Does IC Markets Offer Spread Betting? UK Alternatives

No. IC Markets (now trading as IC) does not offer spread betting to anyone, UK residents included. Every product on its MT4, MT5, cTrader and TradingView accounts is a contract for difference (CFD). For a UK taxpayer that is a real cost: HMRC treats CFD profits as capital gains, while a financial spread bet sits outside capital gains tax altogether. On a £10,000 annual profit the difference can be £1,260 to £1,680 a year, and more as your gains grow.

Spread betting is also a regulated product in its own right. Only a firm authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority can offer it to you, and IC holds no FCA authorisation. So if tax-free spread betting matters to you, IC is simply the wrong broker. Below we explain why IC has no spread betting, how to turn an IC lot size into a stake in pounds, and which FCA-authorised firms offer spread bets on the platforms IC users rely on.

Why IC Markets has no spread betting product

Spread betting is largely a British and Irish product. You stake an amount per point of movement, say £2 per pip on GBP/USD, rather than buying a number of lots or units. Brokers built for the UK market offer it because their customers want the tax treatment. IC grew up in Australia and serves a global client base through licences in Australia, Cyprus, the Seychelles, the Bahamas and Kenya. None of those markets has much demand for spread bets, and none of those licences would let IC offer them to UK customers anyway.

The regulatory point is the one that settles it. In the UK a financial spread bet is a regulated investment, treated under the same FCA retail rules as CFDs and rolling spot forex. A firm needs FCA permission to deal in it with UK consumers. IC has no UK company and no FCA permission, and the FCA has published a warning that IC Markets Global "is not authorised by us and may be targeting people in the UK". A UK resident who signs up today is, in practice, onboarded by Raw Trading Ltd in the Seychelles, on CFD terms. Check the entity named in your own client agreement if you already hold an account; how UK sign-up at IC works shows where to look.

Some comparison sites blur this by listing IC in "best spread betting broker" tables. We could find no IC account, past or present, that offers spread bets. The closest thing on its platforms is a CFD on the same market, which moves in the same way but is taxed very differently.

Spread bets vs CFDs: the short version

On the chart a spread bet and a CFD behave almost identically: both are margined, both move by the same amount per point, and both carry the same FCA retail protections at an authorised firm. The differences are pricing (spread bets are usually commission-free, priced through a wider spread), currency (a spread bet pays out in pounds per point) and tax. HMRC’s manual at CG56105 says "no chargeable gains or allowable losses arise from spread betting", while CG56100 puts retail CFDs within capital gains tax in almost every case. At 18% or 24% above the £3,000 exempt amount, a £10,000 net CFD gain at IC costs £1,260 to £1,680, and a spread bet loss, unlike a CFD loss, can’t be set against other gains. Our spread betting vs CFD comparison works through the decision, and is spread betting tax-free? covers the narrow cases where HMRC could argue otherwise.

Turning an IC lot size into a stake in pounds

The first practical job when you leave an IC Raw account for a spread betting account is resizing. IC sizes trades in lots, and a spread betting firm sizes them in pounds per point. On pairs quoted in dollars, such as GBP/USD and EUR/USD, one standard lot is worth USD 10 a pip. With cable near 1.34 that is about £7.46, so the nearest spread bet is roughly £7.50 per point. On a pair quoted in sterling, like EUR/GBP, one lot is worth £10 a pip and the conversion is exact.

Margin is the second adjustment. Under FCA rules a £7.50 per point bet on GBP/USD at 1.34 controls about £100,000 of sterling, so at 1:30 it ties up roughly £3,350, far more than an offshore IC account asks for the same size. Traders who ran several lots on a small IC balance usually find they must either add funds or cut size. Our position size calculator helps you work back from your stop and your risk in pounds.

Your dollar P&L habit also has to go. At IC a USD Raw account books results in dollars, and even a GBP account converts every dollar-priced trade. A spread bet is settled in pounds from the start, so the figure on the screen is the figure in your bank. That removes the trade-by-trade currency conversion that makes IC tax returns fiddly, and there is no gain to report at all.

Moving a cTrader, MT5 or TradingView set-up

Platform is where an IC user’s choice narrows fastest. For spread betting under the FCA, Pepperstone is the only firm we found that supports cTrader, and MT5 spread betting is limited to Pepperstone and IG. TradingView users have more room: Pepperstone, IG, Spreadex, StoneX Trading and Capital.com all let you place spread bets from TradingView charts. MT4 remains the most widely supported, at Pepperstone, IG, CMC Markets, FXCM UK and StoneX Trading.

Automated strategies need care. A cBot or expert adviser written for IC sizes in lots, and a spread betting MetaTrader account may map a volume of 1.00 to £1, £10 or some other stake per point depending on the firm and market. Read the contract specification for every symbol and run the robot on a spread betting demo before going live. Spread betting brokers by platform has the full support table.

FCA firms that offer spread betting

If you want spread bets, you need an FCA-authorised provider. The firms below all offer them to UK retail clients. Check the firm reference number (FRN) on the FCA Register before you deposit, and make sure the website and phone number there match the site you are using, because clone firms copy real names and FRNs.

One honest caveat about "raw pricing" and spread bets. Raw spread plus commission is a CFD account model. Spread bets at these firms are generally priced through the spread with no separate commission, so a spread bet on EUR/USD will usually show a wider quote than IC's Raw account. For most retail position sizes the tax saving dwarfs that gap. A very active scalper who expects to be close to break-even may find the sums go the other way, which is why some UK traders run a CFD account for scalping and a spread betting account for swing trades.

Pepperstone is the closest like-for-like switch for an IC user. It offers cTrader and MT4/MT5, a Razor CFD account with raw spreads, and a spread betting account under the same FCA-authorised company. Our IC Markets vs Pepperstone comparison goes through the costs line by line, and spread betting brokers by platform helps if you are attached to a particular charting set-up.

Who might still use IC, and who should not

IC's Raw accounts are cheap and fast, and some experienced UK traders knowingly accept the offshore risk for that pricing or for cTrader. If your gains will stay under the £3,000 exempt amount, or you have capital losses elsewhere to absorb them, the missing spread bet product costs you little in tax.

It is a poor fit for most people, though. Beginners, anyone who wants the Financial Ombudsman or FSCS behind them, and anyone whose main reason for trading from the UK is tax-free returns should look at an FCA firm instead. The FCA's warning says UK customers of IC Markets Global won't have access to the Ombudsman and won't be protected by the FSCS. Read the FCA warning and our explainer on IC's FCA status before deciding.

Frequently asked

Related reading

• IC Markets and UK tax
• Is spread betting tax-free in the UK?
• IC Markets vs Pepperstone
• Spread betting vs CFDs
• IC Markets alternatives for UK traders
• Best spread betting brokers in the UK