IG Review

If you have spent any time trading in the past, chances are you will have come across IG or one of its brands, IG Index (spread betting) or IG Markets (CFDs).  This London based company is huge and caters for 60% of the spread betting market in the UK as well as a large portion of the global CFD Trading Market.  In 2003 IG began offering Binary betting alongside its other products to cater for the

IG Review

Company History

The company was begun as Investors Gold Index back in 1974 by Stuart Wheeler to cater for the increasing interest in gold trading.  By trading gold as a market, rather than physically purchasing the commodity, traders were able to take advantage of much lower costs.  Shortly after, Stuart renamed the company IG Index and began offering a wider variety of markets.

IG have consistently been at the forefront of the financial betting industry and have been providing services since 1974. They have been in a great position to grow with the rise in popularity of financial betting over the past ten years and their experience is certainly something that the majority of account holders find attractive. As market leader in financial betting, IG is able to use its popularity and size to offer some of the most competitive spreads in the industry. Although spreads can fluctuate with different market conditions, IG do offer acceptable value. The range of these available markets is also very impressive and they provide an excellent number of markets to increase the prospects of finding profitable trades.

Trading Platform

IG’s trading platform can be accessed both from the web and on the move using its mobile app for smartphones and tablets. The platform is customizable with clients being able to move and tab windows, save layouts and edit columns. Virtually all kind of stops and limits are available including trailing and contingent stops. For new account holders, there is the option of using ‘guaranteed stop losses’ which add a small increase to the spread but mean that stop losses will be 100% guaranteed even if the markets moves quickly beyond the execution price. The trading platform also supports tear-off prices, tickets and trading directly off-charts. IG’s charts feature Prorealtime advanced charting package. Recent innovations include a Google Chrome extension, and IG’s unique client sentiment indicators.

The platform itself is simple and straightforward with a good online tour to walk you through its many features. Personal watchlists can be created, allowing traders to quickly access their favourite markets from the vast number of stocks, currencies, and indices available. Multiple tickets can also be displayed on the highly-customizable screen and IG claim to have the fastest and most reliable execution services in the industry. The clean, uncluttered interface makes the IG trading platform very accessible and easy to navigate for new traders and the charting package provided is one of the most advanced available on the web. Their standard ‘DealThru’ charting package offers multiple indicators and functions to edit and annotate chart studies. IG also provide advanced real-time charting services, free of charge if you trade regularly, which incorporate some very impressive features such as back-testing, over seventy indicators as well as the ability to create personal indicators.

Both the web and mobile platforms are extremely high quality and have won many awards (see below). The fact that round five million trades are places every month on the IG platform is testament to this quality. The sheer amount of choice available through IG’s platform is unmatched by any of its competitors with over 10,000 markets being available at any one time. Its’ one click execution makes placing a trade very fast and the platform as a whole is very reliable indeed. CFD traders are likely to appreciate the Direct Market Access (DMA) prices for CFDs which IG offers through its in-house platform which also supports price sourcing from Europe’s leading multilateral trading facilities (MTFs). IG also offers MetaTrader 4.

Mobile Platforms: IG supports advanced iPhone, Android, Windows Phone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows 8 apps.

Education

IG regularly holds free all-day training seminars and events for novice traders who want to learn how to spreadbet, trade CFDs or deal foreign exchange. Such events normally brief novices in the principles of spreadbetting and CFD trading, including the markets that can be traded through the IG platform. Training is also provided on how to place deals, how to use stop orders to manage risk and how to use shortcuts to save time and effort.

Sessions are also held discussing the foreign exchange market, concentrating on the factors influencing currency rates. Speakers examine common dealing pitfalls, technical analysis strategies and how to identify potential opportunities in the FX market.

Support

Alongside the IG’s educational support and guarantees of the security of its clients funds held in segregated accounts, the company also provides a good technical support service. It offers a comprehensive section of topics covering all aspects of the platform and if the answer can’t be found here the firm provide an online email form or UK freephone number for direct client support services.

Recent Awards

BEST ONLINE SERVICE

2010 MoneyAM Online Finance Awards (Best Online Service and Best
Online Charts)

2009 MoneyAM Online Finance Awards (Best Online Provider and Best Online Product Innovation)

BEST SPREAD BETTING PROVIDER

2011, 2010, 2009 What Investment
Magazine Awards

2011, 2010, 2008 Investors Chronicle & Financial Times Investment Awards

2010 Trade2Win Members’ Choice Awards

2010 MoneyAM Online Finance Awards

2009, 2008, 2007 Shares Magazine

BEST SPREAD BETTING MOBILE APP

2011 Investors Chronicle & Financial Times Investment Awards

2010 World Finance Telecoms Awards

2011 Sunday Times App List, our spread betting app is described
as ‘indispensable’

Summary

IG is one of the most experienced financial trading companies around and is probably the best on the market.  It offers tight spreads, a high quality platform and a huge variety of markets for the trader to choose from.  No matter whether you are new to spread betting or CFD trading then it is definitely worth signing up for a demo account as IG is the benchmark that all other brokers should be compared to.

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