***IMPORTANT NOTICE***
The IGTFX website (http://www.igtfx.com) is down at the time of this posting. We will continue to check back and will report if the problem was temporary, or if this Forex broker has closed for business.
IGTFX which stands for FOREX Central Brokerage Services is a foreign exchange broker focusing on currency pairs. Their mission is to be first in providing their clients with the best advantages and to never spare an effort to create a unique service. We will be using this review to look into the services on offer to see how they compare to the competition and to see what really is on offer.
Account Types
It seems like there could be just the one account available from IGTFX, we will outline some of its features here but as we go through the review, we will outline its conditions in more detail.
IGTFX Account: The account requires a minimum deposit of at least $500, it comes with a no dealing desk execution-style and uses MetaTrader 4 as a trading platform. It has interbank spreads which start from as low as 1 pip. The account can be leveraged up to 1:200 and has a minimum trade size of 0.1 lots. The account has full hedging capabilities and does not have any added commissions when trading.
Platforms
There are two platforms on offer and they are both created by MetaQuotes, let’s have loot at what they are.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4): MetaTrader 4 has features such as confidentiality of all trading operations; an unlimited charts quantity, large number of technical indicators and line studies, Experts, Custom Indicators and Scripts, Multi-Language program interface, signals of system and trading actions, getting on-line news from financial markets, internal email system and it is accessible through a desktop download, mobile application, and web trader.
MetaTrader 5 (MT5): Some of its features include level 2 data available for exchange-traded instruments, four types of execution of trading transactions: Market, Instant, Request and Exchange, 21 time-frames, 38 technical indicators, 39 graphical objects, 4 zoom modes, six types of pending orders (Buy Limit, Buy Stop, Sell Limit, Sell Stop, Buy Stop Limit, Sell Stop Limit), trading transactions execution method allowing to perform a flexible trading activity and to set up exact parameters of trading transactions, and automated trading features. Development and usage of the expert advisers, users indicators and scripts are controlled by the integrated MQL5 development framework, which allows users to apply complex advisers and to forecast price movement more accurately.
Leverage
The account can be leveraged up to 1:200 and this can be selected when first opening up an account. Should you wish to change it you will need to send a request to the customer service team.
Trade Sizes
Trade sizes start from 0.1 lots (known as a mini-lot), unfortunately, we do not know what the trade increments are, what the maximum trade size is or how many trades you can have open at any one time.
Trading Costs
There are no added commissions on the account when treading as it uses a spread based system that we will look at later in this review. There are however swap charges which are fees either charged or received for holding trades overnight. These swap fees can be viewed within the trading platform that you are using.
Assets
It seems that only forex pairs are available and the ones available to you depend on the level of your account.
If you are a private investor (most clients): EURUSD, EURCHF, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURAUD, EURCAD, GBPUSD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, USDCHF, USDCAD, AUDUSD, NZDUSD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, CHEJPY, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, NZDJPY, CADJPY, AUDCAD.
If you are an institutional client: AUDUSD, AUDSGD, AUDUSD, CADJPY, CADSGD, CHFJPY, CHFSGD, CHFPLN, EURCAD, EURCHF, ERUDKK, EURGBP, EURJPY, EURNOK, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURSUD, GBPSGD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPUSD, JPYSGD, NZDJPY, NZDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCZK, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDPLN, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDNO, USDZAR.
Spreads
Spreads on the account start as low as 1 pip, the spreads are variable which means they will move with the markets, the more volatility or the lower the amount of liquidity will cause the spreads to get bigger, while they start at 1 pip they will often be seen higher and different instruments will have different minimum spreads.
Minimum Deposit
The minimum amount required for a first deposit is $500, once an account has been opened this amount reduces and there does not seem to be a lower limit for top-up deposits.
Deposit Methods & Costs
There are two different methods available to deposit with, these are Bank wire Transfer and PayPal. When depositing with Bank Wire Transfer there is an added fee of between $15 and $25 for incoming transfers. When using PayPal to deposit there is an added fee of 2.9% + $0.30 (Canadian: 3.9% + $0.30) for each deposit. It is always strange to see deposit fees as usually a broker will try and entice people to deposit by paying for any fees themselves.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
Only Bank Wire Transfer is available to withdraw with, as IGTFX does not allow withdrawals using PayPal. There aren’t any stated fees for withdrawals but we would expect a similar fee of between $15 and $25 would be present for withdrawals just like they were for deposits.
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
While this is not stated, we would expect withdrawals placed by Bank Wire Transfer to take between 1 to 5 days to fully process, this will, however, depend on both the processing speed ofIGTFX and the processing speed of your own banking institution.
Bonuses & Promotions
There doesn’t appear to be any active promotions or bonuses at the time that we are writing this review. You could contact the customer service team to see if there are coming up that you could take part in if you are interested in potential bonuses.
Educational & Trading Tools
Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any educational material on the site. Many modern brokers are now looking for ways to help their clients improve their trading abilities so it would be nice to see IGTFX do something similar.
Customer Service
You can contact a number of different departments using email these include the accounting department, sales department, customer support, finance department, complaints department, information desk, institutional sales and introducing brokers. You can also use the available live chat or skype username.
Support Email: support@igtfx.com
Demo Account
Demo accounts are available, in order to open one you will need to download the trading platform. We do not know what the trading conditions are but would expect them to be similar to the live account and we also do not know if there is an expiration time on the demo accounts.
Countries Accepted
This information is not present on the site and so we would recommend sending a query to the customer service team if you are thinking of signing up just to confirm if you are eligible for an account or not.
Conclusion
The trading conditions on paper seem competitive but we did not have any specific examples of the available spreads. There is also a limited number of assets to trade as it is limited to just forex currency pairs. A lot of things with the broker are limited as there is also a limited number of ways to deposit and withdraw, with the added fees for depositing as well as withdrawing it can be quite expensive to trade with IGTFX and we would probably recommend looking for a slightly cheaper broker to use.
