ICM Capital Review

ICM Capital Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under register number 520965. As an FCA-regulated broker, ICM capital is required to cover up to GBP85,000 if it becomes insolvent. The company goes beyond and provides an additional insurance program for up to GBP5 million, available to all ICM Capital live accounts at no extra costs.

ICM Capital offers online access to a range of trading assets such as foreign exchange, commodities, futures and indices. There are two types of trading accounts: ICM Direct and ICM Zero. The main difference is that instruments have spreads and there is no commission at ICM Direct account while the spreads of major currency pairs start at zero pips but there is a fee of USD7 per traded lot at the ICM Zero account. The minimum deposit amount is USD200.

Clients can trade via the world renowned MetaTrader 4 trading platform, taking advantage of high liquidity, tighter spreads, mobile trading and built-in technical analysis. MetaTrader 4 is a highly professional platform that not only allows customers to actively trade, but it also has powerful charting and modeling tools. Clients can also use built-in Expert advisors (EAs) – programs written in MetaQuotes Language 4 that allow clients to analyze and automate trading.

All orders are filled through the Market Execution method, which means they are matched and sent for execution directly to liquidity providers. However, there is a warning of possible slippage, especially while markets are volatile. So, there are no requotes, but orders can be filled at the next available price, which can differ significantly than the one requested. Stop loss orders are not guaranteed and can be executed at a much worse price.

ICM Capital claims it acts as an STP broker and that means it transfers all orders to its liquidity providers. The company is supposed to make money only by adding to the spread of the instruments. However, the Order execution policy shows that ICM Capital may act as a market maker as well. It is written that ICM operates a hybrid model which consists of a No Dealing Desk, and a Dealing Desk acting as the market maker. That leads to a conflict of interest.

Clients of ICM Capital can feed their accounts by bank transfers, debit/credit card or e-wallets.

There is a section named Education in the website that is full of useful things such as glossary of terms, F.A.Q., Analysis, and trading examples. Economic calendar with the major events is also available but we noticed it is not updated regularly.

We can conclude that ICM Capital is strictly regulated by the FCA and offers one of the most famous trading platforms in the world – MetaTrader 4. Unfortunately, it is not clear what type of brokers clients are involved in – STP or market maker.