IC Markets Review: Is Raw Spread Still the Cheapest Serious Account?
We funded an IC Markets Raw Spread account with $200, traded EUR/USD through both MT5 and cTrader, and priced the commission against the spread to see what a standard lot actually costs.
Best for: High-volume MT4, MT5 and cTrader traders who can do the pip-versus-commission maths themselves
IC Markets earns its reputation among high-volume MetaTrader and cTrader traders: a 0.1 pip average EUR/USD spread plus a $7 round-turn commission on MT4/MT5, or $6 on cTrader, beats most raw-spread rivals once the maths is done. The catch is regulation: ASIC and CySEC clients trade under 30:1 leverage, and only the Seychelles entity unlocks the higher leverage the marketing shows. Scalpers and EA traders running real volume should sign up. Anyone wanting guaranteed stops, negative balance protection under a top-tier regulator, or a set-and-forget beginner account should look elsewhere.
Price $200 minimum depositMaker IC Markets Globalicmarkets.com
We opened a Raw Spread account with IC Markets, wired $200 through the EU entity, and ran a mix of manual EUR/USD trades and a small expert advisor on MT5 for two weeks. The question we wanted answered was simple: does the "0.1 pip" number on the pricing page survive contact with a live order book, and does the commission structure still beat a no-commission account once everything is added up.
What Raw Spread actually costs
The pricing page states an average EUR/USD spread of 0.1 pips on Raw Spread, with a commission of $3.50 per side on MT4 and MT5. That is $7 round turn on a standard lot. Our fills over the test period landed between 0.0 and 0.3 pips through the London session, drifting wider only around the New York open when liquidity thinned out. Added to the commission, a round-turn EUR/USD trade cost us close to $8 to $9 in the noisiest hours and closer to $7.20 in calm ones.
Switch to cTrader Raw and the commission drops to $3 per side, so $6 round turn, with spreads occasionally touching 0.0 pips during the busiest hours. That half-dollar difference sounds trivial on one lot. Run twenty lots a day and it adds up to roughly $20 saved by choosing cTrader over MT5 for the same Raw pricing tier.
The Standard account removes the commission entirely and folds the cost into a wider spread, which we measured averaging closer to 1.0 to 1.2 pips on EUR/USD during the test window. For a trader placing a handful of trades a week, Standard is simpler and arguably cheaper once you account for never having to track a commission line. For anyone trading more than a couple of lots a day, Raw wins on cost every time we ran the numbers.
Three regulators, three different accounts
IC Markets is not one company. International Capital Markets Pty Ltd is licensed by ASIC in Australia under AFS Licence 335692. IC Markets (EU) Ltd holds CySEC licence 362/18 in Cyprus. Raw Trading Ltd is authorised by the Seychelles FSA under Securities Dealer Licence SD018. Which entity signs a new client depends on where they live, and it changes the product significantly.
