Recently I have been checking out the Australian Metatrader 4 forex provider scene and discovered a variety new power plays appearing down under, on the list of brokers that I found pop up a lot was a company called IC Markets. I had not heard a great deal about this broker until recently where everyone in my fx trading club seems to be talking about them. I decided to check this broker out myself and write an evaluation comparing them to my current broker Go Markets.
To enable me to conduct my evaluation I opened a live Metatrader account with IC Markets. Rather that writing a general assessment regarding my experience I thought that I would focus on a number of aspects that members of our fx trading group search for when deciding on a forex broker. The factors our group looks at are slippage, service and spreads. We evaluate every one of the brokers our members deal with on these parameters.
I will start off by writing about the forex broker that I currently trade with, Go Markets. I have been trading with Go Markets for a few years now so I know this provider inside out, making writing this assessment a great deal easier.
Go Markets We will look at slippage first. I have had slippage problems at Go Markets especially when trading sizes greater than 5 lots, in the past I have been slipped as much as 20 pips. Slippage with Go Markets can also be a real issue around news announcements, this is one of several things that really annoys me about Go Markets.
The spreads at Go Markets are average, I have seen much better elsewhere, lately they made some changes and the spreads happened to get even worse, this was actually one of the things that made me look at IC Markets and subsequently write this review. Spreads are obviously your cost of trading so when spreads are worse it means that it is difficult to generate a profit from the deal.
The service offered from Go Markets is pretty good, I do not have any problems here. They’re speedy to respond to queries and can be contacted 24 hours. It does however frustrate me that their support team usually are not the quickest at resolving issues over the phone, they appear better at fixing issues after you email them though.
Now it is time to look at IC Markets, the newest Metatrader 4 power forex broker on the block. I opened a live account with this broker three months ago so it is fair to say that I have traded with them long enough to write a review regarding them.
IC Markets So far so good when it comes to slippage at IC Markets, I’ve put trades on as large as ten standard lots without being slipped. IC Markets also seem very good over the numbers I haven’t had any slippage yet. I believe that since IC Markets is an ECN provider their execution and liquidity is a lot better than other forex brokers which means slippage does not exist.
IC Markets spreads are some of the best that I have experienced, not only are their spreads tight in the majors, spreads on the crosses are also very good. Because IC Markets are an ECN broker they charge a fee on the deals executed, you should take this into consideration when looking at their spreads. Even when you are taking the commission into account the cost of dealing is roughly 20%-30% lower than Go Markets.
I did not know what to expect of the IC Markets service but after opening my forex account I was pleasantly surprised. IC Markets staff members are polite and well-mannered. They were really fast to reply to my questions and answered my telephone calls at midnight. I was invited to one of their webinars whilst chatting to one of their support people and I was really impressed. It seemed like my miserable little forex trading account got me red carpet treatment.
Conclusion The old faithful Go Markets isn’t so faithful compared to IC Markets. IC Markets are significantly better in terms of pricing, they’re approximately 20-30% less expensive and better still slippage is non-existent. IC Markets service is also second to none I received VIP treatment even with my small account balance. I am really glad that I carried out this review as I have now discovered my new favourite Australian forex broker. I’m going to still keep my Go Markets forex account as a backup account but now I will do nearly all of my fx trading on my IC Markets trading account. I trust this appraisal helps anyone looking to trade with any of these forex brokers.
To know more about IC Markets, visit our website Go Markets & IC Markets