ThinkMarkets vs IFC 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.

ThinkMarkets has a Trust Score of 92, giving it a "Highly Trusted" Trust Score Label.

IFC Markets has a Trust Score of 67, giving it a "High Risk" Trust Score Label.

Founded in 2010, ThinkMarkets is a trusted broker that holds multiple Tier-1 regulatory licenses, boosting its overall Trust Score rating. ThinkMarkets offers the full MetaTrader platform suite (both MT4 and MT5) as well as its proprietary ThinkTrader platform. Traders at ThinkMarkets also gain access to trading signals via its Signals Centre and social copy trading (in certain jurisdictions). ThinkMarkets has a growing number of available markets, research materials, and educational content, yet still has room to improve in these important categories.

IFC Markets is a long-standing brand with 17 years of operation. Traders will appreciate that IFC Markets delivers a growing range of markets, numerous trading platforms, and a decent balance of research and educational resources. That said, IFC Markets holds just one Tier-4 regulatory license; increasing its number of licenses would increase its Trust Score.

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. ThinkMarkets holds regulatory licenses in the following Tier-1 jurisdictions: Australia (ASIC Authorised), Japan (SFC Authorised), New Zealand (FMA Authorised) and United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised). IFC Markets, on the other hand, is licensed in these Tier-1 regulatory jurisdictions: none. Neither have Canada (CIRO Authorised), Hong Kong (SFC Authorised), CBI Authorised (Ireland), Singapore (MAS Authorised), Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) and USA (CFTC Authorized)

Tier-2 and tier-3 licenses are still important in evaluating the overall trustworthiness of forex brokers. As far as tier-2 licenses go, ThinkMarkets is Cyprus (CySEC Authorised) and South Africa (FSCA Authorised), while IFC Markets is none.. Neither have China (CBRC Authorised), India (SEBI Authorised), Israel (ISA Authorised), Russia (CBR Authorised), Thailand (SEC Authorised) and UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised). When comparing tier-3 licenses ThinkMarkets is Cayman Islands (CIMA Authorised) and Mauritius (FSC Authorised), while IFC Markets is British Virgin Islands (FSC Authorised).. Neither have Bahamas (SCB Authorised), Belize (FSC Authorised), Bermuda (BMA 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 both ThinkMarkets and IFC Markets offer a Proprietary Platform and Desktop Platform (Windows). Neither have cTrader, DupliTrade and ZuluTrade

Both ThinkMarkets and IFC 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.

ThinkMarkets requires a minimum deposit of $0, while IFC Markets requires a minimum deposit of $1. 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 ThinkMarkets supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw), Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) and Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) for funding and deposit methods, whereas IFC Markets supports Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) and Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit). Neither have PayPal (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 ThinkMarkets delivers a more diverse selection of investment options than IFC Markets, offering tradeable asset classes and investment types such as Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs), Spread Betting, Social Trading / Copy Trading, Metals, Energies and U.S. Stocks (CFD).

We also keep track of each broker’s total number of tradeable symbols; ThinkMarkets offers 4000, and IFC Markets offers a total of 630 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 ThinkMarkets nor IFC 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. ThinkMarkets delivers the following research tools: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts, Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) and Social Trading / Copy Trading. IFC Markets, on the other hand, provides the tools listed here: Daily Market Commentary, Stock Charts and Social Trading / Copy Trading. Neither have Autochartist and Trading Central (Recognia)

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