London Capital Group is a UK based CFDs broker with a FCA licence. The company is even listed on the AIM index of the London Stock Exchange giving it additional credibility since public companies have to be transparent in their business. In our review, we found that the biggest strength of this broker is the amount of underlying assets – markets one can access with their platforms. Its rarely that one sees so much available assets to trade CFDs on. We don’t really see many cons for LCG. The most obvious one is that the dynamic spread and leverage structure of the offering might confuse beginners. The broker offers two types of platform and no minimum deposit which many might find very attractive.
Account Features
LCG does not really require any special minimum deposit to attain any type of account, however the difference is the minimum account balance that has to be maintained while trading. There is no list that helps traders compare the accounts on the website.
The CFDs trading account is the most common one. This account includes all the types of underlying assets to trade, either with web based LCG trader or with the MT4 platform. The platforms are available on all devices. The account also includes many types of analysis and education resources. We don’t really see anything special to highlight here.
If the trade wants an ECN account – meaning they want variable spreads and their trades executed on the market (which in cases of pricing can create issues of its own) they will have to make sure they contact LCG customer support and ask for one. In order to coply with the rules, they need to maintain $10,000 balance on their trading account.
LCG Islamic account is essentially a swap-less account. It is free, but the lack of swaps does not mean there are no costs associated. Make sure to check LCG website or talk to someone from their customer help desk to get the details.
Let’s for a moment go back to the minimum deposit thing. LCG asks customers to deposit how much they think they will require in order to trade CFDs based on their favorite assets. It pretty much requires customer to go and figure how much leverage they will use and what the margin will be and to constantly think about maintaining a balance. While this is flexible on the side of the size of the deposit, the customer needs to consult the whole table of assets and tiered spreads by LCG to even decide how much they should start with. Worst case scenario it’s an unnecessary cognitive load. Markets are flexible, spreads and prices will change, and in the end, there are 5000 assets to choose from. Someone without experience will not find this easy so just use some rule of thumb. Bear in mind other brokers mostly have minimum $250 or $100 deposit.
LCG leverage can reach 1:1000, however this is for the top tier, big notional amount traders. For most people in currency trading it will be around 1:200. The leverage is dynamic and changes with the asset and the closeness to the margin call. If you do not have much equity left, the leverage available for future trades will be lower to accommodate this fact.
Trading Software & Assets
Since everyone knows Metatrader4 meanwhile, and if you don’t, we are sure there are more than plenty of resources online, we would like to briefly spend some time with the other platform LCG has to offer to customers. It is their own proprietary platform called LCG Trader and we came to like it a lot.
At some point Steve Jobs quoted someone saying that ones who design their own hardware should also design their own software. With LCG Trader we feel similarly – the platform is designed around the broker’s offering and it fits perfectly.
On the left side is the list of all underlying assets. They are categorized in their asset classes, with shares also being listed per country – so you immediately select the market and choose the stock you want to trade. The markets are:
- US
- Denmark
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Portugal
- UK 100
- UK Mid250
- UK Small Caps
The charts are also awesome and offer many analysis features. Another good thing about the layout of the LCG Traders, as well as with individual charts is the function that allows one to save template/layout. This will allow greater automation of some manual tasks we may be doing every time. Its similar with the overall layout after it was set to best reflect trader’s needs.
Other than with the Web Trader, LCG Trader is available as an app so trading is possible from all kinds of devices. Overall there are about 5000 instruments offered with LCG broker. They come from 7 categories – forex, stocks, indices, commodities, bonds, interest rates, vanilla options.
*we achieved the spread on the live platform with CFDs account.
Support Information
Customer support is available all of the working days through the week. It can be reached via live chat and UK phone numbers. There is also a form online to submit a question. We have seen much more diverse customer support solutions with other brokers, however, meanwhile we believe that live-chat is really enough in most cases. Note the “weekend” is Friday and Saturday for the customer support.
Banking & Company Information
As noted, LCG is registered with FCA in the UK. They do not allow customers from Australia, Belgium, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and United States.
Deposit methods are
- Bank wire: no fees from LCG, probably from your bank
- Visa and MasterCard: Credit cards fee is 2%, 0% for debit cards
- Skrill: no fees
- Neteller: no fees
Withdrawals are free across methods from the side of LCG the payment providers may charge fees.