Tickmill Review

Tickmill is a vanilla MT4 broker that offers a small selection of tradeable securities and lacks standout features. For the best rates, agency execution and competitive commission-based pricing can be found with Tickmill's VIP and PRO accounts.

• Founded in 2014, Tickmill is a vanilla MetaTrader broker that offers poor customer service and only MT4 with no notable upgrades to enhance the trader experience.
• While Tickmill is regulated, it has only four years of business operation and trails Trust leaders like IG, Saxo Bank, and CMC Markets.
• Pricing at Tickmill varies by account type. Overall, the broker is not a stand out for low-cost trading.
• While Tickmill's research offering is slightly above the industry standard, it is far from challenging industry leaders such as Saxo Bank and IG.
• No matter how you slice the data, compared to other top-rated MetaTrader brokers, our testing found Tickmill fails to stand out. There are better choices across the board in the areas relevant to traders, such as copy trading.

Is Tickmill Safe?

Tickmill is considered average-risk, with an overall Trust Score of 81 out 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

Offering of Investments

Tickmill offers a total of 84 tradeable symbols spanning CFDs on 16 indices, two metals, four bonds, and 62 forex pairs. The following table summarizes the different investment products available to Tickmill clients.

Commissions & Fees

Tickmill offers three accounts. The Classic account is a commission-free account, in which traders only 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.

Commissions: While the VIP account requires a minimum balance of $50,000 for traders to access low commissions of $1 per standard lot (100k units) or $2 per Round-Turn (RT), the Pro account has similar pricing with an RT commission of just $4 per round-turn standard lot. The Pro account is available with as little as $100 deposit.

Spreads: Using typical spread data listed by Tickmill for its 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).

Pro account: With a low commission rate, the Pro account will be ideal for most traders compared to the Classic account, as spreads are inherently less expensive, and 84 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.

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Platforms & Tools

Tickmill is a MetaTrader-only broker offering the standard, out-of-the-box experience, for just MT4. Unfortunately, there are no notable add-ons to help Tickmill stand out among the best MetaTrader brokers, and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) is not available.

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Research

Tickmill offers several third-party research solutions, including Autochartist, which is popular pattern-recognition software that uses automated technical analysis to make forecasts and generate trading signals. Autochartist is available via Tickmill's web portal and as a platform plugin for MetaTrader.

Trading tools: In addition to the native MQL5 Signals market available in MT4, Tickmill also offers the AutoTrade feature of Myfxbook for social copy-trading (note: this service is not available from the firm's UK branch). Myfxbook also powers the firm’s economic calendar. Also, TickMill offers margin, pip, and currency calculators, as well as VPS hosting, which is useful for algorithmic traders using MT4.

Market insights: Aside from news headlines streaming in the trading platform and Autochartist, Tickmill has a team of analysts that produce technical and fundamental analysis posts on the company’s blog throughout the trading week.

Video content: To complement its research, Tickmill also offers archived webinars and educational videos, alongside news updates on its YouTube page. And while there are several instructional videos and platform tutorials, this is one area were the broker could benefit from adding more advanced video content, including education about CFDs.

Forex news: Forex news headlines stream from Investing.com, including the NewsBreak and StockBeat series, within Tickmill's MetaTrader4 platform offering.

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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.

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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: 35^th (43 brokers)

Final Thoughts

All in all, less competitive pricing on specific account types, Tickmill left us unimpressed. For traders seeking a vanilla MT4 broker that permits a variety of automated strategies 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. Regardless, there are far better forex brokers for traders to choose.

About Tickmill

Tickmill was established in 2015, 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 Tickmill UK Ltd (formerly known as Tmill 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.

2019 Review Methodology

For our 2019 Forex Broker Review we assessed, rated, and ranked 28 international forex brokers over a six month time period. Each broker was graded on 81 different variables and, in total, over 60,000 words of research were produced.

While encouraged, broker participation was optional. Each broker had the opportunity to complete an in-depth data profile and provide executive time (live in person or over the web) for an annual update meeting.

All data submitted by brokers is hand-checked for accuracy. Ultimately, our rigorous data validation process yields an error rate of less than .1% each year, providing site visitors quality data they can trust. 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." Learn more.