trading Platform Available

7. Education

8. Deposits & Withdrawals

9. Bonuses & Fees

10. Customer Support

11. Conclusion (Pros and Cons)

1. General Information & Regulation

IG, a trading name of IG MARKETS LIMITED, is a CFD provider headquartered in the United Kingdom, regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and founded in 1974.

This broker provides its clients with an extensive range of tradable financial instruments with leverage up to 200:1, variable spreads on a choice of six different trading platforms, as well as excellent educational resources and customer support service: 24 hours a day, except from 6 am to 4 pm on Saturday (UTC+8).

View more details about IG from the below video:

2. Market Instruments

IG advertises that it offers access to more than 18,000 markets, including CFDs on forex, indices, cryptocurrencies, shares, commodities, options and spot trading.

3. Account Types

IG provides its clients with a free demo account with $20,000 virtual funds, which allows traders to gain experience and familiarity with online trading as well as to learn about forex fundamentals such as base currencies, forex currency pairs, charting tools and volatility. With no initial deposit required or trading risks involved, you can develop your trading strategies by learning at IG Academy.

As for live account types, this broker offers two different live account types, namely DMA account and Standard account, with no minimum deposit requirement. Trading at IG is free once you've funded your account and started trading. However, it will charge some spreads or commissions on shares trades.

4. Margin & Leverage

The margin rate from retail clients is 0.50% for forex and indices; 5% for share CFDs; 0.7% for commodities and 10% for cryptocurrency CFDs.

A leverage ratio of up to 200:1 is offered by IG, which is much higher than that provided by most brokers. Inexperienced traders are advised not to use too much leverage since leverage magnifies gains and losses.

5. Spreads & Commissions

IG claims that different trading asset classes are equipped with quite different spreads and commissions.

For example, the minimum spread for forex is 0.6 pips; while for commodities, it is only 0.3 pips.

As for commissions, the commission for shares varies depending on the region. In Australia, the minimum commission is 0.08% per side, while in the Euro and UK, the commission is 0.10% per side.

See more details in the below screenshots.

6. Trading Platform Available

Platforms available for trading at IG are three core platforms (online trading platform, mobile trading app, progressive web app) and three specialist platforms (ProRealTime, MetaTrader4 and L2FDealer).

Online trading platform: The web-based trading platform is free and available online for all users who are interested in CFD trading. A number of research tools are also included on this platform, including streaming news, economic calendars, and signals.

Mobile trading app: You can view the mobile charts and open or close positions on the go with this mobile app, which is available on iOS and Android devices.

Progressive web app: Trades can be conducted on any device using a progressive web app (PWA). In contrast to traditional app store review processes, it can provide traders with critical trading updates quickly and effortlessly.

ProRealTime: Traders can trade derivatives at ProRealTime, which offers powerful monitoring tools, flexible access and advanced analysis resources. PRT is suitable for technical chart users. However, a $40 per month fee will apply if you dont transact four times in a month.

MetaTrader4: MetaTrader4 is one of the worlds most trusted and popular forex trading platforms. It is free to use and available on desktop and mobile apps. Automated trading, numerous charts and order types, as well as automated trading strategies, are all available here.

L2FDealer: With L2 Dealer, a platform for share and forex CFD trading, traders can get direct market access (DMA) and helpful monitoring tools such as watchlists, price alerts, and algorithmic orders. The platform is also free to use, however, a minimum $2000 balance is required.

7. Education

One of the best features at IG is the IG Academy, which offers step-by-step courses, including video content, videos and quizzes. Webinars, seminars and other educational material complement the superb educational offering at IG. This broker also offers numerous news and trade ideas, as well as trading strategies for traders to learn.

8. Deposits & Withdrawals

IG works with numerous deposit and withdrawal choices, consisting of credit/debit cards like VISA and MasterCard, bank transfers and e-wallets of PayPal, BPAY and Payoneer.

There is no minimum initial deposit requirement for bank transfers, while $300/€300/£250 for credit/debit cards and PayPal.

This broker also does not charge any deposit and withdrawal fees.

As for the processing time deposit and withdrawal requests, the bank transfer deposits can take several business days, while payment with a credit/debit card is instant. The debit card withdrawals usually require 2 business days to process. Note that you can only deposit and withdraw money to accounts in your name.

9. Bonuses & Fees

IG reveals that it offers an invitation bonus. In particular, if your friend makes five qualifying trades in three months, you will earn $100. Depending on the spreads/commissions paid by your friend, you and your friend can each earn an additional $1,900 reward, bringing the total reward for one friend to $2,000. Thats equivalent to $10,000 when you make five successful referrals.

This broker does charge some fees. Fees vary depending on services. For instance, if you want to access live DMA prices for some shares, youll need to pay a monthly exchange fee. It also charges an inactivity fee and an account documentation fee. If there has been no trading activity for two years or more, the inactivity fee of $18 will be charged monthly. The account documentation fee is $50.

More details can be found in the below screenshots.

10. Customer Support

IG says it can be contacted 24 hours a day, except from 6 am to 4 pm on Saturday (UTC+8) by telephone: +44(20)76335430 (new clients), 1800889539 (Malaysia Toll-Free), email: sales.en@ig.com or live chat. Besides, you can also follow this broker on some social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. However, according to many users‘ reviews, we found that this broker cannot deal with traders’ problems promptly.

11. Conclusion (Pros and Cons)

All in all, IG is a good online forex and CFD broker, going above and beyond to offer a rich experience with many options for investing in financial markets. Whether for a wide selection of tradable asset classes and trading platforms, or great educational materials, these are all pros provided by IG.

However, there are still some aspects that behave not well. The forex and stock CFD fees are high and customer support is not prompt.

Anyway, due to IG's no-minimum-funding requirement and easy demo account opening, you can test any kind of six trading platforms at IG with no risk.