IFGM Review

IFGM is a registered business name of Intelligent Financial Markets Pty Ltd. IFGM was launched in 2012 in Australia and is authorised and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) with Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) number 426359.

The company product portfolio consists of 44 trading assets divided into 28 currency pairs, 3 commodities, and 9 global indices. The average spread of the EUR/USD is about 1 pip in the demo account, and it is not announced on the website.

There are three types of trading accounts. The Standard account requires at least USD200 to open and is commission free. The leverage can be up to 1:500 and all instruments are available here. The Pro account requires a minimum USD1,000 to open, there is a USD3.5 fee for every lot, and you can trade only currency pairs and precious metals. The leverage can be up to 1:200. The third account is Islamic and there are no swaps and commissions. Customers can fund their accounts by bank transfer, credit/debit card, Skrill, Neteller and Poli.

Customers can trade through the well-known terminal MetaTrader 4 (MT4). It is available as a desktop version for PCs and Mac, as a web-based platform that runs on every modern browser and as a mobile app for iOS and Android devices. The company also offers multi-account management (MAM) through the MT4 platform.

Partnership programs include Introducing brokers (IB), Affiliate program and Whitelabel. Introducing brokers maintain business portfolios and receive monthly commission for all the clients and sub-IBs they refer to the company. The affiliate program consists of attracting clients to the company to receive a one-off commission payment per client. Through the whitelabel program the company delivers lividity to institutional and high-volume traders.

The Product Disclosure Statement document reveals that IFGM is a market maker, not a broker, and accordingly will act as a principal, not as an agent, in respect of all transactions. It is stated: ‘As we issue products, Clients are exposed to the financial and business risks, including credit risk, associated with dealing with us.’ The same document informs: ‘You may lose more than your initial investment. You may incur losses to the extent of your total exposure to us and any additional fees and charges that apply. These losses may be far greater than the money that you have deposited into your Account or are required to deposit to satisfy Margin Requirements.’ This means clients are not covered by negative balance protection and may owe additional money to this company. About stop loss orders the document shows that stop losses are not guaranteed and the execution of such orders will depend on market volatility and liquidity. The stop loss order could be activated by a short-term fluctuation in the markets, or in a fast-moving market, the price at which the trade is executed could be much different from the stop loss price. This is known as “gapping” and is due to market movements during the time it takes to open or close positions. It is also written that when you make a request to open a position, the company will execute the order at the current market price or with slippage.

Overall, this is a company regulated by the ASIC, acting as a market maker, which does not provide negative balance protection and you can owe it some money in the end. Australian brokers can still offer higher leverage (here it is up to 1:500), but this is associated with a huge risk of large losses. In addition, only few instruments are available for trading and shares are not among them.