Charles Schwab vs IC Markets 2024

Trust Score is a data-driven rating system that provides an at-a-glance rating of a broker’s overall trust by tracking 60+ brokers and over 100 regulatory jurisdictions across the globe. To make things clearer for everyday traders, we’ve created a five-tier system for regulators and Trust Score rating labels. Learn more about Trust Score, and check out our country guides to see the most trusted brokers in your country of residence.

Charles Schwab has a Trust Score of 99, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

IC Markets has a Trust Score of 84, giving it a "Trusted" Trust Score Label.

Charles Schwab is a leader in platform technology and trusted by millions of investors globally with trillions in assets under its brands. Available exclusively to U.S. residents, Charles Schwab's forex offering consists of just over 70 currency pairs, along with powerful research, trading tools, and comprehensive educational resources for investing.

IC Markets' low spreads, competitive pricing, and scalable execution policies make it a great choice for algorithmic traders. A trusted broker licensed in multiple Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions, IC Markets boasts support for a variety of social copy trading apps, including its IC Social mobile app. IC Markets consistently ranks near or at the top of our ratings for MetaTrader brokers (and was our top pick for MetaTrader brokers in 2023). Traders at IC Markets gain access to MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, as well as the Advanced Trading Tools package for desktop and support for third-party plugins from Autochartist and Trading Central. It's worth noting that the broker's research and educational offerings still have room to improve.

Tier-1 is reserved for the strictest, most stringent regulatory jurisdictions in the world. Tier-1 regulators impose additional capital requirements and require a tougher initial screening process. Charles Schwab holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Canada (CIRO Authorised), Hong Kong (SFC Authorised), Singapore (MAS Authorised), United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized). IC Markets, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised). Neither have CBI Authorised (Ireland), Japan (SFC Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised) and Switzerland (FINMA Authorised)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, Charles Schwab is none, while IC Markets is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised).. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised), South Africa (FSCA Authorised), Thailand (SEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses Charles Schwab is none, while IC Markets is Bahamas (SCB Authorised) and Mauritius (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA Authorised), British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised), Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised) and Vanuatu (VFSC Authorised).

Whether your broker develops its own proprietary platforms or provides access to popular third-party platforms, you should make sure you can use your preferred type of trading platform. In our testing, we found that Charles Schwab offers a Proprietary Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows), whereas IC Markets supports a Desktop Platform (Windows), cTrader and ZuluTrade. Neither have DupliTrade

For MetaTrader Charles Schwab provides neither of these, while IC Markets provides MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). If MetaTrader is a must for you, read our guides on the best MT4 brokers or best MT5 brokers.

Charles Schwab requires a minimum deposit of $0, while IC Markets requires a minimum deposit of $200. It's also important to ensure your broker accepts the funding options and deposit methods that work best for you. In our research, we've found that Charles Schwab supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) for funding and deposit methods, whereas IC Markets supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit), PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw)

When choosing a forex broker, it’s important to consider each broker’s available investment products and tradeable asset classes. We’ve researched each broker’s individual offering of investments to help you pick the right broker for what you want to trade. During our testing, we found that Charles Schwab delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than IC Markets, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Metals, Energies and ETF. Neither have Spread Betting.

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; Charles Schwab offers 40000, and IC Markets offers a total of 3583 tradeable symbols.

Crypto trading has become popular among forex traders across a range of international jurisdictions. As a result, many forex brokers now offer crypto products to their clients; most crypto assets are offered either as an underlying physical asset (such as when you own actual bitcoin assets, for example) or as a derivative product like a CFD. If you are looking to trade physical cryptocurrencies, you’ll find that neither Charles Schwab nor IC Markets allow you to trade physical cryptocurrencies.

Market research plays a huge role in any forex trader’s ability to conduct analysis within the global forex market. We test each broker’s research offering to help you decide which broker is right for your technical or fundamental analysis needs. Charles Schwab delivers the following research tools: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts and Forex News (Top-Tier Sources). IC Markets, on the other hand, provides the tools listed here: Autochartist, Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources), Trading Central (Recognia) and Social Trading / Copy Trading

Broker Reviews