ICForex

ICForex is the trading brand behind the ic.com website, whose footer names Raw Trading Ltd, regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority, as the company behind the IC trading name. ICForex is not one regulated broker: it is a group of four legal entities, ranging from an Australian licence to an unregulated offshore company. Your protections, your leverage and the legal system you would rely on in a dispute depend on which entity opens your account, not on the brand name.

The headline terms are a $200 minimum deposit, leverage up to 1:5000, three account types (Standard, Raw Spread and cTrader Raw Spread), and MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and cTrader. In short, ICForex suits forex traders who want raw-spread pricing and can open with the ASIC or CySEC entity. The 1:5000 leverage only comes with offshore or unregulated oversight.

Who operates ICForex

International Capital Markets Pty Ltd is the Australian company that operates the main business, authorised by ASIC, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The other entities carry the IC Markets name: IC Markets (EU) Ltd in Cyprus and IC Markets Limited, plus Raw Trading Ltd in Seychelles. They belong to the IC Markets group, which our IC Markets review covers on its own terms.

The broker describes its execution as ECN, STP and NDD. These labels overlap but are not the same thing:

• NDD (no dealing desk): the broker says it does not take the other side of client trades through an internal desk.
• STP (straight-through processing): orders are passed on to external liquidity providers.
• ECN (electronic communication network): orders are matched against pooled prices from several liquidity sources. This is usually paired with raw spreads and a separate commission.

Regulation: which entity you would trade with

ASIC (Australia)

ASIC is a Tier-1 regulator. Since 2021, ASIC’s product intervention order has capped retail CFD leverage at 30:1 on major currency pairs, with lower limits on other asset classes. It also requires negative balance protection for retail clients and sets margin close-out rules. Australian licensees must hold client money in segregated trust accounts. Australia has no general compensation fund for CFD or forex clients, so segregation is the main safeguard if the broker fails.

CySEC (Cyprus)

CySEC authorises investment firms across the European Economic Area under MiFID II. Retail clients are subject to the ESMA-derived leverage limits (30:1 on majors), negative balance protection and a standardised risk warning. Cyprus-authorised investment firms take part in the Investor Compensation Fund, which can cover eligible retail clients up to €20,000 if a firm cannot return client assets.

FSA Seychelles and the unregulated entity

Raw Trading Ltd is regulated by the Financial Services Authority of Seychelles, an offshore regulator. Offshore oversight usually comes with higher permitted leverage, lighter conduct rules and weaker routes to recover money in a dispute. IC Markets Limited is unregulated. If your account is placed with this entity, no financial regulator supervises how it handles your money or your complaints.

The CNMV warning and look-alike domains

In 2022, Spain’s CNMV issued a warning about unauthorised entities. The warning names IC-FOREXMARKET.COM and related domains, not ic.com.

A site with “ic” and “forex” in its address is not necessarily connected to International Capital Markets Pty Ltd. Before you fund an account:

1. Type the address yourself (ic.com) instead of following an ad or a message.
2. Make sure the legal entity in the account documents is one of the four named above.
3. Search the regulator’s register for that entity name and compare the contact details and website listed there.

Account types and trading costs

All three accounts have the same $200 minimum deposit and the same 1:5000 maximum leverage ceiling. They differ in how you pay to trade.

Standard Account

The Standard Account is priced through the spread, with spreads from 0.8 pips and no separate commission. “From” marks the lowest spread the account can show. It is not an average, and spreads widen during thin liquidity, around news releases and at the daily rollover.

Raw Spread Account

The Raw Spread Account has spreads from 0.0 pips plus a commission of $3.50 per lot per side. “Per side” means you pay it when you open the trade and again when you close it. A full round trip on one standard lot therefore costs $7.00 in commission, before the spread. The average EUR/USD spread is 0.1 pips.

cTrader Raw Spread Account

This account also has spreads from 0.0 pips and runs on cTrader. ICForex does not publish its commission. Raw-spread pricing is normally paired with a commission, so confirm the cTrader rate with the broker before assuming this account is commission-free.

Worked cost comparison (hypothetical)

This hypothetical example uses EUR/USD, one standard lot (100,000 units), a pip value of $10, and assumes both trades open and close at the stated spreads.

• Standard Account at 0.8 pips: 0.8 × $10 = $8.00 per round trip, all in the spread.
• Raw Spread Account at 0.1 pips: 0.1 × $10 = $1.00 in spread, plus $3.50 × 2 = $7.00 in commission, for a total of $8.00.

Under these assumptions the two accounts cost the same. Because 0.8 pips is the Standard floor, any wider spread tips the balance: at a hypothetical 1.0 pip, the Standard trade costs $10.00 against $8.00 on Raw. On a 0.1-lot trade every figure scales down by ten.

The Raw account makes the commission predictable and leaves the spread as the only variable. If you trade often or in larger size, compare the two using the spreads you actually see on your platform during your trading hours, not the “from” figures.

Overnight swap charges are separate from both spread and commission. They depend on the instrument, the direction of the trade and the interest rate differential. If you hold positions for days or weeks, swaps can cost more than the entry fees.

Leverage up to 1:5000

The 1:5000 ceiling is the term most likely to shape who opens an account here. At 1:5000, the margin needed to open a position is 1/5000 of its notional value. A standard lot of EUR/USD worth $100,000 would need $20 of margin at that ratio (hypothetical, ignoring the broker’s own margin tiers).

That low margin requirement does not reduce your risk. Your gain or loss per pip depends on position size, not on leverage. A standard lot still moves about $10 per pip whether you post $20 or $3,333 in margin. What very high leverage does is let a small balance hold a very large position, so a small move against you can wipe out your equity before a stop is reached. With a $200 deposit and a full standard lot open, a move of 20 pips against you erases the whole balance.

Leverage at this level cannot apply to retail accounts under the ASIC or CySEC entities, because both regimes cap retail leverage on major FX pairs at 30:1. A 1:5000 account would therefore come from an entity outside those caps, and that means accepting offshore or unregulated oversight for the account.

If you do use high leverage, size positions from the amount you are willing to lose and the distance to your stop, not from the margin available. The position size calculator converts those into a lot size.

Trading platforms

ICForex offers five ways to trade:

• MetaTrader 4: the long-standing forex platform, widely used for Expert Advisors (automated strategies) and custom indicators.
• MetaTrader 5: the successor to MT4, with more timeframes, a built-in economic calendar and support for more order types. MT4 scripts do not run on it without conversion.
• cTrader: an ECN-style platform with depth-of-market display and its own algorithmic framework (cBots, written in C#). It is tied to the cTrader Raw Spread account.
• Web platform: browser-based trading with no installation.
• Mobile app: for monitoring and managing positions on the move.

Having all three desktop platforms helps if you already run tools built for one of them. cTrader pricing comes through its own account type, while Standard and Raw Spread are the accounts you would compare on MetaTrader.

Tradable instruments

ICForex offers 60 forex pairs, covering the majors and a selection of minors and crosses. If you want indices, commodities, shares or crypto CFDs, confirm what your entity offers, since product ranges can vary between group entities.

Deposits and withdrawals

The broker charges no fees for bank transfers and cards, for deposits and withdrawals, but both carry an asterisk, so conditions apply. Your bank or card issuer may still charge for international transfers. If your account currency differs from your deposit currency, the conversion rate is also a cost. Withdrawals usually go back to the original funding method first, which matters if you fund by card and later want to withdraw to a bank account.

Reputation and track record

Operating since 2009 gives the business a long history in a sector where many brands disappear within a few years. ICForex has only four Trustpilot reviews, far too few to show any pattern in withdrawals, support or execution.

Strengths and trade-offs

Strengths

• An ASIC-authorised operator, plus a CySEC entity for European clients.
• A choice of spread-only pricing or raw spreads with a fixed $3.50 per-side commission.
• MT4, MT5 and cTrader, plus web and mobile access.
• A $200 minimum deposit on all three accounts.
• No stated card or bank transfer fees, subject to the conditions marked.

Trade-offs and risks

• Two of the four entities are offshore, and one is unregulated. The ic.com site states that you are visiting the website of Raw Trading Ltd, the Seychelles entity, so check your account documents to confirm which one you sign with.
• Using 1:5000 leverage means accepting weaker protection.
• A 2022 CNMV warning covers look-alike domains.
• No published commission for the cTrader Raw Spread account.
• The site lists CFDs on forex, commodities, indices, bonds, crypto, stocks and futures, so the range goes well beyond forex.

How we checked ICForex

On 13 November 2026 we visited ic.com from Tallinn, Estonia, and the home page opened on its English version. In the footer, we found Raw Trading Ltd named as the company behind the IC and IC Markets Global trading names. The footer says it is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority with Securities Dealer’s license number SD018 and gives Seychelles registration number 8419879-1. A separate notice says IC Markets (EU) Ltd is a separate legal entity regulated by CySEC under CIF License No. 362/18. Then we opened the regulation page, which repeats SD018. One line stood out. The site tells visitors they are on the website of Raw Trading Ltd, “an entity established outside the European Union (EU)”.

On pricing, the Raw Spread Account page quotes spreads from 0.0 pips, an average EUR/USD spread of 0.1 pips and a commission of $3.50 per lot payable per side. The leverage pages state up to 1:5000 on forex and 1:2000 on metals. On withdrawals, the site says “We do not charge any additional fees for withdrawals.” Account opening sits behind a registration and login page, so we did not see the terms that follow it. We also found no minimum deposit stated on the pages we opened.

Registers came next, the same day. ASIC’s professional register lists International Capital Markets Pty Ltd under licence 335692, status Current, since 02/07/2009. CySEC’s list of Cypriot investment firms, dated 04 May 2026, shows IC Markets (EU) Ltd with licence 362/18, licensed 25/06/2018. FSA Seychelles lists Raw Trading Ltd as a securities dealer. Its public list does not show licence numbers, so we could not match SD018 itself.

On Trustpilot, read 13 November 2026, ic.com scored 2.6/5 from 4 reviews, too few to tell us much. The Wayback Machine’s first capture of the domain dates from 1998-02-01, which may predate the current brand. What we could not confirm is which entity would actually hold a new client’s account, since that only becomes clear after registration.

Who ICForex may suit

ICForex fits traders who want raw-spread forex pricing on MetaTrader or cTrader, and who can open an account with the ASIC or CySEC entity and accept the 30:1 retail leverage caps that come with it. The fixed commission on the Raw Spread account makes the cost easy to model for active traders.

It is a riskier fit for traders drawn mainly by the 1:5000 leverage. That ceiling comes with offshore or unregulated oversight, and on a $200 balance it lets a position grow far beyond what the account can absorb. To compare how other brokers structure high leverage, the Exness review and Vantage review cover brokers with similar entry deposits.