Is Tickmill a good FX broker?
There is a high number of FX brokers out there some more serious than others and some that are truly scammers. But… how can you tell if a broker such as Tickmill is solid or not? There are many ways to: regulation, years in the market and reviews are only a few of them.
In this article we will go into several aspects that we consider every client should look up if they choose to work with a broker such as Tickmill. Should you open an account with them? That would be for you to decide but we will present all the data that you need to make an informed decision.
About Tickmill Forex Broker
The company was founded in 2014 in Seychelles (an island in Oriental Africa). By January 2015, the company absorbed all the retail business of Armada Markets as Armada assured that they would only focus on providing liquidity and services to hedge funds, brokers and banks.
On 2016, Tickmill decided to expand its business and got an office in UK to obtain a regulation from the FCA. The regulation and the office both exist until this day according to the FCA’s website.
Not satisfied with this, Tickmill decided to invest in an FX retail broker called Vipro Markets Ltd in late 2017. Tickmill injected US$2.2 million as new capital and got the majority stake in the company.
The company seems to be growing both in clients and in revenue. Last year the company reported an annual revenue of US$8.6 million.
Company’s Regulation
The holding runs different firms under the different regulations:
- Tickmill UK Ltd: This company is under FCA regulation (License number 717270).
- Tickmill Ltd Seychelles: This company is under Seychelles’ FSA regulation (License number SD008).
- Tickmill Europe Ltd: This company is under CySEC regulation (License number 278/15).
Products offered by Tickmill
The company offers the following products:
- Forex: It has 62 FX crosses to trade with.
- Indexes: The company offers 15 global indexes and an index on WTI.
- Metals: With Tickmill you can invest in Silver and in Gold.
- Bonds: It has 4 bonds that you can trade with.
- Cryptos*: The only crypto offered is the BTC/USD cross.
(*) Cryptos are only offered by Tickmill UK and Seychelles, Tickmill Europe doesn’t offer that.
Types of Accounts
The company offers 6 types of accounts with different conditions. We will see more about each one of them:
Demo Account
A demo account is a free-of-charge account where you can use fake money to simulate transactions in the different instruments that the broker offers. It’s a great way to know the market conditions that the broker offers. It’s free. You just must register, and you can download it.
Classic Account
As its name says it this is a standard account. Some characteristics of this account are:
- You can deposit as few as US$100.
- Your account will be in USD, EUR, GBP or PLN.
- The minimum spread is 1.6 pips.
- Maximum leverages are 1:30 & 1:500 *.
- Minimum size of lots is 0.01.
- US$0 commissions per lot.
(*) Max. leverage of 1:30 is only for clients of Tickmill Europe or Tickmill UK. Max. leverage of 1:500 is only for clients of Tickmill Seychelles.
Pro Account
This account has several similarities with the previous one but instead of having a high spread you will have low spreads, but you will pay a commission per every lot that you trade. Some characteristics of this account are:
- You can deposit as few as US$100.
- Your account will be in USD, EUR, GBP or PLN.
- The minimum spread is 0.0 pips.
- Maximum leverages are 1:30 & 1:500 *.
- Minimum size of lots is 0.01.
- US$2 commissions per lot.
(*) Max. leverage of 1:30 is only for clients of Tickmill Europe or Tickmill UK. Max. leverage of 1:500 is only for clients of Tickmill Seychelles.
Vip Account
The VIP account targets traders with big capital as the minimum amount that you need to deposit to get this account is much higher than the previous ones that we have mentioned.
Account’s conditions:
- Minimum deposit of US$50,000.
- Your account will be in USD, EUR, GBP or PLN.
- The minimum spread is 0.0 pips.
- Maximum leverages are 1:30 & 1:500 *.
- Minimum size of lots is 0.01.
- US$1 commissions per lot.
(*) Max. leverage of 1:30 is only for clients of Tickmill Europe or Tickmill UK. Max. leverage of 1:500 is only for clients of Tickmill Seychelles.
Professional client
This is not a type of account per se but since the implementation of ESMA this year, clients have been separated into 2 groups: retail clients and professional clients.
Take in consideration that this only affects the companies regulated in Europe. This means that this affects only Tickmill Europe and UK but not Tickmill Seychelles.
So, clients from Tickmill Europe or UK that wants to get more than 1:30 in leverage will have to register as professional clients. However, to be accepted as a pro-client you need to meet at least 2 of these 3 points:
- You have been trading at least 10 lots per quarter during the last 4 quarters.
- You have a portfolio or capital equal or higher than 500,000 euros.
- You have worked in a financial company for at least a year in a position where you had to know about financial transactions or trading.
Islamic Accounts
This is a type of account that comes from Classic, Pro or VIP account. Islamic accounts don’t include swap. So, you can have a Classic Islamic Account, for example.
Trading Platforms
Tickmill doesn’t have a wide variety of platforms. According to their website they only offer MT4 in two formats:
- The .exe program that you can install in your computer and;
- The Web Trader platform.
There is not much to be said about MT4 as it’s the standard platform for trading FX and other instruments. It’s currently the most used platform and it has been developed by the company MetaQuotes.
Several brokers use only MT4 and MT5 in their companies as they only must pay a flat fee to use it and another fee that you pay from time to time so that you can have your own labeled MT4 platform for your clients.
Features of Tickmill
One of the key advantages for clients is that the broker is NDD, this means that trades go directly to liquidity providers as the broker doesn’t has its own dealing desk. This allows the broker to offer as low as 0.00 pips for Pro or VIP accounts. This feature is not as great for IB’s as the commissions you’ll get for the lots traded by your clients will be quite low compared to Market Maker brokers.
Another interesting feature is that the broker allows traders to hedge or to scalp (many brokers don’t allow this) so, if you are a trader that uses one of these trading styles you are in good hands with Tickmill.
It seems that Tickmill is also a good place for Money Managers as it offers MAM accounts with interesting benefits. If you have a portfolio of clients, you may benefit from this if you trade their accounts or if you are interested in doing so.
Education / Training
The education that the broker provides it’s not outstanding but from experience almost no broker offers “great” education.
However, the information shared by Tickmill does cover a ground base for new traders that are eager to understand some of the basics of the FX market.
The company has a section called “Education” where you can see some webinars, videos and articles related to FX basics that will help you to better understand where you are getting into.
Deposit / Withdrawal Methods
The broker offers several deposit / withdrawal methods such as:
- Payment & Money Transfer companies such as Skrill, Neteller, Fasapay and UnionPay.
- Debit and Credit cards.
- Wire Transfer.
The deposits are instant while the withdrawals are processed within 24 hours. However, your money can take up between 3 to 7 days to reach to your account if you are doing a Wire Transfer and it can take up to 8 days if you’ve asked a withdrawal with debit/credit card.
It’s important that you know that with the ESMA implementation, brokers under European supervision must return funds back to source. This means that if you use Card A to deposit you should also withdraw your money to that Card A.
Customer Support
The company has customer support both in UK and Seychelles, so you should have no problem getting in contact with that area. You can also write them through the chat channel that they have in their website or you can call the phones for UK or Seychelles.
Customer support usually response fast and it usually doesn’t take more than 24 hours to get a response, unless is the weekends where it can take up a little bit longer.
Bonus offers and Loyalty Programmes at Tickmill
The bonuses and other promotions of Tickmill are only available for clients registered under Tickmill Seychelles. This is because the ESMA implementation in Europe eliminated all bonuses. No broker in Europe that receives clients from countries that are part of the UE can offer this kind of promotions to their clients.
For clients under Seychelles’ FSA regulation there is a welcome bonus of US$30. All you must do to get this bonus is to open a real account with Tickmill Seychelles and ask for the bonus. ( Some countries are not eligible for this bonus )