City Index Review

CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 74% of retail CFD accounts lose money You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Backed by StoneX Group, City Index is a trusted brand known for its versatile trading platforms, excellent mobile app, diverse market research, and extensive range of tradeable markets.

However, average pricing and a limited MetaTrader offering hold City Index back from competing with the best forex brokers.

City Index pros & cons

Overall Summary

Is City Index safe?

City Index is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 99 out of 99. City Index is publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by three tier-1 regulators (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). City Index is authorised by the following tier-1 regulators: Australian Securities & Investment Commission (ASIC), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more about Trust Score.

Offering of investments

Like other brokers in the U.K., City Index offers spread-betting across its available markets, providing tax efficiencies for U.K. residents that aren’t available when trading CFDs. City Index also offers forex options and forwards. The following table summarizes the different investment products available to City Index clients.

Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading is available at City Index through CFDs, but not available through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying Bitcoin). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents.

Commissions and fees

Pricing at City Index for trading CFDs, forex, and spread-betting products is in line with the industry average. For the best pricing, use City Index’s proprietary platforms or MetaTrader.

Premium Trader account: Active traders that deposit more than £10,000 may be eligible for City Index’s Premium Trader account, which provides access to exclusive pricing, events, and content, as well as dedicated customer service.

CFD account: City Index has listed an average spread of 1.1 pips on the EUR/USD (as of August 2021), bringing the all-in cost slightly above the industry average, and far behind the best forex brokers in this category – such as Tickmill and FP Markets.

Active trader rebates and discounts: Rebates for U.K.-based professional traders start at £4 per million if you trade more than £25 million per month, and can reach up to £7.5 per million for volumes above £300M per month. Likewise, in Australia, rebates range from AUD $4.5 per million for tier one to AUD $14.5 per million for tier-3.

Mobile trading apps

City Index’s cleanly-designed mobile app is a versatile trading tool that ranks with what’s offered by category leaders such as IG, CMC Markets and Saxo Bank.

Apps overview: City Index offers its own proprietary mobile app alongside the popular MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform developed by MetaQuotes Software Corporation.

Ease of use: City Index’s well-designed app offers a smooth user experience, whether you are adding alerts, depositing money into your account, reading news headlines, or placing trades. The MT4 mobile app is also available at City Index.

Charting: Charts are powered by TradingView, and come loaded with over 80 indicators and an assortment of drawing tools to assist your technical analysis.

Trading tools: Trading Central modules are directly integrated into the City Index mobile app, including the Technical Insights, Featured Ideas, and Analyst Views modules City Index also supports complex order types such as trailing stop-loss orders and OCOs (the ability to close all trades in one order for a given instrument).

Other trading platforms

City Index’s proprietary Web Trader platform delivers a rich trading experience while providing access to City Index’s full product offering. Web Trader offers excellent trading tools and a variety of advanced features, and delivers access to more tradeable markets than MT4.

Platforms overview: Web Trader is designed for everyday traders and comes loaded with a wide variety of predefined screeners and layouts, and features the ability to execute complex order types – such as OCO orders. I found it easy to search across markets with Web Trader, from popular watchlists to accessing integrated research.

AT Pro desktop: City Index no longer promotes the AT Pro desktop platform, leaving Web Trader as its primary platform offering (other than MT4).

Charting: I found Web Trader to be responsive, flexible, and easy to use. Charts are powered by TradingView, and come with nearly 90 indicators and a vast array of drawing tools. Besides trading from the chart, I enjoyed the ability to drag your stop-loss or limit order to a new price level, which triggers an automatic update to your selections. This kind of time-saving feature is especially valuable for day trading, when speed matters and time is of the essence.

Trading Tools: It’s worth noting that setting up a new workspace with Web Trader can be cumbersome, as widgets must be manually arranged. Aside from that minor annoyance, the platform offers a good variety of features, including integrated research tools from Trading Central, as well as market commentary and headlines. Watchlists sync with its mobile counterpart, and there is module linking – in which charts can be updated by clicking on a symbol.

Market research

City Index delivers high-quality market research that scores above the industry average. The only downside with its research coverage is a general lack of daily video content. Its in-house written materials are high quality, and market coverage is diverse.

Research overview: Trading Central’s suite of research tools are conveniently integrated directly within City Index’s flagship platforms. Other research highlights include daily editorial from City Index’s team of analysts, news headlines from Thomson Reuters, an economic calendar powered by FxStreet, and an SMS alert service for clients who wish to receive trading ideas directly to their phone.

Market news and analysis: City Index organizes in-house content under its Market News section with the ability to filter articles by asset class, category subject, and author. I found the content to be well-written, such as the Week Ahead Report which includes charts, and bullet point format updates for global financial markets. There are also occasional webinars that provide market forecasts for the upcoming quarter.

Video content: City Index’s output of video content has slowed year-over-year which has weighed down its ranking in this category. I was looking forward to the Day Ahead series and the other video content that I was used to seeing on City Index’s YouTube channel, but it has not been active in months – the broker has apparently taken a break from in-house broadcasting.

Education

City Index offers a rich educational experience that will satisfy both beginner and intermediate traders. Its YouTube channel has a robust archive of educational videos, but City Index offers fewer written articles than leaders in this category.

Learning center: The Training section of City Index’s website contains two main guides organized by chapter, with material for both beginner and intermediate traders. The beginner chapters cover basic categories that range from risk-management to forex and CFD trading, while the intermediate chapters cover advanced subjects such as options trading strategies.

In a break from the norm, City Index’s Trading Academy is a video series produced in the style of a reality show. The series follows a group of novice traders learning how to trade over a period of six weeks. City Index also produced its Celebrity Trader series, where celebrities share their own trading tips and tricks. All told, eighteen videos are available on City Index’s website. Archived webinars such as the “Become A Trader” series are also available on City Index’s YouTube channel.

Room for improvement: I’d like to see City Index incorporate progress tracking and quizzes in its already-impressive educational content. Likewise, adding new videos and expanding the number of articles would further help improve its ranking in this category compared to its industry peers.

Final thoughts

Across its offices in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, City Index provides access to a variety of global markets, as well as over 80 forex pairs and over 4,500 CFDs on its flagship web and mobile app.

MT4 is available for City Index traders – albeit with fewer markets to trade – and MT5 is expected to be available at City Index by mid-2022 (along with cash-equities in the U.K.). Until then, with the discontinuation of AT Pro desktop, algorithmic trading is limited to MetaTrader, which remains the most popular platform globally for automated trading.

While City Index’s pricing might not lead the industry, its solid platform suite, wide range of tradeable markets, and exceptional proprietary mobile app will attract traders of all experience levels.

About City Index

Founded in 1983 in the United Kingdom, City Index has grown to become one of the leading multi-asset brokers after its acquisition in 2015 by GAIN Capital Holdings, the operator of FOREX.com. City Index’s parent, StoneX Group Inc (NASDAQ: SNEX), is a Fortune 500 company. City Index is a trading name of StoneX, which holds $10.9 billion in assets as of August 2021 with $198 million in excess regulatory capital, and caters to over 295,000 traders worldwide. City Index has over 30 years’ experience providing traders with Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and spread-betting derivatives. Read more on Wikipedia.

2022 Review Methodology

For our 2022 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 39 international forex brokers over a three-month time period resulting in over 50,000 words of published research.

Each broker was graded on 113 different variables, including our proprietary Trust Score algorithm. This innovative scoring system ranks the level of trustworthiness for each broker based on factors such as licenses, regulation and corporate structure. Read about Trust Score here.

As part of our annual review process, all brokers had the opportunity to provide updates and key milestones and complete an in-depth data profile, which we hand-checked for accuracy.

Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors with quality data they can trust. Learn more about how we test.

Forex Risk Disclaimer

There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses. Read more on forex trading risks.

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