ICMarkets

ICMarkets

A brokerage founded in 2007, with roots in Australia and authorised entities in five jurisdictions. In 2026 it rebranded globally to IC, keeping the same companies and the same licences. A single direction: trading via contracts for difference (CFDs — over-the-counter (OTC) instruments through which you trade the price difference, without owning the asset).

  • CFD trading
  • Options trading
  • Futures trading
  • Stock market investing (spot)

The chips also show what the company does NOT offer — useful information if those are exactly the directions you are looking for. For each ticked direction you will find a separate chapter below, with its accounts and its conditions.

TIER 1 — TOP-LEVEL REGULATION

19 years
in the market
thousands
of assets, all as CFDs
5
jurisdictions with authorised entities
4
trading platforms

Open an account with ICMarkets

Retrieved on 2026-08-25

Trading.md is an official ICMarkets partner

With us you get assisted onboarding, help choosing the right account and technical support in Romanian and Russian — at no additional cost.

For trading — CFDs on all asset classes:

Open a real account

Test the conditions and your strategies free of charge:

Demo account

Not sure where to start? The consultation is free — together we go through opening the account, verifying the documents and the first settings of the platform. Book a free consultation

LIVE SPREADS

BTC/USD5.00 $NZD/USD0.1 pipsGBP/USD0.2 pipsEUR/USD0.1 pipsAUD/USD0.1 pipsXAU/USD0.09 $USD/CAD0.2 pips

Chapter 01

Introducing the company

IC Markets is a brokerage that started in 2007 in Australia and today operates through a group of companies authorised in five jurisdictions. The public in the Republic of Moldova knows it as IC Markets; in 2026 the group rebranded globally to IC, without changing the companies or the licences behind it. The company covers a single direction — trading via contracts for difference — and builds its offer around the cost of execution: raw spread plus a fixed commission, four platforms and servers hosted in data centres close to the price providers.

Shares, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies also appear in the offer as CFDs. That means you never become the owner of the asset: you get no voting rights, and dividends show up only as a cash adjustment. If you want real ownership, that direction is missing at this partner — you will find it with other partners on our list ›.

The company's business card

Legal namegrup privat, cu societăți diferite pe jurisdicții — denumirile complete sunt în tabelul din Reglementare și siguranța banilor ›. Entitatea pe care se deschide contul poate diferi.
Year founded2007
Group structurecompanie privată, nelistată la bursă · entități autorizate în cinci jurisdicții
Head officeUnitatea 2, etajul 6, 50 Carrington Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia
Official websiteic.com pentru clienții globali · icmarkets.eu pentru Uniunea Europeană
OfficesPagina oficială de contact listează un singur birou: Eden House, etajul 1, Eden Island, Mahé, Seychelles — sediul societății care deservește clienții din afara Uniunii Europene. Sydney rămâne sediul înregistrat al societății australiene.
AuditGrupul este privat și nu publică rapoarte financiare. Entitatea australiană are însă un auditor extern înregistrat la autoritate, numit din 2019 și verificabil în registrul public — o obligație a licenței, nu o alegere de imagine.
Directions offeredCFD trading
Minimum deposit0 USD — compania nu impune un prag, la niciunul dintre cele trei conturi disponibile
SponsorshipsParteneriate sportive și de esports promovate pe blogul companiei

How the company earns

Market maker model (with a dealing desk)

The company remains the counterparty to all your trades — that is what it says, in its own words, in its order execution policy: it acts as principal, not as agent, and is the sole execution venue for your orders. It does not set the prices on its own, though: it receives them aggregated from several liquidity providers, and on cTrader the system automatically requests quotes, displays market depth and executes at the volume-weighted average price. That is where the revenue comes from: a fixed commission per lot on the raw spread accounts and a markup built into the spread on the Standard account — the execution policy says plainly that only the standard accounts carry a markup. On top of that come the interest for positions held overnight and the currency conversion when you trade in a currency other than your account's. The model is legal and supervised by the authorities that issued the licences. The documents are in Regulation and safety of funds ›, and what each execution model means is explained in the guide What a broker is ›.

What sets it apart

Infrastructure for automated trading. The MetaTrader servers sit in the Equinix data centre in New York, the cTrader ones in London, and the price is aggregated from a large number of institutional sources. It matters if you run robots or scalping strategies, where a few milliseconds and a few tenths of a pip change a month's result.

It says who the counterparty is. Few brokerages state so directly, in the execution document, that they remain the client's sole counterparty and that any position is closed only with them. It matters if you want to know who is on the other side of the trade before you open the account, not after.

  • Raw spread + fixed commission
  • MT4, MT5, cTrader, TradingView
  • Tier 1 licences: ASIC and CySEC
  • Equinix servers
  • Continuous support

Banking services and additional services

These are not protections for your money, but commercial services, with their own rules and their own risk.

Analysis included

Market analysis and research tools integrated into the account, plus calculators, an economic calendar and a virtual server for robots.

Education

Webinars, video tutorials and the company's podcast — in English. In Romanian and Russian you have our materials and courses ›, built for the market here.

Copy trading and social trading

You can automatically copy other traders' trades, through the cTrader platform's copy module or through the integrated social apps. The services are provided by third parties, and the contract says explicitly that they are not portfolio management. The copied trader's past results do not guarantee future results, and the risk stays with your account. How to choose an account to copy is what we look at in the copy trading consultation ›.

Virtual server for robots

The company offers hosting for automated strategies, so they run without your computer being on. The conditions for getting it depend on volume.

Chapter 02

Regulation and the safety of your money

The IC Markets group operates authorised entities in five jurisdictions. Clients from the Republic of Moldova register on the group's global licences — the ones serving clients outside the European Union. Below are all of the group's authorisations, each one verifiable by you in the authority's public register.

Regulatory authorityCountryLegal entityLicence no.Check in the register
TIER 1 — TOP-LEVEL REGULATION
ASIC — Australian Securities and Investments CommissionLicence current as of 25.08.2026, effective since 2 July 2009. Principal address: 50 Carrington Street, Sydney.AustraliaInternational Capital Markets Pty. Ltd. (ACN 123 289 109)AFSL 335692service.asic.gov.au
CySEC — Cyprus Securities and Exchange CommissionAuthorised since 25.06.2018. The investor compensation fund of up to 20,000 EUR belongs to the Cypriot entity and does NOT cover clients from Moldova. This is where the risk percentage shown on the page is taken from.CyprusIC Markets (EU) Ltd (HE 356877)362/18
TIER 2 — MID-LEVEL REGULATION
CMA — Capital Markets AuthorityTier 2 according to the 'Reglementatori v2.0' normative document.KenyaIC Markets (KE) Limited199
TIER 3 — OFFSHORE (GLOBAL) LICENCES
FSA — Financial Services AuthorityThe global entity — the one our partner link leads to. No statutory compensation scheme. The entity is NOT named on the page (P4bis).SeychellesRaw Trading LtdSD018
SCB — Securities Commission of The BahamasSources are contradictory: some give the entity as 'IC Markets Ltd', others as a second company, 'Raw Trading Ltd' (reg. 205126 B). To be verified directly in the SCB register before publication.the Bahamasentitate de confirmat în registruSIA-F214

How client money is protected

The protections below depend on the rules of each entity and we explain them at length, for all our partners, in the guides of the Brokers section; here — briefly, for orientation:

  • Segregation of fundsSegregation of funds — clients' money is held in bank accounts separate from the company's own money, opened with international banking institutions. The company cannot use it for its own expenses, and the bank holding it cannot offset it against the company's debts. At the European Union entity, the client asset rules additionally require daily verification of the amounts and strict criteria for selecting the banks.

  • Negative balance protectionNegative balance protection — here the wording needs careful reading. In the European Union, the United Kingdom and Australia, the protection is imposed by regulation for non-professional investors, at trading account level. On the group's global licences, where clients from the Republic of Moldova register, the company writes in its risk disclosure that an unfavourable move can cost you your entire balance or even more, and that in such a case it "may" bear the consequences. It is a possibility left to the company's discretion, not a commitment — and the contract provides that the deficit remains the client's. So treat leverage as a risk that can exceed the amount deposited.

  • Compensation schemeCompensation scheme — the protection for the extreme case: if a company went bankrupt or could no longer honour its obligations to clients, a compensation fund returns the money, up to a cap. It does not cover trading losses or a fall in the value of investments — only the company's collapse. On the group's global licences, where clients from the Republic of Moldova register, no such fund exists — which is why the reputation and the regulation of the whole group matter so much. What a compensation fund is, we explained in the Glossary ›. We have explained what a compensation fund is in the Glossary.

The official documents, straight from the source

  • The company's document centreThe general business terms, the risk disclosure (the source of the wording on the negative balance), the order execution policy and the complaints handling policy. All in the July 2026 version, read in full by us on August 25, 2026.

Chapter 03

CFD trading

The company's only direction, and it is good to know this from the start: here you trade exclusively contracts for difference — you do not buy the real assets, but the price difference, with leverage and in both directions of the market. Currencies, indices, commodities, bonds, shares and cryptocurrencies all fall under the same form of contract and the same regulation.

The tables below show the main conditions. The button adds the detailed rows — technical specifications, useful if you already know what you are looking for.

General conditions

Asset classesCurrencies, indices, commodities, shares, bonds and cryptocurrencies — all in the form of CFDs.
Number of assetsOver 2,200 on the MetaTrader accounts and 121 on cTrader (verified on August 25, 2026). Among them, 60 currency pairs and 4 metals, plus indices, commodities, bonds, shares and cryptocurrencies. US shares can also be traded outside exchange hours, through an extended session.
Order executionAutomatic execution, without manual intervention in the normal course; the company reserves the right to execute an order manually in periods of volatility or for orders of large size. The prices come aggregated from more than twenty-five price sources, and on cTrader the order is executed at the volume-weighted average price. The average execution speed declared by the company, measured from the moment the order reaches it, is under 40 milliseconds. The execution policy is among the documents in Regulation and safety of funds ›
Order typesFULL SPEC SHEETMarket, limit, stop, stop-limit (on MetaTrader 5 and cTrader), stop loss, take profit, good till cancelled or until a chosen date. No guaranteed execution: when triggered, the order is executed at the next available price. On cTrader, a stop loss placed inside the current spread is automatically removed.
Platform time zoneFULL SPEC SHEETServer time and charts are at GMT+2, and GMT+3 during daylight saving time. In practice, the daily candle closes at midnight, Eastern European time — the same time zone the reader in Moldova lives in, so the charts read without conversion.
Maximum leverageOn the global licences, up to 1:1000 on the cTrader accounts and up to 1:5000 on the MetaTrader accounts, according to the official account table. The company specifies that the leverage is dynamic and can be changed at any time, including on open positions. High leverage is not an advantage in itself: it amplifies gain and loss alike, and at this partner the loss can exceed the amount deposited — Risk management ›
Margin call / stop-outFULL SPEC SHEETStop-out at a margin level below 50%, on all platforms. On MetaTrader, positions are closed starting with the least profitable one; on cTrader, only as much of the largest position as necessary is closed, to bring the margin back above the threshold.
SwapApplied daily, per instrument, differently for long and short positions; the rates are in the platform and on the company's specifications page.
Inactivity feeThe contractual documents we read do not provide for an inactivity fee (to be confirmed with the company before publication — the absence of a clause is not the same as confirmation that the fee does not exist).
Demo accountAvailable on all platforms, with no deposit.
Account without overnight interest (Islamic)Available, under the name "Swap Free" (exact conditions: to be completed before publication).
Currency conversionThe account is opened in one of ten available currencies. The Moldovan leu is not among them, so the conversion is done by your bank — the cost comes from it, not from the broker.
Deposits and withdrawalsThe company charges no fees on any method; intermediary banks may charge their own fees — details in Deposits and withdrawals ›
Transfers between your accountsFULL SPEC SHEETAvailable from the client area, between your own accounts opened with the same company.
Prohibited trading practicesFULL SPEC SHEETThe contract explicitly prohibits latency arbitrage, swap arbitrage and strategies built on temporary price dislocations, and the company may cancel such trades even after they have been executed. Worth reading before you launch a robot: not every automated strategy is accepted.
Account currenciesTen currencies (AUD, USD, EUR, CAD, GBP, SGD, NZD, JPY, HKD, CHF). The Moldovan leu is not available — the conversion is done by the client's bank.

Accounts for cfd trading

SpecificationStandardRaw SpreadRaw Spread (cTrader)
Minimum deposit0 USD — the company imposes no threshold0 USD — the company imposes no threshold0 USD — the company imposes no threshold
Available asset classesall classes · over 2,200 instrumentsall classes · over 2,200 instrumentsa narrower offer: 121 instruments
Minimum volume0.01 lots0.01 lots0.01 lots
Minimum stop/limit distanceFULL SPEC SHEETno restrictionno restrictionno restriction, but a stop loss placed inside the spread is removed automatically
Cost modelAll-in spread, markup includedRaw spread + commissionRaw spread + commission
EUR/USD spread from0.8 pips0.0 pips0.0 pips
Commission per lot3.50 USD / side (7.00 USD round turn)3.00 USD per 100,000 USD traded — the cTrader model is calculated on volume, not on lots
Rebates / cashbackDo not appear in the company's public documents for ordinary clientsDo not appear in the company's public documents for ordinary clientsDo not appear in the company's public documents for ordinary clients
PlatformsMetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5cTrader, TradingView
Opposite positions on the same instrumentFULL SPEC SHEETPositions can be held simultaneously (hedging) on MetaTrader 4; on MetaTrader 5, depending on the account typePositions can be held simultaneously (hedging) on MetaTrader 4; on MetaTrader 5, depending on the account typePositions can be held simultaneously (hedging)
Robots and algorithmsFULL SPEC SHEETYes (MQL4, MQL5) · the company declares it does not restrict any trading styleYes (MQL4, MQL5) · no style restrictedYes (cBots, C#) · no style restricted
Who it is forStarting out: a single cost, easy to trackActive traders and automated strategies on MetaTrader: lower total cost at volumeScalping, market depth and anyone who wants to trade from TradingView

The demo account is available for all the types above, with the same conditions and virtual money.

The account without overnight interest is obtained by converting an existing account, on request.

A note on the risk figure. The percentage at the top of the page, 72.52%, is below the range in the standardised ESMA (EU) warnings, of 74–89%. Two clarifications before reading it as a good sign. First, where it comes from: the figure is published by the group's European Union entity, where leverage for non-professional investors is capped by regulation at 1:30. Clients from the Republic of Moldova register on the global licences, where the cap is much higher, and for those licences the company does not publish a percentage of its own — which is why we took the only official figure existing in the group, with its attribution. Second, as our interpretation, not as fact: a lower figure usually comes down to the leverage cap and the client profile, not the company's quality — and at higher leverage the figure would be expected to be higher, not lower. What stays true in both situations: the majority of non-professional (retail) clients trading CFDs lose money. If you are just starting out, start from education ›, not from the first deposit.

Chapter 04

Platforms and tools

Four platforms, and in practice the platform makes the account choice: the Raw Spread accounts on MetaTrader and the Raw Spread account on cTrader are not the same offer under a different name.

PlatformWhat forWhere it runs
MetaTrader 5The platform recommended by the company: CFDs on all classes, robots, market depth.Desktop, Web, iOS, Android, Mac
MetaTrader 4The classic option for robots (Expert Advisors) — the market standard.Desktop, Web, iOS, Android, Mac
cTraderVisible market depth, execution at the volume-weighted average price, cBots algorithms in C#.Desktop, Web, iOS, Android, Mac
TradingViewTrading straight from TradingView, with the company's login — on the cTrader accounts.Web, aplicațiile TradingView
Zona de client și aplicația proprieAccounts, deposits, withdrawals, transfers, downloads, virtual server.Web, iOS, Android

Analysis included

The company provides analysis tools inside the client area — calendars, calculators and market commentary. These are information tools, not trading recommendations.

Education

The company publishes its own learning material in its support languages. In Romanian and Russian, the teaching side is ours. See our courses

Copy trading and social trading

You can automatically copy another trader's trades or, conversely, publish your own strategy. The past results of the copied trader do not guarantee future results, and the risk remains entirely that of your account: the losses occur in your account, not in theirs.

What it lacks: real share ownership. Everything you see in the platform, including the shares of the large companies, is a contract for difference. If you want to own the shares and receive voting rights, this partner is not the right fit — we call things by their name and point you to a partner that has the investing direction ›.

Chapter 05

Deposits and withdrawals

The rules follow the standards of the field: money comes in and goes out only through cards or bank accounts opened in your name (an anti-money-laundering rule). Below you have the conditions for transactions with bank accounts from Moldova.

MethodDeposit / durationWithdrawal / durationKeep in mind
Visa / Mastercard card0% · instant0% · 3–5 business days, rarely up to 10The withdrawal is processed as a refund of the original deposit; any amount above the deposit goes out to a bank account or as a card payment. On the statement, the transaction appears under the name of the company's payment processor ('ICM Pay'), not under the broker's name.
International bank transfer (SWIFT)0% · up to 2 business days0% from the company · 2–14 business daysWorks to bank accounts in Moldova, including in euros. On the first withdrawal, a copy of a bank statement in your name is required. Intermediary banks may deduct their own fees.
PayPal0% · instant0% · credited immediately after processingThe account must be in your name.
E-wallets (Skrill, Neteller)0% · instant0% · credited immediately after processing
Klarna, Rapidpay0% · up to 2 business daysAvailable for euros and pounds sterling.

How a withdrawal is made

Withdrawal requests are processed, after the account has been verified, usually much faster than the official deadlines indicate. The withdrawal first returns to the method used for the deposit; the profit can go out to a bank account or another method, but strictly in your name.

These are not obstacles — they are exactly the rules that make the difference between a financial institution and a scam.

Note for Moldova — read before you deposit

Some banks in the country may delay or even reject transfers to brokerage companies. The reason is not you: the stock market field is only now coming under local regulation (Law 177/2025), and the banks, faced with the wave of frauds in which criminals pose as “brokers” or “investment firms”, still do not have clear procedures for telling a regulated brokerage company apart from a scam. In developed countries, stock market investing is integrated directly into online banking; here, the banks are only just learning that a regulated brokerage company is, like them, a supervised financial institution. The good news: if you understand what you are doing and can explain to the bank where the money is going — your own trading account, with a regulated company, verifiable in public registers — the situation is usually cleared up quickly. You have the same support for withdrawals: if the bank asks about the origin of the money, trading and stock market investing are legal activities, and our partner companies issue official activity reports (account statements) precisely for this kind of transparency.

If you run into a refusal, contact us.

Your bank may charge its own conversion or currency transfer fee — check its tariffs before your first deposit, and if you want, we will work out the cheapest route together, free of charge.

Chapter 06

Customer support

Phone+248 467 19 76
E-mailsupport@ic.com
ChannelsTelefon · E-mail · Chat
HoursPagina de contact declară asistență permanentă, în toate zilele săptămânii; biroul din Seychelles — luni–sâmbătă. Pagina de orare scrie „24 de ore, cinci zile pe săptămână” — nepotrivire între paginile companiei.
Trading.md supportIn Romanian and Russian, at the office in Chișinău, str. Pușkin 26, or online, free of charge for clients who opened their account through the links on the Trading.md pages · 078 080 840

The complaints procedure

The company has a written procedure, with deadlines. The complaint is filed by e-mail, using the form in the annex to the complaints handling policy — without that form, the compliance department does not take up the case. Receipt is confirmed within two business days, with a reference number, and the answer comes within at most twenty-one business days; for complicated cases the deadline can be extended, with the reason explained. If the answer does not satisfy you, the case can go to the private industry dispute arbitration body the company is a member of — not a regulatory authority, but a mediation forum — and then to the authority supervising the licence your account was opened on. But before anything else, tell us what happened and we will try to help: most of the time the trouble comes from some services and procedures not being known well enough. And if the complaint really is necessary, we will help you word it correctly — it is part of our support.

Chapter 07

How to open the account, step by step

Six steps, in their natural order — and if you get stuck somewhere, ask us for help, it is free.

  1. Open the registration form

    Through the button on this page, so that the registration is linked to us and you receive the support and the conditions of Trading.md clients.

  2. Fill in your personal details

    Name, country, e-mail, phone — exactly as they appear in your identity document. One different letter delays the verification.

  3. Answer the experience questionnaire

    Questions about income, savings and your experience with leveraged instruments. Answer honestly: the questionnaire establishes what can be offered to you.

  4. Upload the documents

    The identity document and the proof of address, in the Client Cabinet. Clear photographs, the corners visible, the document within its validity period.

  5. Create the trading account

    You choose the platform, the account type, the currency and the leverage. You can change them later by opening a new account — you are not locked into your first choice.

  6. Fund the account and get started

    You deposit through one of the accepted methods, in your name. Our recommendation: start on a demo, in parallel, until you understand the platform.

Open a real account

Account verification

In principle, all brokers ask for the same thing: that you prove who you are and where you live. The details differ — which documents they accept, from which institutions, in what format and how long it takes.

Which documents and how many

Two, as a rule: one that confirms your identity and one that confirms your address. They must be within their validity period and legible in full.

Who issues the accepted document

Not every piece of paper with your address on it is accepted. The accepted issuing institutions differ from one company to another, and for Moldova not all the variants work the same way.

Selfie, video or just an upload

At some companies it is enough to upload the files. At others a photograph with the document in your hand or a short video verification is needed.

How long it takes and what a refusal means

From a few minutes to a few weeks, depending on how clear the documents are. A refusal does not close the door: it usually means that additional or clearer documents are required.

Identity document: a valid document, photographed in full and legible. Proof of address: a recent document, issued in your name. Camera verification: a mandatory step, operated by an external provider; it involves processing a facial image and screening against the public lists of sanctions and politically exposed persons — the final decision belongs to the company, not the provider. Additional checks: for large amounts or certain payment methods, the company may request proof of the origin of funds — an anti-money-laundering requirement, standard in the industry. Multiple accounts: a single client profile, with several trading accounts under it. Third-party payments: not accepted, neither for deposits nor for withdrawals; joint accounts are accepted if the trading account holder is one of the parties.

Documents and account types

Identity documentIdentity card or passport, valid, with all the corners visible in the photograph.
Proof of addressA recent document that contains your name and your address.
Additional checks for large amountsThe company may ask for documents about the origin of the funds — it is an anti-money-laundering requirement, not a suspicion directed at you.
Multiple accountsYou can have several trading accounts under the same client profile, with different platforms and currencies.

Chapter 08

Frequently asked questions

Chapter 09

Conclusion: who it suits

It suits

For the trader who puts execution cost first and works actively: raw spread with a fixed commission, four platforms to choose from, robots accepted and infrastructure designed for them. And for the one who wants to see it written, in black and white, who their counterparty is.

To weigh up

The client from Moldova ends up on an offshore licence, without a compensation fund, and negative balance protection is not guaranteed there. The available leverage is far above what is practised in the European Union, and the company can change it at any time, including on open positions. The company does not name its liquidity providers, the contract limits its liability and allows it to retroactively cancel the trades it deems abusive. And real share ownership does not exist: everything is a CFD.

Disclaimer

CFDs and options are complex instruments, with leverage, and involve a high risk of losing money rapidly. Before you trade, make sure you understand how they work and that you can afford the risk of losing the amount invested. Past performance, of an instrument or of a copied trader, does not guarantee future results. This page is for informational purposes and does not constitute personalised investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell a financial instrument. Royal Consulting S.R.L., which operates the Trading.md platform, is a consulting, financial education and intermediation company. It is not a brokerage company, it does not execute orders, it does not hold client funds and it is not an investment adviser. The data on this page was verified on 2026-08-25 from the company's official documents and pages. The conditions may change without prior notice; the official version is always the one published by ICMarkets.

ICMarkets — conditions, regulation and costs - TRADING.md