IG Markets Review Australia 2026

Verdict

IG is one of the two or three ASIC-regulated brokers we’d put on a shortlist without much argument. The headline number is the product range: over 18,000 markets, including more than 17,000 share CFDs across every major exchange you’d care to trade. No other AU broker comes close to that breadth. Add a 1974 London founding, a continuously held Australian licence since 2002, FTSE 250 listing on the LSE, and Tier-1 regulation in four jurisdictions, and the trust profile is as strong as anything in this category.

The trade-offs are specific. IG doesn’t offer MT5, doesn’t offer cTrader, and doesn’t offer native TradingView trading on the AU entity. If your strategy lives inside one of those platforms, IG won’t be your fit. The IG web platform is genuinely good, ProRealTime is a credible advanced charting option, and MT4 is there for legacy EAs, but the platform shortlist is narrower than what you’ll get at Pepperstone or IC Markets. Forex spreads on the standard account are competitive without leading the pack. And IG is a premium-priced broker for some niche products, particularly share CFD financing.

Quick facts

Trading costs and fees

Forex spreads on the IG CFD account

IG charges through the spread on its standard CFD account, with no separate commission on forex. Typical EUR/USD pricing sits around 0.85 pips, with a from-rate of 0.6 pips during the most liquid London/New York overlap. AUD/USD prices similarly tight, which matters for AU-based traders running Sydney-session strategies. These are competitive numbers but they’re not category-leading; if you trade more than a few standard lots a week, you’ll save money on a RAW account at IC Markets, Pepperstone or Fusion Markets.

Share CFD costs

IG’s share CFD pricing is where the broker shows its trading-floor heritage. Commission on Australian share CFDs starts at AUD 10 per trade or 0.10% of trade value, whichever is greater. US shares from $15 or 2 cents per share. Overnight financing is charged at the relevant benchmark rate (RBA cash rate plus 2.5% for AUD-denominated long positions, similar structure for other currencies on the long side; receive less benchmark on short positions). Rates are above the AU market average. If you hold ASX share CFDs overnight for weeks at a time, the financing line will dominate the total cost, and Interactive Brokers’ commission-driven model usually works out cheaper at scale.

Other fees AU traders should know about

• Overnight holding cost applies to CFD positions held past 5 PM New York. Direction-dependent. Long positions typically pay benchmark plus a margin; short positions can earn benchmark less a margin.
• Currency conversion fee of 0.50% if you trade an instrument in a currency other than your account base. Run an AUD-denominated account if you trade primarily AUD pairs and ASX shares.
• Inactivity fee of AUD 25 per quarter after 24 months of no trading activity. The 24-month dormant window is more lenient than CMC’s 12 months but the per-quarter charge is heavier.
• Guaranteed stop-loss premium charged only if your guaranteed stop is triggered. Premium varies by instrument and is shown before you place the order.
• Knock-Out and Barrier options: IG is one of the few AU brokers offering these to retail clients. Pricing is built into the product and shown at the point of trade. Worth understanding the structure before you trade these.

Trading platforms

IG web platform (proprietary)

The IG web platform is the broker’s flagship and the platform most retail clients use day to day. It runs in browser, on desktop (Windows and macOS via the IG app) and on mobile (iOS, Android). The build is clean and quick. Order placement is straightforward, charting is solid for most retail use cases, and the platform supports guaranteed stops and trailing stops natively. It’s not as feature-rich as CMC’s Next Generation for technical analysis, but it covers more product types thanks to the underlying 18,000-market range, and it’s easier to learn than MT4 if you’ve never used a trading platform before.

ProRealTime

For traders who want serious technical analysis without the EA overhead of MT4, ProRealTime is IG’s premium charting partner. It includes 100+ indicators, multi-timeframe analysis, automated trading via ProBuilder code, and dataset access going back decades on major instruments. ProRealTime is free if you trade four or more times per month at IG; otherwise there’s a monthly subscription. It’s a strong option for swing and position traders.

MetaTrader 4

MT4 is available, with IG’s full forex and key CFD ranges. If you run EAs or have an existing MT4 strategy, this is your route in. The MT4 build doesn’t include the full 18,000-instrument range, but it covers the products most MT4 users care about: forex, indices, gold, oil and the major share CFDs.

L2 Dealer (Direct Market Access)

L2 Dealer is IG’s DMA platform aimed at high-volume share traders. It exposes the underlying order book and routes orders directly to the exchange where supported, rather than internalising through IG’s quoted price. For active share CFD traders looking for tighter execution and full market depth visibility, L2 is the right tool. Most retail traders don’t need it. Volume thresholds and additional fees apply.

IG Trading API

If you build your own systems, IG’s REST and streaming API is well-documented and widely used in the algorithmic trading community. It’s free with an active account. Supports the full IG product range.

What IG doesn’t offer

No MT5. No cTrader. No native TradingView trading integration on the AU entity. For traders committed to those ecosystems, the platform shortlist is shorter than at Pepperstone or IC Markets. We’d flag this as the single biggest reason an active forex trader might pick a competitor over IG.

Mobile apps

The IG mobile app is one of the better trading apps in the AU market. Biometric login on iOS and Android. Full charting, full order types, full account management. The MT4 mobile app is the standard MetaQuotes build with no IG-specific modifications.

Execution

IG runs a market-maker model on the standard CFD account, internalising flow against its book where possible and hedging the residual against tier-1 liquidity providers. Execution speeds in our 2026 testing put IG mid-pack on forex (around 50ms for market orders on EUR/USD from a London VPS), faster than the broker average for share CFDs and indices, and very competitive on weekend crypto markets. The L2 Dealer DMA route delivers full exchange execution where available. Slippage on the standard CFD account is comparable to the rest of the major AU market makers; not as tight as Pepperstone Razor on forex, but not loose either.

Trust and safety

Trust score: 9.5/10.

The trust score is built from three components: regulation, history and ownership, and public-record reputation.

Regulation

IG Markets Limited (Australian branch) holds AFSL 220440 with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The licence has been continuously held since 2002, making IG one of the longest-running ASIC-regulated CFD brokers in Australia, alongside CMC. There have been no material ASIC enforcement actions or licence conditions imposed in the last 36 months.

The wider IG Group is regulated by:

• Financial Conduct Authority, UK (Tier 1), IG’s home regulator since 1974
• Monetary Authority of Singapore (Tier 1)
• Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (Tier 1)
• DFSA, UAE (Tier 2)
• Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa
• Plus additional registrations across the EU and Switzerland

This is one of the broadest Tier-1 regulatory profiles in retail trading. It also means IG operates under multiple capital and disclosure regimes simultaneously, which constrains the kind of regulatory arbitrage that weaker brokers sometimes use.

History and ownership

Founded by Stuart Wheeler in London in 1974 as Investors Gold Index, originally to let UK investors trade gold price movements without owning physical metal. The business pioneered spread betting in the 1970s and CFDs in the 1990s. Listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2000 and currently a constituent of the FTSE 250 with a market capitalisation in the low billions of pounds. The Australian operation opened in 2002, meaning IG has been ASIC-regulated for over two decades.

Australian context that matters:

• ASIC AFSL since 2002, one of only a handful of brokers with that operating history
• Public company with audited annual reports and FTSE 250 listing
• Featured regularly in Australian Financial Review coverage of CFD industry
• Member of AFCA for retail dispute resolution
• Segregated client funds held with an Approved Australian Bank
• IG Australia Pty Ltd separately incorporated for share investing (separate from CFD business)

The depth of corporate history matters in this category. IG has traded through the 2008 financial crisis, the 2015 SNB de-pegging event, the 2020 COVID volatility spike and the 2022 commodity squeeze, and remained well-capitalised throughout. That’s not a guarantee of future safety. It is a relevant data point.

Public reviews

IG carries a TrustPilot score of 4.0/5 from over 6,000 reviews globally. AU-specific reviews trend slightly higher. Common positives mentioned: platform stability, breadth of products, support quality. Common negatives: occasional delays in withdrawal verification, share CFD financing rates considered expensive by some active traders, and the inactivity fee structure.

Account types and minimum deposit

Account options for AU clients

The Pro / Wholesale account requires you to meet the Corporations Act wholesale client criteria. Broadly, that’s AUD 500k+ net financial assets, or AUD 250k+ income for two consecutive years, certified by an accountant. If you qualify, IG can offer higher leverage than the ASIC retail caps. This isn’t a retail product and we don’t suggest most readers explore it.

Note: spread betting accounts exist on the IG UK entity but aren’t available to AU clients. Spread betting in Australia is generally treated unfavourably by the ATO and isn’t part of IG’s AU offering.

Minimum deposit

$0 to open an account. You’ll need to fund before placing your first trade. Most active traders we surveyed start with AUD 500 to 2,000. The platform supports fractional position sizing, but margin requirements still apply.

Funding and withdrawals

Deposit methods (AU clients)

Withdrawals

$0 fee on all standard withdrawal methods. IG requires withdrawals to use the same source as deposit where possible, in line with AUSTRAC anti-money-laundering rules. Card refunds typically clear within 1 to 3 business days. Bank transfers in 1 to 2 business days. PayPal same day in our testing.

Account opening

Account opening is fully online and AUSTRAC-compliant. You’ll need one form of photo ID (driver’s licence or passport) and one proof of address (recent bank statement or utility bill). Most AU applications are approved within 24 hours; some come through within an hour. Our test team rated IG’s onboarding 11/15. The flow asks slightly more questions than the lightest-touch onboarding (Plus500, eToro), but the additional friction is appropriate given the breadth of products on offer.

Product range

This is IG’s defining strength. Over 18,000 tradeable markets, structured roughly as:

• Forex: 80+ pairs including 6 AUD crosses (AUD/USD, AUD/JPY, AUD/NZD, AUD/CAD, AUD/CHF, AUD/SGD). Full set of EUR, GBP, USD and JPY crosses.
• Indices: 30+ including ASX 200, S&P/ASX SPI 200, plus all major global indices (S&P 500, NASDAQ, FTSE 100, DAX, Nikkei, Hang Seng).
• Shares CFDs: 17,000+ across ASX, NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE, EU and Asian exchanges. This is the broadest share CFD range of any ASIC-regulated broker.
• Commodities: 35+ including gold (XAU/USD), silver, WTI and Brent crude, natural gas, agricultural softs.
• Cryptocurrencies: selected crypto CFDs subject to ASIC’s 2:1 leverage cap on retail.
• Treasuries / bonds: Australian 10-year bond, US T-Notes, German Bund, UK Gilts and others.
• ETFs: large ETF CFD range across global markets.
• Knock-Outs: capped-risk products with a known maximum loss, available to retail. Useful if you want defined-risk exposure without an option pricing model.
• Barrier options: also offered to AU retail. Defined risk with leveraged upside.
• Direct Share Investing: through IG Australia Pty Ltd as a separate account, for investors who want to own ASX or international shares outright rather than as CFDs.

The 17,000+ share CFD count is the headline. If your trading idea involves a less-traded mid-cap on the LSE, a Hong Kong-listed industrial, or a small-cap on the ASX, IG is one of the few AU brokers where you can actually place that trade as a CFD. CMC and Interactive Brokers are the only realistic alternatives for breadth at this level.

Customer service

24/7 phone, live chat and email. The 24/7 coverage is rare in the AU market. CMC and Plus500 close at the weekend; IG doesn’t. If you trade weekend crypto or want help during the Asia-Pacific Sunday open, IG is one of a small group that picks up the phone.

Average live chat response in our testing: under 60 seconds during AU business hours, around 90 seconds during the overnight US session. Knowledge of platform features: strong. Knowledge of ASIC-specific tax treatment: agents correctly defer to “speak to your accountant” rather than guess.

Support languages include English, Mandarin, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Research and education

IG runs one of the deepest research operations of any AU broker, anchored by an in-house team of analysts who publish daily commentary across forex, indices, commodities and shares.

Research feeds available

• IG analyst daily commentary and weekly outlooks
• Reuters news feed integrated into the IG platform
• MetaTrader Charts (third-party technical setups)
• ProRealTime advanced charting (free if you trade four+ times per month)
• Economic calendar with custom alert support
• Client sentiment data showing position bias on each instrument
• IG TV on YouTube with regular market analysis

Education content

• IG Academy course library covering forex, CFDs, options and shares
• Beginner through advanced levels
• Live webinars on market events and platform features
• Glossary of trading terms

This research stack is genuinely strong. It’s not Bloomberg, but for a retail-tier broker it goes well past the industry norm. If you trade equities and indices alongside forex, the value of integrated Reuters and analyst commentary is real.

How IG compares to alternatives

If you value…	Consider
Tightest forex spreads	Pepperstone or IC Markets
Strongest proprietary platform	CMC Markets (Next Generation)
Native cTrader	Pepperstone or Fusion Markets
Native TradingView	Pepperstone, OANDA or Eightcap
MT5 support	Pepperstone, IC Markets or FP Markets
Cheaper share CFDs	Interactive Brokers
Beginner-focused platform	Plus500 or eToro
Direct ASX shares plus CFDs under one login	CMC Markets

Bottom line

IG Markets is a top-tier ASIC-regulated broker with the deepest product range in the local market and a corporate history that few competitors can match. If you want one CFD account that gives you access to over 17,000 share CFDs, full forex coverage, indices, commodities, treasuries, Knock-Outs and Barriers under one login, with 24/7 support and an LSE-listed parent, this is the broker. The trade-offs are real: no MT5, no cTrader, no native TradingView, and forex spreads that are competitive without leading. Active forex scalpers will save money elsewhere.

Where to start: open the demo, spend an hour inside the IG web platform mapping your asset universe against the 18,000-market range, and decide whether the breadth justifies the platform constraints. If you’re committed to MT5 or cTrader, look at Pepperstone or IC Markets first. If you want the best multi-asset coverage available to AU retail, IG is on a very short list.

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