IC Markets Vs. HF Markets (HFM) - Compare and Choose the Right One


Visit 75.93% of retail CFD accounts lose money.	Visit 71.24% of retail CFD accounts lose money.
Overview
IC Markets is an Australian broker with a global presence specialising in Forex trading. One of their greatest advantages is providing RAW spread accounts with interbank pricing.	HF Markets (HFM) is a global broker founded in 2010 under the brand name HotForex that specialises in CFDs trading on currencies, commodities, indices, stocks, ETFs, bonds and futures. Recently they added to their portfolio commission-free real stocks and ETFs.
Best For
Professional traders looking for Interbank rates High volume traders that will save great amounts of costs with their low spreads and commissions	Low volume traders looking for a low minimum deposit, low trade size and competitive spreads High volume traders looking for a competitive commission-driven environment through their zero spread account Traders looking to copy or provide knowledge via their HFCopy account
Licenses
Financial Licenses Regulation Regulated Top-tier Licenses 1 Other Licenses 2 Provided by TheTradingBible.com Learn More	Financial Licenses Regulation Regulated Top-tier Licenses 2 Other Licenses 5 Provided by TheTradingBible.com Learn More
🏛 Financial Regulators
ASIC (Australia) CySec (Cyprus) FSA (Seychelles)	CySec (Cyprus) FCA (UK) DFSA (United Arab Emirates) FSCA (South Africa) FSA (Seychelles) FSA (St. Vincent and the Grenadines) CMA (Kenya)
The Good
Customisable leverage per asset before opening trades Interbank rates and low commissions Great platform variety	Well-structured account offering with options for all types of traders Competitive commissions on their Zero Spread and PAMM accounts Copy trading via MT4 / 5 offered through their HF Copy account
The Bad
Avaliable assets are limited (Also No ETFs) No ability to purchase real stocks or cryptocurrencies, only CFDs	Platform offering is limited to MetaTrader 4 and 5 Asset offering in CFDs is below industry standards with 1,200 CFDs Their proprietary mobile app does not offer trading capabilities
Status
Operational	Operational
Recent News
N/A	N/A
Key Data
⌛ Account Opening Time
1 Day	1 Day
📋 Documents Required
Valid identity document (Passport, ID Card, etc) Valid proof of residence document (Bank statement, utility bills) All documents must be under the account holder's name.	Valid identity document (Passport, ID Card, etc) Valid proof of residence document (Bank statement, utility bills) All documents must be under the account holder's name.
📍 Year Founded
2007	2010
💳 Minimum Deposit
$200	From $5 to $250 (depending on location or account)
💰 Payment Methods
Visa Mastercard Bank Transfer Bitcoin Sofort Paypal Neteller Skrill	Visa Mastercard Neteller Skrill Sofort FasaPay WebMoney BitPay PayRetailers PayRedeem Bank Transfer
💵 Account Base Currencies
10 - USD, GBP, EUR, AUD, CHF, JPY, HKD, CAD, SGD, NZD.	6 - USD, EUR, NGN, JPY, ZAR, THB.
🗽 Available to U.S Citizens
No	No
❌ Restricted Countries
US, CA, IL.	US, CA, SY, IR.
📊 STP Account
Yes	No
📊 DMA Account
No	No
📊 ECN Account
Yes	No
Assets
📚 Available Assets
CFDs on stocks, currencies, commodities, cryptocurrencies and indices	CFDs on currencies, commodities, indices, ETFs, stocks and bonds. Real stocks and ETFs.
📙 Stocks
1,600 +	2,113 Real Stocks / 54 CFDs
📘 Currency Pairs
61	53
📗 Commodities
22	13
📕 Indices
25	11
📔 ETFs
N/A	34
💸 Cryptocurrencies
18	N/A
📒 Bonds
11	3
📓 Options
N/A	N/A
📗 Futures
4	14
📝 Notes:
All ICMarkets assets are CFDs.	HF Markets provides both CFDs and real equities.
Trading Experience
📈 Minimum Stock Trade Size
Varies by Stock	$5 (Fractional Share Trading
📉 Minimum ETFs Trade Size
N/A	$5 (Fractional ETF Trading)
📈 Minimum Crypto Trade Size
Varies by Cryptocurrency (Eg: 0.01 BTC)	N/A
📉 Minimum FX Trade Size
$1,000 - 0.01 Lots	$1,000 (0.01 Lots)
📈 Minimum Commodities Trade Size
Varies by Commodity (Eg: 0.01 Troy ounces of Gold)	$1,000 (0.01 Lots)
📉 Minimum Bonds Trade Size
Varies by Bond	$1,000 (0.01 Lots)
📈 Minimum Futures Trade Size
Varies by Future	$1,000 (0.01 Lots)
📉 Minimum Options Trade Size
N/A	N/A
💪 Retail Leverage
Up to 1:30	Up to 1:1000 (Non EU)
💪 Professional Leverage
Up to 1:500	Up to 1:500 (EU Only)
✍ Customisable Leverage
Yes	Yes
🎲 Deleveraged Trading
No	Yes
🎓 Demo Account
Yes	Yes
📱 IOS App
Yes	Yes
📱 Android App
Yes	Yes
📺 MetaTrader 4
Yes	Yes
📺 MetaTrader 5
Yes	Yes
💻 Web trader
Yes	Yes
💻 TradingView Platform
No	No
💻 Proprietary Platform
No	No
📊 Multi-chart Tools
Yes	Yes
👬 Copy Trading
Yes	Yes
👫 Social Trading
Yes	Yes
🔑 Guaranteed Stop-loss
No	No
🔨 Trailing Stop-loss
Yes	Yes
Fees
💰 Inactivity Fee
No	Yes, $5 monthly after 6 months of inactivity.
💰 Deposit Fees
No	No
💰 Withdrawal Fees
No	No
💰 Commissions
No commissions in standard accounts but rather a 1 Pip spread markup on interbank prices received. For Raw spreads accounts, $7 per lot round turn.	Yes depending on account type: Micro accounts have no commissions. Premium accounts have no commissions Zero Spread accounts have a minimum commission that varies between $3 to $4 per lot traded PAMM (Premium) accounts have no commission PAMM (Premium Plus) accounts have a commission of $8 per lot round turn HFCopy accounts have no commissions
Spreads
📈 EUR/USD
Dynamic - From 0 to 0.6 Pips	Dynamic - From 0 Pips to 1.3 Pips
📉 SP500
Dynamic - From 20 to 45 Pips	Dynamic - From 41 Pips
📈 GOLD
Dynamic - From 30 Pips	Dynamic - From 25 Pips
📉 TSLA (Stock CFD)
Dynamic - Market Spread	Dynamic - From $0.33
📈 XLK (ETF - CFD)
N/A	N/A
📉 BTC
Dynamic - From $8.7 to $42	N/A
Research and Analysis
⭐ Watchlists
Yes	Yes
🔭 Stock Screener
No	No
🗓 Economic Calendar
Yes	Yes
📜 Integrated Newsfeed
No	Yes
📡 Reuters Feed
No	No