Review Sections:
Please Note: TickMill was not included in the 2019 annual review. As a result, this broker's ratings may be outdated. Read our Best Forex Brokers 2019 guide for a look at the top rated forex and CFDs brokers.
Founded in 2015, Tickmill has emerged as an up-and-coming MetaTrader broker. In addition to Forex, Tickmill offers traders CFDs on Bonds, Energy, Indexes, Metals and Cryptocurrencies.
Tickmill was founded after Armada Markets moved its retail clients to Tickmill’s entity in Seychelles, which is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Tickmill then acquired an additional regulatory license in the UK under a new entity to expand its reach.
The Tickmill brand is also the trading name of TMILL UK Ltd, which is regulated in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with passports throughout the EU under MiFID regulations.
In 2017, Tickmill acquired Vipro Markets, a broker regulated in Cyprus by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC), further broadening the scope of its offering.
Is Tickmill Safe?
Tickmill is considered average-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 81out of 99. Tickmill is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Tickmill is authorised by one tier-1 regulator (high trust), one tier-2 regulator (average trust), and one tier-3 regulator (low trust). Tickmill is authorised by the following tier-1 regulator: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Learn more about Trust Score.
Regulations Comparison
| Feature | TickMill | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2015 | 1974 | 1992 | 1989 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Bank | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 1 | 6 | 6 | 4 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Trust Score | 81 | 99 | 98 | 98 |
Offering of Investments
The following table summarizes the different investment products available to TickMill clients.
| Feature | TickMill | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forex: Spot Trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Currency Pairs (Total Forex pairs) | 62 | 91 | 182 | 183 |
| CFDs - Total Offered | 23 | 15000 | 32999 | 9959 |
| Cryptocurrency traded as actual | No | No | No | No |
| Cryptocurrency traded as CFD | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Offering of Investments |
Commissions & Fees
Tickmill offers three accounts. The Classic account is a commission-free account, in which traders just pay the bid/ask spread. The other two accounts, PRO and VIP, are both commission based and have a per-trade commission added to lower prevailing spreads.
While the VIP account requires a minimum balance of $50,000 for traders to access low commissions of $1.6 per standard lot (100k units) or $3.2 per Round-Turn (RT), the PRO account has similar pricing with an RT commission of just $4 per standard lot, and can be established with as little as $25.
With a low commission rate, the PRO account will be more ideal for most traders compared to the Standard account, as spreads are inherently lower and 80 instruments, including 62 currency pairs, can be accessed.
Using typical spread data listed by Tickmill for its ECN PRO account offering of 0.2 pips for the EUR/USD, the all-in cost equates to 0.52 pips when factoring in the RT commission equivalent of 0.32 pips. It is worth noting that Tickmill records typical spread data during normal market conditions (when spreads are narrower).
With a low commission rate, the PRO account will be more ideal for most traders compared to the Standard account, as spreads are inherently lower and 80 instruments, including 62 currency pairs, can be accessed. Meanwhile, active traders are eligible for further discounts, depending on their trading volumes in the VIP account, giving TickMill competitive all-around pricing.
| Feature | TickMill | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Initial Deposit | $25.00 | £250.00 | $2,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | N/A | 0.750 | 0.900 | 0.744 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.600 | 0.363 | 0.600 | 0.744 |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Commissions & Fees |
Customer Service
For our 2018 Forex Review, 129 customer service phone tests were conducted over three months. The data collected is institutional grade. On average, three questions were asked for each test. To score each test, the tests were divided into three separate groups and scores were given for the time taken to connect with each support representative and the ability of each representative to professionally (and thoroughly) answer each question. A Net Promoter Score was also given for the overall experience.
Results:
- Average Connection Time: <1 minute
- Average Net Promoter Score: 6 / 10
- Average Professionalism Score: 3.6 / 10
- Overall Score: 5.8 / 10
- Ranking: 35th (43 brokers)
Research
Tickmill offers several third-party research solutions, including Autochartist, which is a popular pattern-recognition software that uses automated technical analysis to make forecasts and generate trading signals. Auto chartist is available via Tickmill’s web portal and as a platform plugin for MetaTrader.
In addition to the native Signals market available in MT4, Tickmill also offers the AutoTrade feature of Myfxbook for social copy trading. Myfxbook also powers the firm’s economic calendar. In addition, TickMill offers margin, pip, and currency calculators, as well as VPS hosting, which is useful for algorithmic traders using MT4.
Aside from news headlines streaming in the trading platform and Autochartist, TickMill has a team of several analysts that produce technical and fundamental analysis posts on the company’s blog throughout the trading week.
To complement its research, Tickmill also offers archived webinars and educational videos, alongside news updates on its YouTube page.
All variables considered, Tickmill finished 29th out of 43 brokers in our 2018 Review.
| Feature | TickMill | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Weekly Webinars | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AutoChartist | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No | No | No | Yes |
| Delkos Research | No | No | No | No |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Economic Calendar | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Research |
Platforms & Tools
Tickmill is a MetaTrader-only broker. This means it offers products from the suite of platforms from MetaQuotes Software Corporation, developer of the very popular MT4 and MT5 platforms for desktop, mobile, and web. For more about MetaQuotes, read our fullMetaTrader guide.
While MetaTrader 4 (MT4) comes standard, with little that varies from broker to broker on the surface of the platform (besides range of markets), there can be significant differences in how the platform is set up for trading spreads and commissions, the available execution methods, and other tools, features, and administrative areas that can affect your trading experience.
Besides spreads, the range of instruments, and account types, here is a summary of the differences in features between TickMill’s available MT4 platform setup and the default MetaTrader experience:
- News headlines stream from ForexLive
- MT4 installation file wrapped in Windows Emulator for MAC OS Installation
- Client’s account type will determine the spreads and any applicable commissions.
| Feature | TickMill | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy-Trading | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | No | No | No | No |
| cTrader | No | No | No | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 51 | 22 | 47 | 81 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 31 | 17 | 17 | 24 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 | 12 | 12 | 8 |
| Order Type - Trailing Stop | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Platform & Tools |
Mobile Trading
Since TickMill is a MetaTrader-only broker, iOS and Android versions of the MT4 app come standard and are both available for download from the Apple iTunes store and Android Play store, respectively.
| Feature | TickMill | IG | Saxo Bank | CMC Markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Android App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trading - Forex | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Trading - CFDs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watch List | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Watch List Syncing | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies | 30 | 26 | 41 | 23 |
| Charting - Draw Trend Lines | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Trend Lines Moveable | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Charting - Drawings Autosave | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Forex Calendar | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile Trading |
Other Notes
Compared to brokers that act as market makers (dealers), Tickmill acts as an agency broker in the UK (matched principal) relying on other dealers to execute each trade.
TickMill’s agency model provides traders with market execution and with no re-quotes – a quality that may or may not suit some trading styles, as positive and negative slippage can occur as trades are filled.
In addition, the broker allows clients to place pending orders with no minimum distance away from the current market price – a nice feature. It is worth noting that pending orders will count towards the maximum quota of 200 orders per client account (and a max of 100 lots per order).
When traders open an account with Tickmill, they can choose the firm’s entity regulated in the UK or its offshore entity regulated in Seychelles, or even the group’s new brand, Vipro Markets. The main difference between these entities is each country’s regulations governing the client account agreement. The spreads and trading costs are much the same between Tickmill brands, although Vipro Markets may differ (note: we did not assess Vipro Markets during this review).
It’s also worth noting that the Autotrade feature available from Myfxbook is only accessible from Tickmill’s Seychelles entity, and EU-based clients are restricted to only open an account with the UK entity (therefore, Myfxbook is not available to Tickmill’s EU clients).
Lastly, Tickmill launched Bitcoin trading against the US Dollar as a CFD, via the BTC/USD pair, although this is only available for trading during the normal session and not during the weekends like the underlying cryptocurrency markets.
Final Thoughts
While TickMill’s VIP account requires a minimum of $50,000 for traders to access deeper discounts on their all-in costs (spreads plus commission), this is comparable to active trader offerings in the industry. Also, like other brokers, Tickmill takes it a step further and offers further discounts for VIP account holders who trade actively, helping to meet the pricing demands of active traders.
That said, the PRO account closely resembles the VIP account in terms of commission costs, and comes at a fraction of the deposit requirement, making it a compelling choice. I do not recommend the Classic account as the PRO seems a better alternative in terms of all-in pricing.
All in all, traders seeking an MT4 broker that permits a wide array of automated strategies and offers agency execution as a matched principal – and with competitive pricing – will want to choose TickMill’s FCA-regulated entity. On the other hand, clients in other jurisdictions may opt for the firm’s offshore entity, which offers similar pricing and trading products/platforms. Tickmill finished 29th overall out of 43 brokers in our 2018 Review.
Methodology
For our 2018 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 43 international forex brokers. Each FX broker was graded on 140 variables. Learn more.
Forex Risk Disclaimer
"There is a very high degree of risk involved in trading securities. With respect to margin-based foreign exchange trading, off-exchange derivatives, and cryptocurrencies, there is considerable exposure to risk, including but not limited to, leverage, creditworthiness, limited regulatory protection and market volatility that may substantially affect the price, or liquidity of a currency or related instrument. It should not be assumed that the methods, techniques, or indicators presented in these products will be profitable, or that they will not result in losses." Learn more.
About the author: Steven Hatzakis Steven Hatzakis is the Global Director of Research for ForexBrokers.com. Steven previously served as an Editor for Finance Magnates, where he authored over 1,000 published articles about the online finance industry. Steven is an active fintech and crypto industry researcher and advises blockchain companies at the board level. Over the past 20 years, Steven has held numerous positions within the international forex markets, from writing to consulting to serving as a registered commodity futures representative.
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Ratings Overall
Summary
Commissions & Fees
*TickMill did not participate in the 2017 Online Broker Review, as a result the following data may not be up to date.
Commission Notes
Across Tickmill’s three account types the Classic is commission free, with clients paying just the spread, whereas the PRO and VIP have a per-trade commission added to lower prevailing spreads. Below is an overview of the general differences:
- Classic account: In this commission-free account spreads are wider compared to the other commission-based account types.
- PRO account: This commission-based account charges $2 per side per 100K (1 standard lot), which equates to $4.0 per standard Round Turn (RT), and added to lower prevailing spreads with a typical spread of 0.2 pips listed by TickMill for the EUR/USD.
- VIP account: This commission-based account charges $1.6 per side per standard lot ($3.2 per RT) and spreads can be even lower than the PRO account, making this account ideal for active traders as the deposit requirement is higher.
