IC Markets offer two types of accounts, Standard account and our market leading, Raw Spread account.

Raw Spread Account: This account shows the Raw inter-bank spread received from our liquidity providers. There is a commission charge of $7 per standard lot round turn.

Standard Account: We do not charge a commission on Standard accounts but instead, there is a mark up applied to the spread of 0.8 pip above the raw Inter-bank rate received from our Liquidity providers.

Further information about the different types of trading accounts available can be found on our Account Overview page.

IC Markets has two MetaTrader account types, a Standard account and our market leading, The Raw Spread account. IC Markets does not charge a commission on Standard accounts but instead applies a spread mark up of 0.8 pip above the Raw inter-bank prices received from our liquidity providers. IC Markets Raw Spread account shows the raw inter-bank spread received from our liquidity providers. On this account we commission of $7 per standard lot round turn. 

Below are commission rates for different base currency accounts:

AUD	7.00 round turn
USD	7.00 round turn
EUR	5.50 round turn
GBP	5.00 round turn
SGD	9.00 round turn
JPY	700.00 round turn
CHF	6.60 round turn
NZD	9.00 round turn
HKD	54.25 round turn

IC Markets allows clients to open an account with as little as USD $200 or currency equivalent.

Our mission is to provide traders with the lowest spreads and fastest executions possible across over 285 Forex products including Forex, precious metals, stocks, futures and other commodities. We have invested heavily in technology and establishing strong relationships with the largest and most reliable price providers in the market.

To find more about products offering click here: range of products.

We also strongly suggest to thoroughly read our Product Disclosure Statement and Account Terms available for the attached costs, risks and your responsibilities before deciding to trade with us.

This is one of the most frequently asked questions. The difficult part in understanding ECN and STP meanings is that those have been interpreted differently by many people. There are three main business models used by Forex brokers which differ by the way the transactions are handled and orders are executed: ECN, STP and  Market Makers.  

ECN: ECN stands for 'Electronic Communication Network' which is simply a technical term that is used to describe how banks and liquidity providers connect to each other to form a bid and offer price. In the Forex industry, it can be used to identify providers who use this type of pricing mechanism in order to offer raw interbank pricing to retail traders. Under this model your broker will stream raw prices and your trades will be offset with another client, a liquidity provider or held internally by the broker. This usually results in faster trade execution. This is distinct from order execution that may result in an offsetting order placed with a liquidity provider. 

STP: This term stands for Straight Through Processing and is used when a Forex and CFD provider processes all trades at market prices obtained from liquidity provider(s) not on prices created by the broker themselves. This is not dissimilar to the ECN pricing model in that there is no dealing desk intervention when the trade is processed.

Market Maker: In Australia all Forex and CFD providers including IC Markets have the market making authorisation on their AFS licence, however many do not consider themselves market makers. Typically, market makers operate a dealing desk in order to create their own prices, these prices can be based on their own proprietary trading positions or overall risk exposure and may not reflect the prices in the underlying market.

IC Markets is the issuer of the products it provides. We consider ourselves to be a forex provider offering the ECN pricing model as we source our pricing from external unrelated liquidity providers via an ECN, these prices are passed onto you with no dealing desk intervention. In order to provide you with better price certainty and to ensure fast execution speed we do not hedge each and every position with our liquidity providers. We do this in order to provide you with a better overall trading experience. 

Opening an account is simple. Click on the Open a Live Account link and complete your application form.

Once your on-line application form has been approved by our accounts team you will be emailed your trading account login details and password.

Once we receive your application with the required documents, your account will be processed within 2 business days.

One of the benefits of trading with a regulated firm is that you know you are contracting with a reliable provider in a regulated environment, which has stringent rules and regulations designed, in particular, to protect the interest of retail clients.

IC Markets takes serious precautionary measures to ensure that your personal details are held in absolute confidence. Your passwords are encrypted, and your personal details are stored on secure servers and cannot be accessed by anyone, with the exception of a very small number of authorised members of staff.