68% of retail investor accounts lose money
- Experts regard IG CFD Trading as one of the top platforms for CFD trading, highlighting its extensive market access and excellent liquidity. They commend the option for direct market access (DMA) which allows for better pricing and quicker fills, making it particularly advantageous for high-volume traders. However, they note that some pricing may not be competitive for smaller capitalisation stocks.
- Across 746 user reviews on Good Money Guide, averaging 4/5, customers frequently praise IG for its user-friendly platform, reliability, and comprehensive range of products. Many users appreciate the seamless integration of various investment options, including crypto, and commend the educational resources that enhance their trading skills. Some users express concerns about occasional technical issues affecting trading efficiency, but overall, the sentiment remains highly positive regarding the platform's performance and support.
Expert rating
Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team.- Pricing4.0
- Market Access4.5
- Online Platform4.5
- Customer Service4.0
- Research & Analysis4.5
Pros
- Wide range of CFD markets
- Excellent CFD liquidity
- DMA & level-2 CFD trading
Cons
- Some CFD pricing is not competitive on smaller caps
See full expert review
Our verdict
IG Index (as they were then called) was one of the originators of retail CFD trading and offers access to the widest range of markets with the best liquidity. I’ve used them for over 20 years and regularly test the platform. In fact, CFD liquidity on major instruments is often better with IG than the underlying exchanges does to IG’s symmetrical hedging policy and order flow.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 68% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading spread bets and CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how spread bets and CFDs work, and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Is IG a good for CFD trading?
Yes, IG is one of the best CFD trading platforms as they offer a huge range of markets to trade and DMA access for more sophisticated traders. Also, because IG offers CFDs globally (with the exception of the US) they have a huge amount of volume and liquidity meaning that sometimes you can place bigger orders via IG's order book than you could do on the underlying exchanges like the LSE or NYSE. Because of the sheer volume of CFD trades, IG is able to internally match up orders for quicker and larger fills.
CFD costs are included in the spread for retail traders, but you also have the option of trading with direct market access (DMA) on level-2 prices. This enables CFD traders to place orders within the bid/offer spread and get better prices. The commission is then charged post-trade. DMA CFD trading is often must more cost-effective for high-volume larger traders as fills are quicker and at better prices.
You can trade over 17,000 CFD markets with IG including 51 forex pairs, 38 commodities, 34 indices and over 10,000 stocks. You can also trade CFDs on IPO through their grey market. The CFD trading platform is constantly evolving due to customer feedback and IG has a wide range of news, sentiment and analysis that is based on the analytics from the platform on what traders are trading. So for example, if there is a lot of order flow around a particular stock or market, research is created to help traders better understand market moves.
The main thing though that makes IG stand out is it’s size and coverage. As a public company valued at over £3.5bn April 2022) they cater for new, experienced, professional as well as institutional CFD traders.
One key disadvantage of trading CFDs through IG is that you have to pay tax on profits. However, CFDs are not the only product that IG offer. You can also trade financial spread bets, where you do not have to pay capital gains tax on profits.
Overall, IG offers one of the best CFD trading platforms around and provides excellent educational guides and market access for every sort of trader.
Customer reviews for IG
Customer ratings come from reviews left on this site. Every review is read and approved before it is published.Based on 746 reviews
- Excellent38%
- Very good36%
- Basic18%
- Poor5%
- Bad3%
Read customer reviews
Excellent. Could have wider range...
Excellent. Could have wider range of fixed income products
low cost and good platform
low cost and good platform
Nil
Nil
Love using this company for...
Love using this company for currencies and commodities, haven't gone into great detail in the more advanced chargeable services, but don't need that for what I do. Charting platform is live don't subscribe to and advanced charting or news platform provided but IG. The only thing I don't like about it is that when using the phone service for charting, when the software is updated it loses all your saved settings.
Easy to lose money trading.
Easy to lose money trading.
Good interface
Good interface
No view
No view
Really easy to use
Really easy to use
Fast and efficient trading platform
Fast and efficient trading platform
Complex, but reflective of the...
Complex, but reflective of the range of trading options
IG
Good, efficient and does the...
Good, efficient and does the job
Not overly useful presentation
Not overly useful presentation
Good. used for shorting
Good. used for shorting
Not used for a while
Not used for a while
Nothing
Nothing
-
-
sweet
sweet
I like it use 90%...
I like it use 90% of the time - low cost trading
Good
Good
Richard is the founder of the Good Money Guide (formerly Good Broker Guide), one of the original investment comparison sites established in 2015. With a career spanning two decades as a broker, he brings extensive expertise and knowledge to the financial landscape.
Having worked as a broker at Investors Intelligence and a multi-asset derivatives broker at MF Global (Man Financial), Richard has acquired substantial experience in the industry. His career began as a private client stockbroker at Walker Crips and Phillip Securities (now King and Shaxson), following internships on the NYMEX oil trading floor in New York and London IPE in 2001 and 2000.
Richard’s contributions and expertise have been recognized by respected publications such as The Sunday Times, BusinessInsider, Yahoo Finance, BusinessNews.org.uk, Master Investor, Wealth Briefing, iNews, and The FT, among many others.
Under Richard’s leadership, the Good Money Guide has evolved into a valuable destination for comprehensive information and expert guidance, specialising in trading, investment, and currency exchange. His commitment to delivering high-quality insights has solidified the Good Money Guide’s standing as a well-respected resource for both customers and industry colleagues.
