Discuss ICMarkets.com (International Capital Markets)

[pietro]

Hello fellow traders,

Beware IC Markets!!

I want to report a dirty trick played by IC Markets, which is the broker that I have been using so far for the last year. I have already posted a negative thread about them but I have found out something else. I will definitely drop them after this experience. IC Markets has tight spreads but I have reason to beleive they slow down retail traders' order and they provide not accurate charts.
I am connected to their MT4 New York server so from Europe I have a latency of about 110ms. Furthermore I have been told that from the moment they receive the order they take 150ms seconds to excetute it to the exchange, so I am quite slow, in total 260ms late. I have testes on demo a simple scalping strategy that is based on moving avarage cross EA that showed to be profitable, then I decided to test it live. What happened was that IC Markets slowed me down and provided me with slightly different charts. In a day trading I have suffered a slippage of 11.9 pips which in a scalping strategy like mine is the difference between life and death. I also noticed in the real accout more trades were opened, this implies that they really quotes different prices from live and live charts are somewhat late or misrepresented so the indicator respond differently. My strategy had a stop loss of 5 pips so it was not super tight. I have reported everething in the attached images. As you can see the demo accout is profitable while the real accout is really in loss. I have noticed that in some trades I got a slippage of 2.5 pips. For the whole day I got more than 10 pips slippage. I have reason to beleive that IC Markets slow down its users connecting them to a different server and in the meantimen their partner in London, the flash boys at GSA Capital (https://www.gsacapital.com/ , who are IC Markets partner) place an high frequency arbitrage trade to profit from your entry and once they have done thier dirty trick IC Markets quotes to you a different price. Consequently they are kind of market makers, they do what they can to profit from you. I have read that many brokers have an High Frequancy Trader division to requote their customers' bets. This should be illegal.

I discourage you to trade with IC Markets. They attracted me becuase they have low spreads and because they advocate to be good for scalping but the reality is that they play really dirty tricks and are against you. Probably renting a VPS in NY would sort a bit my problem, but if when I place an order they connect me to another server to slow me down the trading is impossible. I am tryng to gather enough information to send everything to the regulator and hopefully they will audit them. Unfortunately at the moment I am still looking for a more professional broker I will hopefully find one.

Here below you can find the proofs of the demo accout and real accout with the same strategy (which I backtested and is profitable) but the results are extremely different.

Trade safe out there, we are small smart fish among big sharks.

Bye guys.

Pietro

 

[pietro]

Hello traders,

I would like to report another ICMarkets mischief that really is serious.
I have seen many good reviews about IC Markets, but I guess many people are usging grids, semi-martingle or EAs with hedging resolution or trade high timeframes. As from the scalping point of view. any scalper would say they are awful.

As always I empoy my scalping strategy with a Stop Loss of 5 pips. The strategy has proven to work well on manual and on demo. I have reasons and proofs to beleive that they hunt my stops and they slip me as hell.

Proof that they slipped my orders a lot:
I set my EA slippage filter at 1 pip and I analyzed some of their trades with tradeprofer.com. Way too many trades were not executed: 3 over 4 in day!!! Are they kidding? no way!!!
Only one trade was because of news, the others were taken on normal market conditions. So basically they wanted to slip me that much. How can I scalp like that!!

Proof that they did stop loss hunting:
I have two accouts with them and I noticed a price discrepancy. I was trading EURUSD with renko bricks, the renko indicator and the settings are exactly the same. So, same brick sizes on both charts. And both charts must depicts a new brick and be exactly the same. Well, this did not happen because IC Markets did stop loss hunting. Look at the attached pictures and you can see that exactly where my stop loss was placed IC Markets created a fake price movement on my renko chart that is not reported in the other renko chart of the other accout. The renko chart shows a little range on one chart and a continuation on the other. So long story short, they hunted my stop loss.


In fact I find myself with a strategy that I know it works on manual but if I apply it, they are really putting me off the track.
I stay in front of thier charts really a long time, and sometimes a I have really seen the spread widening a lot. For example randomly during asian session or sometimes during normal market condition you look at one of the most liquid pairs and you see a spread of 20 pips. or on Manday when the market opens fo retail traders the spread on some is a massive 30- 40 pips sometimes. I am talking about pips and not pippettes!

Honestly, from the bottom of my heart stay away from IC Markets. They claim to be something they are not. They don't provide tight speads (most of the time) and they slip you a lot!!!

Point of the story from my experience with them. They do are real scammers!

I have found anoher broker where I will move my capital soon is called FXopen. Let's see how they operate.

Stay smart and catious, there are callous creatures out there.

Bye

Pietro

 

[Darshana Guruge]

I trade with them for over 4 years and apart from news time or market open time slow connection i did not had any other problem with them, i don't like to see they going belly up with my money because people with bad strategies posting bad reviews so here's my 2 cents. (like that yen guy who got margin call because speared widened 2-3 pips, if you go even near a margin call limit you are a loser)

@pietro Your SL vs TP is funny 5 pip SL and 1000pip TP, and demo account and live account traded same until the demo account's last trade took balance to the positive side. Plus live account's shown first trade was traded with 0.10 with lose and others with 0.05, demo account all with 0.10.... Your strategy image is a copy of strategy tester's result and i can tell you that it's not reliable, you need to trade with demo account for longer period of time instead of using strategy tester... and you saying about 30- 40 pips spread is a complete lie, never saw that much, never saw 20 pips on any majors (most liquid pairs as you claim)

As for slippage 5 pip SL is very tight in the fast moving market some time it take time to execute SL or jump over it without triggering, happens with most brokers (does not happan with half or more market makers) if you use very tight SL. Also orders can slip too. Here's an idea let your robot trade and monitor it's every move and also use 3rd party chart to compare the movements, as all other businesses you need to invest time instead of back test and use demo for 20 trades and go live thinking you built a money making machine.

By the way i'm a manual trader and have accounts with AvaTrade, Fx pro, FXTM and few others, anyway marketmakers are not bad as long as they don't manipulate the price, even the most claimed non marketmakers have A and a B book (i don't know icmarket use them) Losing traders kept in the B book and continually winning traders move to A book.

I'm wondering some of these people are competitors or just sore losers.

 

[dkami]

Troll alert, Darshana Gurunge is i TROLL joined yesterday and this is his 1st post, your such a joke!

I noticed you didn't say anything about my post of PROOF (page 10) with hard evidence with screenshots that ICM the SCAM broker manipulate price so I'll keep this short!

Darshana Gurunge there is only one looser here and that is you and I'm pretty sure you will be back here eating your words!

Screen shots don't lie, 3 different brokers and only ICM the SCAM broker had a different price of over 10pips taking out my SL!!!!!!!!!!

ICM the SCAM broker is in damage control sending TROLL's to FPA!!!!!!!!

Darshana Back up your post with hard evidence or **** off

ICM is a SCAM broker, you just have to look at my HARD PROOF of this on page10, ICM the SCAM broker can not be trusted!

 

[Darshana Guruge]

I don't have time to go one by one of you people's posts, but here i go with your thing, i looked back at my mt4 sep 2 AUD/CHF and i have the same movement as yours, unlikely they tried to stop hunt me because i never traded that pair, anyway i looked dailyfx chart and it have the same movement https://s.tradingview.com/x/lggWBOy9/, My chart image attached too and don't believe me just look at few other charts from different providers, why you erase name of your "Main trusted broker" on hard evidence page? (and to explain why different brokers show different prices need too much time and i already spent enough time on this case, short answers : Difference between liquidity providers, marketmakers did not caught that movement)

I'm not a troll or work for the icmarket but as a trader i try to use my brain 100% because of my money on the line, and yes i registered yesterday to especially reply to this thread, is that prove i'm a troll or scum?

I just thought i need to write my experience with them. Good luck!

 

[dkami]

Your nothing more than a TROLL, how much did ICM the scam broker pay you to type that crap?

I suppose you put in a fake 5star review to for the arrogant scum that runs ICM the SCAM broker, hell it's not just me saying there are a lot of fake reviews for ICM the SCAM broker the MOD here even suspected it and put it up the top of their review page!

And don't try and use trading view charts here to state your case, even the TOP author of trading view has mentioned fake spikes on trading view charts in his weekly webinars, hell even ICM the SCAM broker has admitted to FAKE spikes if you had the brains to read the review page!

And about my main broker, It is no secret you just have to use your brain and read page10 to find who my main broker is!

If like you say you are using 100% of your brain it must be the size of a peanut, I feel sorry for you!

Save your good luck for yourself you will need it trading with a SCAM broker, I don't use luck in my trading, I use my brain!

 

[pietro]

Dear Darshana Gurunge,

Your insolent stubborness is the one of a loser troll.

Did you say you are a trader, didn't you? So why should you laugh at me saying that SL 5 and TP 1000 is insane, by the way I use automatic brakeven and trailing stop in my strategy, of course the 1000pips TP is never hit you really look like a git!
In addition you said that my first trade is in the lotsize of 0.1 while the other 0.05, as you can see that firts trade has not been counted in my Excel report.

My strategy works perfectly. And now I have found a broker that is not scamming me and I am enjoying the profits. I have used that strategy manually and proved to be a winning one.

ICM claims to be a good broker for scalper. That is completely rubbish. I have seen with my eyes spread on majors (e.g. USDCHF) going at massive levels at market open or Asian session open.
I also posted another article on how they backfired my TP during a news announcment.

I have met no other trader sying that they are good. I have a friend who is very professional and also got scammed by them.
On Forex Factory there is a thread saying that "why if they claim to be so good nobody has ever heard of them?" many people there say they hedge your trade with a third party venue.

Another proof that ICMarkets are scammer is that if you search them on the Financial Conduct Autority website you will find that the same UK autority reported them as a fraudolent anauthorised company. Look up here and see it with your eyes.

https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_UnauthorisedFirmDetailPage?id=001b000000m4JOtAAM

I quote "This is a firm that we have been told is either operating regulated activities without the correct authorisation, or is running a scam. We strongly suggest you avoid dealing with unauthorised firms like this."

IC Markets is filth and should disappear and you with them.

Bye

 

[Darshana Guruge]

Icmarket registered with ASIC, not with FCA of england and it have no authority to conduct financial services there hence the warning, and i'm sorry for questioning your strategy but if it work for you it's great but as for my experience no broker can close or open a trade at exact given price in volatile market if they are not market maker themselves, because local platform need to contact the liquidity providers server and there always millisecond delay. But as you say they gave you high spread and high slippage, moving out is a good decision. To be honest i have seen some slippage too but i trade bigger time frames and did not mind few pips that much.

As for you dkami lot of charts that i looked show the price movement that you claim doesn't happened, There are like hundreds of public charts that anyone can look and take just 5 minutes. And for your information i prefer peanut sized brain over empty head. Just because other people have different opinions/ experience does not mean they are paid or they in the system called world against "what ever your name".

Anyway they probably screwed you and stole your money, that did not happened to me yet, and if you are an australian go to their office and tell them what they done, after all they reported 234 billion trading volumes last month, buggers probably have money to pay to their scammed clients.

Edited,
their Licence with Asic, complaint to them about any wrong doing.
http://www.search.asic.gov.au/cgi-b...=&a7=&a8=&a9=&a10=&a11=&a12=&a13=&start_date=

 

[Tony111]

Click here to read or submit reviews and ratings for ICMarkets.com (International Capital Markets) >>

otherwise use this thread ("Post Reply" button below) to start a LIVE discussion and get responses from our FPA members.

Funny how with IC BS the price goes two to three pips above (long) below (short) your entry price and you haven't covered the spread yet. Trade stiil negative. Nice moves IC. Slippery as all buggery.

This is very noticeable when you've traded 5 or 6 different brokers mt4/5 platforms.
As I said in my review which I still believe is true despite their sickening attempt to prove otherwise, IC Markets feels very slippery.

 

[Tony111]

I'd ultimately decided to initiate an IB agreement with IC Markets after thoroughly researching this brokerage, and their trade environment. As far as I was able to determine, they offer the best overall trade environment in the retail Forex space so far as fund security, regulatory oversight, slippage, execution speed and spread go (doubly true for the EUR/USD and certain JPY pairs). Highly recommended.

As an IB though I certainly do not expect you to take my word for it for obvious reasons. Investigate IC Market's live and historic spreads at MyFXBook (including commission), and see how they compare to other brokers here:

Spreads | Myfxbook (note that with the following agreement, the IC Markets commission per round lot will be $1.55 or 22.14% lower).

I also encourage you to consult the following threads and reviews:

FPA Reviews: IC Markets | International Capital Markets | ICMarkets.com.au reviews and ratings by Forex Peace Army

100 Forex Broker Reviews: http://www.100forexbrokers.com/reviews-ratings/icmarkets

Donna Forex Thread: http://www.donnaforex.com/forum/index.php?topic=5761.0

MyFXBook Spreads: http://www.myfxbook.com/forex-broker-spreads


That all said, I've managed to get my referrals a $1.55 / RTL rebate for their ECN accounts with IC Markets; this is presently the highest rebate rate thus far offered by any IB for ICM to the best of my knowledge. Rebates will be discounted from the cost of your commission in real time (reducing them to $5.45 / RTL down from $7.00 / RTL). As an alternative you can request customer service provide these rebates to you in the form of cash credits that can be withdrawn to any of your trading accounts with ICM.

For those who are interested in signing up with me, please use the following link to set up a new trading account:

http://icmarkets.com/?camp=1053


I'd like to emphasize the importance of confirming your IB enrolment by sending an e-mail to accounts@icmarkets.com and to ICMRebates@gmail.com with the account numbers you wish to be enrolled under my IB (its name is Kyle Cancilla). This is easily the best, most reliable way to ensure that you get your rebates.


Lastly, if your rebates are somehow not being properly processed, you may also contact me at that e-mail with your name and IC Markets account number, and I will investigate the matter on your behalf.

Definitely let me know if you have any questions or concerns!


Cheers,
Kyle

What a friggin load of *****. They are a Bucket Shop. Stay away from IC Markets. Any positive reviews are paid for or from people who work for them, such as an IB, as above and don't know what they're talking about. They will steal your money.

Hey Michael,

Overall, IC Markets is probably the best retail broker I've personally experienced in terms of spread, swap rates, fund withdrawals and execution. The only time I've ever had an issue is way back last summer when its servers were overburdened and it became a victim of its own success and popularity. Since then the company has really turned things around and the trading environment has been great.

I offer commission discounts for IC Markets if you're at all interested here:

You're obviously getting paid by them somehow, either an IB or an employee.