City Index Review
Beyond its extensive range of products, multi-asset traders confidently choose City Index for competitive spreads, great platform options, premium research tools, and reliable customer service, all under the backing of GAIN Capital, which is one of the largest retail brokers globally.
Top Takeaways for 2020
After spending five months testing 30 of the best forex brokers for our 4th Annual Review, here are our top findings on City Index:
- Owned by publicly-traded GAIN Capital, City Index is regulated in three tier-1 jurisdictions, making it a safe broker (low-risk) for forex and CFDs trading.
- When using its proprietary platforms, City Index is an excellent choice for low-cost trading.
- Whether trading with one of City Index's proprietary platforms or using MetaTrader, City Index provides great tools, market research, and a diverse offering of tradeable products. That said, City Index's copy trading experience is good but doesn't quite stack up with the best copy trading brokers.
Overall Summary
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Overall | |
| Trust Score | 93 |
| Offering of Investments | |
| Commissions & Fees | |
| Platform & Tools | |
| Research | |
| Mobile Trading | |
| Customer Service | |
| Education |
Is City Index Safe?
City Index is considered low-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 93 out of 99. City Index is publicly traded, does not operate a bank, and is authorised by three tier-1 regulators (high trust), zero tier-2 regulators (average trust), and one tier-3 regulators (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.
Regulations Comparison
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 1983 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | Yes |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 3 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 0 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 1 |
| Trust Score | 93 |
Offering of Investments
The following table summarizes the different investment products available to City Index clients.
Other offerings: Like other brokers in the UK, City Index also offers the option to trade many of its CFD products as a spread bet. Since spread-betting carries certain tax efficiencies for UK residents, it can be a beneficial alternative to CFDs if you reside in the UK.
Offering Comparison
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Forex: Spot Trading | Yes |
| Currency Pairs (Total Forex pairs) | 65 |
| CFDs - Total Offered | 4500 |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency traded as actual | No |
| Cryptocurrency traded as CFD | Yes |
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Commissions & Fees
City Index offers competitive spreads on Forex, CFDs, and spread-betting products. While average spreads are higher on MT4 than its proprietary platforms, in our testing, City Index finished Best in Class (top 7) overall for cost. Both fixed and variable (floating) spreads pricing options are available.
Advanced Trader: With average typical spreads on the EUR/USD of 0.8 pips (as of October 2019), the all-in cost for all traders is comparable to the default pricing at pricing leaders such as CMC Markets.
MetaTrader: Spreads on City Index’s MT4 platforms are considerably higher, with average spreads of 1.7 pips on the EUR/USD over the same period. Also, price tolerance settings are not available on MT4, whereas they are available with City Index's proprietary trading platforms.
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Minimum Initial Deposit | £50.00 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.8 (Oct 19) |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.8 (Oct 19) |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes |
Platforms & Tools
City Index offers MetaTrader 4 (MT4) alongside two proprietary platform suites: AT Pro (desktop-based) and Web Trader (web-based). All in all, City Index delivers a quality forex and CFDs trading experience.
AT Pro: As its name implies, AT Pro is not for beginners but is better suited to professionals or experienced traders because it is complex and has several advanced functions. AT Pro offers robust charting (139 indicators, 25 drawing tools) and a Development Studio with automated trading functions, including the ability to backtest potential strategies using historical data. Over 100 strategies come pre-loaded.
Web Trader: Web Trader is built entirely on HTML5, making it flexible, fast, and easy to use. While Web Trader contains almost half as many indicators as the AT Pro desktop software, it has a definite place in the City Index platform lineup for casual traders.
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Research
Overall, City Index delivers high-quality market research that scores well above the industry standard. Highlights include Trading Central, news headlines from Thomson Reuters, an economic calendar powered by FXStreet, and AutoChartist for MetaTrader.
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Mobile Trading
The City Index mobile app is not industry-leading but is competitive with most other multi-asset brokers such as IG, CMC Markets, and Saxo Bank. The app is cleanly designed and bug-free, making for a smooth experience whether you are adding alerts, depositing money into your account, reading news, or placing trades.
Mobile tools: Charts are powered by Trading View charts and comes loaded with 74 indicators available for charting, and you can carry out fundamental technical analysis with trend lines. Trading Central is also well-integrated into the City Index mobile app, with several modules available, including the Technical Insights, Featured Ideas, and Analyst Views sections.
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Customer Service
To score Customer Service, ForexBrokers.com partnered with customer experience research group Customerwise to conduct phone tests from locations throughout the UK. For our 2020 Review, 330 customer service tests were conducted over six weeks.
Results
- Average Connection Time: 1 - 2 minutes
- Average Net Promoter Score: 7.6 / 10
- Average Professionalism Score: 7.9 / 10
- Overall Score: 8.0 / 10
- Ranking: 10 th (22 brokers)
Final Thoughts
Through its offerings in Europe and Asia, City Index provides multiple options for traders to access global markets, including 65 spot forex pairs, 15 forwards, and over 10,000 CFDs on several trading platforms. The broker caters well to all traders regardless of experience level. City Index finished Best in Class across six categories in 2020, including Overall, Offering of Investments, Commissions & Fees, Research, Education, and Beginners.
About City Index
Founded in 1983 in the United Kingdom, City Index has grown to become one of the leading multi-asset brokers in London, and in 2015 was acquired by GAIN Capital Holdings (NYSE: GCAP), the operator of FOREX.com. It's worth noting that staff at FOREX.com’s UK office cater to clients from both businesses (which share the same offices).
City Index has over 30 years’ experience providing traders with Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and spread-betting derivatives, and further expanded its forex offering with the acquisition of IFX Markets, Finspreads, and FX Solutions years before GAIN Capital acquired the company. Read more on Wikipedia about City Index.
City Index Trading Features
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No |
| cTrader | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 139 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 25 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 18 |
| Order Type - Trailing Stop | Yes |
City Index Research Features
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Weekly Webinars | No |
| AutoChartist | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | Yes |
| Delkos Research | No |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes |
| Economic Calendar | Yes |
City Index Mobile App Features
| Feature | City Index |
|---|---|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Trading - Forex | Yes |
| Trading - CFDs | Yes |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watch List | Yes |
| Watch List Syncing | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 88 |
| Charting - Draw Trend Lines | Yes |
| Charting - Trend Lines Moveable | No |
| Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes |
| Charting - Drawings Autosave | Yes |
| Forex Calendar | Yes |
2020 Review Methodology
For our 2020 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 30 international forex brokers over a five month time period. Each broker was graded on 105 different variables and, in total, over 50,000 words of research were produced.
While encouraged, broker participation was optional. Each broker had the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile and provide executive time (live in person or over the web) for an annual update meeting.
All data submitted by brokers is hand-checked for accuracy. Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than 1% each year, providing site visitors 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." Learn more.
About the author: Steven Hatzakis Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
