City Index Review 2020

Founded by Johnathan Sparke and Chris Hales in September 1982, City Index offered spread betting since March 1984, while CFD trading was added in 2001. In 2005 the company acquired the IFX Group and one year later opened offices in Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. Enjoying the major success, the company also acquired FX Solutions in 2008 and gained entrance into the US market, while the first CFD trading and spread betting via iPhone became available in 2009. More success followed, and by 2012, the six-week web Trading Academy training program taught online trader’s valuable information and demonstrated that with the right discipline, dedication, education, and technical supports anyone could enjoy great profits once they possess a better understanding of the financial markets.

Gain Capital owned by Michael Spencer acquired City Index in 2014 for $118 million. Gain Capital is a Bedminster, USA based company, offering multi-asset liquidity access, electronic communication network trading and white label partnerships, while it also handles massive trade volumes on a monthly basis worth around $501.2 billion and employs well over 800 people from around the globe. Gain Capital is listed as GCAP on the New York Stock Exchange and is regulated in nine jurisdictions, while City Index, currently operates in the Middle East, Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Trading as Gain Capital UK Ltd, City Index’s head office is based in London, while Gain Capital UK Ltd is registered in Wales and England, regulated and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. The company is regulated in several jurisdictions including Japan FSA, NFA & CFTC in the United States, IIRO in Canada, FCA in the UK, SFC in Hong Kong, MAS Singapore, CIIMA in the Cayman Islands and ASIC Australia. City Index is regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority and participates in the FCA compensation scheme to enable claimants should the company be unable to meet any financial obligations.

City Index offers trading on the go via its flexible Android trading app as well as its intuitive iPhone App. The mobile apps can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play and are compatible with most devices while offering access to CFD trading on more than 4.500 global company stocks, bonds, interest rates, and commodities such as food, gas, oil and more.

City Index is FCA regulated and authorised and with over thirty years of CFD, FX trading and spread betting provide online traders with an award-winning platform, easy and secure withdrawals and support are offered via experienced managers. The company received multiple awards for its exceptional services including the Best Tablet App, Best MT4 Broker, Best Spread Betting platform and Best Spread Betting Services. Its list of 2018 awards include Best Cryptocurrency Trading Platform and Best CFD Provider.

Obtaining a City Index trading account is both easy and quick, information needed includes personal details. The account options include spread bet, CFD accounts or both in one account. City Index recommends that anyone new to online trading should take advantage of their demo account option, and accounts can be opened from any country. Documentation required includes proof of address via mortgage statements, credit card statements, council tax bill, or utility bills not older than three months, plus identity documents. Once the account is opened and funded, trading can commence immediately.

A City Index demo account offers online traders the option to experience no risk trading for MT4, CFD and spread betting. The demo account offers unlimited access to more than 12,000 markets across a period of twelve weeks and offers a starting risk-free balance of $10,000. Once the 12-week demo trading account expires, online traders are free to apply for another demo account, should more training time be needed.

Professional trader status acceptance qualifies online traders for a switcher bonus worth $1,000. The new professional trader bonus can be claimed from the 18th of December 2018.

The initial deposit required to activate your City Index FX account is $500, while deposits can be made via bill payment, cheques, debit cards, credit cards, PayNow, and internet banking. PayNow is offered via several participating banks, which includes UOB, Standard Chartered Bank, OCBC Bank, Maybank, Industrial& Commercial Bank of China Limited, HSBC, Citibank, POSB/DBS, and Bank of China in Singapore.

City Index is a world leader in CFD, FX and Spread Betting and provides online traders with more than 12,000 markets, including commodities, shares, indices and forex. Established in 1983, the company enjoyed massive success and become one of the most preferred multi-asset brokers in the United Kingdom. Gain Capital Holdings acquired City Index in 2015 and with its commitment to offer traders fair, transparent and market-leading services, the company further assisted City Index, to increase its services via offices in Australia, UAE and Singapore.

With more than thirty years of experience, City Index offers traders with a wide range of products including spread-betting derivatives, CFDs, while its forex offerings were further expanded due to the acquisition of Finspreads, IFX Markets and FX Solutions. As an independent brand, City Index operates under Gain Capital and offers multi-asset solutions to international traders including more than 10,000 products and recently launched cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

A suite of trading platforms including Meta, Trader 4, AT Pro and Advantage Web is currently made available by City Index. The markets include over 12,000 CFD and Spread bet markets in the UK, over 4,500 CFD markets including shares, forex, indices, and commodities in Singapore and Australia and more than 100 CFD markets including commodities, forex and indices in the Middle East.

The execution technology used by City Index was created to provide traders with a competitive edge, and the index-enable clients to utilise unrealised profits and use it for new positions, maximising trading resources. With future roll-over discounts, traders can roll over future trade, automatically to pay only half of the spread, meaning their position closes at mid-price and then re-opens at the offer in next contracts. Hedging on order tickets allows the trader to go short and long simultaneously. What further improve your chances of profiting is that City Index executes orders at a better price, should it moves in favour of the order during processing.

Forex trading enables users to trade in JPY/USD, USD/GBP and USD/EUR, and as the most traded market in the world, it sees over $5 trillion traded daily. Voted the best Spread Betting Platform by ADVFN in 2017, City Index offers a 0.5 points tight spread and trading on 84 international FX pairs. The company also offers trading on more than 45 other markets including interest rates, metals and bonds, while market spreads on gold are around 0.3.

Traders wishing to fund their City Index account via debit cards or credit cards, need to register the card prior to funding their account. All transfers via debit/credit cards ensure instant fund clearance and the minimum transaction for SGD-based accounts is 250, while USD-based account is 250 USD.

All card transactions are subject to a 2% fee. NETS payments are only available to traders residing in Singapore. Only cheques made payable to Gain Capital Singapore PTE Ltd is accepted and the trading account number needs to be written on the back of the cheque before it is mailed to the address displayed in the cashier section.

City Index process withdrawals quickly and has set the minimum withdrawal at $50 and its maximum per single withdrawal transaction at 20,000. Credit card withdrawals are also limited to $20,000 within a 24-hour period and take between 3 to 5 days via debit or credit cards, while bank transfers can take up to 2 banking days.

City Index offers support via its live online chat option, email and telephone, while the trader can also be followed on multiple social media platforms including Google +, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Apart from the general FAQ, the website also offers informative articles explaining CFD trading, spread betting, how to trade forex and CFDs as well as comparing share dealing to spread betting. The help & support section offers assistance in account management, managing trades, placing orders, cryptocurrency trading including CFD and spread bets, account funding, and withdrawals.

Three platform suites are offered by City Index. These include two proprietary technology one is from MetaTrader4 and the other MetaQuotes Software Corporation. Further information is offered via the MetaTrader guide. Apart from the MT4, while online traders can use the AT Pro desktop-based software, which comes with more than 100 pre-loaded strategies. The web-based version of AT Pro available on tablets and smartphone is Advantage Trader, which is aimed at the experience or professional traders since it offers a range of advanced functions.

The AT Pro desktop option features over 140 technical indicators, which is way more than the standard industry offerings. Members also have access to more than 25 tools including multiple retracements, Fibonacci, channels and Gann lines and this is extra to the trend lines and bare essential charting. One thing that does impress is how easy and convenient it is to trade with City Index. The website offers searching options for all its products starting from creating a watch list for comparing products. The option also features spread-betting instruments, CFDs and forex pairs.