Tickmill Review

Overview

Tickmill is a CFD and ETD broker that was established in 2014, with global operations and offices in different locations, such as London, Limassol and Cape Town. As a global broker, it is regulated by several entities, including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in the EU.

One reason that active traders like Tickmill is the low spreads and fees it offers. A low-cost trading environment that has earned it continuous recognition. The many different options to deposits and withdrawals, make the funding of an account a seamless experience.

On the downside there is a limited number of assets available for trading. Trading platforms offered are MetaTrader 4 and 5 MetaTrader 5. There is also a mobile app available that allows to keep track of the balance, while managing one’s documents.

Tickmill Pros and Cons

Pros

• Regulated by the FCA
  
  
• Low spreads and fees
  
  
• MetaTrader 4 and 5 have the desktop, mobile, and web platform

Cons

• No proprietary trading platform
  
  
• No two-factor authentication for greater security
  
  
• United States citizens and residents not accepted as clients.

Tickmill Group figures

Broker Regulation

Tickmill is regulated across 5 different jurisdictions. In the UK the broker is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under registration number 717270.

European traders fall under the regulation of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), with license number 278/15. The broker also complies with the Financial Instruments Directive 2014/65/EU or MiFID II.

Other jurisdictions fall under the regulation of the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA) under license number SD008. In all cases deposits are fully segregated, and clients also benefit from negative balance protection across all entities.

Tickmill is also regulated by the Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) in Malaysia and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa.

Tickmill Account types

There are three account types offered at Tickmill:

Classic

This is the basic level account with a minimum deposit of $100 and access to 62 currency pairs as well as a variety of indices, commodities, and bonds. The Classic account comes with no commissions and variable spreads that start at 1.6 pips.

Pro

This account has extremely low spreads starting at 0 pips, while a commission of 2 units (depending on the currency) per side per 100,000 traded. No commission is applied for Stocks, Indices, Bonds and Oil.

VIP

This is the top tier account, made specifically for high volume traders. With a minimum balance requirement of $50,000, clients at the VIP level get 0 pip spreads, commissions of just 2 currency units per round trip for forex trades, and no commissions on CFD indices, oil and bonds.

Tickmill’s Account Overview

Additionally in November, 2020 Tickmill launched also trading in Futures (currently available to clients of Tickmill UK Ltd)

The clients can trade Futures across 7 global exchanges such as CME, CBOT, NYMEX, EUREX, COMEX, ICE Europe and SMA with a wide range of contracts covering commodities, precious metals, currencies, bonds and stock indices.

In addition to the live accounts, Tickmill also has a demo account available where clients can test the MT4 and CQG platforms and the trading conditions of the broker without risking losses. Demo accounts are free and anyone is able to open one and test Tickmill’s trading conditions. Traders who follow the Islamic religion can make use of a swap-free Islamic account.

Tickmill Trading Platforms

The only platforms offered at Tickmill are the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, long touted as the world’s leading forex trading platform. It is a common choice, although some newer traders claim that the platform is outdated, and the user interface needs to be updated.

Tickmill Assets Selection

Though the variety may not be enough to some, Tickmill does offer the possibility to diversify across different asset classes. Tickmill’s customers can trade the following CFD assets:

• 62 Currency pairs.
  
  
• 97 Stocks.
  
  
• 17 Indices.
  
  
• 6 Commodities.
  
  
• 9 Cryptocurrencies.
  
  
• 8 Bonds.
  
  

In November, 2020 Tickmill launched also Futures trading (currently available to clients of Tickmill UK Ltd). Clients can trade Futures across 7 global exchanges such as CME, CBOT, NYMEX, EUREX, COMEX, SMA and ICE Europe with a wide range of contracts covering commodities, precious metals, currencies, bonds and stock indices.

Tickmill Education and Research

The blog at Tickmill is one of the best educational resources provided by the broker. It is populated by eleven market experts who provide traders with market commentary and research on a regular basis. There are four sections and including basic Articles clients can also delve into Technical and Fundamental analysis, as well as Market Insights.

The addition of this educational resource is well appreciated, and the presentation of subjects is quite comprehensive. Plus, the content is regularly updated throughout the day, which we felt was one example of the excellent service provided by Tickmill.

There’s more than just the blog though. Tickmill also offers video tutorials, seminars and webinars, eBooks, and other educational content in several languages. Webinars happen weekly in different languages and are free to attend.

The video library is particularly comprehensive, and contains material in English, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, and German. The only complaint is that these videos are not arranged by language, which sometimes makes it difficult to find content in your preferred language amidst all the videos.

Tickmill Customer Service

Customer service is available 24/5 via email or web form. In addition to the webform and email, clients are also welcomed to use an online chat function or to call directly by telephone. In addition, there is a detailed FAQ on the website that can answer most basic questions. Telephone and chat support from the Seychelles office is available Monday through Friday from 7:00 to 16:00 GMT, while telephone and chat support from Malaysia are Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 17:00 MST.

• Phone: +852 5808 2921 (Seychelles) or +6087 504 565 (Malaysia)
  
  
• Webform: Contact Us Form
  
  
• Email: support@tickmill.com

In Conclusion

As a well-respected and regulated broker Tickmill provides excellent service to its clients. Given that the primary offerings are forex pairs it makes sense that Tickmill chose MetaTrader as main platform, since it is well known as the premier forex trading platform.

While the Classic account avoids commissions, many traders might want to consider the Pro account and its commission structure in order to take advantage of significantly lower spreads.

Tickmill stands out for its educational offerings, particularly the market commentary and education provided by the eleven experts that make up its research team.

Traders may want to give the broker a try to take advantage of its incredibly low spreads, and blazing fast execution speeds. One challenge that Tickmill will have to face in the future, in order to stay competitive, will definitely be an alternative to MetaTrader, as it’s currently the only platform it offers to CFD traders, and a wider offering in terms of symbols.

While there is clearly a vast amount of untapped potential at Tickmill, management should find a way to access that potential in an effort to attract new traders and retain existing ones.