AvaTrade vs IC Markets 2022

AvaTrade has a trust score of 93, giving it a "Highly Trusted" trust label. Here's what each trust score label means:

• "Highly Trusted" (90-99) - These brokers are considered the most trustworthy firms in the industry. Simply put, we would not hesitate to open and fund an account with a Highly Trusted broker.
• "Trusted" (80-89) - These brokers are reliable and trustworthy. "Trusted" firms are a solid choice, and may simply hold fewer regulatory licences or feature different corporate structures than those brokers that have earned our top Trust Score rating.
• "Average Risk" (70-79) - Average Risk brokers are firms we generally consider to be safe, but that may warrant a closer inspection before you open and fund a live trading account. At the least, we always encourage traders to check the regulatory licenses for Average Risk firms to verify that they are regulated in their own country of residence.
• "High Risk" (60-69) - High-risk firms should be scrutinized and carefully reviewed before opening an account. These forex brokers are – in most cases – operating without credible regulatory licensing, and likely have a history of legal or financial issues. Before considering an account with a high-risk firm, we recommend checking our country guides for your country of residence to see if a more trusted broker is available.
• "Do Not Trust" (<59) - We do not recommend opening an account of any kind with a broker that earns a “Do Not Trust” rating.

IC Markets has a trust score of 86, giving it a "Trusted" trust label.

AvaTrade is a well-rounded, trusted broker that offers excellent educational resources and great social copy trading tools. AvaTrade's commissions and market research are close to the industry average, and traders gain access to AvaTrade's proprietary platforms as well as third-party favorites like MetaTrader.

IC Markets' combination of low spreads and commissions, as well as its supportive execution policies that accomodate algorithmic traders make it our pick for the best MetaTrader broker. In addition, IC Markets recently bolstered its range of markets, sending the total available to over 3,000. It's worth noting, however, that its reserach and educational offerings still have lots of room to improve.

Tier-1 regulators go above and beyond by requiring additional capital requirements, checking in on brokers more frequently, and putting brokers through a tougher screening process. AvaTrade is ASIC Authorised (Australia), IIROC Authorised (Canada), CBI Authorised (Ireland) and FSA Authorised (Japan), while IC Markets is ASIC Authorised (Australia)., neither have SFC Authorised (Hong Kong), MAS Authorised (Singapore), FMA Authorised (New Zealand), FINMA Authorised (Switzerland), FCA Authorised (U.K.) and CFTC Registered (USA)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, AvaTrade is CySEC Authorised (Cyprus), ISA Authorised (Israel), FSCA Authorised (South Africa) and DFSA / Central Bank Authorised (UAE), while IC Markets is CySEC Authorised (Cyprus)., neither have CBRC Authorised (China), SEBI Authorised (India), CBR Authorised (Russia) and SEC Authorised (Thailand). When comparing tier-3 licenses AvaTrade is FSC Authorised (British Virgin Islands), while IC Markets is SCB Authorised (Bahamas)., neither have IFSC Authorised (Belize), BMA Authorised (Bermuda), CIMA Authorised (Cayman Islands), FSC Authorised (Mauritius) and VFSC Authorised (Vanuatu).

For trading platforms AvaTrade supports a Proprietary Platform, Desktop Platform (Windows), DupliTrade and ZuluTrade, whereas IC Markets supports a Desktop Platform (Windows), cTrader and ZuluTrade.

Both AvaTrade and IC Markets offer the whole MetaTrader suite, which consists of both MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. If you’re new to MetaTrader 4 here’s our educational guide on how to use MT4.

AvaTrade requires a minimum deposit of $100, while IC Markets requires a minimum deposit of $200. From our testing we found AvaTrade offers spreads of 0.91 (Aug 2020) , while IC Markets offers spreads of 0.62 (August 2021). Both AvaTrade and IC Markets offer Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for deposits.

AvaTrade offers a more diverse selection of investment options than IC Markets allowing you to trade Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Spread Betting, Social Trading / Copy Trading, Metals, Energies, Agriculturals and U.S. Stocks (CFD). Looking at total tradeable symbols, AvaTrade has 1260, compared to 3583 from IC Markets.

Crypto trading is popular with forex traders. Most crypto assets are offered either as the underlying physical asset or as a CFD or other derivative — including spot forex contracts. In terms of trading physical cryptocurrency neither AvaTrade nor IC Markets allow you to trade physical cryptocurrencies.

In terms of research and research tools AvaTrade gives traders the following tools: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources), Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. In comparison IC Markets has the tools listed here: Autochartist, Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources), Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading.