One of my favorite pastimes is forex trading, it's because of this I made a decision to write an evaluation on the subject of my forex provider IC Markets. As IC Markets is the biggest forex provider in Australia it's not difficult to find numerous reviews on the internet regarding them, however instead of believing what's written in forums on the internet I made a decision to conduct my own assessment of this broker.
I must point out that I have had accounts with almost all of the forex brokers in Australia over the past 6 years or so I have observed all of the tricks in the book that brokers employ so that they can make a buck or two out of their clients. Luckily, as I have encountered the best and worst of all of the fx brokers in Australia I would like to think that I am in a reasonably good position to review IC Markets also.
Before I start this review I should mention that IC Markets was founded in 2007 by the brains that were responsible for bringing margin foreign exchange into Australia back in 2003. Their head office is in the Sydney CBD taking up two floors of quite a prestigious office address. Forex is just one of the financial products that they provide they even have internet share trading and Contracts for Difference.
As I have had a trading account with IC Markets for nearly two years now trading practically every day, writing a review was extremely easy. My review was determined by a number criteria which you'll find talked about allot throughout the forums, these criteria are spreads, slippage and trade latency. It only makes sense to focus my assessment on the major currency pairs as IC Markets has in excess of 50 currency pairs on their Metatrader 4 fx trading platform.
Just about all traders including myself asses forex brokers first and foremost by looking at the prices they display. Spreads are obviously substantially more important if you're scalping and day trading, however for those traders who hold open long positions, spreads should not be something that you have to be concerned about. Never the less IC Markets does in fact have the tightest spreads out of all of the forex brokers in Australia, their EUR/USD spreads average 0.1 pips which from what I've observed is also the very best spread in the world for this pair.
Slippage is also a very important factor to consider if you plan on scalping the market or utilizing high frequency EAs. Unfortunately slippage seems to be more prevalent with ECN brokers, however often this is countered by positive slippage. Slippage at IC Markets does exist however it is negligible and to their praise they also pass on positive slippage in their clients favour. If you are trading with a True ECN broker you might want to think about this however don't be discouraged as it works both ways, this is particularly the case when trading with IC Markets.
The most important point to think about is deal speed, having trades reach the market rapidly and receiving trade confirmations fast is essential, it's because of this I only deal with brokers who have their servers in the NY4 data center in New York. I monitor the trade speeds at IC Markets on a daily basis and the average execution time is 130 milli seconds, the fastest speed that I have experienced is 40 milli seconds.
I must point out that I have had accounts with almost all of the forex brokers in Australia over the past 6 years or so I have observed all of the tricks in the book that brokers employ so that they can make a buck or two out of their clients. Luckily, as I have encountered the best and worst of all of the fx brokers in Australia I would like to think that I am in a reasonably good position to review IC Markets also.
Before I start this review I should mention that IC Markets was founded in 2007 by the brains that were responsible for bringing margin foreign exchange into Australia back in 2003. Their head office is in the Sydney CBD taking up two floors of quite a prestigious office address. Forex is just one of the financial products that they provide they even have internet share trading and Contracts for Difference.
As I have had a trading account with IC Markets for nearly two years now trading practically every day, writing a review was extremely easy. My review was determined by a number criteria which you'll find talked about allot throughout the forums, these criteria are spreads, slippage and trade latency. It only makes sense to focus my assessment on the major currency pairs as IC Markets has in excess of 50 currency pairs on their Metatrader 4 fx trading platform.
Just about all traders including myself asses forex brokers first and foremost by looking at the prices they display. Spreads are obviously substantially more important if you're scalping and day trading, however for those traders who hold open long positions, spreads should not be something that you have to be concerned about. Never the less IC Markets does in fact have the tightest spreads out of all of the forex brokers in Australia, their EUR/USD spreads average 0.1 pips which from what I've observed is also the very best spread in the world for this pair.
Slippage is also a very important factor to consider if you plan on scalping the market or utilizing high frequency EAs. Unfortunately slippage seems to be more prevalent with ECN brokers, however often this is countered by positive slippage. Slippage at IC Markets does exist however it is negligible and to their praise they also pass on positive slippage in their clients favour. If you are trading with a True ECN broker you might want to think about this however don't be discouraged as it works both ways, this is particularly the case when trading with IC Markets.
The most important point to think about is deal speed, having trades reach the market rapidly and receiving trade confirmations fast is essential, it's because of this I only deal with brokers who have their servers in the NY4 data center in New York. I monitor the trade speeds at IC Markets on a daily basis and the average execution time is 130 milli seconds, the fastest speed that I have experienced is 40 milli seconds.
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In summary I'm very happy dealing with IC Markets, they are also the biggest forex broker in Australia. It goes without saying you should do your own research and read an IC Markets review or open a trading account for yourself and conduct your own testing.
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