IG
CMC Markets
FOREX.com
XTB
AvaTrade
Plus500
BlackBull Markets
Tickmill
FP MarketsTickmill Review
Written by Steven Hatzakis
Edited by John Bringans
Fact-checked by Blain Reinkensmeyer
CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
Tickmill has evolved from a plain-vanilla MetaTrader platform provider into a multi-asset broker that offers a growing selection of platforms alongside ultra-competitive spreads on its commission-based VIP and Pro accounts.
-
Minimum Deposit:
$100 -
Trust Score:
83 -
Tradeable Symbols (Total):
725
Can I open an account with this broker?
No, based on your detected country of US, you can't open an account with this broker. Please use our country selector tool to try another country.
Tickmill pros & cons
Pros
- Founded in 2014, Tickmill is regulated in two Tier-1 jurisdictions, one Tier-2 jurisdiction, and one Tier-4 jurisdiction.
- Tickmill makes the full MetaTrader suite available, as well as platform add-ons – putting it in close proximity with the best MetaTrader brokers.
- Pricing for Tickmill’s Pro and VIP account is highly competitive, helping the broker finish 1st overall for Commissions and Fees again for 2023.
- Offers the CQG and AgenaTrader platform for futures and options trading ($1,000 deposit required).
- Tickmill is a solid choice of platform for professional trading.
- Education from the CME, along with interactive sentiment data and website widgets from Acuity Trading help to complement research at Tickmill.
- Tickmill recently introduced Signal Centre, powered by Acuity Trading, to deliver actionable trading signals and research for traders.
Cons
- While its number of markets have recently increased, Tickmill still only offers a limited range of tradeable assets compared to the best forex brokers in our Offering of Investments category.
- Pricing for Tickmill's Classic account is not as competitive.
- The TradingView platform has been discontinued at Tickmill for futures and options trading.
Overall summary
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |
|
| Trust Score | 83 |
| Offering of Investments |
|
| Commissions & Fees |
|
| Platform & Tools |
|
| Research |
|
| Mobile Trading |
|
| Education |
|
ForexBrokers.com has been reviewing online forex brokers for over six years, and our reviews are the most cited in the industry. Each year, we collect thousands of data points and publish tens of thousands of words of research. Here's how we test.
Is Tickmill safe?
Tickmill is considered Trusted, with an overall Trust Score of 83 out of 99. Tickmill is not publicly traded and does not operate a bank. Tickmill is authorised by two Tier-1 regulators (Highly Trusted), one Tier-2 regulator (Trusted), zero Tier-3 regulators (Average Risk), and one Tier-4 regulator (High Risk). Tickmill is authorised by the following Tier-1 regulators: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and regulated in the European Union via the MiFID passporting system . Learn more about Trust Score or see where the different Tickmill entities are regulated.
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Year Founded | 2014 |
| Publicly Traded (Listed) | No |
| Bank | No |
| Tier-1 Licenses | 2 |
| Tier-2 Licenses | 1 |
| Tier-3 Licenses | 0 |
| Tier-4 Licenses | 1 |
Offering of investments
Tickmill offers a total of 725 tradeable symbols encompassing CFDs on currency pairs, indices, metals, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. There are also at least 109 symbols available for futures and options trading which are all accessible through a separate dedicated account. The following table summarizes the different investment products available to Tickmill clients.
Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency trading at Tickmill is available through CFDs, but not available through trading the underlying asset (e.g. buying Bitcoin). Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents.
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Forex Trading (Spot or CFDs) | Yes |
| Tradeable Symbols (Total) | 725 |
| Forex Pairs (Total) | 63 |
| U.S. Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Int'l Stock Trading (Non CFD) | No |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| Cryptocurrency (Physical) | No |
| Cryptocurrency (Derivative) | Yes |
| Disclaimers | Note: Crypto CFDs are not available to retail traders from any broker's U.K. entity, nor to U.K. residents (except to Professional clients). |
Commissions and fees
Tickmill offers three accounts: Classic, Pro, and VIP. Bottom line: Tickmill is best for active and VIP traders, who have access to pricing that competes among the lowest-cost brokers in the industry.
Classic accounts: The Classic account is entirely commission-free – traders only pay the bid/ask spread. However, average spreads for the Classic account are much higher(at 1.76 pips as of August 2023) than Tickmill’s other two account types.
Spreads: Tickmill lists 0.11 pips as a typical spread for the EUR/USD on its Pro account for October 2023. It’s worth noting, however, that the all-in cost actually comes to 0.51 pips when factoring in the RT commission equivalent of 0.4 pips ($2 per side). It is also worth noting that Tickmill records typical spread data during normal market conditions (when spreads are narrower).
Pro account: The Pro and VIP accounts both have a per-trade commission, which is then added to lower prevailing spreads. With its low commission rate, low-cost spreads, and offering of 75 instruments and 62 currency pairs, the Pro account will be ideal for most traders.
VIP versus Pro accounts: Traders that choose Tickmill’s VIP account will need to maintain a minimum balance of $50,000, but will gain access to its low commission of $1 per standard lot (100,000 units) or $2 per Round-Turn (RT) – and effective spreads drop to 0.27 pips after commissions (based on October 2023 average spread data of 0.11 pips on the EUR/USD for Tickmill's VIP account). The Pro account features the same underlying spread and is available with just a $100 deposit, but commissions are twice as high at $4 per round-turn standard lot.
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $100 |
| Average Spread EUR/USD - Standard | 0.51 |
| All-in Cost EUR/USD - Active | 0.31 |
| Active Trader or VIP Discounts | Yes |
| ACH or SEPA Transfers | No |
| PayPal (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
| Skrill (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
| Visa/Mastercard (Credit/Debit) | Yes |
| Bank Wire (Deposit/Withdraw) | Yes |
Mobile trading apps
Tickmill is primarily a MetaTrader broker, with iOS and Android versions of the MT4 and MT5 app available for download from the Apple App Store and Android Play Store. Additional mobile trading apps available at Tickmill include speciality trading platforms for futures and options, such as CQG and AgenaTrader. It’s worth noting that Tickmill has launched a proprietary mobile app strictly for account management purposes (no trading).
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Android App | Yes |
| Apple iOS App | Yes |
| Mobile Alerts - Basic Fields | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 |
| Watchlist Syncing | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 |
| Mobile Charting - Draw Trendlines | Yes |
| Mobile Charting - Multiple Time Frames | Yes |
| Mobile Economic Calendar | Yes |
Other trading platforms
Tickmill continues to cement its status as a multiasset broker, with the launch of MetaTrader 5 from its U.K. and EU entity. Tickmill has also taken the step of including the CQG platform for futures and options trading (U.K.-only), alongside the Mercury-version of the AgenaTrader platform. Tickmill has made real strides in its expansion of platform offerings, putting it in competition with the brokers that lead the industry – despite its lack of a proprietary trading platform.
Platforms overview: Tickmill is a MetaTrader-only broker that offers the standard out-of-the-box experience for MT4 and MT5. The CQG platform is available for futures and options (for U.K. traders). The Agena Trader platform and other third-party applications are also available at Tickmill, with Direct Market Access (DMA) to popular futures exchanges in the U.S. and Europe.
Trading tools: Other notable add-ons are available from FX Blue as part of the Advanced Trading toolkit package, and Tickmill has also included Autochartist integration. VPS hosting – a useful tool for algorithmic traders – is also available at Tickmill. Last but not least, Tickmill offers an API with connectivity to additional 3rd-party trading platforms.
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Virtual Trading (Demo) | Yes |
| Proprietary Platform | No |
| Desktop Platform (Windows) | Yes |
| Web Platform | Yes |
| Social Trading / Copy Trading | Yes |
| MetaTrader 4 (MT4) | Yes |
| MetaTrader 5 (MT5) | Yes |
| DupliTrade | No |
| ZuluTrade | No |
| Charting - Indicators / Studies (Total) | 30 |
| Charting - Drawing Tools (Total) | 15 |
| Charting - Trade From Chart | Yes |
| Watchlists - Total Fields | 7 |
Market research
Tickmill is competitive in its offering of market research and continues to improve in this category each year. That said, Tickmill still can’t compete with industry leaders like IG and Saxo Bank when it comes to depth, personalization, and overall quality.
Research overview: Tickmill produces daily articles on its Expert Blog that cover technical and fundamental analysis, along with video updates published on its YouTube channel. Tickmill’s third-party research tools really shine; the Autochartist plugin allows for automated technical analysis, forex news headlines stream from Investing.com, and Myfxbook powers the broker's economic calendar. Tickmill also delivers content across social media, such as its dedicated FaceBook group and its Telegram channel.
Market news and analysis: Tickmill does a fine job pairing solid market coverage with a good balance of research content. There are articles that focus on technical analysis, paired with offerings like the Weekly Live Markets & Trade Analysis series that analyze market fundamentals. Tickmill also offers archived webinars, technical and fundamental analysis videos, and news updates on its YouTube page – such as its daily Chart Hits series which are quick one-minute updates. Finally, Tickmill provides interactive sentiment data from the CME, and integrated widgets with sentiment data, along with the Signal Centre, for trading signals, powered by Acuity Trading.
Copy trading: Besides the native Signals market available in MetaTrader, Tickmill offers two platforms for social copy-trading that connect directly to your MetaTrader account. There is Pelican Trading and the AutoTrade feature of Myfxbook but these two services are not available from the firm's U.K. and EU branches.
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Daily Market Commentary | Yes |
| Forex News (Top-Tier Sources) | Yes |
| Autochartist | Yes |
| Trading Central (Recognia) | No |
| Social Sentiment - Currency Pairs | Yes |
Education
Tickmill's educational content is nearly up to par with the average industry offering. It does grant access to a large catalogue of archived webinars, but Tickmill lacks a variety of educational articles.
Learning center: Highlights include live educational courses, a handful of comprehensive eBooks, infographics, and weekly webinars that are hosted in various languages and archived on YouTube. There are also educational resources for learning about futures, powered by the CME available on Tickmill’s website.
Room for improvement: Tickmill continues to expand its educational offering, in both its scope of material and variety of formats. For instance, its recently introduced Masterclass series, available on YouTube channel, features hour-long sessions that cover topics of interest for beginners and advanced traders. Written articles, however, remain scarce.
Introducing a dedicated educational portal that makes it possible to filter content by experience level would be a notable organizational boost. Some of the best brokers offer lesson programs, complete with quizzes and progress tracking – features that are currently absent at Tickmill.
Tickmill education:
| Feature |
Tickmill
|
|---|---|
| Education (Forex or CFDs) | Yes |
| Client Webinars | Yes |
| Client Webinars (Archived) | Yes |
| Videos - Beginner Trading Videos | Yes |
| Videos - Advanced Trading Videos | Yes |
| Investor Dictionary (Glossary) | Yes |
Final thoughts
Tickmill is most valuable to high-volume, high-balance traders who are looking to trade only the most popular forex and CFD instruments. Tickmill complements its MetaTrader offering with a good variety of copy-trading platforms and offers multiple account options with varying pricing structures.
Drawbacks to consider are its small range of markets, limited research material, and lackluster educational content. While the VIP account does have highly competitive pricing, there are better forex brokers out there for traders to consider in 2023.
About Tickmill
Tickmill was founded in 2014 by Brothers Ingmar and Illimar Mattus, both long-time forex industry entrepreneurs with significant experience in financial services. Today the Tickmill brand holds regulatory status in the U.K., Cyprus, South Africa, Seychelles, and Labuan in Malaysia. According to its website, Tickmill Group has over 250 staff and more than 327,000 customers.
2023 Review Methodology
At ForexBrokers.com, our reviews of online forex brokers and their products and services are based on our collected data as well as the observations and qualified opinions of our expert researchers. Each year we publish tens of thousands of words of research and detailed forex guides, and we monitor dozens of international regulator agencies (read more about how we calculate Trust Score here).
Our research team conducts thorough testing on a wide range of features, products, services, and tools (collecting and validating thousands of data points in the process). We test all available trading platforms for each broker – whether they are proprietary or come from third-party providers – and evaluate them based on a host of data-driven variables.
We also take an in-depth look at each broker’s commissions and fees, such as bid/ask spreads – including the average spread data for some of the most popular forex currency pairs. We research other trading costs, such as inactivity or custody fees, minimum deposit requirements, VIP rebates and/or discounts, and a range of other important fee-based data points.
Some of the other important research categories that are factored into our testing include mobile trading accessibility and capability, availability of market research and educational content, and each broker’s overall Trust Score.
All content on ForexBrokers.com is handwritten by a writer, fact-checked by a member of our research team, and edited and published by an editor. Generative AI tools are not a part of our content creation or product testing processes. Our ratings, rankings, and opinions are entirely our own, and the result of our extensive research and decades of collective experience covering the forex industry. Read our Generative AI policy to learn more.
Read our full explanation and accounting of our research and testing process to learn more about how we test.
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. Read more on forex trading risks.
Article Resources
different Tickmill Regulation Tickmill Education, Tickmill YouTube channel
Popular Forex Guides
- Best Forex Brokers
- Best Forex Brokers for Beginners
- Best Forex Brokers for Copy Trading
- Best MetaTrader Brokers
- Best Forex Brokers for TradingView
- Best Forex Trading Apps
- Best Zero Spread Forex Brokers
- Compare the Best Forex Brokers
Compare Tickmill Competitors
Select one or more of these brokers to compare against Tickmill.
Show allAbout the Editorial Team
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. A forex industry expert and an active fintech and crypto researcher, Steven advises blockchain companies at the board level and holds a Series III license in the U.S. as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA).
John Bringans is the Senior Editor of ForexBrokers.com. An experienced media professional, John has close to a decade of editorial experience with a background that includes key leadership roles at global newsroom outlets. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from San Francisco State University, and conducts research on forex and the financial services industry while assisting in the production of content.
Blain Reinkensmeyer has 20 years of trading experience with over 2,500 trades placed during that time. He heads research for all U.S.-based brokerages on StockBrokers.com and is respected by executives as the leading expert covering the online broker industry. Blain’s insights have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Chicago Tribune, among other media outlets.