Written by ForexBrokers.com
In this head to head comparison of VT Markets vs IFC Markets, we will compare the trading platforms, mobile apps, range of investments, costs, market research, and more. Let's dive in.
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 51% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
When comparing VT Markets and IFC Markets, both online brokers are privately owned and not listed on any stock exchange. Neither acts as a bank, and each presents distinct regulatory credentials. VT Markets, established in 2016, boasts a single Tier-1 license known for its high trust. It holds a Trust Score of 70 out of 99 from ForexBrokers.com, which indicates an average risk level. Meanwhile, IFC Markets, founded in 2006, does not possess a Tier-1 license but maintains one Tier-2 license recognized as trusted by ForexBrokers.com.
Although both brokers are deemed private and non-banking entities, their Trust Scores differ. IFC Markets has a slightly higher Trust Score of 73, marking it as an average-risk broker, similar in risk level to VT Markets. Their regulatory setups suggest that while VT Markets leans on its Tier-1 license for credibility, IFC Markets relies on solid Tier-2 licensing for assurance. This comparison highlights the necessity for traders to weigh regulatory factors when choosing a broker, alongside considering their own risk tolerance and professional needs.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2016 | 2006 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No |
| Bank | No | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 1 | 0 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 0 | 1 |
When comparing VT Markets to IFC Markets in terms of commissions and fees, clients will find distinct differences in cost structures. VT Markets provides two account types: the Raw ECN and the Standard STP. The Standard STP account is commission-free, though it offers higher spreads than the Raw ECN account. The Raw ECN account has an effective spread of 0.83 pips for EUR/USD, combining a 0.6 round-turn commission and a 0.23 average spread, while the Standard STP account has a spread of 1.2 pips. Both accounts require a minimum deposit of $100, appealing to traders with smaller budgets.
IFC Markets features an average EUR/USD spread of 1.44 pips, which is less competitive compared to the industry average of 1.08 pips. However, more active traders may benefit from the ECN account, which lowers the effective spread to 1.1 pips when accounting for a 0.005% commission on both sides of a trade. Here, substantial value can be found with the absence of inactivity fees and the availability of active trader discounts.
In terms of ratings and rankings, VT Markets receives a commendable 4.5-star rating for commissions and fees, ranking 20th out of 63 brokers according to ForexBrokers.com. Meanwhile, IFC Markets holds a 4-star rating and ranks 39th out of 63. These assessments highlight VT Markets’ competitive edge in this category, offering lower spreads and flexible account options.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $100 | $1 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.2 | 1.44 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.8 | 1.1 |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No | Yes |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | No |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | No |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | No |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Low Spread Forex Brokers.
VT Markets and IFC Markets both offer opportunities for forex trading through CFDs or spot contracts, providing options for traders interested in currency exchange. VT Markets showcases a broader selection of tradeable symbols, totaling 1,000, compared to IFC Markets' 630. However, IFC Markets offers a modest edge when it comes to tradeable forex pairs, with 49 pairs available versus VT Markets' 39. Neither broker offers exchange-traded securities on U.S. exchanges like NASDAQ: AAPL shares, but both allow clients to invest in securities from international markets such as Vodafone on the London Stock Exchange.
In addition to their forex offerings, both VT Markets and IFC Markets provide access to cryptocurrency derivatives, allowing trading on price movements without requiring actual ownership of the blockchain assets. For those interested in mimicking the trades of experienced investors, both platforms support copy trading. However, neither VT Markets nor IFC Markets supports the purchase of actual cryptocurrencies. Both brokers receive a mid-level rating of 3.5 stars for their range of investments. VT Markets ranks 39th among 63 brokers in this category, whereas IFC Markets follows closely at 43rd, indicating comparable capabilities in their investment offerings.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 1000 | 630 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 39 | 49 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes | Yes |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Dive deeper: Best Copy Trading Platforms.
When comparing VT Markets and IFC Markets, both brokers provide a range of trading platforms and tools that cater to different needs. VT Markets relies on industry-standard platforms like MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) while offering essential features such as simulated trading with a free virtual demo account, a Windows-based desktop platform, and a web-based platform. Traders on VT Markets can benefit from copy trading and exploring up to 30 drawing tools for chart analysis. With the integration of seven columns in watch lists and the ability to trade directly from a stock chart, VT Markets provides a user-friendly experience backed by a four-star rating but is ranked #47 out of 63 brokers for trading platforms and tools.
In contrast, IFC Markets adds a unique touch by offering a proprietary trading platform developed in-house, alongside support for popular platforms like MT4 and MT5. It also features simulated trading through a free demo account, availability of both Windows and web-based platforms, and copy trading capabilities. However, IFC Markets provides fewer drawing tools for charting, with only 15 available, but matches VT Markets with seven columns in watch lists and direct trading from stock charts. Like VT Markets, IFC Markets also receives a four-star rating for trading platforms and tools, though it holds a slightly better rank at #36 among 63 brokers. Each broker holds its strengths, offering diverse tools tailored to enhance trading experiences.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | No | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | Yes |
| DupliTrade | No | No |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 15 | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 30 | 15 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 7 |
Dive deeper: Best MetaTrader 4 Brokers, Best MetaTrader 5 Brokers.
When comparing the mobile trading apps of VT Markets and IFC Markets, both offer strong options for traders. Both brokers provide apps for iPhone and Android, and they allow users to set stock or forex price alerts. Each app supports similar charting capabilities, offering 30 technical studies and the ability to draw trendlines and view charts in multiple time frames. Both platforms allow users to create watchlists with real-time quotes. However, only IFC Markets offers watchlist syncing between the mobile app and the online account, as well as automatic saving of chart drawings.
In terms of ratings, both VT Markets and IFC Markets score 4 out of 5 stars for their mobile trading apps. However, VT Markets ranks slightly higher, coming in at #44 out of 63 brokers on ForexBrokers.com, compared to IFC Markets, which holds the #52 spot. For traders seeking seamless integration across devices and added convenience, IFC Markets may have a slight edge, thanks to its watchlist syncing and auto-save features.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlist Syncing | No | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 30 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | No | Yes |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Trading Apps.
When it comes to market research, both VT Markets and IFC Markets offer daily market commentary, providing traders with regular insights. However, VT Markets stands out with access to forex news from high-profile sources like Bloomberg and Reuters, while IFC Markets does not. Both platforms lack tools from Autochartist but differ in their offerings from Trading Central—VT Markets provides these tools, giving traders additional support in their analysis, whereas IFC Markets does not.
For sentiment-based trading tools, both brokers offer services that show the ratio of long or short positions across different instruments, helping traders gauge market sentiment. While neither broker provides research from TipRanks or Acuity Trading, they both offer an economic calendar to keep an eye on impactful global events. Despite this, VT Markets slightly edges out IFC Markets in overall research ranking, securing the 36th spot compared to the latter's 40th out of 63 brokers, with both receiving a research rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | No |
| Autochartist | No | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes | No |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | Yes |
| TipRanks | No | No |
| Signal Centre (Acuity Trading) | No | No |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Brokers for Forex Research.
VT Markets and IFC Markets both offer a solid selection of educational materials tailored for beginners diving into forex and CFDs trading. Each platform provides at least ten educational resources, including articles, videos, and archived webinars, helping newcomers understand the basics. Both also have more than ten beginner-friendly videos, making it easier for novice traders to start learning at their own pace. Additionally, each broker features an investor dictionary containing over fifty investing terms, which is a useful tool for clearing up any industry jargon that might seem confusing at first.
When it comes to offering more advanced education, IFC Markets takes a step ahead by providing a series of videos specifically for more experienced traders, while VT Markets does not. Neither platform hosts monthly webinars or offers access to a library of archived webinars, which might limit the interactive learning experience. Despite these differences, both VT Markets and IFC Markets have received a 3.5-star rating for their educational offerings. However, in the educational category rankings by ForexBrokers.com, IFC Markets stands out, securing the 30th spot out of 63 brokers, while VT Markets is ranked at 55th place.
| Feature |
VT Markets
|
IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes |
| Client Webinars | No | No |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No | No |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | No | Yes |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | Yes |
Dive deeper: Best Forex Brokers for Beginners.
After testing 63 of the best forex brokers, our research and account testing finds that VT Markets is better than IFC Markets. VT Markets finished with an overall rank of #44, while IFC Markets finished with an overall rank of #45.
VT Markets benefits from being part of the Vantage Group of companies, and provides access to the MetaTrader suite of platforms as well as its own VT Pro trading app.
| Feature |
VT Markets
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IFC Markets
|
|---|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
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| Trust Score | 70 | 73 |
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Both VT Markets and IFC Markets do not offer the ability to buy actual (delivered) cryptocurrency, but they both provide the option to trade cryptocurrency derivatives.
While both VT Markets and IFC Markets do not support ACH, SEPA, or PayPal for deposits and withdrawals, they both offer transactions via Visa, Mastercard, and bank wires, with VT Markets additionally providing an option for Skrill unlike IFC Markets.
Please note:
We review each broker’s overall global offering – a “Yes” checkmark in our Compare Tool does not guarantee the availability of any specific features in your country of residence. To verify the availability of any features within your country of residence, please contact the broker directly.
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0 of 5| Overall Rating | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
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| Trust Score | 70 | 73 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | VT Markets Review |
| Broker Screenshots | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
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| Regulation | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trust Score | 70 | 73 | |
| Year Founded | 2016 | 2006 | |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | No | |
| Bank | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | No | No | |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 1 | 0 | |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 | 1 | |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 | 0 | |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 0 | 1 |
| Tier-1 Licenses (Highly Trusted) | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia (ASIC Authorised) | Yes | No | |
| Canada (CIRO Authorised) | No | No | |
| Hong Kong (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Japan (SFC Authorised) | No | No | |
| Singapore (MAS Authorised) | No | No | |
| Switzerland (FINMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| United Kingdom (U.K.) (FCA Authorised) | No | No | |
| USA (CFTC Authorized) | No | No | |
| New Zealand (FMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| Regulated in one or more EU or EEA countries (MiFID). | No | No |
| Tier-2 Licenses (Trusted) | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kenya (CMA Authorised) | No | No | |
| Israel (ISA Authorised) | No | No | |
| South Africa (FSCA Authorised) | Yes | Yes | |
| UAE (DFSA/Central Bank Authorised) | No | No | |
| India (SEBI Authorised) | No | No | |
| Jordan (JSC Authorised) | No | No |
| Investments | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 1000 | 630 | |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 39 | 49 | |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No | No | |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No | No | |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes | Yes | |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
| Cost | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 1.2 | 1.44 | |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.8 | 1.1 | |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | No | Yes | |
| Inactivity Fee | No | No | |
| Execution: Agency Broker | No | Yes | |
| Execution: Market Maker | Yes | Yes |
| Funding | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $100 | $1 | |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | No | No | |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | No | |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes | Yes | |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes | Yes | |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No | No |
| Trading Platforms | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proprietary Platform | No | Yes | |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes | |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes | |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes | Yes | |
| cTrader | No | No | |
| DupliTrade | No | No | |
| ZuluTrade | No | No |
| Trading Tools | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes | |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 7 | |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 15 | 30 | |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 30 | 15 | |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes | |
| Charts can be saved | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Watchlist | Yes | Yes | |
| Watchlist Syncing | No | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 30 | |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | |
| Mobile Charting - Drawings Autosave | No | Yes | |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Research | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes | |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | No | |
| Autochartist | No | No | |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes | No | |
| TipRanks | No | No | |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | Yes | |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes |
| Education | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes | Yes | |
| Client Webinars | No | No | |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | No | No | |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes | Yes | |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | No | Yes | |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes | Yes |
| Major Forex Pairs | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GBP/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/JPY | Yes | Yes | |
| EUR/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CHF | Yes | Yes | |
| USD/CAD | Yes | Yes | |
| NZD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| AUD/USD | Yes | Yes | |
| Review | VT Markets Review |
| Overall | VT Markets | IFC Markets | |
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| Trust Score | 70 | 73 | |
| Winner | check_circle | ||
| Review | VT Markets Review |
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