IG Group is an online trading provider with , active traders, [2] offering access to spread betting and CFD trading, which allow traders to bet on the direction of equities, bonds and currencies without owning the underlying assets. IG is regulated by the FCA, the UK's financial authority body. The company was founded in by Stuart Wheeler as a spread betting business under the name IG Index an abbreviation for I nvestors G old Index which allowed people to trade gold prices as an index instead of buying the physical commodity.

In July , shares in the newly named IG Group plc were first listed on the London Stock Exchange. In July , IG Group commenced trading in Australia after a change in the country's financial services legislation made it possible to offer contracts for difference to Australian residents.

In May , after two years of private ownership, IG Group and CVC Capital Partners re-floated the company on the main list of the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £ million. In , it purchased HedgeStreet , a small US based company that developed an electronic marketplace that allows online retail investors to trade financial derivatives.

It renamed this the North American Derivatives Exchange or NADEX and has been attempting to use this to develop a product that looks like its binary option "digital s" product but that meets the US financial regulations and can be offered to retail traders. In , IG has also been labeled as a gambling company by some of authoritative media.

The Telegraph's warning report stated that although such spread-betting companies as IG have been regulated by the UK financial regulator, "no amount of regulation will help you if you get your bets wrong, so in that respect there is no doubt it is risky, and you should make sure you know what you are doing before you get involved".

In June , IG Markets shut down its traditional fixed-odds sports service extrabet, which had an emphasis on in-play betting. The fixed odds sport service was shut down to focus on financial wagers, after failing to find a buyer for the whole unit. In January , the Swiss National Bank announced that it would be discontinuing its minimum exchange rate policy.

IG customers incurred losses of £ They accused the company of breaching UK regulations by acting out of self-interest and alleged a failure by company to provide the best execution to everyone.

In December , the FCA questioned whether binary bets "serve a genuine investment need" and defined them as more akin to gambling. Aside from most consumers losing money, the FCA's other concerns included the addictive nature of binary options betting, and inherent conflicts of interest. In January , IG group announced their decision on withdrawal of the binary options betting product, admitting that the arrival of the regulator to the market would significantly worsen the company's state of affairs.

The director of IG corporate affairs stated: "I think that product will come under regulatory pressure in the future. That does not influence our view — it's simply a fact. In April , IG Group launched IG Smart Portfolios — a suite of ETF investment portfolios created in partnership with BlackRock , marking the company's first move into online wealth management.

Following his tenure as Chief Financial Officer, Tim Hawkins was appointed CEO in October , retiring 9 years later in He later stepped down in September In October , IG Group appointed June Felix as CEO. derivatives exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission encompassing short term binary options. In , IG partnered with Teach First to train 16 teachers in STEM subjects Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This partnership was extended to create a £2 million fund supporting children in disadvantaged areas, specifically affected by the negative impacts of the Covid pandemic on the education system.

IG's Brighter Future Fund launched in early at the start of the Covid pandemic, focusing on the education and development of young people irrespective of race, gender or socioeconomic background. In , IG Group consolidated its business in the UK under one brand, IG.

IG Group is now, therefore, the sole trading name of the operating companies: [42]. In , FinanceFeeds and Financial Magnates reported that IG Group's system, supposedly accustomed to low volatility periods, faced frequent outages at the time of higher-than-usual trade volumes. FinanceFeeds also mentioned that during the January outage, IG Group provided no customer support up to not answering the phone calls but immediately reacted to request for commentary to protect its public image and deny the issues raised by the clients.

In February , IG Group and 34 other brokers and hedge funds were targeted by an antitrust class action lawsuit for allegedly conspiring against non-professional investors when GameStop short squeeze took place. According to the plaintiff, the defendants hatched an uncompetitive scheme to limit the trading of certain securities after the failure of their highly speculative short-selling strategies, thus violating state antitrust laws.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. British online trading company. Traded as. LSE : IGG FTSE component. Operating income. Net income. Main article: Environmental, social and corporate governance. Main article: GameStop short squeeze. IG Group. Retrieved 17 February Retrieved 14 June Retrieved 4 June Financial Conduct Authority.

Retrieved 9 July Archived from the original PDF on 24 February Retrieved 10 May The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January Financial Times. China Post. You bet". Retrieved 31 March The Times. Retrieved 20 September Retrieved 31 July Governments issue only bonds, whereas companies often issue both equity and bonds. The main entities purchasing the bonds or stock include pension funds , hedge funds , sovereign wealth funds , and less commonly wealthy individuals and investment banks trading on their own behalf.

In the secondary market, existing securities are sold and bought among investors or traders, usually on an exchange , over-the-counter , or elsewhere. The existence of secondary markets increases the willingness of investors in primary markets, as they know they are likely to be able to swiftly cash out their investments if the need arises.

A second important division falls between the stock markets for equity securities, also known as shares, where investors acquire ownership of companies and the bond markets where investors become creditors. The money markets are used for the raising of short-term finance, sometimes for loans that are expected to be paid back as early as overnight. Funds borrowed from money markets are typically used for general operating expenses, to provide liquid assets for brief periods.

For example, a company may have inbound payments from customers that have not yet cleared, but need immediate cash to pay its employees.

When a company borrows from the primary capital markets, often the purpose is to invest in additional physical capital goods , which will be used to help increase its income. It can take many months or years before the investment generates sufficient return to pay back its cost, and hence the finance is long term.

Together, money markets and capital markets form the financial markets , as the term is narrowly understood. In the widest sense, it consists of a series of channels through which the savings of the community are made available for industrial and commercial enterprises and public authorities. Regular bank lending is not usually classed as a capital market transaction, even when loans are extended for a period longer than a year. First, regular bank loans are not securitized i. they do not take the form of a resaleable security like a share or bond that can be traded on the markets.

Second, lending from banks is more heavily regulated than capital market lending. Third, bank depositors tend to be more risk-averse than capital market investors. These three differences all act to limit institutional lending as a source of finance. Two additional differences, this time favoring lending by banks, are that banks are more accessible for small and medium-sized companies, and that they have the ability to create money as they lend.

In the 20th century, most company finance apart from share issues was raised by bank loans. But since about there has been an ongoing trend for disintermediation , where large and creditworthy companies have found they effectively have to pay out less interest if they borrow directly from capital markets rather than from banks.

The tendency for companies to borrow from capital markets instead of banks has been especially strong in the United States. According to the Financial Times , capital markets overtook bank lending as the leading source of long-term finance in , which reflects the risk aversion and bank regulation in the wake of the financial crisis. Compared to in the United States, companies in the European Union have a greater reliance on bank lending for funding.

Efforts to enable companies to raise more funding through capital markets are being coordinated through the EU's Capital Markets Union initiative. When a government wants to raise long-term finance it will often sell bonds in the capital markets. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, many governments would use investment banks to organize the sale of their bonds. The leading bank would underwrite the bonds, and would often head up a syndicate of brokers, some of whom might be based in other investment banks.

The syndicate would then sell to various investors. For developing countries, a multilateral development bank would sometimes provide an additional layer of underwriting , resulting in risk being shared between the investment bank s , the multilateral organization, and the end investors.

However, since it has been increasingly common for governments of the larger nations to bypass investment banks by making their bonds directly available for purchase online. Many governments now sell most of their bonds by computerized auction.

Typically, large volumes are put up for sale in one go; a government may only hold a small number of auctions each year. Some governments will also sell a continuous stream of bonds through other channels. The biggest single seller of debt is the U. government; there are usually several transactions for such sales every second, [c] which corresponds to the continuous updating of the U.

real-time debt clock. When a company wants to raise money for long-term investment, one of its first decisions is whether to do so by issuing bonds or shares. If it chooses shares, it avoids increasing its debt, and in some cases the new shareholders may also provide non-monetary help, such as expertise or useful contacts.

On the other hand, a new issue of shares will dilute the ownership rights of the existing shareholders, and if they gain a controlling interest, the new shareholders may even replace senior managers.

From an investor's point of view, shares offer the potential for higher returns and capital gains if the company does well. Conversely, bonds are safer if the company does poorly, as they are less prone to severe falls in price, and in the event of bankruptcy, bond owners may be paid something, while shareholders will receive nothing.

When a company raises finance from the primary market, the process is more likely to involve face-to-face meetings than other capital market transactions.

Whether they choose to issue bonds or shares, [d] companies will typically enlist the services of an investment bank to mediate between themselves and the market. A team from the investment bank often meets with the company's senior managers to ensure their plans are sound. The bank then acts as an underwriter , and will arrange for a network of brokers to sell the bonds or shares to investors.

This second stage is usually done mostly through computerized systems, though brokers will often phone up their favored clients to advise them of the opportunity. Companies can avoid paying fees to investment banks by using a direct public offering , though this is not a common practice as it incurs other legal costs and can take up considerable management time.

Most capital market transactions take place on the secondary market. On the primary market, each security can be sold only once, and the process to create batches of new shares or bonds is often lengthy due to regulatory requirements. On the secondary markets, there is no limit to the number of times a security can be traded, and the process is usually very quick.

Sometimes, however, secondary capital market transactions can have a negative effect on the primary borrowers: for example, if a large proportion of investors try to sell their bonds, this can push up the yields for future issues from the same entity. An extreme example occurred shortly after Bill Clinton began his first term as President of the United States; Clinton was forced to abandon some of the spending increases he had promised in his election campaign due to pressure from the bond markets [ citation needed ].

In the 21st century, several governments have tried to lock in as much as possible of their borrowing into long-dated bonds, so they are less vulnerable to pressure from the markets. Following the financial crisis of —08 , the introduction of quantitative easing further reduced the ability of private actors to push up the yields of government bonds, at least for countries with a central bank able to engage in substantial open market operations.

A variety of different players are active in the secondary markets. Individual investors account for a small proportion of trading, though their share has slightly increased; in the 20th century it was mostly only a few wealthy individuals who could afford an account with a broker, but accounts are now much cheaper and accessible over the internet.

There are now numerous small traders who can buy and sell on the secondary markets using platforms provided by brokers which are accessible via web browsers. When such an individual trades on the capital markets, it will often involve a two-stage transaction. First they place an order with their broker, then the broker executes the trade. If the trade can be done on an exchange, the process will often be fully automated. If a dealer needs to manually intervene, this will often mean a larger fee.

Traders in investment banks will often make deals on their bank's behalf, as well as executing trades for their clients. Investment banks will often have a division or department called "capital markets": staff in this division try to keep aware of the various opportunities in both the primary and secondary markets, and will advise major clients accordingly.

Pension and sovereign wealth funds tend to have the largest holdings, though they tend to buy only the highest grade safest types of bonds and shares, and some of them do not trade all that frequently.

According to a Financial Times article, hedge funds are increasingly making most of the short-term trades in large sections of the capital market like the UK and US stock exchanges , which is making it harder for them to maintain their historically high returns, as they are increasingly finding themselves trading with each other rather than with less sophisticated investors. There are several ways to invest in the secondary market without directly buying shares or bonds.

A common method is to invest in mutual funds [f] or exchange-traded funds. It is also possible to buy and sell derivatives that are based on the secondary market; one of the most common type of these is contracts for difference — these can provide rapid profits, but can also cause buyers to lose more money than they originally invested.

There is no universally recognized standard for measuring all of these figures, so other estimates may vary. A GDP column is included as a comparison. A great deal of work goes into analysing capital markets and predicting their future movements. This includes academic study; work from within the financial industry for the purposes of making money and reducing risk; and work by governments and multilateral institutions for the purposes of regulation and understanding the impact of capital markets on the wider economy.

Methods range from the gut instincts of experienced traders, to various forms of stochastic calculus and algorithms such as Stratonovich-Kalman-Bucy filtering algorithm. Capital controls are measures imposed by a state's government aimed at managing capital account transactions — in other words, capital market transactions where one of the counter-parties [g] involved is in a foreign country.

Whereas domestic regulatory authorities try to ensure that capital market participants trade fairly with each other, and sometimes to ensure institutions like banks do not take excessive risks, capital controls aim to ensure that the macroeconomic effects of the capital markets do not have a negative impact. Most advanced nations like to use capital controls sparingly if at all, as in theory allowing markets freedom is a win-win situation for all involved: investors are free to seek maximum returns, and countries can benefit from investments that will develop their industry and infrastructure.

However, sometimes capital market transactions can have a net negative effect: for example, in a financial crisis , there can be a mass withdrawal of capital, leaving a nation without sufficient foreign-exchange reserves to pay for needed imports.

On the other hand, if too much capital is flowing into a country, it can increase inflation and the value of the nation's currency, making its exports uncompetitive. Countries like India employ capital controls to ensure that their citizens' money is invested at home rather than abroad. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Business Business cycle Businessperson Capital Capital accumulation Capital markets Company Corporation Competitive markets Economic interventionism Economic liberalism Economic surplus Entrepreneurship Fictitious capital Financial market Free price system Free market Goods and services Investor Invisible hand Visible hand Liberalization Marginalism Money Private property Privatization Profit Rent seeking Supply and demand Surplus value Value Wage labour.

Economic systems. Anglo-Saxon Authoritarian Corporate Dirigist Free-market Humanistic Laissez-faire Liberal Libertarian Market Mercantilist Mixed Monopoly State National Neoliberal Nordic Private Raw Regulated market Regulatory Rhine Social State State-sponsored Welfare.

Economic theories.

IG Group is an online trading provider with , active traders, [2] offering access to spread betting and CFD trading, which allow traders to bet on the direction of equities, bonds and currencies without owning the underlying assets.

IG is regulated by the FCA, the UK's financial authority body. The company was founded in by Stuart Wheeler as a spread betting business under the name IG Index an abbreviation for I nvestors G old Index which allowed people to trade gold prices as an index instead of buying the physical commodity.

In July , shares in the newly named IG Group plc were first listed on the London Stock Exchange. In July , IG Group commenced trading in Australia after a change in the country's financial services legislation made it possible to offer contracts for difference to Australian residents.

In May , after two years of private ownership, IG Group and CVC Capital Partners re-floated the company on the main list of the London Stock Exchange with a valuation of £ million. In , it purchased HedgeStreet , a small US based company that developed an electronic marketplace that allows online retail investors to trade financial derivatives.

It renamed this the North American Derivatives Exchange or NADEX and has been attempting to use this to develop a product that looks like its binary option "digital s" product but that meets the US financial regulations and can be offered to retail traders.

In , IG has also been labeled as a gambling company by some of authoritative media. The Telegraph's warning report stated that although such spread-betting companies as IG have been regulated by the UK financial regulator, "no amount of regulation will help you if you get your bets wrong, so in that respect there is no doubt it is risky, and you should make sure you know what you are doing before you get involved". In June , IG Markets shut down its traditional fixed-odds sports service extrabet, which had an emphasis on in-play betting.

The fixed odds sport service was shut down to focus on financial wagers, after failing to find a buyer for the whole unit. In January , the Swiss National Bank announced that it would be discontinuing its minimum exchange rate policy. IG customers incurred losses of £ They accused the company of breaching UK regulations by acting out of self-interest and alleged a failure by company to provide the best execution to everyone.

In December , the FCA questioned whether binary bets "serve a genuine investment need" and defined them as more akin to gambling. Aside from most consumers losing money, the FCA's other concerns included the addictive nature of binary options betting, and inherent conflicts of interest.

In January , IG group announced their decision on withdrawal of the binary options betting product, admitting that the arrival of the regulator to the market would significantly worsen the company's state of affairs. The director of IG corporate affairs stated: "I think that product will come under regulatory pressure in the future.

That does not influence our view — it's simply a fact. In April , IG Group launched IG Smart Portfolios — a suite of ETF investment portfolios created in partnership with BlackRock , marking the company's first move into online wealth management.

Following his tenure as Chief Financial Officer, Tim Hawkins was appointed CEO in October , retiring 9 years later in He later stepped down in September In October , IG Group appointed June Felix as CEO.

derivatives exchange regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission encompassing short term binary options. In , IG partnered with Teach First to train 16 teachers in STEM subjects Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This partnership was extended to create a £2 million fund supporting children in disadvantaged areas, specifically affected by the negative impacts of the Covid pandemic on the education system. IG's Brighter Future Fund launched in early at the start of the Covid pandemic, focusing on the education and development of young people irrespective of race, gender or socioeconomic background.

In , IG Group consolidated its business in the UK under one brand, IG. IG Group is now, therefore, the sole trading name of the operating companies: [42]. In , FinanceFeeds and Financial Magnates reported that IG Group's system, supposedly accustomed to low volatility periods, faced frequent outages at the time of higher-than-usual trade volumes.

FinanceFeeds also mentioned that during the January outage, IG Group provided no customer support up to not answering the phone calls but immediately reacted to request for commentary to protect its public image and deny the issues raised by the clients. In February , IG Group and 34 other brokers and hedge funds were targeted by an antitrust class action lawsuit for allegedly conspiring against non-professional investors when GameStop short squeeze took place.

According to the plaintiff, the defendants hatched an uncompetitive scheme to limit the trading of certain securities after the failure of their highly speculative short-selling strategies, thus violating state antitrust laws.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. British online trading company. Traded as. LSE : IGG FTSE component. Operating income. Net income. Main article: Environmental, social and corporate governance. Main article: GameStop short squeeze. IG Group. Retrieved 17 February Retrieved 14 June Retrieved 4 June Financial Conduct Authority. Retrieved 9 July Archived from the original PDF on 24 February Retrieved 10 May The Telegraph.

Retrieved 31 January Financial Times. China Post. You bet". Retrieved 31 March The Times. Retrieved 20 September Retrieved 31 July The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 April Retrieved 15 August Finance magnates. Retrieved 10 June Bloomberg L. Retrieved 22 October Finance Magnates. Retrieved 5 January Retrieved 15 December Retrieved 27 January Retrieved 2 October Investment Week.

Retrieved 1 June Retrieved 31 October Finance Magnates Financial and business news. Retrieved 9 April Retrieved 7 June Retrieved 6 June com Buys IG's Stake in Citadel, Peak6-Backed Exchange". Retrieved 1 May Retrieved 26 May Retrieved 3 March com in Spanish.

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February 9, The Wall Street Journal via MarketWatch. Download as PDF Printable version. Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate. A spot transaction is a two-day delivery transaction except in the case of trades between the US dollar, Canadian dollar, Turkish lira, euro and Russian ruble, which settle the next business day , as opposed to the futures contracts , which are usually three months. In terms of trading volume , it is by far the largest market in the world, followed by the credit market.

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