XM vs IC Markets – brokers with over 1250 trading assets

Belize-based XM broker versus Australian-based IC Markets, which broker suits the needs and requirements of Forex brokers better? The review below will answer all of your questions. XM is a broker with more than 10 years of experience in the Forex industry, but, IC Markets surpasses the age with 11 years in business. Fortunately for traders, both XM and IC Markets are regulated and highly secure brokers with licenses from top-tier market regulators across the globe. These two brokers mainly offer Forex assets and CFDs on numerous financial instruments. IC Markets additionally provides commodities, indices, bonds, digital currencies, stocks, and futures within its trading assets portfolio. Whereas, XM offers stocks CFDs, commodities, equity indices, precious metals, shares, and energies.

Both IC Markets and XM brokers are able to offer flexible leverages. With XM the leverage can go up to as much as 1:888, whereas IC Markets limits the leverage up to 1:500. The brokers have more than 55 currency pairs available in the Forex assets portfolio with highly competitive and tight spreads. They charge swap or overnight fees, however, Islamic accounts are accessible both on XM and IC Markets platforms. Demo accounts are also available for new users with these two brokers. There are several account types with XM and IC Markets that come with various benefits, costs, and limitations which we will cover in our IC Markets vs XM broker comparison review below.

Which broker offers better spreads and fees, IC Markets or XM?

IC Markets and XM brokers have different fee structures on different real trading account types. First of all, let’s have a look at their types of accounts. With IC Markets, Forex traders have three account types available: Standard account, Raw Spread account, and Raw Spread on cTrader account. All three accounts can access 64 Forex currency pairs. The minimum deposit requirement is 200 US dollars on all of them. While Standard account is best for discretionary traders, Raw Spread account types suit those practicing day trading, scalping, and EAs.

XM on the other hand offers four different account types for various kinds of traders. The clients of XM broker can choose from Micro account, Standard account, XM Ultra-low account, or the Shares account. The cheapest account is a Micro account, which also offers a first deposit starting from 5 US dollars only. However, Standard and XM Ultra-low account also allow minimum deposits of 5 USD. The most expensive account with XM is the Shares account which requires at least 10,000 USD investment.

Start trading with 5 USD with XM

Fees and Commissions

Commission rates and spreads again depend on the type of account with both IC Markets and XM brokerages. IC Markets provides spreads on the most popular Forex assets from 0.6 pips on Standard Account. The Raw Spread accounts come with ultra-tight spreads starting at 0.0 pips. However, the Raw Spread accounts come with commission fees. The commission payable on the Raw Spread MetaTrader account is $3.5, or $7.0 per lot round-turn, whereas on Raw Spread cTrader it is $3, or $6 per lot round-turn.

The commission can only be found on the Shares account type with XM. The rest of the three accounts, Standard, Micro, and XM Ultra-low all operate without commission rates. However, the average spreads on Standard and Micro account for Forex currency pairs start from 1 pip. The tightest spread is available on the XM Ultra-low account – 0.6 pips.

Deposits and Withdrawals

The clients of XM and IC Markets can use numerous payment solutions depending on their country of residence and the payment method that they like. For example, with IC Markets, traders can deposit and withdraw using credit and debit cards of Visa/Mastercard, PayPal, Neteller, Neteller VIP, Skrill, UnionPay, BPay, FasaPay, Poli, RapidPay, Klarna, or bank wire transfer. XM offers most of the mentioned payment service providers including Visa/Mastercard payments, Neteller, Skrill, UnionPay, and bank wire transfers.

Furthermore, the best thing about trading with either XM or IC Markets is that you can open accounts in various base currencies. Most other Forex brokers will allow only USD or EUR as your account base currency. However, with these two you can choose from the currencies below:

• AUD
• USD
• JPY
• EUR
• NZD
• SGD
• GBP
• CAD
• CHF
• HKD

Which one has provided better software, XM or IC Markets?

We were not surprised to see that both brokers chose MetaTrader solutions as their trading platforms. MetaTraders are the most powerful and popular software options that Forex traders across the globe love to use. The reason is both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 have been developed to specifically suit the requirements of Forex and multi-asset traders. Therefore, these platforms come with numerous in-built features ranging from complex charting mechanisms to in-depth market analysis.

However, it is not only the original version of MT4 and MT5 that these two brokers offer. They also support several modifications of these platforms. On XM and IC Markets trading platform users can actually access WebTrader, which is the same terminal, but instead of running on Desktop, it can be used directly through browsers. Furthermore, XM and IC Markets provide mobile applications of these trading terminals that are compatible with IOS and Android devices. In addition, IC Markets also provides cTrader which is a perfect solution for automated trading. Copy trader of IC Markets is the number one platform to follow and copy the signals of experienced Forex traders.

Set up your MetaTrader account with XM

Which broker provides better safety for traders, IC Markets vs XM?

IC Markets and XM are regulated Forex brokers, which means that the safety of traders’ funds is absolutely guaranteed. Moreover, it is not a single organization that regulates XM or IC Markets, but rather a several strictest and the most notorious market regulators have authorized these two brokers to operate worldwide. Since both brokers hold licenses from several different countries, they can provide brokerage services almost in every corner of the world.

IC Markets is registered as a Raw Trading Ltd in Seychelles with respective registration number 8410879-2. There, the broker is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA Seychelles) with the license number SD018. The parent company also operates several other branches in various parts of the globe including International Capital Markets Pty Ltd with the license from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (license no 335692). In Europe, the IC Markets (EU) holds an authorization from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (license no. 362/18). Finally, IC Markets is also registered in the Bahamas with the regulation from the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (license no. SIA-F214).

XM is also a multi-regulated brokerage company with licenses and authorization from top-tier market regulators around the world. The list of the regulators licensing XM include:

• the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
• the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
• the International Financial Services Commission (IFSC) in Belize
• the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA – for the parent company brand Trading.com)

Which one has better bonus offers, IC Markets or XM?

XM broker has various promotional campaigns ranging from bonuses to loyalty programs. However, sadly, IC Markets does not offer any promotions to their clients. The regulatory authorities will often restrict the delivery of the bonus schemes and promotional programs in Forex. That is why some of the brokers, including IC Markets, are limited in offering such campaigns. Going back to XM Forex broker, the clients can access two different bonus types, referral programs, and point-based loyalty programs. They also have a chance to access VIP trading tools for free.

The traders at XM receive a 30 USD no deposit bonus upon registration. This bonus serves as a welcome gift and can only be used for trading purposes. Therefore, the users cannot simply withdraw the bonus money. Instead, they have to trade with 30 USD and only after generating the profit claim the overall amount. The broker also has a deposit bonus which adds 50% of the investment amount to the client’s balance up to the cumulative amount of 500 USD, afterward, the deposit can generate an additional 20% deposit bonus.

Receive your 30 USD bonus from XM

Which one is a better broker overall, XM vs IC Markets

Both IC Markets and XM review shows that these two brokers have their advantages. However, we prefer an XM broker for several reasons. Firstly, the broker is highly regulated with access to many different jurisdictions across the globe. Secondly, starting trading with XM is much cheaper than with IC Markets, especially in terms of minimum deposit requirements and commission rates. Finally, we really like the fact that XM runs promotional campaigns while also remaining one of the safest brokers in the world. However, IC Markets is a perfect fit for day traders who are looking to trade with 0.0 spreads on Forex assets with automated trading solutions.