CFD Provider Review

I have been buying and selling CFDs in Australia since they were initially introduced in 2003. Over this period I've dealt with all the major CFD brokers in Australia first hand. When talking to groups of traders at investing expos and seminars around Australia I repeatedly get asked who is the top CFD provider? I wrote this review to help answer this million dollar question.

This review covers all the main CFD providers in Australia that I've traded with first hand, when writing this review I took into consideration four main elements which as an expert trader I believe are the crucial requirements to think about when choosing a CFD provider, these are:

1. Customer Service
2. Platform stability and ease of use
3. Product range
4. Pricing

It is very important to note that there are CFD provider reviews performed by a number of websites and magazines in Australia most of which are biased with the winners frequently being chosen by journalists not traders and determined by the amount of money spent on advertising in the magazine or on the web site that conducted the review. Only genuine traders with real life experiences are able to conduct a fair an unbiased review.

The major players in the CFD industry in Australia are:

· IG Markets
· CMC Markets
· International Capital Markets (IC Markets)
· MF Global

I did not conduct a review of Etrade or Comsec as these organizations are simply resellers of MF Global’s CFD offering.

In this review I talk about my real life experiences with every one of the providers mentioned above whilst taking into account the 4 critical elements that I view as vital when selecting a CFD provider.

IG Markets
Customer Service: I've had an account with IG Markets for the previous three years I use this account as my backup account. Over this time I have found that their customer support has declined drastically, in-fact at on one occasion I was unable to reach a dealer as they were all busy. In general I consider their customer support to be poor and would not recommend them.

Platform stability and ease of use: I use both their Pure Deal and L2 trading platforms and have had problems with both. Lately I experienced the problem of being unable to look at my positions and free equity preventing me from buying and selling all morning. I would not consider either of their platforms as suitable for an experienced trader.

Product range: IG Markets has a great product range, this is without doubt one of their strong points. One thing I'd say is that if you are looking to trade CFDs on exotic futures contracts and forex pairs IG Markets is definitely not the CFD provider for you as they tend to stick with a fairly mainstream offering.

Pricing: On Australian share CFDs IG Markets has competitive pricing, their minimum commission on share CFDs is low and their spreads are tight on the main currency pairs, however for anybody who is an active trader and are looking for volume discounts don’t bother trying to negotiate with IG Markets their commission schedule is fixed.

CMC Markets
Customer Service: Out of all of the CFD providers that I have ever dealt with I've found CMC Markets to have the worst customer service, with CMC Markets your problems start from the moment you call them up for support and choose a number from 1 to 10 just to talk to someone. I've also found their support staff to have only a basic knowledge of their trading platform. General queries and problems frequently must be escalated to more senior staff, not the type of support a professional trader demands.

Platform stability and ease of use: In recent times the stability of their trading platform Market Maker has improved drastically, however the platform still lacks functionality such as course of sales for share CFDs, something a professional trader demands.

Product range: CMC’s product range is extensive and not dissimilar to that of IG Markets however it is worth noting that CMC offers a very good variety of CFDs over exotic futures contracts and currency pairs, exactly what is missing from IG Markets product offering.

Pricing: Like IG Markets CMC markets provides good entry level pricing but lacks the pricing flexibility required when it comes dealing with high volume traders.

International Capital Markets (IC Markets)
Customer Service: I had not heard about these guys until about one year ago. After calling them up and speaking to one of their sales staff I thought I would give them ago. My experience so far has been second to none. Their customer support is top notch. In spite of the size of my account I have my own dedicated account manager that knows the market and what I need, this is very different to the call centre operations of IG and CMC Markets.

Platform stability and ease of use: They offer a number of trading platforms to cater for a diverse range of customers. They have a platform for learners, intermediate and advanced traders. As I am an experienced trader I chose their advanced trading platform Pro Deal which provides all of the functionally a professional trader needs. Although I can not speak for all of their trading platforms their advanced trading platform has been trouble free and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone.

Product range: All of the products missing from the two major providers like futures, DMA functionality and exotic currency pairs are offered by these guys. Whilst writing this review I could not think of a product that these guys could not offer.

Pricing: Like most of the CFD providers reviewed these guys offer excellent entry level pricing, however the difference with these guys is that they also have a flexible pricing arrangement for frequent traders. As I'm an active day trader they were willing to drop their minimum charge and offer me a commission rate of 0.04% on DMA CFDs, the best rate offered to me by the other providers was 0.08%, they are 50% cheaper!

MF Global
Customer Service: At first I believed that these guys would take the cake on the customer support front, however regrettably their high level of service didn't last for more than one week after funding my trading account, this was quite surprising and not something that I would have expected. Once I was up and trading these guys did not want to know me, this kind of customer service leads me to rate them as the worst of the lot.

Platform stability and ease of use: These guys offer one platform for CFDs, webIRESS. Although webIRESS is a great trading platform they do not offer anything else, in comparison with IC Markets who offer webIRESS as well as many other trading platforms. Their offering is basic and not what an expert trader demands.

Product range: MF Global can give you all the futures contracts you could ever ever think of however when it comes to forex, CFD and share trading they cannot compete with the likes of IC Markets. If it’s only futures you want than these are the guys to speak to, but for CFDs your should give them a miss.

Pricing: The entry level pricing for CFD trading at MF Global is pricey, they do however offer packages for frequent traders with discounts right down to 0.08%, this is still a far cry from the 0.04% offered by IC Markets. Even though the CFD commission rates are expensive I'm sure that if you were only trading futures you could possibly get some great pricing from MF Global

Conclusion
As an expert trader I'm quite demanding in what I expect from my CFD provider, I am sure that this is not the norm for many traders. There was really only one CFD provider from those reviewed that was able to give me what a professional trader would demand, the rest of the CFD providers have great offerings that might suit an typical trader but when pushed to their limits might falter, this is something a professional trader can not afford to have occur when capital is on the line. Aside from my number one preference IC Markets I would chose IG Markets as my backup, despite their shortfalls they do have relatively good platform and a broad product range. There is however a huge difference in customer service and pricing of IG Markets offering in comparison to my primary choice, IC Markets.

Article Source: http://casinoarticles.us

Matthew Jones is a professional CFD trader with over 15 years experience in the market. Matthew has been buying and selling CFDs online since their introduction to Australia in 2003. Matthew has published reviews on a number of CFD providers for a range of trading magazines and online publications. Matthew has also held quite a lot of seminars on day trading and scalping CFDs for a living.

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