IC Markets Review: Spreads, Execution and Regulation

The Main Advantages and Drawbacks

In the first quarter of 2026, IC Markets published the terms compared here: a Raw Spread account on MT5 and a Standard account on cTrader, the cost of trading major currency pairs, gold, oil and indices worked against a reference balance of 1,500 dollars, and three separate withdrawal routes. The short summary comes first, ahead of the detail.

Advantages

• A very low spread on Raw Spread accounts, starting in practice at 0.0 pips on EURUSD, among the tightest levels in the sector
• Dual regulation by two tier 1 authorities: ASIC in Australia and CySEC in Europe
• Four trading platforms at once — MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView — a range that is rare among brokers
• Execution the firm puts at under a millisecond of latency, on Equinix servers in New York and London
• No inactivity fee, which means an account does not erode if trading stops for a while
• More than 2,100 tradable instruments, covering currencies, shares, indices, commodities and digital assets

Drawbacks

• A minimum deposit of 200 dollars, well above brokers such as XM, which accepts just 5 dollars
• Arabic-language support is limited in its published hours next to brokers that concentrate on the Arab market
• The Islamic account carries an administration charge after a grace period of 5 days, which can raise the cost of longer-term positions
• There is no complete Arabic educational library; the material available is aimed mainly at English-speaking traders
• The firm’s own mobile app had spells of unavailability on the app stores in 2023 and 2024

That is a quick first look. The detail emerges only on working through each side of this Australian broker in turn, and the sections that follow set out the published figures and the comparisons.

Company Information

IC Markets was founded in 2007 by Andrew Budzinski in Sydney, Australia. It began as a broker specialising in a genuine ECN trading environment with a low spread and fast execution, and over more than 18 years it has grown into one of the largest brokerage firms in the world by daily trading volume.

The Australian companies register (ASIC Connect) lists the legal entity International Capital Markets Pty Ltd under licence number 335692, and as of February 2026 the entry shows the registration date and the scope of authorised services in full. A check of that kind is what separates a real firm from a shell claiming licences it does not hold.

IC Markets operates through several separate legal entities in different jurisdictions. The original Australian entity serves Australian clients, the Cyprus entity (IC Markets EU Ltd) serves European clients, and the Seychelles entity (Raw Trading Ltd) serves international clients, most Arabic-speaking traders among them. That structure is common among large brokerage groups and lets them serve clients from different regions under each region’s regulatory requirements.

IC Markets serves more than 180,000 active clients in more than 200 countries, and employs more than 800 people across offices in Sydney, Adelaide and Perth in Australia as well as internationally. Monthly trading volumes have run beyond 1.2 trillion dollars, which places the firm among the five largest forex brokers in the world by liquidity.

Is IC Markets a scam? On the public registers, the short answer is no. The firm is supervised by two tier 1 authorities, ASIC in Australia and CySEC in Europe, both among the strictest anywhere. Their requirements cover segregation of client money from the firm’s own funds, periodic audited financial reporting, and the investor compensation arrangements each regime imposes. The firm has operated for more than 18 years with a clean regulatory record and no disciplinary action from either authority. None of that means every trader makes money: 74.32% of retail accounts lose when trading contracts for difference, which follows from the nature of trading the financial markets rather than from any fraud by the firm.

IC Markets has collected several international awards in recent years, among them best forex and CFD broker in the Asia-Pacific region for 2024 from TradingView, the Social Champion award from TradingView for 2025, best trading fees for 2026 from ForexBrokers.com, and top-ranked broker for the MetaTrader platform for 2026. Awards can carry a marketing dimension, but a firm continuing for more than 18 years under strict supervision, with steady growth in its client base, is in itself a strong signal of stability.

What IC Markets Does Well

There are several reasons IC Markets belongs on a shortlist, particularly for an Arabic-speaking trader who wants a professional trading environment at low cost.

The first is genuinely low cost. On the Raw Spread account the published spread on EURUSD starts at 0.1 pips through the peak of the London session, against a commission of 7 dollars per standard lot on the round turn. On the broker’s own arithmetic that puts the total cost of a single standard-lot trade at no more than 7.1 dollars, among the lowest available anywhere. Set against brokers such as Pepperstone and Exness, IC Markets competes hard on this front.

The second is the choice of platforms. Very few brokers offer four main trading platforms at once. MT5, cTrader and TradingView all run from the same account credentials, and the broker states that pricing is identical across the three. That range lets a trader pick the platform that suits their style without opening accounts at several brokers.

The third is execution speed. IC Markets runs its servers in Equinix data centres in New York (NY4) and London (LD5), the same centres the large investment banks use. Re-quote behaviour and slippage are not measured here, so the claim made is about where the servers sit and nothing more.

The fourth is the absence of an inactivity fee. Unlike many brokers, which charge a monthly fee on a dormant account after a set period, IC Markets charges nothing of the kind. An account can stay open for months without trading and the balance is untouched.

The fifth is suitability for automated trading. With a low spread, fast published execution and support for expert advisors (Expert Advisors) on MT4 and MT5, plus the advanced API interface in cTrader, IC Markets is among the better-equipped brokers for traders who rely on automated systems and algorithms.

Licences and Regulation

Licences are the first thing to check when assessing any brokerage firm. In the case of IC Markets, every licence can be verified independently against the official register of the authority that issued it, and the entries described here are those published as of February 2026.

IC Markets operates through four legal entities, each licensed by a different regulator. The table below sets out the full detail:

Is IC Markets genuinely licensed? The official ASIC website (asic.gov.au) returns the firm’s full entry against licence number 335692, including the legal entity name International Capital Markets Pty Ltd, the date of authorisation and the scope of permitted financial services. The same search on the Cypriot CySEC register under number 362/18 returns a matching entry for IC Markets (EU) Ltd. Two tier 1 registers carrying the same firm is what makes these licences real and independently checkable.

What applies differs with the entity an account is opened under. The entity authorised by CySEC in Europe sits under the strictest of the group’s rulebooks and participates in the investor compensation scheme (ICF), whose ceiling is set at 20,000 euro in the event of the firm’s insolvency. The entity authorised by ASIC in Australia works under a comparably demanding regime, covering segregation of client money and audited financial reporting. The Seychelles and Bahamas entities, which take most Arabic-speaking traders, sit under lighter regimes, because those authorities are classified in tier 3.

The IC Markets licences fall into two main tiers. The tier 1 licences are ASIC and CySEC, among the strongest regulators in the world: both impose high capital requirements, segregation of client money, annual financial audits and leverage caps aimed at the retail trader. The tier 3 licences are FSA in Seychelles and SCB in the Bahamas, offshore licences that allow more flexibility on leverage, up to 1:500, with fewer obligations on the licensee.

Confirming the legal entity an account will be opened under, before any deposit, is always worth doing. Any broker’s licence can also be checked independently on the regulators’ own websites.

Opening an Account and Verification

On the account-opening process as published in January 2026, the sequence at IC Markets is clear and orderly but calls for more patience than at some competitors. Registration begins on the IC Markets website with a form asking for the basic personal details: name, email address, telephone number and country.

After initial registration, the platform requires a detailed questionnaire covering trading experience, financial position and sources of income. Those questions are mandatory under ASIC and CySEC requirements, which oblige a firm to assess how appropriate its trading services are for each client. Every licensed brokerage is bound by the same procedure.

The documents required to complete identity verification (KYC) are a clear image of a passport or national identity card and a recent proof of address, such as a utility bill or bank statement no more than 3 months old. They are uploaded in PDF format through the secure client portal.

How long that review takes is not published by the firm and is not timed here. Across the sector, verification generally runs from two hours to 72 hours depending on the broker, and brokers such as XM and Exness tend to be faster at this step.

One point in its favour: IC Markets allows a demo account to be opened immediately with no documents at all, which makes it possible to try the platform and get to know the trading tools before committing to a real deposit. The demo account runs on virtual funds and mirrors live market conditions.

A note for Arabic-speaking traders: the registration site is available in Arabic, though some of the verification emails arrive in English. Anyone who finds the verification requirements hard to follow can contact the support team through live chat and ask for help in Arabic.

Account Types

IC Markets offers three main types of live account, each built for a different kind of trader. The Raw Spread account on MT5 and the Standard account on cTrader are the pair most often set against each other. The published terms are these:

On the published schedules, the Raw Spread account on cTrader offers the best value on total cost. The commission on cTrader is 1 dollar per lot lower than on MT4/MT5 — 6 dollars round turn against 7 dollars — while the spread is all but identical. The choice of platform turns on other things as well, though, such as expert advisors, which run only on MT4/MT5.

The Standard account suits a trader who prefers simplicity and would rather not work out commissions. Its spread is wider but takes in every cost. Comparing total cost between the Standard account and the Raw Spread account on the published figures, the gap runs at around 0.1 to 0.2 pips in favour of the Raw Spread account on most of the major pairs.

Maximum leverage reaches 1:500 under the Seychelles and Bahamas entities. Under the Australian ASIC entity or the European CySEC entity it is capped at 1:30 for retail clients, following the applicable rules. Most Arabic-speaking traders, who open accounts under the Seychelles entity, get the higher figure.

Fees and Trading Costs

Fees are among the factors with the greatest bearing on a trader’s profitability over the long run. What follows sets the trading costs IC Markets publishes against three main competitors, on the figures published in the first quarter of 2026.

Spreads

The spread is the difference between the bid and the ask, and it is the basic cost of every trade. The table below compares the spreads published on the Raw Spread account through the peak of the London session, between 10 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon GMT, against three competitors:

The spread widens noticeably through the overnight hours, between 10 at night and 6 in the morning GMT, and when significant economic data is released, such as the US employment report. At those times the EURUSD spread can move from 0.1 pips to 0.8 pips or wider. That behaviour is normal in an ECN environment and happens at every broker.

Taken as a whole, IC Markets offers a highly competitive spread on the major pairs and on commodities. For anyone after the lowest possible cost in trading gold, IC Markets comes in well below XM and close to Exness, which is regarded as the cheapest in that market.

Commissions

Commissions apply only to Raw Spread accounts. On the MT4 and MT5 platforms the commission is 3.50 dollars per standard lot per side, which is 7 dollars on the round turn. On cTrader it is lower, at 3 dollars per 100,000 units per side, or 6 dollars round turn. The Standard account carries no commission at all, because the cost sits inside its wider spread.

For comparison: Pepperstone charges 3.50 dollars per lot per side on its Razor account, matching IC Markets on MT4/MT5, while Exness charges a commission starting at 3.50 dollars on its Raw accounts. The IC Markets commission on cTrader, at 6 dollars round turn, makes it the cheapest of these competitors for anyone using that platform.

Overnight Financing (Swaps)

Overnight financing is the cost, or the credit, that comes from holding a position into the next trading day. The rates below are those published for the Raw Spread account on a number of widely traded pairs as of February 2026:

Overnight financing at IC Markets is mid-range against the sector. On Wednesdays a triple charge applies, to cover the weekend, which is standard practice at every broker. For a longer-term trader holding positions for days or weeks, those charges can accumulate noticeably, and in that case the swap-free Islamic account may be the better fit.

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

IC Markets charges nothing of its own on either deposits or withdrawals. On the withdrawal side, some payment providers apply charges of their own: an international bank transfer, for instance, can carry a fee from the trader’s local bank of between 15 and 25 dollars depending on the bank.

A currency conversion fee of 0.3% applies where the account currency differs from the deposit or withdrawal currency. Opening the account in US dollars avoids that charge on most dollar-denominated instruments.

Inactivity Fees

One significant advantage at IC Markets is that it charges nothing on a dormant account. That differs from brokers such as XM, which charges an inactivity fee after 12 months without trading. The absence of that charge makes IC Markets a comfortable choice for anyone who trades intermittently or takes long breaks.

The Fee Picture Overall

Looking at the whole picture, IC Markets ranks among the lowest-cost brokers on the market. A low spread on Raw Spread accounts, a reasonable commission, and no inactivity, deposit or withdrawal charges together make for one of the more transparent and competitive fee structures available. The one drawback is the 0.3% currency conversion fee, which weighs on traders depositing in currencies other than the dollar.

Desktop Trading Platforms

IC Markets offers four main trading platforms, a range that is rare in the sector. Each is described below on its published performance, features and ease of use.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4): The best-known platform in forex. It runs smoothly and its support for expert advisors (EA) is excellent. The interface can look dated next to newer platforms, but it is extremely stable and dependable, and MT4 remains the default choice for anyone running an expert advisor in the background.

MetaTrader 5 (MT5): The developed version of MT4, with support for more pending-order types (6 against 4 in MT4), improved charting and a built-in economic calendar. On its published specification, MT5 loads historical data faster and is more flexible for strategy testing (backtesting). Some expert advisors written in MQL4 do not run on MT5 and have to be rewritten in MQL5.

cTrader: Of the four, this is the most modern in presentation and the most direct in its order handling. The interface is clean, with advanced charting and professional drawing tools. It supports one-click trading and shows depth of market (Level II), which exposes the real liquidity on the book. The commission on cTrader is 1 dollar per lot lower than on MT4/MT5, which is a further advantage. The drawback is that cTrader is less widely used among Arabic-speaking traders, which means fewer learning resources in Arabic.

TradingView: IC Markets added TradingView integration recently, which allows trading directly through the familiar TradingView interface, with its advanced technical analysis tools and its large community of traders. An IC Markets account connects to TradingView and orders can be sent straight from the chart. That integration makes IC Markets one of the few brokers offering every major platform under one roof.

All the platforms support trading small contracts (micro lots) from 0.01 of a lot, automated trading, and stop-loss and take-profit orders. The choice between them comes down to personal trading style: MT4 for simplicity and stability, MT5 for the advanced features, cTrader for the best presentation and the lowest commission, and TradingView for the analysis tools and the community.

Mobile Trading Apps

The trading apps IC Markets publishes for Android and iPhone are described here as of February 2026. The firm offers several mobile apps, among them the official IC Markets app and the MT4, MT5 and cTrader apps.

The official IC Markets app: It carries a rating of 4.2 out of 5 on Google Play. The app offers a modern interface with fingerprint and face recognition sign-in. It went through a spell of unavailability on the app stores in late 2023 and early 2024, which unsettled some traders. It is available and working normally now, but that interruption remains a weak point on the firm’s record.

The MT4/MT5 mobile apps: These are built by MetaQuotes and are not specific to IC Markets. They cover the core trading functions, with charting and technical analysis tools that are limited next to the desktop builds. Performance is stable and execution quick. On the features each publishes, the MT5 app is the more modern of the two on a phone, with MT4 the older interface of the pair.

The cTrader mobile app: The most polished of the mobile builds, judged on published features. A modern, fast interface with interactive charts and support for every order type. It carries smart notifications and price alerts, which matters to a trader who is not watching the screen continuously.

All the IC Markets apps support English fully. Arabic support in the app interfaces is limited: the MetaTrader apps follow the phone’s own language, while the cTrader app offers a fixed and fairly short list of interface languages. That is a weak point against brokers such as XM and Exness, which publish apps with a full Arabic interface.

Instruments Available

IC Markets lists more than 2,100 tradable instruments across several classes. The published breakdown is as follows:

The instruments most widely traded by Arabic-speaking traders are all on the list: EURUSD, GBPUSD, gold (XAUUSD), crude oil (WTI) and the Dow Jones index. Each is quoted with a competitive spread on the schedule set out above.

One clear strength is the wide range of share CFDs, running to more than 2,100 shares. That is far beyond what brokers such as XM offer, at around 1,300 shares, and close to the range eToro lists. Against that, the number of digital assets available, 13 in total, is limited next to specialist venues listing 50 or more. Anyone for whom digital assets are a priority may need to look at brokers with a wider selection.

The number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is limited too, at four. That is an area IC Markets needs to improve, particularly now these funds have become a common tool for investors looking for straightforward diversification. Anyone wanting to understand portfolio diversification better can read the guide to financial analysis and to choosing suitable instruments.

Order Execution

The speed and quality of order execution are among the things a professional trader examines most closely. IC Markets describes itself as a genuine ECN/STP broker with no dealing desk (No Dealing Desk), which means orders go straight to the liquidity providers with no intervention from the broker.

The firm states that orders are not re-quoted (requote). That is a policy statement rather than a measured outcome: fill speed is not timed here, and no execution-time figure is reported beyond the average the broker publishes itself.

IC Markets uses the Equinix data centres in New York (NY4) and London (LD5), the same centres the large investment banks and hedge funds use. On the firm’s own figures, that choice keeps latency (latency) very low, at under a single millisecond from a nearby VPS server.

Slippage (slippage) is not measured here, and the broker publishes no fill-quality statistics, so no slippage rate is given. In general, slippage appears around economic data releases and at the thin end of a session rather than in ordinary conditions.

IC Markets supports every trading style, scalping, high-frequency trading and automated trading through expert advisors and cTrader robots among them. That openness to every approach sets it apart from the many brokers that place restrictions on scalping or on automated trading.

Deposit Methods

IC Markets offers a varied set of deposit methods, covering most of what traders in different regions need. The minimums, processing times and charges published for each are set out below.

Every deposit is free from IC Markets’s side, which means the amount sent is the amount that appears in the account, with nothing deducted. Some payment providers may still apply charges of their own on an international transaction.

An important note for Arabic-speaking traders: the local payment methods common in the region — Mada, STC Pay and Fawry among them — are not available. That means using an international card or a global e-wallet instead. Some competitors, XM and Exness among them, offer a wider set of payment options for the Arab region.

The account currencies available include the US dollar, the Australian dollar, the euro, sterling, the Japanese yen, the Swiss franc, the New Zealand dollar, the Canadian dollar, the Singapore dollar and the Swedish krona. Opening the account in US dollars avoids the 0.3% currency conversion fee.

Withdrawal Methods

The withdrawal routes IC Markets publishes, together with the processing time and the charge stated for each, are set out in the table below.

Worked against that published schedule: a card withdrawal of 300 dollars, an international bank transfer of 500 dollars and an e-wallet withdrawal of 200 dollars through Skrill all carry no charge from the broker itself. Only the international bank transfer can attract a fee, and that fee comes from the receiving bank rather than from the broker.

Can money be withdrawn from IC Markets? It is one of the questions Arabic-speaking traders ask most often about any broker. On the published terms the answer is yes: withdrawals run through the payment routes the broker lists, and IC Markets commits to processing a request on the same business day where it is submitted before 12 noon Sydney time. No withdrawal has been requested or timed here, so that commitment is the broker’s own statement rather than a verified outcome.

A note: some traders report delays in withdrawals. Judged from the customer complaints published on Trustpilot, most delays trace back either to identity verification that was never completed or to an attempt to withdraw by a route other than the one used to deposit, which is an anti-money-laundering requirement. Completing verification and withdrawing by the same route used to deposit avoids both. There is also a guide to avoiding withdrawal problems with brokerage firms.

Customer Service

The support channels IC Markets publishes are set out below, with the availability stated for each and particular attention to what is offered in Arabic. No enquiry has been sent, so reply quality is not assessed.

Arabic-language support on live chat is published as available, but not around the clock. Whether an Arabic-speaking agent is reached depends on the hour of the day, and outside those hours the conversation switches to English. Neither queue length nor the quality of an answer is judged here.

The conclusion: Arabic support exists but is not available around the clock. Arabic-speaking staff appear to work set hours matching the working day in the Arab region, which means a trader needing help late in the day may have to continue in English. Against brokers such as XM and Exness, which publish broader and more available Arabic support, IC Markets needs to strengthen its Arabic desk.

The website is available in Arabic, with a sound translation covering the main pages. The client portal (Client Portal) supports Arabic as well, which makes managing the account, deposits and withdrawals possible without fluent English.

Research and Educational Material

The educational and research material IC Markets publishes is assessed below on quality, depth and availability in Arabic.

On research, IC Markets provides an economic calendar built into the platforms, daily market analysis and weekly reports. The reports published on the IC Markets blog cover the significant economic events adequately, but they do not reach the depth of the analysis produced by investment banks or by specialist analysis sites.

On educational material, IC Markets offers a set of lessons, videos and webinars (webinars) covering subjects such as forex basics, technical analysis and using the platforms. The content is aimed mainly at English-speaking traders, though. What is available in Arabic is very limited next to brokers such as XM, which runs a full trading academy in Arabic with live sessions, teaching videos and detailed articles.

That is one of the clearer weaknesses at IC Markets for an Arabic-speaking beginner who needs educational content in their own language. Anyone at the start of a trading journey will have to look beyond the broker for comprehensive, neutral Arabic material.

For an advanced trader who does not need teaching material in Arabic and is focused on execution quality and trading cost, that weakness makes little practical difference.

Client Money and Safeguards

The handling of client money is among the most important things to examine in any broker. The IC Markets financial and regulatory policies published on the point set out several layers, described below.

Segregation of client money: IC Markets holds client money in accounts kept entirely separate from the company’s own operating funds. That means that even if the firm ran into financial difficulty, client money would stay segregated and could not be applied to the company’s debts. The banks IC Markets names for client money include Westpac and NAB in Australia, two of the largest Australian banks.

Negative balance protection: IC Markets provides negative balance protection, which means an account cannot lose more than the amount deposited in it, even in extreme volatility. It is mandatory under CySEC and ASIC rules for retail clients, and IC Markets extends it to accounts under the Seychelles and Bahamas entities as well.

The investor compensation fund (ICF): The entity authorised by CySEC in Europe participates in the statutory investor compensation scheme, whose ceiling is set at 20,000 euro in the event of the firm’s insolvency. The other entities sit outside that scheme.

Financial audit: IC Markets is subject to an independent annual financial audit under ASIC and CySEC requirements. The audited financial statements are available on request. That degree of financial transparency adds a further layer of assurance.

The Islamic account: For traders looking for an account compliant with Islamic law, IC Markets offers a swap-free account. On the published terms, IC Markets allows a grace period of 5 days with no additional charge on an open position. After that period the firm applies an administration charge in place of the overnight interest. That model is common among brokers, but it does mean a longer-term position held for more than 5 days carries an additional cost. The swap-free account is available on every platform and across all account types.

It is worth noting that IC Markets does not publish a sharia certificate from a recognised sharia supervisory board for its Islamic account. A trader for whom that matters should consult a trusted sharia adviser before deciding to trade.

The Verdict

This assessment is built from the terms IC Markets published for the first quarter of 2026: the licences, the account schedules, the spread and commission tables, the platform specifications and the payment conditions.

IC Markets is a strong broker, and the high ratings it collects in international reviews line up with its published terms. Its principal strengths are a very low spread, fast published execution, the number of platforms available and the absence of an inactivity fee. Those qualities make it an excellent option for the intermediate or advanced trader looking for a professional trading environment at the lowest cost available.

But IC Markets is not the ideal choice for every Arabic-speaking trader. The minimum deposit of 200 dollars is high next to competitors that accept 5 dollars. Arabic support runs to limited hours, and Arabic educational content is close to non-existent. The Islamic account begins charging after 5 days. Local payment methods for the Arab region are not available. Those drawbacks may make brokers such as XM or Exness a better fit for an Arabic-speaking beginner.

Is IC Markets a scam or a fraud? On the public registers, no. The firm has operated for more than 18 years under two tier 1 authorities (ASIC and CySEC) with a clean regulatory record. Client money is segregated at major Australian banks, and withdrawals run through the payment routes the broker publishes once verification is complete. Even so, 74.32% of retail accounts lose money trading with IC Markets, and that figure deserves to be taken seriously. Those losses are not the product of fraud: they follow from the nature of leveraged trading, which carries high risk.

Is IC Markets haram? The firm offers a swap-free Islamic account with a grace period of 5 days. It does not, however, provide a formal sharia certificate from a recognised sharia supervisory board. The final religious ruling differs by school of jurisprudence and by each trader’s circumstances, and consulting a trusted sharia adviser is the sensible course.

Who IC Markets suits: The intermediate or advanced trader who is comfortable in English and wants a low spread, fast execution and a choice of platforms, and particularly anyone relying on automated trading or scalping. It also suits a trader working in size across forex, shares and commodities, where a difference in spread and commission has a tangible effect on returns.

Who IC Markets does not suit: The Arabic-speaking beginner who needs Arabic educational content and complete Arabic support, or anyone wanting to start with a very small amount below 200 dollars, or anyone looking for a broker with local Arab payment methods. In those cases, starting with another broker and moving to IC Markets as experience and trade size grow may be the better route.

For more on choosing the broker that fits particular needs, the broker reviews index carries detailed reviews of dozens of brokers built on the same methodology.

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