Is IC Markets cTrader Cheaper Than MT4? 15 Pairs, in Pips
IC charges MT4 Raw $3.50 a lot per side and cTrader $3 per USD 100k. Converted pair by pair: cTrader wins on most pairs and loses on every GBP-base pair.
No. 01 Lead story
Razor adds 0.70 pips a lot on MT4/5, 0.60 on cTrader. Standard adds a markup Pepperstone's EU pages give as 1 pip or a 0.6 minimum. Both priced.
IC charges MT4 Raw $3.50 a lot per side and cTrader $3 per USD 100k. Converted pair by pair: cTrader wins on most pairs and loses on every GBP-base pair.
IC Markets' own schedule, converted to pips: the $0-tier raw account costs 0.80 all in, exactly Standard's 0.8 floor. The break-even rule, worked.
Both, and the schedule line says which. Pepperstone and IC Markets read line by line: per side, roundtrip, and one line that says neither.
Double the per-side commission, divide by $10 a pip: $3.50 is 0.70 pips. Four raw-account schedules read on 14 September 2026, converted line by line.
Both raw accounts charge $3.50 a side on forex: $7.00 round turn, 0.70 pips a lot. Both schedules, plus the 0.30-pip Raw vs Standard crossover.
OANDA Japan has published a two-stage MetaTrader 4 wind-down: new orders stop 25 September 2026, the service ends 27 November. The line worth reading is what the destination account costs.
Two broker-facing platforms' bills, one published and one reported, get converted to a common unit. One published price card works out at $5.00 per live account per month, the other's reported entry tier at $3.93 — and then the two definitions of an active account turn out not to match.
The Cypriot regulator published a board decision on 24 August recording a €100,000 settlement with Robomarkets Ltd over possible breaches, the retail CFD product-intervention rules among them. A settlement is not a finding, and the conduct reviewed ended in June 2024.
The company that traded for years as FXDD Malta ceased to be licensed on 25 August. The exit is reported as voluntary; the line worth reading is what a lapsed EEA passport does to the entity that would have signed the account agreement.
Two low-cost schedules converted into the only unit that permits comparison — pips per standard lot, round turn. One raw account prices at 0.45 before spread, the other at 0.60, and neither figure is an average.
A London-listed parent, a British Virgin Islands onboarding entity, and a published cost page with no numbers on it. The disclosure is the story, and the August guidance cut is where the red pen lands.
The Australian regulator has suspended a Sydney CFD issuer's licence for five months over client money handling and transaction reporting. Segregation is not a slogan; it is a reconciliation that either balances or does not.
The FCA's 2026/27 programme keeps misleading financial promotions on the active list — and the arithmetic of broker affiliate funnels changes when every post needs someone to stand behind it.
The raw-spread specialist, audited on its own published numbers. The pricing story holds up under conversion; the entity structure and the support desk are where the red pen goes.
More brokers than ever publish average spreads and commission schedules side by side. The number that matters is still the one nobody prints: the all-in cost, in pips.
Two account types, a published commission schedule, and a serious regulatory footprint — audited to the pip. The pricing adds up; the platform catalogue is where the costs hide.
Pip Bulletin — Brokers, priced to the pip. Every story indexed, numbered, and timestamped.
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