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IG Group runs an online trading platform where people bet on the price movements of stocks, currencies, and other assets without actually owning them.
IG Group is a British online trading platform where ordinary people can place bets on whether the price of something — a stock, a currency, gold, or an index — will go up or down, without ever owning the thing itself. Most of this happens through financial contracts called CFDs, short for contracts for difference: you and the platform agree to swap the difference between the price when you open the trade and the price when you close it. If you guessed right, IG pays you; if you guessed wrong, you pay IG. The company also offers spread betting, a similar product that is popular in the UK because winnings are tax-free there, and plain stock trading for customers who want to actually buy shares.
The people who use IG are mostly individual retail traders, though it also serves institutional clients. The business earns money in a few ways: a spread (a small gap between the buy and sell price that acts like a built-in commission), overnight financing charges on leveraged positions, and fixed commissions on stock trades. Leverage is central to the appeal — a trader can put down a small deposit and control a much larger position, which magnifies both gains and losses. That is also the company's biggest vulnerability: regulators across Europe and elsewhere have cracked down on how these products are sold to small investors, forcing IG to tighten rules, limit leverage, and warn customers that most of them lose money. IG was founded in 1974 by Stuart Wheeler, who started it as a business taking bets on the price of gold. It grew from that niche into the world's leading listed player in retail derivatives trading, with its home base in London and offices spread across Europe, Australia, Singapore, and the United States. Competitors include Plus500, CMC Markets, and brokers like Interactive Brokers and Charles Schwab on the stock-trading side. What sets IG apart is scale, brand trust, and a long track record — it is the name many UK traders learn first, and it spends heavily on marketing and technology to stay in front.
The company is heavily regulated, and that is both a moat and a headache. Licenses are hard to get, which keeps out fly-by-night rivals, but new rules can shrink the pool of customers or how much they can bet. IG has expanded into the US and into newer products to keep growing. It also returns lots of cash to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks — a sign that the business generates more money than it needs to reinvest, and a quiet admission that its main markets are mature.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026