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JFSAOverview
IG is a global brokerage business that offers trading and investment products, including CFDs, options, cryptocurrencies, and share trading.
The company is publicly traded and is listed on the London Stock Exchange, with licenses in most Tier-1 markets, including the UK, US, Japan, Australia, and Singapore. Consequently, the company – particularly in the UK – has a very strong reputation and is generally seen as a safe, secure, and respected broker to trade with.
Traders can trade with IG across the broker’s mobile app or desktop platforms. The broker also lets traders use third-party platforms, like TradingView and MT4, to access its services. IG is a global business though and so access to its products and platforms varies, depending on which country you are in.
Although it is expanding its offering to include a simpler platform and longer-term investment products, like shares and ETFs, IG remains a more trader-focused brokerage business. That being the case, the company’s products and services are likely to be more suited to speculative traders, who already have some trading knowledge.
Pros & Cons
- More than 17,000 assets to trade in
- Well regulated, secure trading environment
- Low trading and account fees
- Excellent content and educational material
- Leading range of trading tools and platforms
- Product set can be limited in some regions
- Support outside key markets may be weaker
- Platform can feel complex for newer traders
Trust
IG Group is regulated in multiple jurisdictions around the world. Within the online trading industry, the broker is one of only a small number of firms to have approvals in every major tier-1 jurisdiction globally.
The company’s headquarters are in the UK, where the company is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Certainly for forex and CFD trading, the FCA is typically seen as the gold standard regulator globally.
IG is also one of only a small number of firms with approval to operate as a forex broker in the US. Forex brokers regulated in the US are required to hold a minimum of $20m as a capital requirement, which underscores the strength of IG’s balance sheet – something that should not be overlooked by traders.
European clients can trade with IG via the firm’s German-regulated entity. The broker also holds licenses in Switzerland and Cyprus.
Other key licenses that the group holds are in Australia, Japan, Dubai and Singapore. IG also onboards clients globally via a license it holds in Bermuda. The broker is one of the only firms in the online trading industry to hold a license in the British Overseas Territory.
United Kingdom
United States
Australia
Japan
Singapore
Dubai
Germany
Switzerland
Bermuda
Account Opening
Opening an account with IG is straightforward and shouldn’t take more than 5 – 10 minutes. One point to keep in mind is that the entity you onboard with will be determined by the country you are resident in.
Having said that, the actual onboarding process does not vary too much between different entities. The only big exception to this would be US clients opening tastytrade accounts, which operate under a totally different URL and platform.
Opening an IG account is simple. You just visit IG.com and should immediately see an ‘Open Account’ button on the homepage. You can then follow the steps from there.
Open account with IG steps
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- Enter your basic personal information, including your name, email address, and password.
- Enter your place of residence. Note that your place of residence will determine what products you can access. For example, a UK trader will be able to open CFD, spread betting, share trading, options and futures and crypto accounts at the same time. You can see this below:
But if you are in Malaysia and opening an IG account, you’ll only be able to access CFD trading:
- After choosing your accounts, you’ll have to enter different personal information and account details for compliance purposes.
- The next part of the application will be about your own trading experience and your finances. IG asks these questions for compliance reasons as they need to know you have the experience and financial means to trade their products. This is to make sure the products you want to trade in are suitable for you, based on your financial circumstances and prior trading experience.
- Uploading personal documents and proof of identity. IG does this for compliance reasons, with one of the primary goals to meet anti-money laundering rules globally.
Trading accounts
Unlike very trader-focused brokers, like Pepperstone or IC Markets, IG does not offer different account types on the same product.
What we mean by that is the firm does not offer accounts where commissions and spreads vary, depending on the trader’s preference. This is something you will commonly see offered by more forex-focused brokers, who offer things like ‘raw’ spread accounts or micro lot accounts.
What IG does do is offer different account types within its own platform that traders can choose to access if they want to.
For example, if you are in the UK and sign up for a CFD trading account, IG gives you the option to also open accounts with crypto, shares, options and futures, or spread bets. You can see an example of what this looks like below in a short video.
IG DMA accounts
One unique account type that IG does offer are direct market access (DMA) accounts. Although a lot of brokers claim that they offer DMA accounts, almost none of them actually do. Instead they just use the phrase ‘DMA’ as part of their marketing material.
In contrast, IG lets you trade shares as either a CFD or the physical product, with full visibility on the order book and where your trade has been executed. Traders can do the same thing, as a rolling spot forex contract, on currency pairs trading. IG clients can access DMA accounts with the broker via mobile apps, the L2 Dealer trading platform, or via an API.
Accessing share trading on a DMA account can incur additional exchange fees that you must pay to access live pricing.
Products
IG was historically a UK-focused company aimed at speculative trading. That legacy continues until today as the company’s main focus is still offering customers more speculative derivative products.
That being said, the broker has expanded into offering a much wider set of products, beyond the original spread bets and CFDs it became famous for. You can see a full list of IG’s products below and where they are available. Currently the company operates in the US under the tastytrade brands, rather than its flagship IG brand.
| Region | CFDs | Spread Betting | Forex | Exotic options | Physical shares & ETFs | Futures & Options | Physical Crypto | Managed Portfolios |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| EU | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| USA (tastytrade brands) | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Australia | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Singapore | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Japan | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Switzerland | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| UAE | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| International | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
CFDs
IG offers access to over 17,000 markets tradable as CFDs, covering major asset classes globally.
Forex
IG offers forex trading in all of its markets globally. Traders can access forex trading as a standard OTC product or via the broker’s DMA offering.
IG is one of a small number of brokers that offers forex trading in the US, which it does via its tastyfx brand.
It’s important to note that when you trade forex, you are trading something called a ‘rolling spot forex contract’. In nearly every jurisdiction globally, these are considered CFDs. This is why we include forex in IG’s CFD product list above.
The US is an outlier as it does not treat rolling spot forex contracts as CFDs. We have written before about rolling spot forex contracts and CFDs before, if you want to learn more.
Spread betting
Spread bets are leveraged products that are very similar to CFDs. A key difference is that any profits you make are tax exempt. This works both ways – you cannot get tax relief on losses you incur from spread bets.
Spread bets are currently only approved in Ireland and the UK, so only traders in these regions are able to trade spread bets with IG.
Knock out options and turbos
IG offers trading in exotic options in several locations globally. The main ones to be aware of are knock-out options, which you can trade in Europe, Japan, and Singapore.
IG also offers trading in listed options in Europe. The most notable product here are turbos, which offer traders access to higher leverage than you can get in CFDs.
In Europe, listed derivatives tend to be marketed tightly and so you may have to request access to the products or will only be able to see them in the IG platform once you sign up with the broker.
Share trading
IG offers access to physical share and ETF trading in several jurisdictions globally. Note that when we say physical, it means you are taking ‘physical’ ownership of the shares, as opposed to trading a CFD on an underlying share or ETF.
Currently share trading is accessible to IG clients in the UK, Australia, and the UAE. US clients can access share trading via the tastytrade brand.
Options and futures trading
IG offers trading in listed options via its tastytrade brand. This is primarily aimed at US customers. International clients can open tastytrade accounts but they cannot trade options directly via their IG account.
Crypto
IG launched physical crypto trading in 2025. That means traders can own the underlying crypto asset, rather than just trading a CFD on the product. As of August 2025, real crypto trading is only available to traders in the UK. Other jurisdictions do allow crypto CFD trading though.
IG managed portfolios
IG currently offers what it calls managed portfolios to customers in the UK. This is effectively a robo advisory service. Investors provide IG with some information about their risk appetite and financial status. The broker then provides a managed portfolio, in partnership with asset manager BlackRock, to meet the needs that the client has. These are long-term investment products, rather than short term speculative products. Managed portfolios are only available for IG’s UK clients as of August 2025.
Deposits and withdrawals
What currencies can you deposit with IG?
UK bank transfer deposit currencies
IG supports bank transfer deposits in the following currencies for UK traders:
| IG Deposit Currencies | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GBP | USD | AUD | CAD | EUR |
| DKK | HKD | SGD | CHF | SEK |
| JPY | ZAR | |||
This is the most extensive range that we’re aware of in the online trading industry among brokers. The key benefit here is obvious – you can hold local or foreign currencies in your account, without having to make autoconversions.
How to deposit on IG
Another option is to deposit within the IG platform’s dashboard:
Within the IG trading app, the ability to add funds is very clearly listed at the top of all the tabs on the app. You can see an example of this below in the watchlist tab.
How long do deposits take on IG?
How long do withdrawals take on IG?
Fees
What fees does IG charge?
Index spreads
Gold spreads
FX spreads
| Pair | Minimum spread | Average spread |
|---|---|---|
| EUR/USD | 0.6 | 0.84 |
| USD/JPY | 0.7 | 1.18 |
| AUD/USD | 0.6 | 1.03 |
| GBP/USD | 0.9 | 1.83 |
| USD/CAD | 1.3 | 2.06 |
Index spreads
Share CFD spreads
IG overnight fees
Platforms
Traders can trade with IG across several different platforms, on both mobile and desktop. These range from simpler options to more technical platforms for experienced traders.
IG desktop trading platform
The most popular platform used by IG clients is IG’s own trading platform. IG was one of the first retail brokers to launch an online trading platform in the 2000s. The best thing about the platform is it offers tools for both beginner and more experienced traders. That includes advanced order settings and analytical tools. The downside of the platform is that it has limited auto-trading capabilities and it does not have the sort of custom plugins that third-party platforms can offer.
IG mobile app
The IG mobile is very similar to the broker’s desktop app in terms of style and appearance. In our view, the best part of the app is the simple visibility you can get over order terms and fees. If you are a simple, point and click-style trader, then the IG app has everything you need to make trades easily.
MetaTrader 4
IG does offer trading via MT4. Users can trade forex, CFDs, and spread bets on the company’s MT4 platform. MT4 offers a wider range of algo trading capabilities and plugins, meaning the platform may be better for more advanced traders using IG as a broker.
TradingView
IG is also integrated with the TradingView platform. That means you can connect your TradingView and IG accounts, then use the charting platform to trade.
IG L2 Dealer
IG also offers access to another platform called L2 Dealer. This is for higher value clients that want to access the broker’s DMA accounts. The L2 Platform is aimed at more advanced traders, who want to trade in larger sizes. It is also only for trading shares and forex. If you are an experienced trader that wants to trade in large size and with more oversight on the order book of the product you are trading, L2 Dealer is a great platform. However, if you are more of a casual trader and prefer a simpler platform, you are unlikely to want or need IG’s L2 Dealer platform.
FAQ
Is your money safe when you trade with IG?
Yes, you’re money is safe with IG. When you trade with IG, your money is held in segregated client accounts. IG is publicly listed and you can see that it keeps client funds separated from its own financial accounts. The company has a strong balance sheet, is well-regulated globally, and has strong systems in place to limit the possibility that anything untoward could happen to your money. Ultimately there are very few brokers who operate globally like IG does, where you can have the same level of confidence that your funds are safe.
