IG Review 2018

IG was established in the UK in 1974 and is one of the biggest CFD providers in the world. It is regulated by 7 financial authorities. IG's parent company, IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange but doesn't have a banking background.

CFDs are usually leveraged products with high risk. 79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

As a plus

IG's web and mobile trading platforms are simple and user-friendly. The customer service is helpful and gives relevant answers. The provided research is great, especially when compared to other CFD brokers.

On the flip side

IG's trading fees are high, especially when you trade with lower amounts. The product portfolio is limited and in most countries, it offers only CFD trading. It does not provide negative balance protection, an important security feature when you trade with leveraged products.

Recommended for traders with any experience level aiming for a great and easy-to-use trading platform.

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IG review
Investor protection and regulation

IG is a fully licensed UK broker which is regulated by 7 financial authorities globally. IG Group, the parent company of IG, is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The group does not have any banking background.

IG operates in several countries with different entities. These entities are subject to a given regulator and the clients are entitled to various protection amount. Most of the Europeans clients are eligible for FCA's protection scheme up to £50,000. This is significantly higher than the usual €20,000 protection amount in Europe.

It is important to know that binary bets are regulated by the Gambling Commission, rather than by the FCA. So if you use this product you won’t be protected by the financial protection scheme.

IG doesn't guarantee negative balance protection. They only offer to close your position if your account equity doesn't cover your margin requirement.

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IG review
Account opening

The account opening process is fast and fully digital. However, there is a $300 first-time deposit and the sales team is very pushy.

Who can open an account with IG?

IG serves clients across five continents and you can open an account from almost anywhere in the world. Do you live in Antarctica, Norfolk Island or Vanuatu? No problem, you can open an IG account.

We've listed the larger eligible countries below.

Minimum funding requirements

The minimum first-time deposit is $300 or equivalent in other currencies. 

Account types

In most countries, you can open only CFD accounts. In the UK, you have the possibility to trade with stocks by opening a second account. 

IG provides tax-efficient accounts, like ISA or SIPP, only in the UK.

You have to open a separate account for smart portfolios, that is IG's robo advisory type of service. Here is a £500 minimum account balance. 

There is also a demo account, so you can try the IG platform with paper money.

Account base currencies

Some major and also a couple of minor currencies are available, but IG does not provide official information. You should contact their customer service if you plan to open an account with a minor base currency. We managed to open an account in Hungarian Forint (HUF).

Account opening process

The account opening process is straightforward and the initial registration only takes five minutes. Registration is followed by identification, which is fully digital. You have to email your personal documents to IG, choosing from the following three options:

• Passport
• Two government-issued photo IDs
• One government-issued photo ID and one utility bill or bank statement

It is a nice touch that you can start exploring the trading platform straight after registering and you don’t have to wait for identification to be completed.

During account opening process the IG sales team reached out very frequently to deposit and it could be frustrating.

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IG review
Funding and withdrawal

You have several options to transfer money. The transfer process is user-friendly and fast.

Funding options

At IG you can choose from three options for funding your account: 

• Bank transfer: transfer has to come from your own bank account, practically from a bank account with the same name as your IG investment account. The transfer can take up to three business days and is free of charge.
• Credit/debit card: a required minimum amount is applied here which differs between currencies: £250, €300, $300 etc. Accepted cards are:
• • Debit cards: Maestro, Visa-Delta, Solo, Electron. European debit card funding is free of charge, while a 1.5% transfer fee is applied to non-European debit cards.
  • Credit cards: Visa and MasterCard. For credit cards, a 1.5% transfer fee is applied, which we think is very high.
• PayPal: just like with credit cards and some debit cards there is a required minimum fund and a 1.5% transfer fee is applied.

Withdrawal options

You can choose from two options for withdrawal:

• Bank transfer: it can take up to three business days. For international transfers, a £15 withdrawal fee is applied. In the UK you can have a same-day sterling payment, CHAPS, and it also costs £15.
• Credit/debit card: it usually takes three to five business days. The minimum withdrawal amount is $150 or equivalent. Keep in mind that you cannot transfer money to a MasterCard issued outside the UK. 

We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and received the money within 2 business days.

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IG review
Product portfolio

At IG, most clients can only trade with CFDs, but the CFD offering is the best among CFD brokers. UK and some other clients have the possibility to trade with shares and a robo-advisory service is available for them as well.

Available asset classes:

• Equities
• CFDs
• Smart portfolios only for UK clients

IG's CFD product range is quite large and includes:

• Equities
• Indices
• Forex
• Bonds
• Options
• Futures
• Cryptos

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 79% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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Equities

You can trade with equities if you are from one of the following countries:

• UK
• Ireland
• Malta
• Cyprus
• the British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Gibraltar
• Guernsey
• Isle of Man
• Jersey

All the stocks which are contained in the following stock indices are available for trading:

CFDs

After the new ESMA regulation took into effect in 2018 summer, the maximum level of the leverage is determined. If you want to get a clear picture of the new ESMA regulation, read this comprehensive overview.

Equity CFDs

With IG you can access 25 equity markets with roughly ~10,000+ stocks. Just to give you a feeling, eToro offers only ~3,300 stocks. Here are the exchange lists offered: 

Index CFDs

At IG, you can trade with 68 indices including the largest markets. It's a great product coverage compared to Plus500's 23 or eToro's 12 indices.

Forex CFDs

IG offers 94 currency pairs, including major and minor ones. This is great compared with ~70 at Oanda, ~59 at Plus500 or ~55 pairs at Markets.com.

Bond CFDs

IG's bond CFD range includes US, Japanese, and large European government bonds. This is unique among the CFD brokers as most of them, e.g. Plus500 or eToro, don't provide bond CFDs. 

Option CFDs

Don't expect a wide offering. You can trade with major stock indices, commodities, and currencies. For the full list of IG index, forex, and commodity options check their website.

Commodity CFDs

IG offers 47 commodity CFDs compared to Plus500's 17 or Oanda's 8. 

Crypto CFDs

You can trade with the following cryptocurrencies:

• Bitcoin
• Bitcoin Cash
• Bitcoin Gold
• Ethereum
• Ripple
• Litecoin 

For those who come from the crypto world, it might be a surprise that you can’t withdraw or fund cryptocurrencies. This is because with CFDs you don’t own the underlying asset, in this case, the cryptocurrency itself. Learn more about crypto CFDs from our crypto blogpost.

IG Smart portfolio review

The smart portfolio is one of the newest IG products. In a smart portfolio, IG provides ETF portfolios managed by BlackRock, the issuer of iShares ETFs. This is basically a robo-advisory service, where you can choose from automatically managed low-cost portfolios.

IG review
Fee structure

IG has pricey trading fees, but competitive financing rates.

IG is not the cheapest broker when it comes to trading. This is especially true for smaller trades since it has quite high minimum trading fees.

It also has a complicated and in some cases non-transparent fee structure.

Trading fees

Within the trading-related fees, IG has three different fee structures:

• Trading commission for share CFDs, option CFDs and real shares,
• Implicit fee built into the spread for non-share CFDs. In this case, you don't need to pay a trading commission.
• Asset management fee for Smart Portfolios.

Just to make it a bit comparable, find below the cost of a typical IG trade and for two other CFD brokers. A typical trade for Apple and BMW means a $2,000 trade, holding the position for one week, and then sell. It is a $20,000 position with the same conditions for the EURUSD. 

Share CFDs

When you trade with share CFDs, IG will charge a trading commission.

Index, forex, commodity and bond CFDs

All of IG trading fees are built into the spread. No trading commission is charged.

Option CFDs

Crypto CFDs

Check out our crypto blog post, to learn more about crypto trading.

Real shares

If you are from the UK and some other countries, you can trade with shares as well. Average commission of a trade is 0.1% or minimum €10. For the full cost table, visit IG's website. If you also have a CFD account and you made at least one trade in the previous month, each of your UK share trades will cost £5 (UK clients).

Smart portfolios

If you invest in IG's Smart portfolios, you will pay a "Total Cost of Ownership" fee, consisting of two components: the cost of the underlying ETFs and the management fee.

Average ETF cost is 0.22%, although this may vary based on your exact allocation. Management fees are charged in layers and will be lower when you invest more. 

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Non-trading fees

IG has an okayish non-trading fee structure.

If you hold your position for more than one day you should keep an eye on overnight fees, aka. financing rates applied. Find below a comparison with eToro and Plus500.

For forex futures the financing charge is based on the current tom-next rate. The historical and the actual tom-next rates are not transparent at all.

IG review
Web trading platform

IG's platform is great and easy to use. Even beginners can get familiar with it in short time.

IG has an older and a newer web trading platform. We reviewed the older version since the new one is not available in all countries.

Look and Feel

It is definitely an easy-to-use platform for more experienced traders, but starters might need some time to become familiar with the functions. The default platform view may seem a bit crowded and overwhelming at first. The window is built up of panels, including:

• A search functionality
• Prices
• Your positions
• Additional features such as charts etc.
• Deal tickets
• Your watchlist and alerts

You can easily customize by dragging and resizing the tabs.

Login and security

The login process is a one-step login – a two-step authentication would be useful here, although this isn’t currently available.

Search functions and charts

The search functionality (top left tab called “Finder”) works as you would expect. You can also browse available investment options by looking through the investment categories in the list below the search bar.

If you're into technical analysis, you'll like the chart tool. You can add several technical indicators, make your own drawings and trend lines and set alerts based on technical indicators. You can also save these charts, but only in a picture format.

You can find research and chart services provided by IG's third-party partners. ProRealTime is a charting tool that is free of charge if you trade at least four times a month. Otherwise, it has a monthly £30 fee. The Aurochartist is an automated chart pattern recognition tool that comes free of charge with your account. Trading Central is a company that provides trading tips based on technical analysis. This service is free of charge as well.

Placing orders

You can select from several order types and two order terms, although not all of them are available for every tradable instrument or country.

Orders can be placed online or by phone. Beware that placing orders by phone is more expensive.

Order types:

• Limit order
• Market order
• Stop loss order
• Trailing stop order
• Guaranteed stop order

You might not be familiar with guaranteed stop orders, which are specific to IG. If you use guaranteed stop you will be safe from any slippage costs (IG guarantees that your order will be executed at the stop price). Of course, nothing’s for free, IG will charge you a premium for using guaranteed stop orders.

Trailing stop orders work as an automated service, which you can opt for all your trades. You cannot choose which trades you want to use it for, you either go “all in” and apply it to all your trades, or you can't use it at all.

The order form can be a bit confusing at first: market orders can be made via the “Deal” tab, while all other orders are made through the “Order to open” tab.

Order terms:

• Good-till-date order
• Good-till-cancel order

Alerts and notifications

At your own profile setting alerts and notification can be done in the following way: MyAccount -> Settings -> Notifications.

You can choose from the following alert and trade/deal notifications

• price alert (prices reach an important level)
• indicator alert (technical tools reach an important level)
• economic alert (big economic announcements)
• automated or manual deal opening/closing
• automated or manual position editing

Portfolio and fee reports

When you go to your live account dashboard, you can easily see the main performances of your account. On the right tab, you see its history which shows you all costs and return. However, you don't have an aggregated view of your sub-accounts. 

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IG review
Mobile trading platform

IG's mobile trading platform is simlarly great as its web platform.

IG’s mobile and tablet apps are available for Apple, Android and Windows devices. As an extra, you can also view your account and even trade using your Apple watch.

IG’s mobile platform is a lot more intuitive than the web trading platform.

The platform uses the same login details as the web platform. You can’t use the web and mobile platform at the same time, so if you log in to one, your other platform will automatically log out.

The most important functionalities are:

• Watchlist and alerts
• Portfolio information
• Technical indicators
• Transaction and account history
• Security orders
• Money transfer orders

The availability of technical analysis is a nice feature, although it's not a perfect fit for mobile. One thing we miss is the news section. You can access news specific to a security by viewing the security, but there’s no centralized newsfeed.

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IG review
Desktop trading platform

IG has 3 desktop platforms. This can be confusing, so first, you need to figure out which one is the right for your needs.

You need to make another registration if you want to use one of the three desktop platforms:

• L2 Deale
• ProRealTime
• MetaTrader4

L2 Dealer is IG’s own trading platform, while ProRealTime and MetaTrader4 are provided by third-party partners. You can use them all for free, although the L2 Dealer is subject to a minimum balance of £1,000 and ProRealTime costs £30 per month which is refunded if you make at least four trades per month.

We recommend L2 Dealer for advanced share traders, ProRealTime for advanced technical chartists and MetaTrader4 for forex and index specialists. CFDs are provided on all three platforms, but share dealing is only available on L2. In MetaTrader4 you can only access forex, oil and metal CFDs. Thomson Reuter's news streaming is only available in L2 Dealer.

When it comes to using your own automated trading strategies, all of the desktop platforms will do the job, but only MetaTrader4 can handle excel plugins.

We tried setting up desktop trading platforms and, well, let’s say it’s a bit of a challenge. For MetaTrader4 there were two options for logging in, one of which worked and one of which didn't, and we found no guidance about which one to use.

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IG review
Research

IG offers a wide range of research information and tools.

IG has pretty good and useful research functions on news, and technical and fundamental analysis as well. The only missing piece of the puzzle here is a dedicated research team that could provide you analysis and recommendations in all of the asset classes.

The market data function is a useful all-in-one research platform. You can reach this function from the web platform but it functions as a separate research portal. It allows you to search information on stocks, indices, and even commodities. On top of the actual bid-ask prices and an interactive chart of the selected financial product, you can find the following:

• Related news
• Client sentiment and trading activity
• Chart patterns for indices
• Top movers in an index
• Broker recommendations for stocks
• Historical fundamental data for stocks

You can access stock fundamental data from the last five years. Unfortunately, this data cannot be downloaded to excel where you would be able to analyze it further.

The economic calendar is a well-developed research function that you can use to search for both macroeconomic and company events. The function is approachable from both web and mobile platforms.

The Market screener tool is really useful if you are searching for stocks based on some fundamental factors. For example, you can set up a screen where you search for companies from the US financial sector, above USD 1 billion market cap and with a dividend rate higher than 2%. You can only access this function from the web platform.

IG has a pretty good news function that is powered by Thomson Reuter's. You can search for relevant news in 10 languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Swedish, Chinese and Japanese. You can get to the news function directly from the web platform. There is no search function on the mobile platform but you can find related news of one financial instrument. 

The trading diary is a unique function where you can add notes to your daily trading activities.

On IG's website, you'll find some additional research opportunities as well. If you don't want to chase the news you can sign up for a weekly or daily newsletter and get a summary of the next week's most important events, expert's opinion, and trading opportunities. IG Live is a video center where you can watch the latest videos on the market, upcoming events, expert opinions and more.

More research info

IG review
Education

IG offers good educational functions. You can enroll courses, sign up for webinars or watch educational videos.

At IG you'll have more options to educate yourself:

• online courses
• webinars
• educational videos

You can also sign up for upcoming webinars or download the IG academy app. We tested technical tools on the platform and each indicator had a short description of how that works. Reading short descriptions or watching educational videos really help the better understandings of the functions.

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IG review
Customer service

Call center gives you relevant and fast answers, representatives are well prepared.

You can reach out IG's customer service by e-mail, phone, and live chat. The e-mail service is available 24/7 which is really good. The live chat and email support services are helpful and reliable. 

The customer support is usually available in your local language, but for some emerging countries, like Romania, only English customer service might be available. You should check this with IG customer service before opening an account.

After you open your account you'll have a dedicated account manager, but ours was hardly available when we tried to contact him. Some of the contact phone numbers from the help and support page didn't work either.

IG operates 14 sales offices around the globe where you can meet them in person. They have offices in Chicago, London, Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Stockholm, Geneva, Milan, Johannesburg, Düsseldorf, Luxembourg, Dubai, Singapore, Melbourne, and Tokyo.

The help, support and FAQ functions on IG's website are a bit underdeveloped. We struggled to find information on even basic topics like available account currencies or withdrawal fees.

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IG review
Bottom line

IG is one of the biggest and most reliable CFD brokers. It is regulated by several financial authorities around the world. IG does not have a banking license, but its parent company, IG Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

IG has one the best trading platforms Brokerchooser tested. Its customer service is also professional and relevant. IG's research is helpful and broad compared to other CFD brokes.

The biggest drawback is the fee structure that is quite pricey especially when you trade lower amounts. IG's product portfolio is limited to CFDs, however, in the UK and some other countries, stocks are also accessible. IG does not provide minimum balance protection, an important safety feature when you trade with leveraged products, like CFDs.

It is quite easy to experience IG's first class trading platform since the minimum first-time deposit is only $/€ 300 and you can also open a demo account.

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