The LSE Directory / CFD and forex brokers
IronFX is a retail forex and CFD broker offering trading on more than 200 instruments spanning six asset classes: forex (80-plus currency pairs), spot metals, spot indices, commodities, futures and shares. Clients trade through MetaTrader 4 on web, desktop and mobile, choosing between Live accounts and STP/ECN account types with floating or fixed spreads; the broker advertises leverage of up to 1:1000. IronFX is a trade name used by the Notesco group; the corporate entity behind the brand, Notesco Financial Services Limited (formerly registered as IronFX Global Limited and IronFX Limited), was incorporated in Limassol, Cyprus on 12 January 2010 under company number HE260651. IronFX targets retail traders internationally, with its own site listing customer support in 14-plus languages and explicitly excluding residents of the United States, Australia, and several sanctioned jurisdictions. It differentiates itself in the crowded CFD-broker category mainly through multi-entity regulatory coverage rather than platform or pricing innovation: it holds a Cyprus Investment Firm licence from CySEC (licence 125/10, granted 16 November 2010), operates a UK entity authorised by the FCA (FCA reference 585561), holds a licence from South Africa's FSCA, and serves other international clients through an entity authorised by the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (Notesco (BVI) Limited, Investment Business Licence SIBA/L/24/1175). Client funds are held in segregated accounts, with compensation-scheme coverage varying by the entity a client is onboarded to (up to £85,000 under the UK FSCS, up to €20,000 under the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund). The company was co-founded by Markos A. Kashiouris, who has served as CEO since March 2011 and as Chairman since February 2013; he previously worked at JPMorgan and Commerzbank Securities in London. IronFX's official UK site states it is "trusted by 1.2 million retail clients from over 180 countries" and cites more than 40 industry awards to date. From 2014 to 2017 IronFX Global was an official partner of FC Barcelona, with worldwide sponsorship and marketing rights to the club's brand outside Spain; that sponsorship expired in 2017 and was not renewed. IronFX's UK site discloses that 59.72% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with the provider, a standard regulatory risk warning for FCA-authorised CFD brokers. More recently, Kashiouris has expanded into proprietary trading, launching a separate prop-trading brand, Ultimate Traders, operated by a UK-registered company (Ultimate Traders Evaluation Ltd, incorporated February 2023) in which he holds the majority stake; this is a distinct venture from IronFX itself.
