Finance Brokers 2021

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IG Review 2021

IG is a leading online trading provider, serving many individuals as well as corporate traders around the world. CFD, Forex, Cryptocurrency – these products & services are all rising in demand for trading and they are marching toward their peak. IG broker provides a safe and legal platform for trading with these instruments.

 

Since its establishment in 1974, IG has been developing its platform and now it is a world-class trading service and app. This app has won the best trade app award in Professional Trader Awards 2019. But is it still retaining its glory in 2021? We are going to find that out in this IG review. Our IG trading review will cover its trade platforms, instruments as well as customer support, and other relevant topics.

Check out IG today!

Table of Contents

About the Author:
Ashley Hughes

Ashley Hughes
Ashley has nearly a decade’s worth of experience in digital marketing and SEO — while also being a keen advocate of online learning. When he’s not busy with his day job, he’s reviewing e-learning platforms to ensure consumers are getting the best value for money.

A Brief Introduction to IG

IG was founded by the IG Group, and was originally established in 1974. Since then, the platform has gone through a lot of challenges. These challenges resulted in a number of experiences, and using those experiences, IG is now one of the top-tier online trading platforms.

 

Currently, this platform is occupying five continents with over 239,000 traders. What sets IG apart from other online brokers is its presence in the United States of America. Most of the online brokers chicken out of the US market due to regulatory complications. But here, IG shows its commitment towards legal online trading and bringing online trade opportunities to US citizens. It is not only a platform for experienced traders but also a place for newbies to learn online trading with different commodities.

 

 

The IG broker is regulated by six top-tier regulatory bodies. That includes the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). This ensures that your money will be safe and you will not get spammed by the platform. Now that we have introduced IG to you in a proper manner, let us go deep into this IG review.

Pros

  • Top-quality service
  • Award winning mobile trading app
  • No minimum deposit required
  • Multiple payment methods available

Cons

  • High trading platform fees
  • Forex & Stocks fees

Trade Platforms of IG

When it comes to trading platforms, IG has a wide range of options. You can use IG’s own trading platform, or you can use other third-party platforms alongside IG’s trading platforms. There is also a mobile app platform and a progressive web app for trading on the go. In this IG Review, we are going to explore all of those platforms.

 

First, let’s start with IG’s own trading platform, then we will talk about the third-party platforms.

 

IG’s Trading Platform

IG has built this platform by keeping the interest of CFD traders in mind. This platform allows you to control everything you need about your trade and account from one place. This platform can be accessed from anywhere. You can access it from your computer using a browser. Or you can access it anywhere from the mobile app.

 

What can you do with this platform? You can make trades, deposits, withdrawals, and many other things. You can also set Limits, stops, and trailing stops. However, this platform will cost a monthly fee for trading.

 

MetaTrader4

All online traders are well familiar with this platform. It is now an industry-standard platform. You can say this platform is the father of all platforms. This platform is filled with many useful tools including automated trading, charts, limits, stop-loss, and more. You can also add 18 more apps with it from add-ons.

 

The best thing about this platform is that you will have an industry-standard trading service without paying any money. That’s right – the MetaTrader4 platform is absolutely free to use.

 

Pro-Real Timer

The Pro Real Timer platform is made especially for technical traders. This platform is more chart-focused than it is functionality-focused. Traditional trade specialists may have a hard time using it, so we suggest you stick with the other platforms if graphs and charts are not your thing.

 

Now let’s speak of its functions. This platform comes with various monitoring tools including ProScreener, ProRealTrend TopMovers, Alerts, Lists, and Automated trading. It also comes with some account management functions such as card registration, withdrawal funds, view history.

 

With this platform, you can trade in any market except DMA and sprints. The cost of this platform has a twist. If you trade four times a month, this platform is free. If you trade more than that per month, then the monthly cost will be $40.

 

We would recommend you to use this platform only if you are good with graph, chart analysing, and making technical trades. Otherwise, use the other platforms.

 

L2 Dealer

The L2 Dealer is perfect for IG Share trading. We can do an IG share trading review if you need it. Let us just look at the functionality of this L2 Dealer platform first.

 

The L2 Dealer platform is not accessible through the mobile app. This platform was built specifically for advanced shares traders. This platform is downloadable. With it, you can gain direct market access or DMA.

 

This platform is free to use, but you must have at least $2000 deposited into your account. Otherwise, you will not get any access.

 

The available trading options in this platform are forex, shares, indices, and commodities. It is a great platform for share traders. Technical traders can make use of it as it has advanced charting technologies.

Discover a new trading broker in IG today!

The IG Mobile App

The IG mobile app is an award-winning app and it supports both Android and IOS. It won tw best trading app awards in 2018 and 2019. So surely it has something greater to offer than others, right?

 

This app is suitable for all users. You can make a trade-in of all CFDs with it and monitor them with watchlists, price alerts, orders. The order types include limits, stops, guaranteed stops, trailing stops, market orders.

 

The mobile app did not overlook research either. It gives you the same research facilities as the web-based desktop platform. It also comes with the IG mobile charts. This allows technical traders to analyse them and make trading on the go.

 

With this mobile platform, you don’t have to worry about getting out of the house during trading hours. Any changes happen in the market and you will be notified about it in the app and you can make changes in your trade there.

Progressive Web App

This Progressive Web App (PWA) is one of the best features of IG. It is a browser-based software for mobile traders. It serves as a great alternative to the mobile app.

 

The purpose of developing such a platform is to help mobile traders receive trade updates and market changes quickly. However, this progressive web app lacks a lot of built-in functionalities of mobile apps. For one, you will not have any market researching tools. Then there is no trade from charts here. So it is definitely not a good choice for technical traders.

 

So that was all about the platforms of IG trading in our IG review. In summary, the best platform is the IG’s personal platform. It has all the features of the other platforms in a well-balanced manner. However, if you are a technical trader, then the best choice for you would be the Pro Real Timer. The L2 Dealer is best for IG share trading review.

Why not kick-start your IG journey today?

Trade Instruments of IG

In this part of our IG review, we will be talking about trade instruments. What instruments are you allowed to trade in the IG platform? In other words, we are showing a smaller-scale IG trading review. Let’s start!

 

IG has over 17,000 markets to offer trade with. The instruments to trade them include Forex, Cryptocurrencies, Indices, Commodities, Shares, Bonds, ETFs, Options, and Industry sectors.

 

Although IG offers all of these trading instruments, they aren’t available in all regions. For example, UK traders cannot have access to trading with bonds and mutual funds. But they can trade with real shares. On the other hand, some other continents may not have access to real shares, but they can trade with mutual funds and bonds.

 

The reason for this difference is local regulation and restrictions. Some countries allow their citizens to trade with all products while others don’t allow that. Can you do anything about it? Yes, you can. Suppose you want to trade with shares – the UK allows its citizens to trade with shares. If you have legal UK citizenship, you can use that for registering in IG, and then you can trade with stocks. The same can be applied to other trade instruments.

Heard enough? Check out IG right now!

IG Accounts

This part of the IG review will talk about the account types of IG. The IG accounts differ by the trade instruments. There is a Forex account, a CFD account, and a Stock and Options account.

 

If you want to know about IG share trading review, then you will need to have a stock/share CFD account. They have not defined the account types. It purely depends on the laws of your country.

 

Price, Deposit, and Withdrawals of IG

In this part of our IG Review, we will be talking about the price, deposit, and withdrawal of your IG account.

 

Price

The price of opening an IG account can be zero if you do that with a bank transfer. However, if you do that with cards and other options, it will be $300/€300/£250.

 

Deposit

The deposit can be done through bank wires or credit/debit cards. You can also place a deposit using your PayPal account. IG takes deposits in USD, GBP, AUD, EUR, SGD, HKD currencies.

 

Withdrawal

Withdrawals are as simple as deposits. However, the method of deposit and withdrawal has to be the same way. If you have deposited with a bank transfer, you will have to withdraw with this method. The same goes for any other payment methods available.

Security and Client Protection in IG

Now in our IG trading review, we are going to talk about your security in IG. First of all, let’s talk about your money protection. IG clearly stated that your deposit money will not be utilised in any business activity of IG. The client’s balance is ring-fenced from IG’s creditors.

 

The best defence of your money is the segregated accounts. IG keeps its clients’ accounts separated from their own. So if IG gets cyber attacked, your account and money will be safe because they are on a different account in a different network.

 

Now how about IG itself? Will they spam you? No. It is practically impossible, as IG is monitored and regulated by top-tier regulatory figures. This includes the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

You won't be disappointed with IG!

IG Customer Support

In this part of our IG Review, we are going to talk about the customer support and relevant services of IG. IG brokers have three options for their clients to reach them. Phone calls, e-mail, and live chat.

 

Let’s start with phone support. The phone support is somewhat Ok. It can be improved by reducing the waiting/ on-hold time. Sometimes it needs about 5 to 10 minutes to get in hold of a representative. The Live chat is better than the phone calls. You can get a reply from the representative in less than 3 minutes.

 

The e-mail support is a bit complicated to judge. We can say that it is the best when it is working. Most of the time you can get immediate answers to your queries with emails. Overall, the customer support of IG is good enough. It needs some slight improvement in its effectiveness.

Is IG Legit? - Our Final Verdict

Most of you reading our IG share trading review might ask, is IG legit? Yes it is! IG is regulated by six top regulatory figures. That includes the UK’s FCA and the German BaFin.

 

If you need more convincing, then take a look at IG’s presence in the US. Most brokers do not enter the US market for regulatory reasons. Yet, here we have the IG market operating its trading smoothly since 2019 in the USA.

 

Now we are at the end of our IG review. So is it still as good as they say it is? We certainly think so! We did not see any shortcomings in our IG review. However, the customer service department of IG needs improvements. Apart from that, IG is still OK and worthy of being the top broker. We highly recommend that you use IG if you’re looking to trade!

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