Introduction:
If nothing else, a broker should clearly define what is it doing in the market and how can a trader seek help and advice from the broker itself, to make trades that accomplish the trading goals he or she has. ICmarkets is one such broker.
The UI of the broker’s website is designed so that it looks more like a website affiliated to the dark web. Our researchers felt like they would any time now, get a pop-up that would tell them where to buy illegal items from.
The broker has two accounts with a similar name and a third account. Apart from this, the broker also offers an Islamic account that we consider as a move to lure in religion-specific people so that the lead generation process stays afoot. No specification is given about any of the accounts on the homepage of the broker’s website.
ICmarkets: Account types
The broker offers four different types of accounts, out of which two have the same name. The Islamic account brings in the people who are prohibited from trading based on the sharia law.
Each account button that is supposed to give 100% information of the account redirects to a minuscule-information related page. This page gives all the positive information but lags to provide real information that a trader might need.
The broker claims that the spreads it charges are the tightest, but we ask why there are spreads at all? Isn’t the broker going to earn a heft price via commissions already?
The broker also cleverly mentions a liquidity provider’s presence but does not state one, anywhere. Leverage offered by the broker is 1:500, which is again very less to what the market is currently providing with.
ICmarkets: Tradable assets
The broker claims to provide less than 770 tradable assets to its users while failing to provide any relatable information on the same screen. The user has to deliberately look for the information he was supposed to be provided with. Claiming that a business is present, but no fact supports the claim, is a clear indicator of a scam broker. Almost of the tradable assets are provided with the broker with the catch of trading via CFDs. CFDs are a risky tradable strategy, and assets like forex and oil should be completely avoided when trading via CFD.
Trading platform:
The broker claims to provide MT4, MT5 and Ctrader as trading platforms to its users. With an already confusing aura created with two similar account names, the broker wants the trader to be confused more with so many choices.
Besides, each application is updated because the previous version was lagging into something. That is also the case with MT4 and MT% still; the broker hinges on a platform that is outdated and fails to provide indicators that make trades beneficial.
The broker also provides less heard names in the platform section of the trading world. Inclusion of less reliable platforms can be seen as a move to lure in traders who are not familiar with these and then unknowingly, make wrong trades that benefit the broker.
Education and resource:
There is no absolute button on the broker’s website that says education. We do not understand what the broker wants. At one point, it is offering two accounts with similar names. It is also letting the users know that no educational material will be provided by the broker whatsoever.
When we moved on to the “more” button, that is when we realised that the broker is providing the users with a knowledge of benefits and benefits only about Forex and CFD trading. Education is knowing something as a whole, not just the good parts about it.
Regulations:
The broker claims that it complies with three different brokers’ regulations but fails to provide any regulation and accounts number. No information is placed about the licensing of the broker to any of the bodies. It stays firm because it follows the rules but does not say that it is regulated. This is a wrongful move on the broker’s end because a trader cannot even begin to trust such a body.
Commissions and spreads:
Forex is a dangerous market, so is the CFD market. The broker makes sure that the trader makes the bets on feather forex or metals nut at the same time maintaining the fact that these bets have to be made on the CFD basis. CFDs are a whole different level of dangerous, and the broker asks for commission and spreads too.
An ideal broker either earns from spreads or commissions. None of the brokers asks for more, but ICmarkets make it look desperate for traders’ money. The spread charges are very high and are claimed to be variable. We think that the variation will occur when the market turns against the broker so that spreads can make money.
The commissions are also more than what the market asks for, beginning from $3. That is a lot of money a trader can give on each spread.
Also, commissions are charged by the broker, which can deviate the firm’s potential trader, as commission-based trading is not seen at, very nicely by a majority of day traders. Commissions eat the money a trader could make in his day trades.
Minimum balance:
The broker asks for $200 as a minimum account a trader should have if he wishes to begin trading. If researched more, a trader can find N number of brokers that provide legitimate trading with value less than that. ICmarkets is also an ECN broker, which clearly states that it has a liquidity provider.
Liquidity scheme:
Liquidity providers give money to brokers sot hat the cash flow is maintained. In simpler terms, liquidity providers make sure that the money they have is circulated well in the market, and while it circulates, it keeps on multiplying more. The innocent trader thinks that he is trading to make profits, but little does he or she know that the traders they are making, profit the liquidity providers only.
ICmarkets final call:
The broker seems to be afraid and a scam, with little information, about what it does, the broker fails to elaborate itself to the first time visitor. We recommend our traders move their financials to more responsible brokers and at the same time, research well before getting involved with such brokers.
We recommend our traders to visit more responsible brokers like HFTrdaing, brokers like TradeATF. These brokers are known to be more productive, and the traders respect them. These brokers are legitimate to the extent that one of the sponsors the national team of Argentina.
