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IG Index is one of the UK’s biggest and oldest established spread betting companies with 2009 marking its 35th year as a spread betting provider. According to a survey conducted by specialist Investment Trends one in every two active financial spread betting traders in the United Kingdom now holds an account with them. It’s fully regulated by the UK’s Financial Services Authority and quoted on the FTSE 250 so a very solid company. Their platform is superb and their spreads acceptable although not the best.
Tags: IG Index, iggroup, igindex, igmarkets, spread betting
Posted on August 27th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
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4Advantages:
good platform for indices, open for 24 hours, very quick execution even on a large volume, trailing stops
Disadvantages:
sometimes i see them as lacking flexibility, managing rolling positions profits/losses can be a pain as positions close/re-open everyday
I use IG. It’s a server based system so you can access it from anywhere although you do of course need to beware of ‘keyloggers’ if not using your own pc. They also offer 24 prices, you can speak to a trader 24 hours (UK or Aus)…and they offer trading on the move on my IPhone!
No need for funds upfront, as far as I know, but very good graphs and indicators. Fixed +/- 0.1% spread in FTSE 100 shares; offer trading on smaller market cap companies as well. Been trying to get to grips with deal through charts does not always mirror pure deal but will persist to get it right…
One downside is that when everyone’s in a rush to trade it becomes obscurely slow (probably programmeed to protect IG’s cash flow!). Another is that it is difficult to keep accurate records with rolling positions that close/reopen daily.
Posted on December 13th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
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4.3Advantages:
great technical analysis, wide range of markets
Disadvantages:
not that i know of
I’ve done around 4000 trades in the past year (some of them only paper trades) using spreadbet charts. I have tried most S/B companies and think CMC and IG are miles ahead of the others for T/A and provided you keep the minimum account size you have real time access to equities, commodities and forx. Timeframes from 1 minute up to weekly with most technical indicators – alas not the most important one imo which is volume. Given the choice I would rather open two accounts with separate S/B cos rather than put all my eggs in one basket. If the feed on one company goes down, open positions can be hedged with the other company – much quicker than trying to close a trade on the phone.
Posted on January 20th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
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4.3Advantages:
fast platform
Disadvantages:
spreads could maybe be a bit better
I use IG and I love their new platform. It’s fast and they’ve stopped quoting mid-price on live positions and have started using the bid, which means you know where you are. The general view is that there isn’t much between the various betting companies on spread. IG and CMC seem to come out on top overall and they both have a well-staffed trading desk that you can speak to. For ease I would go with IG over CMC but I’m biased as CMC brings my laptop to a grinding halt so I don’t use it.
Posted on February 3rd, 2009 at 1:42 pm
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2.8Advantages:
Disadvantages:
My personal experience of IG index has been poor. I feel that their Customer Service policy is that they acknowledge your concerns but they don’t care. There have been a number of occasions where they have adjusted my opening price to my detriment and have not suitable informed me.
They also need to formulate a better margining policy for option trading such as call spreads, put spreads risk reducing trades but are penalised by charging margin on both legs.
Posted on February 19th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
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3Advantages:
wide range of markets, platform very easy to navigate
Disadvantages:
if you don’t have experience they will give you a limited risk account
IG Index seem to have quite a few advantages over other major spread betting platforms. HOWEVER – how the HECK do I manage to convince them that I DO NOT need nor want a LIMITED RISK account? I want to get trading for real, with controls over my own stops and movements etc, without any handholding. I don’t get it, i signed the disclaimers, risk warnings etc. LET ME LOOSE!!?! With a limited risk account all trades come with guaranteed stops which cost more and stops have to be placed 5% away from the share price which limits a lot of the trades and also the stop loss system. It seems every single darn SB company has a MAJOR drawback in some way.
Posted on March 6th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
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1Advantages:
their learning academy was great.
Disadvantages:
charts appear delayed?, after 7 weeks minimum bet goes up.
I have been using IG Index for the past few weeks, I have only just started spread betting. The only thing that has irritated me that their charts seem to be a bit delayed and sometimes can just freeze. And the other, now that they know that I am coming to learn about the spread betting process, they have started me on this minimum price per point scenario. That I don’t like, i know that they need to make money but it says after my 7 weeks phasing in period they will set the minimum to a varied price. thats just wrong they should have the min set and not change the goal posts, as decreases my chances of winning more money unless I start putting a lot more money down on the table…
Posted on April 6th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
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4.3Advantages:
instant, reliable platform, wide range of products, best execution, best support, guaranteed stops, 24hr trading
Disadvantages:
spreads are not the best on commodities especially, cannot amend stops outside market hours
IG index trading platform is INSTANT and reliable.
IG spread on the dow 4 and 6 out of hours, anyway there is no difference between 1 and 2 pip spread , i look at the whole picture here , i am talking about my opinion only i have account with IG CMC CS and others, and i look at other products not only indices, it is not always about the spread…
1.) wide range of products including options and 7000 shares
2.) best execution : example : while u buy or sell if the price goes against u within a second , they will fill u at the new improved price ( sometimes during volatility it was 40 points improvemnt price in a Dow trade ! ).
3.) best customer service .
4.) guaranteed stops facility (very important for shares trading ), Also u can trade shares from the bill to the bill .
5.) If u have a cfd account with them u can have Direct Access to futures markets through their L2 dealer software . And if u have deep pockets they will give u direct access to Spot Fx with Tier 1 banks .
6.) They make 100 Million $ net profit annually = they can handle big winnings and big size traders . Plus IGIndex is a FTSE 250 company…
7.) 24 hour trading on popular markets , this is important for me.
Posted on August 13th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
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3.5Advantages:
superb platform
Disadvantages:
charts may appear out of sych, slows my pc down, 2pt FTSE
I trade futures spread betting every day using IGindex 1 min charts or tick which allows me to trade directly off of the chart with any open positions clearly marked on the chart. The charts are quite advanced with moving averages with +/- horizontal or vertical shift, Tema, Dema etc and all indicators if you use them. The platform is worth $1000’s but there are no charges – just the spread which is 2 points ftse100, 2 points US$ v Euro, 4 points Dow30 etc. One thing I’ve noticed is that IG’s charts sometimes seem a tad out of sync,to be honest i just thought it was me, i have 2 major problems with ig first it tends to slow my pc down more than any other platform and secondly the 2pt spread ftse. I trade the FTSE and the Dow, why should I pay pay double up the price on the FTSE and the Dow?
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 at 8:06 am
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3.3Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Looking at the IG website, they advertise that they offer spreads on the EUR/USD from 1 pip and GBP/USD from 2 pips, but I have never seen them offer these, does anyone else share the same view??? Sure, IG Index’s interface is good but all that glitters is not gold. Nowadays I’m with a less flashy spread betting company, but happy with the way its going and the spreads are more humane as well
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 at 12:38 pm
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3.3Advantages:
sleek trading platform, superb support
Disadvantages:
spreads are average, now they charge £30 per month for their professional charts
Their spread is ‘average’ – there are much better spreads out there but you usually pay for this in other ways (requotes, slippage, etc). So good spreads doesn’t necessarily mean the cheapest trading.
The platform is the best out there by far in my opinion. The charting is good and you can place trades directly through the charts.
Also, the startup support is very good, they never tire of answering stupid questions! But when money is on the line I’ve found their support to be generally unhelpful. I gave them some simple tasks of trying to find out details of profit and loss on a particular trade. It took them 5 minutes and they had to dig into their own system. I asked them where to find this information on my account online and they couldn’t. Their response: ‘thats the way it is’.
Having said that – platform was changed a little, for the worse. Now they charge £30 per month for ‘advanced’ charts, although if you make 2 trades then they give it back to you at the end of the month so it seems IG have adopted this policy to stop people from opening an account with them for the charts and then dealing with someone else.
Posted on September 23rd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
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4.5Advantages:
reliable
Disadvantages:
can’t move orders out of hours
I have used City Index, Capital Spreads, Cantor Index, CMC and WorldSpreads besides IgIndex. Igindex are the most reliable and the best platform in my opinion. I like everything they offer and it works. I don’t get the feeling that it’s a big con unlike the others…
You just don’t hear people complain about re-quotes, delayed fills, bust trades etc which you hear of all the time with others. To me that is a key issue when comparing their spreads with other companies that may be tighter. I also like the fact that you can place stop/limit orders and with trailing stops which is essential to my trading approach and something still not offered by so many others.
A note about spreads: Most of the time their forex EUR/USD and GBP/USD spreads will be 2 & 3 as before but occasionally they come in to 1 & 2 as advertised so you can’t take these lower spreads as a given. It does sometimes go to 1 on Eurusd but only for maybe 30 seconds to a minute. Usdjpy sometimes goes to 1 as well.