Beware! ITG Investing is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
The ITG Investing website assures us that this broker is a global leader in forex trading. That’s a pretty strange claim for a brand we’ve never heard of, which is why we put it to the test. And this inspection shows that ITG Investing is in fact yet another online scam to be avoided.
ITG Investing Regulation and safety of funds
| Guaranteed Funds | Segregated Accounts | Negative balance protection | |
| ITG Investing | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| UK regulated brokers | £85 000 | Yes | Yes |
| EU regulated brokers | €20 000 | Yes | Yes |
| AU regulated brokers | No | Yes | Yes |
| US regulted brokers | Yes | Yes | No |
The most important information about a financial services provider is its regulatory status. Licensed brokers provide detailed information about which company runs them, where it is based, which jurisdictions it is authorised in and which regulatory bodies oversee its activities.
According to information on the website and legal documentation, the ITG Investing LTD company is based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). This is an offshore zone, whose financial regulator does not licence brokers and does not supervise the activities of International Business Companies engaged in such activities.
But ITG Investing cannot be found among the companies registered in the SVG. We find no evidence that such a legal entity actually exists.
ITG Investing uses trading software provided by a company called Tikonin. This company is based in Hungary and is not itself an authorised financial services provider.
Our suspicions that this anonymous website is a scam have been confirmed by the UK financial regulator. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has blacklisted ITG Investing.
If you want to trade on financial markets without being scammed, you can turn to some of the legitimate brokers that actually operate from established financial hubs like the UK. These brokers have to meet stringent requirements for financial stability and transparency of operations imposed by the FCA.
They must provide clients with negative balance protection and to participate in a guarantee fund that covers up to GBP 85,000 of a client’s investment should the broker go into insolvency. These brokers are also required to keep their clients’ money segregated from their own operating funds in separate bank accounts.
ITG Investing Trading software
| Analytical tools | Auto trading | Custom indicators | Mobile apps | |
| XYZ MT5 | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
| MT4 | 30+ indicators | ✅ | ✅ | Android |
| MT5 | 50+ indicators | ✅ | ✅ | Android |
| cTrader | 40+ indicators | ✅ | ✅ | Android and iOS |
The ITG Investing website does not provide information about the most important tool for forex trading – the software. After registering an account, we see that ITG Investing employs the most widely used trading platform in the industry, MetaTrader 5 (MT5). Here’s what the web-based version of the platform looks like:
It should be noted that the presence of a trading platform does not make this website any more legitimate and does not guarantee that this alleged broker offers real trading. Many scammers use rigged trading software to fool their victims that their money is being invested.
It is advisable to contact one of the many legitimate brokers that offer MT5 or the still very popular MT4. These platforms have established themselves as leaders because they offer a wide range of features, including a wide variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.
ITG Investing Trading instruments
| Currency | Stocks | Indices | Crypto | Commodities | |
| ITG Investing | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| XM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FBS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FXTM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Detailed information on tradable instruments and other basic trading parameters cannot be found on the ITG Investing website and documentation.
When you visit the website of a legitimate broker you will find detailed descriptions of trading parameters – minimum deposit, order execution method, tradable financial instruments, leverage, spread, swap, commissions, etc.
ITG Investing Spreads and cost of trading
| ITG Investing | XM | FBS | FXTM | |
| Spread EURUSD | 3 | 1.7 | 1 | 1.1 |
| Spread GBPUSD | 3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
| Spread USDJPY | 3 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
ITG Investing offers a spread starting from 3 pips with a starter account. This level is double the industry average and very unprofitable for the trader.
ITG Investing Maximum leverage
| Forex | Stocks | Crypto | Gold | Indices | |
| ITG Investing | 1000:1 | 100:1 | 10:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 |
| UK regulated brokers | 30:1 | 5:1 | ❌ | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| EU regulated brokers | 30:1 | 5:1 | 2:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| AU regulated brokers | 30:1 | 5:1 | 2:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| US regulated brokers | 50:1 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
ITG Investing promises a spread of up to 1:1000. Regulated brokers do not offer such levels to retail traders as trading with high leverage carries risks of sudden and excessive losses. A maximum leverage of 1:30 is allowed in the European Union and the United Kingdom and 1:50 in the United States.
Higher levels of leverage are only offered to professional clients who trade entirely at their own risk.
ITG Investing also offers deposit bonuses – another practice banned by most financial regulators.
If you are willing to take the risk of trading with high leverage and benefit from bonuses and promotions, the best option is to invest through an offshore division of an established brand.
ITG Investing Deposit and withdrawal methods
| Deposit time | Withdrawal time | Price | |
| Bank wire | 3-5 business days | 2-5 business days | $25+ |
| Credit card | Instant | 24 hours | 4% |
| Crypto | 24 hours | 24 hours | 3% |
According to information on the website, ITG Investing allows deposits and withdrawals via credit/debit cards, wire transfer and cryptocurrencies.
But the deposit menu itself had no active options at the time of writing this review. In the withdraw menu, we only see wire transfer and cryptocurrencies.
Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds. While there are some legitimate brokers that accept digital currencies like Bitcoin, they do so alongside other transparent payment methods such as credit/debit card, bank transfer or popular e-wallets like PayPal, Neteller or Skrill.
ITG Investing Minimum deposit
| ITG Investing | XM | FBS | FXTM | |
| Minimum deposit | $250 | $5 | $10 | $5 |
According to the descriptions of the account types, the minimum deposit is 500 USD. But the deposit menu has a set minimum of 250.
In any case, it will be wiser and cheaper to trade through a licensed broker. Established brands offer Micro accounts with a very low minimum deposit.
ITG Investing Withdrawal requirements
| Trading volume | Fee/Tax on withdrawal | Minimum withdrawal | |
| ITG Investing | lots equal to the bonus amount divided by 5 | 3-4% | $1000 |
| UK regulated brokers | No | No | No |
| EU regulated brokers | No | No | No |
| AU regulated brokers | No | No | No |
| US regulated brokers | No | No | No |
The minimum withdrawal amount depends on the payment method and varies between 250 USD and 1000 USD. ITG Investing charges withdrawal fees of 3-4% depending on the payment method. Genuine forex brokers rarely charge transaction fees.
If an account has received a bonus, it can only withdraw profits after meeting the minimum traded volume requirements – number of lots equal to the bonus amount divided by 5.
