IG (Investors Gold Index) Review

IG.com Full Review

Visit IG.com Today
Please check all terms and conditions. 71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets & CFDs with this provider.

IG (Investors Gold Index) is a UK based comprehensive forex Broker that laid its foundation in 1974 by Stuart Wheeler. With over 239,000 clients worldwide, IG deals on more than 17,000 global markets and offers full excess to the currency market and support for over 80 currency pairs. IG was the first one to come up with the concept of financial spread betting that introduced online dealing. The regulation of IG entities is not restricted to one area but is operating in many localities such as the United States, United Kingdom, Asia-Pacific and South Africa and United Arab Emirates. Each regulating body has their own sets of rules and principles according to the region but their practice remains the same and fully transparent. In a market full of emerging firms, IG has made its appearance as a well-recognized company and has won multiple awards in the past.

Assets & Markets

IG offers its users multiple financial instruments to trade across a variety of markets. These mainly include Forex in which the popular forex market consists of EUR/USD, AUD/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY. Users can trade in futures indices, cash indices and micro indices. There are more than 13,000 shares and Commodities, such as oils, metals and other soft commodities. Moreover, IG offers a variety of Government Bonds and interest rates options for traders. A user can use their own specific instrument for trading as per there will and liking.

Trading Platforms

IG provides multiple trading platforms to its customers that are easily accessible. The three core platforms are the desktop, which is a browser based, free of cost and sustainable for all sorts of users. Second one being the mobile application which can be downloaded and is optimized for iOS as well as android and users get to access the same information that is present on the Desktop version. Lastly, they have a progressive web app which provides a seamless trading platform to any of its customers without having them visit the third-party application and is fully optimized to give its users real time updates.

Apart from these three core platforms, IG offers addition specialized platforms to the professional users. ProRealTime offers advance monetary tools, allows a flexible access and is free if a client performs at least four trades per month. It allows trade on all the markets except for DMA. Then they offer MetaTrader4 which is sustainable for forex specialists and tradable markets also include indices, oil and major metals. Third one is called L2 Dealer, it provides a direct market access and is sustainable for advanced shares traders. Through L2 dealer, users can trade CFDs. This wide range of platform for the users makes IG one of the most user-friendly broker firm because people can access the platform that is best suited to their needs and the interface at the browser as well as the mobile application is fairly simple to operate.

Account Types

Account types offered by such firms greatly vary from one region to another and the types of market present in that specific locality. IG offers a trading account, spread betting account and a share dealing account. The minimum initial deposit starts from S/£/€300. In a trading account, trader can manage their exposure using a range of risk management tools, including stops and automated alerts. On the contrary, A share dealing account allows traders to buy and sell the actual shares of companies without using CFDs.

IG also allows it traders opening up a free Demo account which most of the brokers allow. It enables them to practice dealing with financial instruments.

IG seems to constantly be developing their account type offerings to suit each different type of trader in the best possible way, and depending on a trader's geographic location, will also offer specific services to comply with and also take advantage of local differences in financial regulations and limits. Our advice would be to step in to the first account you know will cover your requirements to start trading, and explore the numerous offers and extra account opportunities from there.

Funding Options

IG offers three types of funding options based on their website. traders can deposit funds instantly through Debit/Credit cards, and bank transfer with a typical processing time of 3 days. Lastly, PayPal can also be used which only takes up to 24 hours to process. Withdrawals have a processing time of 2-5 days

Costs & Fees

As with most brokers now, IG makes its profits by charging traders with specific trading fees which each trader should make themselves aware of. There are no costs for deposits or withdrawals, apart from when you wish to transfer under £100 on the same date, in which case there is a current fee of £15. Traders should also be aware that their credit card companies may also charge a small percentage for each transaction, but for which IG is of course not responsible for. IG does also charge for overnight funding i.e.; traders bear additional charge for funding positions to stay open overnight. A spread of 0.5 is charged for Options and CFDs traded in a currency other than the base currency of account. Some other types of fees taken by IG include an inactivity fee and account documentation fee.

If we're talking about spread, IG pays spread on each trade. This spread is subject to change based on the time of the day of that particular trade. In addition to that, traders pay commissions on every share CFD and also on share trades.

Online Academy

IG also offers an online academy which has several online trading courses and live session that is not extensive in nature as mostly they are offered to professionals. The courses offered at this academy ranges from the fundamentals of financial markets to trading psychology and technical analysis. The website displays a detailed schedule of sessions for each day along with timings and the name of the presenter. This feature enables the traders to get better insights of this field and help in discovering the endless opportunities through the online courses and this definitely gives IG a competitive edge over its competitors.

Customer Support

What really make or break a firm is their customer support, and just like any other website, IG has a fully operational direct customer support options which includes live chat, email, telephone and social media. They are available all around the clock from Monday to Friday and from 9 am to 5pm on weekends.

Overall Verdict

IG offers it traders a comprehensive broker service which is offering a lot of markets options. It is best for new Forex traders who are new to this field and it is totally user friendly because of its simple and clean interface. The easy-to-navigate platform caters to everyone starting from the beginners to the professionals. Moreover, IG is a well-recognized and great brokerage firm, trusted in decades. It is highly regulated in all the countries they have offices in and this quality has enabled IG to reach to a level of recognition that they are currently enjoying.

Overall Brokers2000.com Rating

★★★★★

Visit IG.com Today
Please check all terms and conditions. 71% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets & CFDs with this provider.

Spread bets and CFDS are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

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