Worked example

Practising on IG Group's numbers

This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that IG Group publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.

The figures we are working from

Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.

Exercise one — turn the spread into money

The spread is the gap between the price you can buy at and the price you can sell at, and you pay it the instant you enter. IG Group publishes 0.6 pips on EUR/USD. On its own that number means nothing. Here is how it becomes money.

Compare this broker's 0.6 pip EUR/USD figure against the "from" number in its own advertising.

Exercise two — read the account ladder

Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. IG Group offers 4 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.

1. CFDThe entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
2. Spread bettingA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
3. Share dealingA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
4. ProfessionalA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.

Account names as published: CFD, Spread betting, Share dealing, Professional. Platforms listed: Proprietary web platform, MT4, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer, Mobile apps.

Exercise three — what this licence list means for you

A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are IG Group's lines, each with a plain reading.

The record behind these numbers

• IG states it was founded in 1974 as the world's first spread betting firm.
• IG Group Holdings plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange under ticker IGG.
• IG Markets Limited is authorised by the FCA with firm reference number 195355.
• IG Bank S.A. is authorised as a bank and securities dealer by FINMA in Switzerland.
• IG's US retail FX business operates as tastyfx LLC, an NFA member (NFA ID 0509630).
• IG Group Holdings plc announced on 30 July 2026 that it has agreed to acquire Underdog (Underdog Sports Holdings, Inc.), a leading US daily fantasy sports and prediction markets operator, for total consideration of up to approximately $1.3 billion (https://www.iggroup.com/investor-relations/press-releases/2026/acquisition-of-underdog).
• FINRA's published disciplinary actions for July 2026 include an Acceptance, Waiver and Consent in which tastytrade, Inc. (fka tastyworks, Inc., CRD #277027, Chicago, Illinois), a US brokerage subsidiary of IG Group, was censured and fined $200,000 for failing to report at least 71 written customer complaints and related supervisory failures (https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/2026-07/disciplinary-actions-july-2026.pdf).

pipdojo.com does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.