FP Markets vs IC Markets

Is FP Markets better than IC Markets? Who offers lower spread, better trading conditions and is safer broker to trade?

We provide answers to all questions in this FP Markets vs IC Markets Comparison Review. For this Review we opened real accounts and deposit over $6,000 in total to compare both offerings, account opening process at FP Markets vs IC Markets, also the fees, trading conditions, platform selection and withdrawal process.   

What is FP Markets and IC Markets

First Prudential Markets, popularly known as FP Markets, is an Australia-headquartered forex broker founded in 2005.

IC Markets is an Australian Forex and CFDs broker founded in 2007, headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

Some of the highlights of FP Markets vs IC Markets are:

	FP Markets	IC Markets
💻 Website	www.fpmarkets.com	www.icmarkets.com
🛡️ Founded year	2005	2007
🏦 Headquarter	Australia	Australia
🗺️ Authorized & Regulated in	Cyprus, Australia, St Vincent, and the Grenadines	Australia, Cyprus, Seychelles, Bahamas
🔒 Is Broker safe	Yes	Yes
💰 EUR/USD Spread	1.2	1.02
💳 Minimum deposit	US$50	US$200
💰 Withdrawal fee	US$0 (with some exceptions)	$0
🖥️ Trading Platform	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, IRESS	MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader
📈 Markets offered	Forex, Indices, Stocks, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies	Forex, Indices, Stocks, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies
📉 Number of Products	9018	559
🔎 Our Detailed Review	FP Markets Review	IC Markets Review

Licenses and Regulation

FP Markets vs IC Markets are both safe to trade and are highly reliable, low-risk trading Brokers due to regulations and are not a scam.

FP Markets is licensed by two reputed regulators, the UK’s FCA and Australia’s ASIC.

IC Markets is licensed by Cyprus’ CySEC, Seychelles’ FSA, and the Bahamas’ SCB.

For this review, we opened an account with First Prudential Markets Ltd, regulated by the CySEC in Cyprus and with IC Markets (EU) Limited, licensed by the CySEC. 

We recommend that you open your account with the FP Markets’ regulation of the United Kingdom or Australian regulators if they are available in your jurisdiction and with the IC Markets Australian or Cyprus entities if either is available to you.

	FP Markets	IC Markets
🔒 Licenses	ASIC, CySEC, SVGFSA, FCA	ASIC, CySEC, SCB, FSA
Top Tier License	✔️	✔️
Publically Traded	❌	❌
Compensation Scheme	✔️ (depending on the entity)	✔️ (depending on the entity)

FP Markets vs IC Markets Fees

FP Markets vs IC Markets fees are similar, built into a spread basis, and both have commission-based accounts.

Spreads for our trades with the FP Markets standard account were lower than the industry average for forex and indices, but it was on the higher side for other asset classes.

Most of the account types offered by IC Markets have very low spreads and do not charge a commission. Only the Raw Spread Account charges a commission.

	FP Markets Fees	IC Markets Fees
Fees Based on Spread	✔️	✔️
Floating Spread	✔️	✔️
Fixed Spread	❌	❌
Commission Based Fees	✔️	✔️
Inactivity Fee	$0	$0
Deposit Fee	$0	$0
Withdrawal Fee	$0 (with some exceptions)	$0
Active Trader/ VIP Programs	✔️	✔️

Spreads Charged in Our Trades

For our test trades on FP Markets vs IC Markets accounts, we chose popular instruments in each market. We placed 3 trades for each instrument to get the average spread and we were able to find both negative and positive sides for each Broker spreads.

Comparing the spreads charged in our trades to industry benchmarks, we found that FP Markets standard account spreads for indices are lower than the industry average. Spreads on forex, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, however, are on the average benchmark..

Through our testing we found that IC Markets spreads were generally low. The fees charged for trading indices, forex, commodities and cryptocurrencies were much lower than industry averages.

Markets	Instruments	FP Markets commission	IC Markets commission	Industry avg. spread
Indices	FTSE 100	1.3	1.1	1.65
Forex	EUR/USD	1.2	1.0	1.16
Commodities	Gold	3.9	2.2	3.53
Stocks	AAPL	2.3	1.5	1.75
Cryptocurrencies	Bitcoin	75.7	39.24	72.81
ETFs	QQQ	–	–	0.45

Account Types Compared

FP Markets offers multiple accounts based on the trading platforms, MetaTrader (Standard and Raw accounts) and IRESS (Standard, Platinum, and Premier accounts), available on FP Markets Demo Account. Forex trading is only based on MetaTrader accounts.

IC Markets offers 4 account types with slightly different features: the Standard account, cTrader raw spread account, the Raw spread account, and the Islamic account.

Opening a new account with FP Markets is quick and smooth. The registration process took around 20 minutes. Our account was verified in 1 working day.

IC Markets account opening is quick and seamless. The registration process took exactly 14 minutes, and our account was approved in one working day.

	FP Markets Accounts	IC Markets Accounts
Standard Account	✔️	✔️
ECN / Commission Based Account	✔️	❌
Islamic Account	✔️	✔️
PAMM Account	✔️	❌

Markets and Products

FP Markets vs IC Markets both offer a large variety of tradable instruments. FP Markets offers CFDs trading services in many popular markets, including forex, indices, commodities, stocks, and cryptocurrencies. IC Markets offers a wide variety of tradable instruments in the Forex, indices, stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies markets.

Markets	FP Markets Instruments	IC Markets Instruments
Indices	14	23
Forex	61	61
Commodities	1737	12
Stocks	8936 (54 stocks on MetaTrader and 8,884 on IRESS)	453
Cryptocurrency	14	10
ETFs	–	–
Bonds	–	–

Trading Conditions

The trading conditions both at FP Markets vs IC Markets are great. Both traders allow high-risk strategies such as hedging and scalping.

Trading Method	FP Markets	IC Markets
Hedging	✔️	✔️
Scalping	✔️	✔️
Change Leverage	✔️	✔️
Copy-trading/ Social trading	✔️	✔️
Beginners Trading	✔️	✔️
Professional Trading	✔️	✔️

Deposit and Withdrawal

FP Markets does not charge any fees for withdrawal into credit/debit cards, PayPal, or Australian domestic bank wire transfers. However, for the rest of the methods, it charges a fee to process each withdrawal request. 

IC Markets does charge an AUD $20 fee on international bank transfer withdrawals.

Both FP Markets vs IC Markets’ clients can deposit funds into their trading accounts via bank transfers, debit/credit cards, and e-wallets such as Skrill, Neteller, and PayPal.

We tested the deposit process on FP Markets using multiple payment modes and there was no deposit fee and most of the fundings was made in 5 minuites.

We also tested the deposit process on IC Markets using multiple payment modes. Both deposit and withdrawal processes on IC Markets are quick and simple.

	FP Markets	IC Markets
💰 Deposit Fee	❌	❌
💰 Withdrawal fee	$0 (with some exceptions)	$0 ($20 for international bank withdrawals)
💳 Minimum deposit	US$50	US$200
Bank Transfer	✔️	✔️
Debit/ Credit Cards	✔️	✔️
PayPal	✔️	✔️
Skrill	✔️	✔️
Neteller	✔️	✔️

Trading Platform

Both FP Markets vs IC Markets offer the popular MT4 and MT5 platforms and do not have proprietary trading platforms.

Besides MetaTrader, FP Markets also offers IRESS platforms. IRESS is popular for offering stock CFDs and is only available to traders on the ASIC-regulator entity.

Algorithmic traders will find a home with IC Markets, which offers fast execution speeds and guarantees no requotes on submitted trades. The broker’s cTrader platform offers the cAlgo app that algorithmic traders can use. The cTrader Copy app allows for social copy trading.

	FP Markets Platform	IC Markets Platform
Proprietary Platform	✔️	❌
Web Platform	✔️	✔️
Desktop Platform	✔️	✔️
Mobile App	✔️	✔️
Alternative Platforms	❌	❌
MetaTrader 4	✔️	✔️
MetaTrader 5	✔️	✔️
Simple to Use Platform	✔️	✔️
Demo Account Trading	✔️	✔️
Execution Agency Model	❌	❌
Research	✔️	✔️
Advanced Research Tools	✔️	❌

Education and Support

Both FP Markets vs IC Markets have a great education offering for beginners. FP Markets offers some good market research and analysis tools. IC Markets offers a great forex trading course for beginners that covers topics such as technical analysis and trading psychology.

FP Markets offers some good quality educational resources to rookie traders. The broker’s customer support is good, too.

We found that IC Markets’ education offering lacks depth, and we would like to see the broker add more content on intermediate and advanced topics. The broker’s customer support team was quite responsive and resolved our issues.

	FP Markets Support	IC Markets Support
Trading School for Beginners	✔️	✔️
Tutorials	✔️	✔️
Trading Videos	✔️	✔️
Webinars	✔️	✔️
Daily News and Analysis	✔️	✔️
Economic Calendar	✔️	✔️
Live Chat	✔️	✔️
Email Support	✔️	✔️
24/7 availability	✔️	✔️

Conclusion on FP Markets vs IC Markets

Comparing FP Markets vs IC Markets side by side we found both brokers reliable and with good standing. The most impressive part with FP Markets is the ECN pricing and low spreads for forex and indices. IC Markets provides relatively low spreads and breakneck execution speeds.

Overall, we had a smooth experience with FP Markets starting from account opening to deposits and trading. The availability of many stock CFDs on IRESS is also a positive feature for traders.

However, we were disappointed with the multiple inaccurate answers by the FP Markets customer support executives.

Overall, our experience with IC Markets was positive. Our experience with customer support was also good.

We recommend IC Markets to all levels of traders from beginners, intermediate and advanced traders who can all benefit from its services.

	FP Markets	IC Markets
Recommended for	✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Experienced traders ✔️ ECN traders ✔️ EAs trading ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader ✔️ EA trader	✔️ Beginning Traders ✔️ Trading Currency Pairs ✔️ Cryptocurrency Trading ✔️ Scalping trader ✔️ Hedging trader
Might not be fit for	❌ Trading Futures ❌ Real Stocks or Index	❌ Trading Futures or Real Stocks ❌ Commission-based trading

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