IG Markets Reviews

When I complained to them, repeatedly, I was told that my firefox was not in order, or my internet connection etc etc..and that they 'had never known such a case in 30 years', trying to make me believe it was my fault. I had one of their IT guys inside my computer for 3 hours, checking all my connections etc and he could find nothing wrong. Then, my last week trading with them, my platform closed again on me and I lost another 30,000USD. this time I spoke to one of their representatives in Australia who was pretty upset about it but could do nothing. On the following day, I was trading and was stopped out. My account balance showed -7888USD! I rang again - it was 20.00 GMT - to be told that my account had been frozen and I would have to wait until the next morning in London when the accounts team came in. At midday they unfroze my account.

I had been unable to access my account for 16 hours. On doing so I found my balance to be 0. I asked where my money was. They said it had been sent to my account in Hamburg Germany, a request which I never authorized verbally or in writing. This money took two weeks to reach my account in Hamburg instead of the promised 2-3 bank working days. My 'account manager', Mr Ben Critchley, informed me that the -7888USD was an 'electronic error'. I asked why did I have to foot that bill, ie why could I not trade and then be left with 0 on my account? He told me to write a complaint, which I did. I funded my account again by credit card. The following day he called me and said that the -7888USD had been an 'oversight in the accounts department' and that I was to exit my trades and my account would be closed and I was to take my business elsewhere. The remaining money on my account, used for one day, would be returned to me. This second transfer also took two weeks to reach my account in Hamburg. My iban and account numbers were all correct. Lloyds, IG's intermediary bank, apparently told IG that there had been 'missing information' - I asked what that 'missing information' could be as all the numbers were double-checked over and over again as a trace was sent out as what had happened to these TWO separate transfers, but I received no reply.

I had by then already opened an account with a broker in America whom I am pretty sure I can trust but I had no money to fund it with. I watched the market go by without me and even mailed Mr Ben Critchley telling him what would happen on the gbp next..which it did.

To add insult to injury, a sales trader, insinuated that i had tried to withdraw funds from them, causing the -7888USD. I have since been in touch with the Financial Service Authority, with whom IG are registered. I will be shortly filing an offical complaint with the compliance department with IG. if there is no satisfactory response - which I doubt, and I mean compensation (in the order of 150000USD) - then I will be taking this matter further.

I would be grateful if anyone who has had similar experiences with IG contact me under my email address jodycody@hotmail.com. IG is without doubt a disreputable broker who targets the small fish when they start to make money. I have met this in America and there are many sites which are full with their victims, but I thought IG in London would be different. Unfortunately for me not.

Yes, they have great advertisement campaigns, they have a very good selection of pairs and low prices and very good customer support.

But unfortunately these people do not make their main profits from the spread. This is how they make their money:

They have a browser-based platform in which they have built in certain "mechanisms" which are supposed to prevent traders from making profitable trades on a reagular basis:

1) In many cases you will not be able to close your position online getting the message "Sorry , this market is not dealable".

That is why you are gonna need to call in and have the transaction closed manually. The idea behind that is that most FX traders will have an urgent reason to close a transaction immediately and if this is not allowed and they will need to call the broker then precious time is gonna get lost in which a losing transaction is gonna become more losing and a profitable transaction is gonna become less profitable - particularly in volatile times.

And I am specifically NOT talking about the NEWS time but about the NORMAL time. They do it on a regular basis

2) In many cases before placing a trade the platform will refuse to show you the current quotes but it will still be ready to open the transaction for you. This is made intentionally so they can increase the spread.

So these are the main problems which will make you lose regardless of your strategy. If you call their customer support they will be very friendly and will tell you that there are problems with Java on your computer which is why the platform may not work properly on your computer. This is of course non-sense.

In other words: They display the correct price and do NOT cheat there.But they do not pass on the risk to the market but play against your positions which means your profit = their loss and your loss = their profit

If you want to be successful on FX you should find a broker who pass on the risk to the market.If you take a broker who is playing against your positions to profit from your loss , then you will lose - even if you do have a great strategy.

It is absolutely fine if an FX broker increases the spreads during news time or even if the platform gets frozen.This will be the case with virtually all brokers.

But there are many brokers who play against your positions in normal times and this is where you should be careful - IG markets is one of those brokers.