Is IC Markets safe enough to trade with $100K

[LeronWerkins]

Hi All,

I have been trading small accounts over the last 7 years and have learnt a lot about the forex and futures CFD markets.

Now have gained enough experience through mistakes and such to be in a position to consistently make 2-3% return on balance on a monthly basis consistently without taking significant risks.

Want to deposit $100K in my ICMarkets account to trade making say between 2k and 3k a month and let the account grow as an investment account (2%-3% average I am very comfortable now making monthly and have done consistently over the last 3 years).

My only issue is the safety of my 100K with ICMarkets and since I am not going to be withdrawing profits and rather let the account grow so say when it grows to 200K over the next 24-30 months.

Can I trust ICMarkets with these large sums (larget at least for me).

My account is under their original AU regulations (not the SC). I am a European citizen who they have allowed to continue using the AU account.

Views very very appreciated. Alternate suggestions also very highly appreciated

[LominusFX]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I am unsure I have understood you correctly. Back in 2011 I had $5K lodged with MF Global broker. It was big, famous and well capitalized.

I had a trading plan that said if I had traded for nine months (3 x 3 month periodic assessments) and I had not demonstrated a positive trading edge, I would close the account and declare my interest in Forex as "closed". So I reached that stage and closed the account, pulling out about $3,700 to our bank. I was impressed the request to withdraw funds was actioned immediately and funds were in our account two days later.

Another 3 days and MF Global went bankrupt in a spectacular fashion. I had friends who had funds tied up in there. Their "accountants" said they could not figure out which bank their "$100M client deposits" were assigned to. Imagine that - your highly paid accountants can't find your segregated client funds? Well, it happens.

So back to your idea about depositing $100K into IC Markets account. Surely by now with your track record of being able to consistently trade and average out 2% to 3% per month, you have an idea of your maximum account drawdown, and I would imagine it could not possibly be more than 20%. So provided you maintain $80K in an account to which you could respond quickly to a margin call, and I am sure your trading plan would be able to tell you to move funds to IC Markets way before a margin call would be forthcoming, then I fail to see why you would need to deposit $100K into your trading account. That should be one action pretty high up on your risk assessment list.

So if, for example, your trading plan says that you have a bank of $100K and you only wish to risk 2% per trade ($2,000), why would you not just deposit $20K to IC Markets and still use a $2K risk per trade? It's 10% of your cash bank but it's still only 2% of your total bank.

You say that you are not going to withdraw profits, but if you didn't put the $80K into IC Markets in the first place you could earn 12% a year on USDC with a crypto account. That is $9,600 per year you would not make by having it tied up in IC Market's account. They would love you as a customer to have all that free money available to them.

I hope this helps.

[LeronWerkins]

My apologies that I wasn´t very clear in my question.

What I was trying to say is that I have a plan for the next 10 years to keep compounding 2-3% returns every month. Never take out the profit as I don´t need it and just let the account grow 2% a month for the next 20 years. I know I can do that.

My only worry is the safety of my account. Can I trust ICMarkets with my money. What if they just simply go bust or just one day disappear or just do not return the money.

As an analogy, I trust ABN Amro bank and hence am comfortable putting my money there. I wouldn´t put it in a Honapata bank of Potatoes as I cannot be sure if they´d just rob me of the money and i´d just one day simply lose it because they disappear.

Hence my search for the most reliable broker (with say leverage of 1:50) where I can sleep peacefully that my money is safe.

What if i grew the account to 500K and then just lose it because ICMarket disappears.

I want a broker I can trust that my money is safe with them and that is not just gonna be robbed.

What I have read on ICMarkets (and my last 7 years of trading with them), they are very reliable. But so far I have traded with 10K.

Now I am planning to invest 100k into stock indices in regular investment plan, 100K in assets and 100K in trading.

first 2 I am comfortable with as investment plan is with a huge bank, assets I own.

100K in ICMarkets, i feel a tiny tiny bit nervous. what if they just rob me of the money. They are not as reliable as a bank.

Now i understand with any broker there is that risk... but am looking to minimize it...

Hence looking for views if ICMarkets is a good choice from that perspective

[guyFX]

I believe LominusFX understood your question just fine.

What he's trying to say is instead of putting the full $100k in the trading account, why not just put $20k in and leave the rest in the bank, but treat your trading account the same way you would if the full $100k was in there. Moving forward you would use the sum of both accounts for your strategy.

You can withdraw anything over $20k (overflow) on monthly basis so that if your broker goes bust, you will only ever lose max. $20k. But over time you can still watch your bank account grow as you move the "overflow" funds out of your broker's account and into your bank account.

[vvFX]

I'm sure IC Markets are financially sound and competently run. However, all companies can fail. Sometimes they fail when other companies who owe them money fail. An uncommon but severe threat is internal fraud, which is inherently undetectable from P&L data until after the event.

I'm likewise sure IC Markets comply with the financial regulations wherever they operate. However, these will not necessarily offer adequate protection. For example UK brokers are required to be members of a scheme which reimburses clients' funds if the firm fails. But only up to a certain maximum limit. And the scheme does not cover profits, just deposited funds.

I don't think there is a broker in the world I would risk depositing $100k with.

[LeronWerkins]

Is how I used to do it before the AU ICMarkets reduced the leverage to 1:30...

Also I don´t want a situation where I need to panic about having to transfer funds in case I have drawdown.

My max DD has been 10% = 10K on 100K account (comfortable)

Same DD 10K on 20K account will be 50% (if i were to keep 20K and trade like I have 100K) = panic and with only 1:30 leverage very close to margin call... so panic to transfer more funds

Plus: I publish my account as a signal on MQL and therefore would like to keep DD to the minimum to showcase the ability to generate 3% monthly with less than 10% DD over long term to be able to attract signal followers

Don´t want to change to ICMarkets SC to gain leverage.

so all in all, it makes sense in my head to keep large account and trade peacefully...

only worry is not to lose funds to something funny happening with ICMarkets

[guyFX]

Ok, that makes sense. That is important when others are relying on actual numbers as "proof" of what you're claiming. If I was following someone I wouldn't want to see their account in a 50% DD.

[FrankJScott]

Please try Google before asking about Top Product Blog 4a16ffc