I have been trading CFDs in Australia since they were first introduced in 2003. Over this period I have traded with all of the main CFD providers in Australia first hand. When talking to groups of traders at investing expos and seminars all-around Australia I frequently get asked who’s the best CFD provider? I wrote this review to help answer this million dollar question.

This review covers all the major CFD providers in Australia that I’ve traded with first hand, whilst writing this review I took into consideration four major factors which as a professional trader I feel are the critical requirements to think about when choosing a CFD provider, these are:

1. Customer Service
2. Platform stability and ease of use
3. Product range
4. Pricing

It is very important to note that there are CFD provider evaluations conducted by a variety of internet sites and magazines in Australia most of which are biased with the winners frequently being selected by journalists not traders and determined by the amount of cash spent on marketing and advertising in the magazine or on the website that carried out the review. Only real traders with real life experiences are able to carry out a fair an unbiased review.

The major players in the CFD industry in Australia are:

· IG Markets
· CMC Markets
· International Capital Markets (IC Markets)
· MF Global

I didn’t carry out a review of Etrade or Comsec as these organizations are purely resellers of MF Global’s CFD offering.

In this review I discuss my real life experiences with every one of the companies mentioned above whilst taking into consideration the 4 essential elements that I view as crucial when deciding on a CFD provider.

IG Markets
Customer Service: I have had an account with IG Markets for the previous three years I use this account as my backup account. Over this time I have found that their customer support has declined considerably, in-fact at on one occasion I was unable to reach a dealer as they were all busy. In general I consider their customer service to be inadequate and would not recommend them.

Platform stability and ease of use: I use both their Pure Deal and L2 platforms and have had troubles with both. Recently I experienced the problem of being unable to view my positions and free equity stopping me from trading all morning. I would not consider either of their platforms as suitable for a professional trader.

Product range: IG Markets has a good product range, this is certainly one of their strong points. One thing I would say is that if you are looking to trade CFDs on exotic futures contracts and foreign exchange pairs IG Markets is certainly not the CFD provider for you as they have a tendency to stick with a fairly mainstream offering.

Pricing: On Australian share CFDs IG Markets has competitive pricing, their minimum commission on share CFDs is low and their spreads are tight on the main currency pairs, however if you are an active trader and are searhing for volume discounts don’t bother trying to negotiate with IG Markets their commission schedule is fixed.

CMC Markets
Customer Service: Out of all of the CFD providers that I’ve ever traded with I have found CMC Markets to have the worst customer support, with CMC Markets your problems start from the moment you call them up for support and select a number from 1 to 10 just to speak to someone. I have also found their support staff to possess only a basic knowledge of their trading platform. General queries and problems continually must be escalated to more senior staff, not the sort of support a professional trader demands.

Platform stability and ease of use: In recent times the stability of their trading platform Market Maker has improved a lot, however the platform still lacks functionality such as course of sales for share CFDs, something a professional trader demands.

Product range: CMC’s product range is broad and not dissimilar to that of IG Markets though it is worth noting that CMC offers a good range of CFDs over exotic futures contracts and forex pairs, exactly what is missing from IG Markets product offering.

Pricing: Like IG Markets CMC markets provides good entry level pricing but lacks the pricing flexibility required when it comes coping with high volume traders.

International Capital Markets (IC Markets)
Customer Service: I had not heard about these guys until about one year ago. After calling them up and speaking to one of their sales staff I thought I would give them ago. My experience to this point has been second to none. Their customer support is top notch. Despite the size of my account I have my own dedicated account manager that understands the market and what I want, this is incredibly different to the call centre operations of IG and CMC Markets.

Platform stability and ease of use: They offer a variety of trading platforms to cater for a diverse range of clients. They have got a trading platform for learners, intermediate and advanced traders. As I’m an experienced trader I selected their advanced platform Pro Deal which provides all of the functionally an experienced trader needs. Though I cannot speak for all of their trading platforms their advanced trading platform continues to be problem free and I would unquestionably recommend it to anyone.

Product range: All of the products absent from the two major providers such as futures, DMA functionality and exotic currency pairs are offered by these guys. Whilst writing this review I couldn’t think of a product that these guys couldn’t offer.

Pricing: Like many of the CFD providers reviewed these guys offer excellent entry level pricing, however the difference with these guys is that they also have a flexible pricing structure for frequent traders. As I’m an active day trader they were willing to drop their minimum charge and offer me a commission rate of 0.04% on DMA CFDs, the best rate offered to me by the other providers was 0.08%, they are 50% more affordable!

MF Global
Customer Service: At the start I thought that these guys would take the cake on the customer service front, however regrettably their high level of service did not last for more than one week after funding my trading account, this was quite surprising and not something that I’d have expected. Once I was up and trading these guys did not want to know me, this sort of customer support leads me to rate them as the worst of the lot.

Platform stability and ease of use: These guys offer one platform for CFDs, webIRESS. Although webIRESS is a superb trading platform they do not offer anything else, compared to IC Markets who offer webIRESS as well as many other platforms. Their offering is basic and not what an expert trader demands.

Product range: MF Global can give you all the futures contracts you could ever ever think of however when it comes to forex, CFD and share trading they cannot compete with the likes of IC Markets. If it’s only futures you want than these are the guys to speak to, but for CFDs you should give them a miss.

Pricing: The entry level pricing for CFD trading at MF Global is pricey, they do however offer packages for frequent traders with discounts right down to 0.08%, this is still a far cry from the 0.04% offered by IC Markets. Although the CFD commission charges are costly I am sure that if you were only trading futures you could potentially get some great pricing from MF Global

Conclusion
As a professional trader I am quite demanding in what I expect from my CFD provider, I’m sure that this isn’t the norm for most traders. There was actually just one CFD provider from those reviewed that was able to give me what a professional trader would demand, the rest of the CFD providers have great offerings that might suit an regular trader but when pushed to their limits might falter, this is something a professional trader cannot afford to have occur when capital is on the line. Apart from my primary choice IC Markets I’d chose IG Markets as my backup, despite their shortfalls they do have relatively good trading platform along with a broad product range. There’s however a huge difference in customer service and pricing of IG Markets offering compared to my primary choice, IC Markets.