Pepperstone vs IC Markets

Which Broker Has A Better Forex Trading Platform?

Both Pepperstone and IC Markets offer MetaTrader 4 (MT4), MetaTrader 5 (MT5), and cTrader. These solutions are suitable for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android as desktop or web trader platforms as well as mobile apps.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

MT4 is the most commonly used forex platform in the world. Since most brokers offer this platform, there are low barriers to switching brokers. MetaTrader 4 has an:

• Easy to use interface that is very easy to use with prompt order management functionality.
• Algorithmic trading and access to expert advisors for scalping traders.

Pepperstone MetaTrader 4 Features

Smart Trader Tools is a Pepperstone MT4 enhancement which boasts 10 main features such as:

1. Alarm Manager for notifications and alerts.
2. Connect, a central portal with an economic calendar, RSS feed for news and guides.
3. Correlation Matrix that shows a relationship between different assets and markets.
4. Correlation Trader to find similarities and differences between markets.
5. Excel RTD which offers real-time analysis, monitoring and reporting through excel.
6. Market Manager gives insights to open, pending orders and market prices.
7. Sentiment Trader to understand live sentiment data to assist with trade decisions.
8. Stealth Orders allow traders to hide their pending orders from the market.
9. Trade Simulator offering profit and loss results based on tested strategies.
10. Session Map showing what markets are open at different time-periods.

Overall, Smart Trader Tools offers Pepperstone traders using MetaTrader 4 with decision assistance combined with sophisticated trade management and execution. Market data is also transmitted to traders, while alarms help notify traders of key market events.

IC Markets MetaTrader 4 Features

Advanced Trading Tools in our IC Markets review was IC Markets answer to Smart Trader Tools with 20 features. Advanced Trading Tools contains all the features Smart Trader Tools offer but includes additional features:

• Trader Terminal which offers an all-in-one market watch, account summary and order list.
• Market Manager offering a watch list of all open positions and shows headline account information.
• Smart Lines which uses items plotted on charts that become a stop-loss or take-profit position.

Overall, we found Pepperstone was the best MetaTrader4 broker and completed a full MetaTrader 4 comparison detailing why this is the case.

Compare MetaTrader 4 Brokers >>

MetaTrader 5

MetaTrader 5 is designed for CFD trading. Both Pepperstone and IC Markets offer Share CFD trading and therefore offer MT5. Below is a table comparing the differences:

Compare MetaTrader 5 Brokers >>

Our MetaTrader 5 comparison found that IC Markets was the best broker for this CFD platform.

Other Platforms

MT WebTrader

Both brokers offer MT WebTrader which is a MetaTrader platform for trading via web browsers. WebTrader offers many of the features available on MT4 but is designed to better handle the natural limitations mobiles will have due to size.

cTrader

cTrader is an alternative trading platform for MetaTrader. The platform is generally considered to have superior technical charting options than MetaTrader along with offer faster execution. Key features of cTrader include

• 26 Timeframes (MT5 only has 21)
• Ability to reverse position with one click
• Level II depth of market
• Mobile browser trading
• Ability to close all position with one click
• Cloud-hosted profiles, passwords and templates

If you are looking to trade other derivatives than forex pairs then cTrader might not be the best option. This is because cTrader is not designed for CFD and cryptocurrency trading. Its strength is in forex.

Social Trading And Copy Trading Platforms

Both brokers offer a range of social, copy and mirror trading platforms. Pepperstone offers Myfxbook, ZuluTrade, MirrorTrader, RoboX, MetaTrader Signals and DupliTrade. IC offers Myfxbook AutoTrade and ZuluTrade.

FX Platform Summary

Pepperstone is the winner for the forex platform category based on the unique software features offered, fast execution speeds and additional trading platform enhancements.

View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>

Pepperstone vs IC Markets Execution Speed Comparison

Both IC Markets and Pepperstone achieve the fastest execution speed in the industry by using dedicated fibre optic cable. Faster execution speeds help prevents ‘slippage’ from occurring.

Pepperstone Edge Technology

Pepperstone Edge Technology when it comes faster and better-trading consist of the following:

1. Speedier Execution with a designated fibre optic cable. This achieves the maximum possible speed of 240ms which is a 12x improvement on previous Pepperstone technology.
2. Low Latency with 10 optical fibre cables crossing directly to Equinox MetaTrader servers near New York financial centre.  Direct connection achieves a latency reduction 10 times.
3. One-Click Trading –  As spreads are constantly changing, traders can efficiently execute trades with just one click. This is a MetaTrader 4 feature.

Overall, Pepperstone has very solid features when it comes to execution speeds. The use of dedicated cables and the best technology will give traders confidence transaction processing will not suffer delays or lags.

IC Markets Technology

IC Markets technology is very similar to Pepperstone’s. Both use very similar fibre optic technology and have the same one-click trading feature, but the low latency technology differs.

1. Faster Execution with dedicated fibre optic cable. IC Markets advertise an average order execution under 40ms.
2. Low Latency through a direct connection to Equinox servers in NY for MetaTrader 4 & London with cTrader.
3. VPS Cross-Connect Low Latency. IC Markets have an arrangement with Commercial Network Services (CNS) which can achieve under 1-millisecond latency to their MetaTrader servers.
4. One-Click Trading – Like Pepperstone, our IC Markets review found they offer one-click trading.

Overall IC Markets offer an excellent range of advanced technology to achieve very fast order execution speeds with low latency on major currency pairs. IC Markets state on their website they 100% guarantees their execution.

Overall Pepperstone Has The Fastest Speeds

Our tests found Pepperstone had the fastest market order execution speeds.

Pepperstone Limited published that most trades were executed in less than 30ms. Based on this and test results, IC Market’s slippage will be higher making Pepperstone superior for high-speed traders (e.g. scalping traders/automation).

View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>

IC Markets vs Pepperstone CFD Range (i.e. Cryptos)

Both Pepperstone and IC Markets boast a vast array of Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on top of forex. This is not the same as share trading, which you can compare on the Pepperstone vs IG page. IC Markets’ range of CFDs is greater however, Pepperstone is not an ‘all-in-one’ financial broker and therefore offers a more limited range when compared with IC Markets. Both ECN style providers offer:

1. Indices
2. Commodities such as metals and energy instruments including crude oil
3. Soft Commodities such as agricultural instruments
4. Cryptocurrencies

Both Pepperstone and IC Markets offer these cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin while IC Markets also offers Ripple. Both brokers offer leverage of 5:1. See our comparison with Plus500 for a broker with a large range of CFDs.

IC Markets, unlike Pepperstone, also offers the following:

1. Bonds
2. Futures
3. Stocks

Crude oil and many other commodities can be traded with fast execution speeds and low spreads.

Best Range Of CFDs Winner

IC Markets are an all-in-one Broker. If having access to all types of CFDs is important, then IC Markets is likely our preferred broker when looking at CFDs in isolation. Click the button below if you want to discover trading CFDs with a leading CFD provider.

Open a demo account >>Visit IC Markets >>

IC Markets And Pepperstone Regulation

Both brokers are considered safe and trusted due to being regulated by multiple top-tier financial authorities. Each financial regulator and jurisdiction enforce different rules for retail CFD and forex trading.

IC Markets cater to a global client base with subsidiaries in 3 major financial hubs:

• Australia – The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC)
• Europe – The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
• Global – The Financial Services Authority of Seychelles

Pepperstone operates 7 different subsidiaries in the following jurisdictions:

• Australia: ASIC
• Europe: CySEC
• The UK: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
• United Arab Emirates (UAE): The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA)
• Kenya: Capital Markets Authority (CMA)
• Germany: Federal Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany (BaFin)
• Global: The Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB)

When choosing a CFD and forex broker, there are many features to consider, one of which is the financial jurisdiction the broker is located. If you want to trade forex with high leverage, you may not receive investor protection policies such as negative balance protection (as discussed below). See the video below to learn more about selecting a forex broker.

Financial Regulation Winner

While both online brokers are overseen by multiple top-tier financial regulators, Pepperstone is the clear winner with 7 subsidiaries compared to IC Market’s 3 branches. Both brokers have a strong presence in Europe and Australia with CySEC and ASIC financial services licenses, yet Pepperstone also operates in the UK under FCA regulation as well.

View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>

Broker Risk Management Comparison

Pepperstone and IC offer risk management feature in the form of order types and investor protection policies. As both brokers operate multiple subsidiaries, the level of investor protection you will receive varies depending on where you reside and the branch you are trading with.

Investor Protection Policies

Regardless of the broker or subsidiary, your trading account balance will be held in a bank account that is segregated from the broker’s operational capital. Segregated client funds protect your money in the case a broker becomes insolvent and this is common practice throughout the world.

Those trading with IC Markets CySEC regulated branch, and Pepperstone’s CySEC, BaFin and FCA regulated branches will receive negative balance protection (NBP). NBP ensures your trading account balance can not enter a negative balance if the market moves against you. This means you will never end up owing money to IC Markets or Pepperstone, as your open positions will automatically be closed before your balance hits zero.

While NBP is only required in European and UK financial jurisdictions, ASIC is introducing stricter CFD and forex trading rules including NBP from Oct 2022.

Order Types

Both Pepperstone and IC Markets lack premium pending order types. However, there are standard order types like limit and stop orders available on all trading platform options. I.e:

• Margin Stop Out: notifies you when a trader’s balance is heading below a minimum amount. The broker will automatically seek to exit the trader from the market before they dip below zero. This is a type of negative balance protection.
• Margin Stop Loss Order: this means traders can set the amount they are prepared to lose trading currency pairs. Brokers will try to get the trader out of a position before the set amount has been crossed. This is however not guaranteed.

It should be noted that CFDs are complex instruments involving high risk due to leverage. Retail investor accounts can lead traders to high losses even with risk management features such as stop-loss orders in certain trading conditions. It’s important to understand the risks before trading.

Risk Management Winner

Both brokers focus on intermediate to advanced traders and lack the risk management tools that some beginner brokers offer (while charging higher fees). From a reputation standpoint, Pepperstone has the most sort after top-tier regulation with the FCA in the UK and CySEC in Europe that both enforce negative balance protection.

View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>

Does Pepperstone Or IC Markets Have Better Customer Service?

Both Pepperstone and IC Markets boast live chat, phone and email customer support. Pepperstone’s customer service is award-winning, while IC Markets has a 24/7 server and a greater range of help desk tools.

Pepperstone
Pepperstone has developed a strong reputation for top customer service. “Investment Trends”  have awarded Pepperstone as number #1 for customer services. Pepperstone customer service team in Australia consists of individuals who trade themselves. This means clients can have confidence that support understands issues and concerns for all types of traders. This customer service level has helped Pepperstone reviews achieve a score of 4.4 out of 5 on TrustPilot from 595 respondents.

Pepperstone award-winning customer support is complemented by excellent trading education resources that include trading guides, webinars, MetaTrader 4 course, forex trading course, market news and more.

IC Markets

IC Markets customer support team have 3 offerings that Pepperstone don’t have. These are:

• 24/7 support. Customer service is available weekdays and weekends. This may be important for ECN clients looking to trade when markets are closed, as ECN is available during outside market hours.
• Help Centre (keyword search) for self-help.
• Emails can be sent specifically to different IC Markets personnel such as Client Relations, Support, Accounts, Info, Marketing: IB/Partners.
• As of Dec 2022 on TrustPilot the IC Markets reviews from customers were 4.4 based on ‎2,332 respondents.

Customer Service Winner

Pepperstone has superior customer service based on our analysis and the number of third-party rewards (such as Investment Trends) over the past five years. While structurally both brokers have similar contact points, the quality of the customer service team at Pepperstone makes them the best forex broker globally for the category.

View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>

Pepperstone And IC Markets Deposits And Withdrawals

Our review found both forex brokers were the same in this category. Neither Pepperstone nor IC Markets charge fees for deposits or withdrawals, but international institutions may charge a fee. Both brokers have very similar funding policies the main difference is the hours one can place a withdrawal request and expect to receive the payment the same day.

Pepperstone Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit is $200 for Pepperstone. This applies to their Standard, Razor and Islamic Account.

If a withdrawal request is received before 7:00 am AEST, then the withdrawal will be processed the same day otherwise. If received after 7:00 then the withdrawal will be processed the next day. Any bank account connected to a Pepperstone trading account will receive the funds (this needs to be first-party).

A credit card can also be used for withdrawals if the amount matches or is less than the deposited amount. If a withdrawal is more than the deposited amount then an alternative withdrawal method will be needed. Bank wire transfers take on average 3 to 5 business days to settle.

IC Markets Minimum Deposit

The minimum deposit is $200 for IC Markets. This applies to their Standard, Raw and Islamic Account.

If a client wishes to receive a withdrawal of funds on the same day, then a request must be submitted before midday Australian Eastern Standard Time. If a withdrawal request is submitted later than this time then funding will be deposited into clients the next business day.

Payment Methods Accepted By Both Brokers

Both IC Markets and Pepperstone accept similar payment methods. This includes Skrill, PayPal and NETELLER. Traders who select AUD base currency (in Australia) can use BPAY for fast free transfers. Both brokers offer UnionPay, but IC Markets only offer it when RMB base currency is selected. IC Markets also offer RapidPay and Klarna for GBP base currency accounts only.

Some base currencies including NZD, JPY, CAD and CHF have the most limited deposit and withdrawal options so it’s worth viewing the broker site first before opening an account.

View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>