IC Markets South Africa - Is It a Good Broker in 2024?

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Up to 75.93% of the broker’s non-professional clients incur losses when trading CFDs.

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IC Markets is a leading global forex and CFD broker with much to offer, including an excellent web and mobile trading platform, low fees, great educational tools, good customer service, and more.

It’s also a trustworthy and reliable platform with regulation by top-tier financial regulators. These reasons combined explain why clients from South Africa highly rate IC Markets as one of the most reputable and reliable forex brokers.

In this review, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of using IC Markets in South Africa and whether it’s a good forex broker to use in 2023.

IC Markets South Africa: General Information

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  • 💰 Account currency:

    USD, AUD, GBP, CHF, JPY, NZD, SGD, CAD, HKD, BTC


  • 🚀 Minimum deposit:

    $200


  • ⚖️ Leverage:

    From 1:1 to 1:500


  • 💱 Spread:

    From 0


  • 🔧 Instruments:

    60 currency pairs, futures, CFDs on indices, commodities, metals, stocks and bonds


  • 💹 Margin Call / Stop Out:

    100% / 50%


IC Markets South Africa Pros and Cons

👍 Pros

Favorable trading conditions

Fast order execution

A wide selection of trading instruments (over 90)

Easy account opening process

Maintains regulatory status in one tier-1 jurisdiction and one tier-2 jurisdiction

Advanced trading platforms (Mt4, Mt5, cTrader)

👎 Cons

Doesn’t offer accounts denominated in ZAR

No negative balance protection for traders outside the European Union

IC Markets South Africa Review

IC Markets has been operating on the forex market for over 10 years, and has gone on to become one of the most reliable brokers in the world. The broker has strived to provide its clients with the most favorable market conditions by providing reliable analysis tools and up-to-date trading platforms.

Trading Conditions

Using IC Markets, traders have access to three different platforms: MT4, MT5, and cTrader. The broker also offers a mobile trading app, allowing clients to trade while on the go. Plus, IC Markets offers a wide range of trading instruments, including more than 60 currency pairs, futures, CFDs, indices, stocks, commodities, and metals.

Furthermore, IC Markets is an ECN broker, which stands for electronic communications network. This means the trading platform gives clients direct access to liquidity providers. As a result, traders can take advantage of little to no commissions and low spreads as well as the fast execution of orders.

Educational Tools

IC Markets features in-depth and diverse educational offerings, which provide beginner traders with tools to get started with forex trading. These educational tools include:

Information articles

Tutorial videos

Economic calendar

Security

Security is another strong suit of IC Markets. The broker has a license that gives it the authority to sell trading instruments and operate as a trading platform. It also regularly undergoes an external audit to renew its license. This ensures that the company continues to provide reliable services to its clients.

To ensure peace of mind for its clients, IC Markets also keeps all clients' funds in segregated accounts. This means the broker will store your funds in a separate account, which ensures your funds are safe from fraud and prevents them from being misappropriated. Your funds are also fully insured.

In addition, IC Markets provides negative balance protection. Trading carries risks due to market volatility, which can cause a negative balance on your account. But with negative balance protection, your account won’t go into the negatives, and will instead, return to a zero balance.

Trading Instruments

In South Africa, you can trade various assets on IC Markets, including:

Bonds

Commodities

Is IC Markets South Africa Regulated? Is it Safe?

IC Markets is well-regulated by reputable financial authorities, including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Seychelles Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

Each regulatory body ensures that clients’ rights are protected when it comes to buying and trading financial products.

IC Markets allows clients in South Africa. While there’s no regulatory body that regulates IC Markets in South Africa, you can still ensure protection if you’re in the region.

As a South African trader, you’d be onboarded through IC Markets’ Seychelles-based entity, regulated by the Financial Services Authority of the Seychelles. However, it’s important to be aware that this financial authority provides little regulatory oversight.

IC Markets participates in the local investment insurance fund, providing additional protection to client funds. The insurance will cover up to US$1,000,000 per client. For further protection, the broker also stores client funds in segregated accounts and provides negative balance protection.

IC Markets South Africa: Fees

Compared to other international forex brokers, IC Markets has relatively cheap trading fees. The broker doesn’t charge commission on certain accounts. Instead, IC Markets makes its money from spreads. However, spreads on the platform are low.

For example, for the currency pair GBPUSD, IC Markets’ average spread is 0.3 pips during peak trading hours. The average spread for S&P 500 CFD is 0.4 pips. If you’re on the Standard account, you also won’t have to pay commission. But with the Raw Spread account, commission is $3.5 per lot.

Beyond trading fees, IC Markets doesn’t charge non-trading fees involving withdrawals, deposits, or inactivity.

Summary: Is IC Markets South Africa a Good Broker?

Overall, IC Markets is a very reliable broker for traders in South Africa. Offering a wide range of trading instruments, plenty of educational tools, relatively low spreads and fees, and favorable trading conditions, IC Markets is a great choice. However, if you’re worried about regulation, it math be best to choose a different broker that offers direct regulation in South Africa.

FAQ

Is IC Markets available in South Africa?

Yes, IC Markets accepts South African clients. If you want to trade on IC Markets in South Africa, you’ll be onboarded through IC Markets’ Seychelles-based entity, regulated by the Financial Services Authority of the Seychelles.

How many accounts can I have with IC Markets?

IC Markets allows you to open multiple trading accounts.

Can I deposit $10 on IC Markets?

No, the minimum deposit at IC Markets is $200.

Is IC Markets regulated?

Yes, IC Markets is regulated by top-tier financial authorities, including ASIC, CySEC, FSA, and SEB.

Team that worked on the article

Mikhail Vnuchkov
Author at Traders Union

Mikhail Vnuchkov joined Traders Union as an author in 2020. He began his professional career as a journalist-observer at a small online financial publication, where he covered global economic events and discussed their impact on the segment of financial investment, including investor income. With five years of experience in finance, Mikhail joined Traders Union team, where he is in charge of forming the pool of latest news for traders, who trade stocks, cryptocurrencies, Forex instruments and fixed income.

The area of responsibility of Mikhail includes covering the news of currency and stock markets, fact checking, updating and editing the content published on the Traders Union website. He successfully analyzes complex financial issues and explains their meaning in simple and understandable language for ordinary people. Mikhail generates content that provides full contact with the readers.

Mikhail’s motto: Learn something new and share your experience – never stop!

Olga Shendetskaya
Author and editor at Traders Union

Olga Shendetskaya has been a part of the Traders Union team as an author, editor and proofreader since 2017. Since 2020, Shendetskaya has been the assistant chief editor of the website of Traders Union, an international association of traders. She has over 10 years of experience of working with economic and financial texts. In the period of 2017-2020, Olga has worked as a journalist and editor of laftNews news agency, economic and financial news sections. At the moment, Olga is a part of the team of top industry experts involved in creation of educational articles in finance and investment, overseeing their writing and publication on the Traders Union website.

Olga has extensive experience in writing and editing articles about the specifics of working in the Forex market, cryptocurrency market, stock exchanges and also in the segment of financial investment in general. This level of expertise allows Olga to create unique and comprehensive articles, describing complex investment mechanisms in a simple and accessible way for traders of any level.

Olga’s motto: Do well and you’ll be well!