IG Forex Review

IG Forex would be a good choice for beginner traders or advanced traders because of the amount of resources they offer. IG Forex delivers on this by deciding to adopt the time-honored adage “go big or go home” because, well, they can.

IG Forex offers an emphasis on customer service, access to many educational resources, actionable research, and functional interfaces which are easy for users to understand. This makes IG Forex a competitive and quality broker to consider using amongst the selection of forex brokers in the online broker market.

The major currency pairs are approximately $10 per pip. This includes the major pairs AUD/USD, EUR/GBP, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and USD/JPY. The average pip spread ranges from 1.0 to 1.4. The average pip spread is calculated from (Monday 00:00 – Friday 22:00 GMT) for 6 weeks ending June 25, 2021. Margin requirements on the major crosses ranges from 2-3%, which is a significant amount of leverage and may be too much risk for a beginning investor.

For foreign exchange transactions, adjustments are made to calculate the cost to fund a position, and these are posted to users’ accounts daily. The adjustments are calculated as below:

A = V x R

Where:

A = the cost of funding

V = the number of contracts multiplied by the contract size

R = the current tomorrow next rate, including a charge not exceeding 0.5% annually.

If the rate is less than zero, users will be debited for executing a short position and credited for executing a long position. If tomorrow’s rate is greater than zero, the trader will be credited for executing a short position and debited for running a long position.

The funding adjustment is calculated for any forex position opened before 5:00 pm ET that is still open after 5:00 pm ET.

Minimum Deposit

IG Forex requires a minimum deposit of $250 in order to start trading.

Spreads and margins

The user pays a spread on every trade.

For currency pairs IG Forex offers a standard contract size (one contract = 100,000 of the first-named currency), with a minimum trade size of 0.01 lots (equivalent to 1000 of the first-named currency).

Traders must place a minimum of four trades per month for free access to ProRealTime. Otherwise, a $40 monthly fee applies.

Overnight funding fees

When the user trades derivatives, they trade on margin. This means a minimum deposit to open a position is needed, and they in effect lend the rest of the money required to the brokerage.

If the user closes their position on the same day, there are no trading fees. If the position is kept overnight, they charge a small fee to cover the cost of the money that’s been effectively borrowed.

Currency conversion charges

Trading forex in a currency other than the user account’s base currency may incur a currency conversion charge. The default setting is instant conversion, where foreign-currency profit is converted to the user’s base currency and funding or commission charges are taken into account before the user’s account is credited.

IG Markets also offers daily, weekly and monthly conversion settings. Their standard charge is 0.5%.

Inactivity fee

If there haven’t been any trades placed on the account for two years or more, and there is still a balance, a $12 inactivity fee is charged on the first of every month.

IG Forex benchmark fees are competitive against other trading platforms

Negative Balance Protection

IG Forex does not offer negative balance protection for U.S. clients. This means that a client can end up losing money rapidly due to losing more than their account balance and end up owing money to the broker.

Trading Accounts for IG Forex

Demo Account

The demo account is an IG account providing a simulated market environment with a trading platform that aims to recreate the experience of ‘real’ Forex and CFD trading as closely as possible.

Demo accounts provide immediate access to online trading platforms, along with $10,000 of pre-set virtual funds to practice with the IG Forex Academy. The account is completely free, with no minimum deposit, and is easy to set up for direct market access.

A demo account can be an important resource for teaching new users that trading involves risk. It’s most ideal for beginning traders who may otherwise risk losing money rapidly due to inexperienced trading in the real world. However, trading in a demo account does lack real-life high risk trading experiences and the amount available to trade in the platform isn’t flexible.

IG Academy

IG Academy assists clients in developing the skills of trading – from first steps to advanced strategies – with their interactive courses. Clients can learn at their own pace, and checking their understanding with practical exercises and quizzes.

Beginner

The IG Academy breaks down financial and trading fundamentals into eight courses. Introducing the financial market: Take a tour of the financial markets. Discover how they operate, what drives them and how you can capitalize on their movements.

Find out about the people and businesses who make the trading world tick, and discover the mechanisms behind market prices. Learn an understanding of the steps involved in placing a trade, including how to protect yourself against risk and use leverage wisely.

Create a plan that will help you achieve your trading goals, and discover tools you can use to for risk management. Alsodiscover how to find potential trading opportunities by analyzing market patterns or trends using technical indicators.

Intermediate

Prepare yourself to handle the emotions which come while trading. Keep a cool head and avoid common mistakes trading mistakes.

Use fundamental analysis to find stocks with potential by analyzing economic factors and scrutinizing company details. Use five simple rules to help you manage risk and maximize the long-term profitability of your trading.

IG Forex Account

IG Forex’s standard account requires a small minimum deposit for members to start trading. Users have access to multiple trading tools to assist them with investing. This account includes high risk-limit exposure using a range of risk management tools, including stops and automatic alerts.

US traders can use IG Forex ProRealTime, one of the best trading platform available for committed traders. US IG Forex uses MT4 and upgrades it with 18 add-ons in addition to IG Forex Autochartist. Retail Investment Accounts are also made available for retail traders who want to trade the markets through a corporate structure without being a client.

The IG Forex Metatrader platform is recommended for index and forex specialists.

IG Forex Smart Portfolios

IG Smart Portfolios offer an affordable and innovative way to invest. IG Forex Smart Portfolios require lower fees than other active funds from other companies with a 0.5% management fee.

These are institutional-quality portfolios catering to five distinct risk profiles, ranging from conservative to aggressive. A portfolio will include ETFs that cover a range of asset classes and geographies, such as government and investment-grade bonds, developed and emerging market equities, and non-traditional assets such as gold and property.

IG Forex Academy gives anyone access to free informal step-by-step courses after making an account. These courses provide explanations about topics and trading ideas such as financial markets, introductions to trading-how trading involves high risk, market volatility, financial instruments, spread betting and how spread bets work, and much more.

Member accounts are provided trading signals generated by complex instruments such as Autochartist and PIA-First.