One of the leading international brokers, IC Markets is favored by both novice and more experienced traders for its attractive trading conditions, lots of available tools, and tight spreads. However, trading conditions and supported instruments are not the only thing you should pay attention to: it can prove beneficial to choose brokers that use ECN since they are more effective. In this article, we are going to explain how this technology works and find out whether IC Markets actually uses it.
About IC Markets
Founded in 2007, IC Markets is a major online broker headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It’s known to be heavily regulated and pretty secure, and it’s licensed under ASIC (the Australian Securities and Investment Commission). The broker also has very favorable trading conditions: the minimum deposit is just $200, and the leverage goes up to 1:500 for some assets. By the way, the array of assets this broker features is also impressive: you can choose from 60 Forex pairs, futures, and many CFDs.
What is ECN
ECN stands for electronic communication network, and it’s a technology that allows brokers to access the market directly, connecting buyers and sellers without the need for a middleman. Computers are used to match buy and sell orders automatically, allowing brokers to provide quicker order execution and lower fees for their clients. Basically, ECN is an alternative trading system that allows brokers to avoid involving market makers, and that’s especially useful for trading after hours.
ECNs allow brokers to eliminate the time needed for a trade to happen, making assets exchanged via such networks very liquid. They also make transactions more secure since there’s no external party to view any information about your trades. But what’s especially great, ECNs offer tighter spreads on the trades. All in all, these networks seem to be extremely useful, but the question here is: is IC Markets an ECN broker? Let’s find out.
IC Markets and ECN
Actually, yes: IC Markets uses the ECN technology, and you can create a separate account to use all of its benefits. Just to name a few features: extremely tight spreads starting from zero pips, leverage rates of up to 1:500, quick and secure order execution, and a wide range of supported trading tools to choose from. However, ECN accounts have trading fees starting from $3 per trade, so don’t forget to take this into account.