There are a lot of forex brokers on the net, and I’ve tried dozens of them. None are perfect, some are outright broken, but a few are quite good. IG Markets falls into the positive category, but they are not without a few flaws. Here is a breakdown of their positive and negative features.
Trading Platform
The IG Markets Pure Deal trading platform is solid and fairly easy to navigate. The trades are executed quickly about 80% of the time. I do get hang-ups, where the trade and platform freeze, but this does not occur often. One disadvantage is that they only have 1 platform to use. Many brokers have both a java, and a windows based platform. IG Markets only has a web-based platform, so it can be slow at times. It does offer the advantage of being portable. You can hop from laptop to PC, travel and use a net-cafe, all without downloading any software. It’s a browser-based platform. The charts offered here are also mediocre. However, their forex spot market spreads are tight; they offer good bid/ask spreads.
Funding
They claim no minimum deposit is required, and I opened my account with just $200. Funding your account is easy by credit or debit card and occurs instantly. However, since they are UK based, expect a small fee to be added by your bank. This depends on the bank, and Bank of America charged me an extra 4% fee (about $1 on every $25 transferred from my BoA checking account to IG Markets). You can also use ACH transfers, but these take about 4 days to process.
IG Markets also owns Nadex, and they’ve recently combined the two into one platform for your 2 accounts. However, oddly, you need to shift funds from one account to the other. If you wish to place a Nadex trade, you must first shift funds from your IG account over to the Nadex account, which is unusual and a bit annoying.
Forex Options / Derivatives
The offering of options is IG Markets’ strong point. Options trading is what puts IG Markets above most other forex brokers. They offer both traditional options and binary options to their account holders. These options expire daily, weekly, and quarterly; so choose the expiration that suits you best. The ability to have both your spot and options trades in one combined forex account is a great asset. This fact alone make it worthwhile to open an account with IG Markets. There are hundreds of combinations I find useful in pairing currency options with spot forex. This is a handy feature of my IG forex account. If I am long 5 positions in the Euro (EUR/USD), I find it settles my nerves to buy 2 or 3 EUR/USD puts as a partial hedge.
No Limit Orders
Here is the weak point of IG Markets: they do not allow limit orders to be placed in their options trades. This means that you literally have to be at your computer screen to place a forex options trade. This is very inconvenient. I might be watching the British Pound for a move to a certain level, knowing that I want an option if it reaches that level. I need to babysit the PC and watch for it, I cannot just place an order and walk away. Sometimes I need to step into a meeting, and return an hour later to see my trading levels have passed. I’ve missed many good trades this way. This also puts you at the mercy of slippage (hitting the Sell button at 59 and getting 55 instead). If IG Markets would implement a limit order feature on their options, they would be the top broker in the forex market. I’ve been told they have no such plans, but maybe the future will change their minds. They are missing out on a golden opportunity.
Pros and Cons to sum up the review of IG Markets.
Pros: IG Markets has a wide range of trading instruments, including options. Their forex spreads are tight.
Cons: Lack of limit orders on options, and only 1 trading platform. Charts are mediocre, and are missing Keltner Channels.
Overall I would recommend an account at IG Markets, at least to try their range of derivative products.
