Talk:IG Group

Untitled

IG are a bunch of goddamn cheats

can you prove that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.130.226 (talk) 21:37, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

The article does seem to take a very pro-IG line. Might be worth researching critical stories in the press, etc. There has been talk that they encourage irresponsible gambling, adversely affect the markets and also have serious issues sometimes with unpaid debts, etc. LiberalViews 11:29, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

I have never heard of that. I think you are just being provocative —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.130.226 (talk) 23:25, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

Yes , the article is probably taken care of by IG , there are so many complaints about them in the net but not here —Preceding unsigned comment added by Az-seller (talk • contribs) 20:27, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

--Jayjay520 12:48, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

This IG_Group content sounds and advert content. Should be removed

This page is constantly changed by IG Group employees and the entire negative information is removed.So don't expect anything useful here.

Hi

I work for IG and it was myself who spotted the initial controversial edits by Az-Seller. I sent them a message on Tuesday requesting a discussion about it, which they refused to enter into. It can be seen at user talk:Az-seller. I then felt compelled to remove the libellous material, which has since been replaced by Forexamateur, again without citation. It is this repetition that makes me think the matter should be resolved by a third party. If you would like to talk about it, post on my user page.

Best

Oliver Oliverig 16:33, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

So when these questions are directed to your customer support they will play dumb ass but once the problems get public you suddenly want to "discuss" this? People , just look through the web what people write about IG , you don't need to read wikipedia for this , they will remove any negative content over and over again anyway —Preceding unsigned comment added by Forexamateur (talk • contribs) 17:04, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi Forexamateur, as myself and other users have mentioned, the issue here is uncited, inaccurate and libellous content, which has no place on Wikipedia, not merely negative content. Many thanks, Oliver --Oliverig 09:55, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

So you do not want to deny that IG Group manipulate their customer's positions to drive them into losses? You also do not want to deny that IG Group make profits from their customer's losses and that there are significant malfunctions in the platform? If I was an IG employee I would at least try to deny that.But there is probably nothing to deny... he , he... —Preceding unsigned comment added by Forexamateur (talk • contribs) 18:10, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

I don't see any evidence being offered for any of the allegations above. 81.97.40.235 (talk) 20:39, 10 January 2010 (UTC)

Removal of the entire negative content by an IG employee

Oh yeah , it would be very nice to hear from Oliver what exactly from the text he thinks is not true.The text contained only a small number of facts:

1. IG Group make profits from losses made by their customers

2. IG Group make losses every time their customers take out a profit

3. IG Group have technical problems in their platform which do not allow to open/close/change trades very very frequently and make daytrading nearly impossible

4. IG Group have a special interest in losing customers and reluctance to profitable customers

5. IG Group create an artificial trading environment (at least for Forex and precious metals) in which the orders are not passed on to the market but the customer is trading within IG Group's computer system

Come on Oliver , you work for IG Group and you have removed this information from the Wikipedia article , so which things listed above are not true? I was IG's customer for almost two years so I personally know very well what's going on but this is definitely the first opportunity to hear a public statement from an employee of IG , so far I have only heard from IG that my computer does not fulfil the technical requirements of your trading platform (actually all 3 computers and the laptop) which is why there are all those problems

I will add

6. IG Group are discriminatory and employ people based on their personality rather than their technical merit. Possibly why their site has so many issues.

Removal of this talk page by an IG employee

This entire talk page has been removed by an IG employee , I have reinstated it again.I am not going to put this information into the article again but the neutrality dispute has not been resolved and the talk page must remain active

Sections removed by an IG employee from the article

Below you will find a list of all sections which were removed by an IG employee from the article.I will not put them into the acrticle again.But since the neutrality dispute is ongoing this information should be posted on the talk page so it can be discussed

Platform issues

In recent months there were various complaints from forex traders about technical problems with the internet platform at IG Markets

Many of these complaints suggested that profitable forex traders were put on "manual execution" so the platform did not allow them to change open positions online which slowed down their trading and led to losses

External links

Customer Reviews

• Forex Trading at IG Markets

Unfair business practices

During 2006 and 2007 a significant number of IG Group's clients complained about unfair business practices which included:

- Freezing the platform during volatile market times

- Putting profitable traders on manual execution

- Slowing down the execution of trades

- Not displaying the spread while an order is being placed

- Deliberately widening the spread without notifying the customer

- Creating platform malfunctions to slow down specific customers

The nature of these complaints suggests that IG Group primarily target inexperienced traders and try to get rid of profitable traders using manual execution and various "platform malfunctions".

Furthermore the nature of these complaints suggests that IG Group do not pass on any orders into the market but instead they create an artificial trading environment in which they manipulate their customer's positions in order to profit from their customer's losses.

It is suggested that IG Group's main profits arise from direct losses made by their customers instead from the spread between bid and offer.This creates a very significant conflict of interest between IG Group and their clients.

Foreign exchange trading issues

The biggest number of complaints against IG Group has been made by Forex traders accusing IG Group of manipulating their trades and causing financial losses

Foreign exchange market (unlike the stock market) is an OTC market (Over The Counter) meaning that any broker is able to make their own prices which the client may or may not accept.

IG Group use this difference between Forex and "regulated" financial markets for manipulation of their customer's positions.

The manipulation takes place through various platform malfunctions which are supposed to sabotage the trader's strategy and lead the trader into financial losses.

IG Group are a so-called "dealing desk broker" (DD) , this fact has very significant consequences for anyone trying to trade foreign exchange through IG Group."Dealing desk" means that IG Group create an artificial trading environment in which they manipulate their customer's positions in order to make profits through the customer's losses.Every dollar lost by the Forex trader (while trading foreign exchange through IG Group) becomes direct profit made by IG Group.The customer's orders are not passed on to the market but instead the customer trades within IG Group's computer system.This fact alone makes Forex trading using IG Group identical to gambling in a casino.

This fact does not only create a conflict of interest between IG Group and their clients but it has also a very significant impact on profitable traders using IG Group for Forex trading. The problem is that every profit made by a Forex trader with IG Group becomes IG Group's direct financial loss.This results in IG Group flagging accounts of specific customers and sabotaging their trading success through various methods (manual execution , increased spreads , inability to change open positions online etc.)

Third opinion

First, some comments:

• This article needs a great deal of work. There is no introduction at the top, it is completely uncited, and its tone is not encyclopedic. After reading the article, I'm still not entirely sure what the company does.
• Wikipedia is not the place to air your issues with a company. If you want to have a section called "Criticism," then you must cite sources and verifiable, credible for it. It cannot be built on your own claims. Forexamateur, if so many people have complaints about this company, surely there are some articles in newspapers or magazines to support their claims. Using them will strengthen your argument.

Hope this helps. Let me know if there's anything else I can do. — HelloAnnyong [ t · c ] 13:37, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

4th opinion

It could be argued that the lack of criticism of IG Index is a result of their zeal to threaten to sue unhappy customers that have aired their grievances.

for example see

http://www.igindexarecheats.co.uk

The site had been active for a month or so when IG Index threatened to sue the site owner. He has no idea how they found it. As the site is unfinished he has not yet promoted it.

He suggests that they must google search their company name and negative terms looking for such sites.

Just my two cents worth... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.44.185.90 (talk) 22:59, 29 January 2010 (UTC)

Swiss franc paragraph

The paragraph should be either removed or rewritten to comply with Wikipedia guidelines. Currently, it has no encyclopedic value. The statement that someone was surprised by something is not notable. The statement about complaints to FCA and "half the clients holding out from paying" is not supported by the cited source. Enivid (talk) 08:50, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

now conformed better to the source given. Dormskirk (talk) 12:05, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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Platform crashes section?

The new Platform crashes section doesn't seem to be covering events notable enough to be encyclopedic. Nearly all platforms experience crashes. What makes these stand out? Enivid (talk) 12:36, 3 March 2021 (UTC)

Chair

According to the website the chair is Mike McTighe see https://www.iggroup.com/about-us/leadership/non-executive-board-members Dormskirk (talk) 11:41, 20 June 2022 (UTC)

Yes, I restored the info. Vgbyp (talk) 09:43, 21 June 2022 (UTC)

Founding and early years edit request

Hi, this is Scott, the Head of Social Media at IG Group. I've disclosed my conflict of interest on this page, as well as on my own user page, as I plan to share updated drafts of various subsections of this article.

I'm here to post my first draft that would ideally replace the current Founding and early years (1974- 2000) subsection. The existing subsection lacks solid sourcing (there's only one source for the entire subsection) and content regarding the very early history of the company, something I've attempted to address in the draft you'll see below.

I've added new sources including pieces from The Telegraph, Reuters, and The Guardian. I've added a sentence that states that IG Group was founded as the first spread betting company, which is backed up by the first Reuters piece, and added a follow-up sentence that briefly explains that IG Group allowed customers to trade gold prices.

Additionally, I've slightly rewritten the existing sentence that IG Group was first listed on the stock exchange. Please read below:

Founding and early years (1974 – 2000)

IG Group, founded as IG Index, was founded in 1974 by British financier Stuart Wheeler. IG Index was launched as the first spread betting company. Rather than buying physical gold, the company allowed investors to trade gold prices.

In July 2000, IG Group was formed as a parent company of IG Index and shares first began to be traded on the London Stock Exchange.

References

To any editors who evaluate this request, I truly do appreciate it & will be able to answer any questions. Cheers! IGGroupScott (talk) 08:55, 7 November 2023 (UTC)

 Declined I don't see how this is an improvement. The information is exactly the same, with nothing being corrected per se. Additionally, the section as it exists now is covered adequately by one reference, whereas the edit request proposal would add three more references, for a total of 4 references covering the exact same information. If the currently existing source is inadequate to cover these claims, the COI edit request needs to state which claims. Regards,  Spintendo  03:44, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

I've decided to implement the proposed edit with a minor change. It's different from the original paragraph in that it offers more detail. The new citations also provide references to specific claims, which lacked in the previous version. Vgbyp (talk) 11:46, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for reviewing and implementing the requested edit! IGGroupScott (talk) 16:55, 8 November 2023 (UTC)

Expansion (2001– 2010) edit request

Hello, I'm back on this talk page with a new draft to replace the Expansion section. Similar to my last edit request, I've drafted this revised Expansion section seeking to improve sourcing and to remove claims that had no source.

Specifically, here are the changes I made:

• I've updated the reference for the CVC buyout of IG Group and rewrote the sentence to more accurately reflect the sourcing. I also updated the financial figures of the transactions that are shown in the Financial News piece.

• Similarly, I've updated the FXOnline sourcing to a Reuters piece and reworded the sentence slightly, adding the amount the company was acquired for. I've also moved it down to correctly fit the timeline of events.

• Added a Reuters source for the HedgeStreet acquisition, and pulled back on the sentence explaining what HedgeStreet (renamed to Nadex) does, since the company has its own article where readers can find out more about them.

• Removed the sentence about IG being labeled as a gambling company as it did not have a reference and the claim couldn't be supported.

• Removed the sentence about The Telegraph's warning report about spread betting, as the article and this sentence didn't pertain to IG Group specifically, and reads more as something you'd find on the spread betting article.

• Finally, removed the sentence about the IG Group obtaining permission from the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission to make changes to the company, as the source didn't back up the claim.

Please read below:

Expansion (2001– 2010)

In 2002, IG Group entered the international market for the first time by expanding its business to Australia.

In 2003, private equity firm CVC Capital Partners backed a management buyout of IG Group for a total of £143 million. In April 2005, IG Group stock was brought back to the market valuing the company at £1.3 billion, and CVC sold off 15.1 million IG Group shares worth £58 million.

In 2007, IG Group entered the United States market for the first time by purchasing HedgeStreet, a digital marketplace allowing investors to trade financial derivatives online, for £2.9 million. In June 2009, the company was renamed to Nadex.

In September 2008, IG Group expanded into Japan by purchasing private online exchange trading firm FXOnline for £112 million.

In 2010, IG Index, IG Group's spread betting firm, was hit with a claim for €25 million by three former clients of defunct Scottish trading firm Echelon Wealth Management for unspecified losses.

References

Thank you to any editor who provides feedback on this draft, I'll be around to answer any questions about the draft. Thanks! IGGroupScott (talk) 10:47, 22 November 2023 (UTC)

The proposed changes look good to me, but I'd like to hear opinions of other editors. Vgbyp (talk) 09:14, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Looks OK to me as well. Dormskirk (talk) 09:35, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for reviewing and implementing these changes, I appreciate it! IGGroupScott (talk) 09:39, 24 November 2023 (UTC)

Recent developments draft and updating CEO edit request

Hi, I'm jumping back into this Talk page to post a two-part request: One is a rewritten draft of the Recent developments subsection with updated sourcing, and the other is an update to the CEO position at IG Group.

This Recent developments section draft I've worked on has several updates:

• Shrunk down the first sentence, specifically removing some of the details about extrabet.
• Removed the sentence in the following paragraph about customers accusing IG Group of acting in "self interest" as the claim was unfounded by the Independent source, and the Reuters source is a broken link so I removed it.
• Removed the quote in the following sentence about the ombudsman ruling, replacing it with a sentence pointing to the mere fact that there was a ruling in favor of customers, and kept the Bloomberg source as is. The quote felt overly long and relied too much on the sourcing.
• Removed the sentence about Peter Hetheringon criticizing the FCA, as it doesn't specifically pertain to IG Group.
• Also removed the paragraph about the FCA questioning binary bets, as this also doesn't pertain to IG Group.
• Removed the two long quotes from the director of IG corporate affairs as they were not represented in the Telegraph sourcing or appropriate for the article as they were direct words from an IG representative.
• Slightly shrunk the sentence about IG Group launching Smart Portfolio with BlackRock, replacing the current Investment Week source with a Finance Magnates report. Also added a new sentence that states this was the first time IG Group entered the wealth management field, which is backed up by the Finance Magnates source.
• Made the sentence about IG US its own sentence, and added a very brief explanation of what it is.
• Removed the sentence about June Felix, as this information already exists in other parts of the article.

Please read below:

Recent developments (2011–present)

In July 2011, IG Group shut down its sports betting service extrabet after they could not find a buyer. In September 2014, the company launched its own online stockbroking platform offering 4,500 stocks.

In January 2015, the Swiss National Bank announced it was abandoning the cap of the swiss franc, and roughly a few hundred IG customers were negatively financially impacted. IG customers incurred losses of £18.4 million after it happened, and customers who lost money considered taking legal action against IG Group. In October 2015, the U.K.’s ombudsman ruled that IG Group was to compensate customers who lost money.

In September 2016, IG Group acquired the foreign exchange trading news and research porta DailyFX from FXCM for $40 million. Later, in December, Peter Hetheringon, the CEO of the company, criticized the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK after it announced new measures to overhaul the industry, publicly blaming the regulator for weakness in some aspects of implementation and its lack of understanding of what the proposed changes could bring.

In January 2017, IG Group withdrew its binary options "sprints" betting product to new customers. The decision came after the company lost £1bn in value after the Financial Conduct Authority revealed new measures on spread betting.

In April 2017, IG Group partnered with BlackRock to launch IG Smart Portfolio, which includes model investment portfolios and asset allocation guidance from BlackRock. This move marked the first time IG joined the field of wealth management.

In February 2019, IG Group launched a new subsidiary IG US, which offers foreign exchange trading.

References

Additionally, IG Group announced that Breon Corcoran would be the company's next CEO. If an editor could add Breon as the CEO to the infobox on the article, that would be fantastic.

If editors have any questions about either of the proposed changes, please let me know and I'll be able to respond. Thank you! IGGroupScott (talk) 10:07, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

References

Hi - The proposed changes seem to involve the deletion of some important material. I would prefer to see the retention of the material explaining the background to the shut down of extrabet and the withdrawal from the binary options betting market. Other editors may also wish to comment. Dormskirk (talk) 11:06, 12 December 2023 (UTC)

Hi, thank you for the feedback. What was removed from the important material you're referring to simply wasn't backed up by the sourcing.

I see that the Bloomberg piece explains that shutting down extrabet cost 5.3 million pounds in charges to IG, and was shut down due to sales shrinking down to 2.5% which was half its sales from the year prior. This seems like something we could add for more of an explanation of the closure.

As far as the withdrawal from the binary options betting, the explanation given in my draft seems to be fair in pulling information from The Telegraph source, that the practice was shut down after new measures from the FCA were instituted clamping down on spread betting. If there is anything specific you'd like me to add here to the draft, please let me know.

Again, thank you for the response! IGGroupScott (talk) 16:33, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

Yes, if you could draw from the Bloomberg piece, that would be helpful. I am OK with the rest if other editors are. Thanks. Dormskirk (talk) 17:59, 13 December 2023 (UTC)

I've added more details about extrabet using the Bloomberg piece. Hopefully, this new draft below works:

Recent developments (2011–present)

In July 2011, IG Group shut down its sports betting service extrabet after they could not find a buyer. The service was shuttered due to its sales shrinking down to 2.5%, which was half its sales from the year prior. The closure cost IG Group 5.3 million pounds in charges to the company.

In September 2014, the company launched its own online stockbroking platform offering 4,500 stocks.

In January 2015, the Swiss National Bank announced it was abandoning the cap of the swiss franc, and roughly a few hundred IG customers were negatively financially impacted. IG customers incurred losses of £18.4 million after it happened, and customers who lost money considered taking legal action against IG Group. In October 2015, the U.K.’s ombudsman ruled that IG Group was to compensate customers who lost money.

In September 2016, IG Group acquired the foreign exchange trading news and research porta DailyFX from FXCM for $40 million. Later, in December, Peter Hetheringon, the CEO of the company, criticized the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK after it announced new measures to overhaul the industry, publicly blaming the regulator for weakness in some aspects of implementation and its lack of understanding of what the proposed changes could bring.

In January 2017, IG Group withdrew its binary options "sprints" betting product to new customers. The decision came after the company lost £1bn in value after the Financial Conduct Authority revealed new measures on spread betting.

In April 2017, IG Group partnered with BlackRock to launch IG Smart Portfolio, which includes model investment portfolios and asset allocation guidance from BlackRock. This move marked the first time IG joined the field of wealth management.

In February 2019, IG Group launched a new subsidiary IG US, which offers foreign exchange trading.

References

Thank you for taking the time to review and provide feedback! If there are any further questions or concerns, I'll be here to answer.IGGroupScott (talk) 15:22, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

I see that both user:Kind Tennis Fan and user:Dormskirk both made edits to the page just before I posted this updated draft with the requested further use of the Bloomberg piece. If either of you have the time to evaluate the draft I proposed above, that would be great.

Additionally, the changes that were made to the article seem to have created a duplicate sentence of "In October 2018, IG Group appointed June Felix as CEO." If an editor could remove the second use of this sentence, that would be very helpful. Again, thank you so much. IGGroupScott (talk) 17:35, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

The revised draft is OK with me. Dormskirk (talk) 17:49, 21 December 2023 (UTC)

I'm opposed to the topic heading "Recent developments", as this section will become MOS:DATED in due time. I also have a problem with Golovtchenko's articles written for Finance Magnates, all of which essentially repeat company talking points so that a large portion of this section is essentially the company talking about itself. If the claims linked to those sources were removed and the heading was revised, this would be an acceptable replacement for that section. Regards,  Spintendo  06:52, 25 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks to both of you for the feedback on this. In regards to Spintendo's concerns, I've created a new version of this draft that replaces the Golovtchenko Finance Magnates source with an Investment Week source, and have renamed the section. Please read below:

2011–present

In July 2011, IG Group shut down its sports betting service extrabet after they could not find a buyer. The service was shuttered due to its sales shrinking down to 2.5%, which was half its sales from the year prior. The closure cost IG Group 5.3 million pounds in charges to the company.

In September 2014, the company launched its own online stockbroking platform offering 4,500 stocks.

In January 2015, the Swiss National Bank announced it was abandoning the cap of the swiss franc, and roughly a few hundred IG customers were negatively financially impacted. IG customers incurred losses of £18.4 million after it happened, and customers who lost money considered taking legal action against IG Group. In October 2015, the U.K.’s ombudsman ruled that IG Group was to compensate customers who lost money.

In September 2016, IG Group acquired the foreign exchange trading news and research porta DailyFX from FXCM for $40 million. Later, in December, Peter Hetheringon, the CEO of the company, criticized the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK after it announced new measures to overhaul the industry, publicly blaming the regulator for weakness in some aspects of implementation and its lack of understanding of what the proposed changes could bring.

In January 2017, IG Group withdrew its binary options "sprints" betting product to new customers. The decision came after the company lost £1bn in value after the Financial Conduct Authority revealed new measures on spread betting.

In April 2017, IG Group partnered with BlackRock to launch IG Smart Portfolio, which includes model investment portfolios and asset allocation guidance from BlackRock. This move marked the first time IG joined the field of wealth management.

In February 2019, IG Group launched a new subsidiary IG US, which offers foreign exchange trading.

References

I would also like to point to something I made note of in this thread previously, there is a duplicate sentence about former CEO June Felix that appeared after the last edit request was implemented. If anybody could fix that by removing the second sentence, that would be wonderful. Thank you so much! IGGroupScott (talk) 21:43, 3 January 2024 (UTC)

Hi, jumping back into this thread to thank user:Vgbyp for fixing the duplicate sentence issue, and acknowledge that I've reopened this request.

If you have any time to evaluate the draft above, I would appreciate it. Another editor who has been active on this article is user:Dormskirk, if they have any interest in evaluating this draft. Thank you so much! IGGroupScott (talk) 11:18, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

I think I have now reflected the discussions above but if anything is now actually incorrect please let us know. But please keep it concise as this getting quite a long thread now. Dormskirk (talk) 11:36, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Thank you user:Dormskirk for implementing those changes. One last bit and we can end this long thread: In the fourth paragraph of the Further development section, the word "portal" is misspelled as "porta", would it be possible for you to correct this error? Again, thank you so much. IGGroupScott (talk) 16:38, 30 January 2024 (UTC)