Tickmill Review 2023
For this Tickmill review, we opened a live account and deposited over US$ 8,000.
We traded the popular instrument in each market to identify the average spread and placed 12 trades in total.
We contacted the broker’s customer support to resolve the challenges we faced.
Finally, we withdrew all our funds to discover if there are any issues with withdrawals.
What is Tickmill
Tickmill is a global Forex and CFDs broker, founded in 2014.
The broker is headquartered in London but is licensed by regulators in the UK, Cyprus, South Africa, Seychelles, and Labuan (Malaysia).
Tickmill has offices in each of the countries where it is regulated.
Some of Tickmill’s key features are listed below:
| 🗺️ Authorised & Regulated in | UK, Cyprus, South Africa, Seychelles, Labuan |
| 🛡️ Is Tickmill safe | Yes |
| 💰 EUR/USD Spread | 1.63 |
| 💳 Minimum deposit | US$100 |
| 💰 Withdrawal fee | US$0 |
| 🖥️ Trading Platform | MetaTrader 4 |
| 📈 Markets offered | Forex, Commodity, Indices & Bonds |
| 📉 Number of Products | 85 |
Licenses and Regulations
Tickmill is licensed by 5 global regulators including the top-tier UK’s FCA, the CySEC, FSCA, Labuan FSA & South Africa’s FSA.
Here’s a full list of the licenses, which are held by Tickmill’s subsidiaries:
| Legal entity | Registered in | Regulator | License Number | Compensation Scheme Amount | Accepting clients from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tickmill UK Ltd | United Kingdom | Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) | 717270 | £85,000 | Globally many countries |
| Tickmill Europe Ltd | Cyprus | Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) | 278/15 | €20,000 | Globally many countries |
| Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd | South Africa | Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) | 49464 | No protection | South Africa |
| Tickmill Ltd | Seychelles | Financial Services Authority of Seychelles (FSA) | SD008 | No protection | Globally many countries |
| Tickmill Asia Ltd | Malaysia | Financial Services Authority of Labuan (Labuan FSA) | MB/18/0028 | No protection | Globally many countries |
Is Tickmill Safe
Yes, Tickmill is safe to trade. Tickmill’s regulation by the FCA and CySEC means that traders registered under the two entities are entitled to deposit compensation schemes of up to £85,000 and €20,000 respectively.
We did not encounter any major issues when trading and making withdrawals with Tickmill.
For this review, we opened an account under Tickmill UK Ltd which is regulated by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for our tests where we deposited money, placed trades, and withdrew our funds.
We recommend that you register your account with the UK entity, if it’s available to you, as we consider FCA regulation as the best since it provides compensation of up to £85,000 if the broker goes bankrupt.
Fees and Commissions
Tickmill charges low fees for stock index trades, while forex and commodities fees are average to high.
Spread Charged in our Trades
In our tests, we chose the popular instrument in each market. We placed 3 trades for each instrument to get a complete picture of the average spread. We tested the Classic Account which only charges a spread without commissions. Overall, the spread is stable as shown in the table below.
| Markets | Instruments | 1st trade | 2nd trade | 3rd trade | Avg. Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forex | EUR/USD | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.63 |
| Indices | FTSE 100 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.00 |
| Commodities | Gold | 2.4 | 2.6 | 6.4 | 3.80 |
We traded through MT4 on our iPhone which we video recorded the trades. You see this them here.
Comparing the spreads charged in our trades to industry benchmarks, we found the spread on stock indices to be quite low, but the spreads on Forex and commodities were in-line with industry averages or higher.
| Markets | Instruments | Avg. Spread Charged | Industry Avg. Spread |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forex | EUR/USD | 1.63 | 1.16 |
| Indices | FTSE 100 | 1.00 | 1.65 |
| Commodities | Gold | 3.80 | 3.53 |
Other fees
Tickmill does not charge non-trading fees such as account inactivity fees as well as deposit & withdrawal fees.
Tickmill Account types
Tickmill offers 3 account types, that is, the Pro, Classic, and VIP accounts. See the differences below:
| Pro | Classic | VIP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum Deposit | $100 | $100 | $50,000 |
| Minimum Balance | $0 | $0 | $50,000 |
| Spreads from | 0.0 pips | 1.6 pips | 0.0 pips |
| Commissions | 2 per side per 100,000 traded | Zero Commissions | 1 per side per 100,000 traded |
Tickmill also offers swap-free forex accounts. The main difference with Islamic accounts is that instead of daily swap rates, there is an administration fee charged if you hold for more than 3 nights.
For our tests, we chose to open a Classic Account.
Account Opening
Tickmill account opening is fast and straightforward. We opened an account to test the entire process, which was fully digital.
Here are the 5 steps to opening a Tickmill account:
- Enter your country of residence, preferred communication language, client type, your name, email, and phone number.
- Enter your address including country of residence, state, city, street name, house number and ZIP code.
- Answer a few questions about your nationality employment and financial status
- Choose and confirm your password.
- Verify your ID and residency using either a National ID or Passport and a bank statement.
The registration process took about 20 minutes and our account was approved in 1 day, which was impressive.
We registered our account on 29 January 2023 and it was verified on 30 January 2023. Our account was approved the next day after submitting all the necessary documents.
Unlike other brokers, Tickmill allows you to choose the entity under which you want to open an account giving you the option to choose the UK entity, which we did.
We video recorded our account opening process. See the video below
Tickmill account opening
Deposit and Withdrawal
Tickmill offers free and fast deposits and withdrawals. There are various options for funding your account, including bank wires, credit and debit cards, and e-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller.
Minimum Deposit
Tickmill’s minimum deposit is $100 for bank transfers, credit/debit cards, Skrill and Neteller. However, the VIP account has a $50,000 minimum deposit.
Deposit
Tickmill clients can deposit funds into their trading accounts using debit/credit cards, bank transfers, and e-wallets such as Skrill, and Neteller.
The table below shows the details of our deposits:
| Payment Method | Submitted Date | Funded Account Date | Funding Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skrill | 2023-01-30 | 2023-02-01 | 1 working day | zero |
| Credit card | 2023-02-01 | 2023-02-01 | Instant | zero |
| Skrill | 2023-02-01 | 2023-02-01 | Instant | zero |
| Bank Transfer | 2023-02-01 | 2023-02-02 | 1 working day | *US$25 |
| Neteller | 2023-02 08 | 2023-02-08 | Instant | zero |
| Neteller | 2023-02-13 | 2023-02-13 | Instant | zero |
All the deposit methods offered by Tickmill are instant and free, except for bank transfers, which take 1 working day and usually incur a $25 fee charged by the bank.
Withdrawal
Tickmill processes client withdrawals quite fast with zero charges on each withdrawal.
We withdrew our funds via the four payment methods we used to make our initial deposits to test all the available withdrawal options.
Tickmill allows you to withdraw your funds using any of the payment methods used to deposit funds without following a particular order. We made our first deposit using Skrill yet our first withdrawal was to our credit card.
| Payment Method | Submitted Date | Funds Released Date | Funds Arrived Date | Withdrawal Time | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Card | 2023-01-02 | 2023-01-02 | 2023-01-03 | 1 working day | zero |
| Skrill | 2023-01-02 | 2023-01-05 | 2023-01-05 | 1 working day (3-4 Oct, weekend) | zero |
| Bank Transfer | 2023-01 -03 | 2023-01-05 | 2023-01-06 | 2 working days (3-4 Oct, weekend) | zero |
| Neteller | 2023-01-02 | 2023-01-05 | 2023-01-05 | 1 working day (3-4 Oct, weekend) | zero |
Markets and Products
At Tickmill, you can trade CFDs on Forex, stock indices, commodities, and German government bonds.
Popular asset classes, such as stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds and options are missing.
Here’s the complete list of Tickmill’s product offerings:
| Markets | Instruments |
|---|---|
| Forex | 62 |
| Indices | 13 |
| Commodities | 6 |
| Bonds | 4 |
Trading Conditions
The trading conditions at Tickmill are good. You can run most types of trading strategies as the broker allows high-risk strategies such as hedging and scalping.
There are no time limitations for keeping your hedging positions open. Tickmill also allows the use of Expert Advisors (EAs).
| Trading Method | Allowed |
|---|---|
| Hedging | Yes |
| Scalping | Yes |
| Change Leverage | Yes |
Leverage
Tickmill offers different leverage levels to its clients depending on the entity under which they registered their account:
The table below outlines the various leverage levels available to clients:
| Markets | Tickmill UK Ltd | Tickmill Europe Ltd | Tickmill South Africa (Pty) Ltd | Tickmill Ltd | Tickmill Asia Ltd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major currency pairs | 30:1 | 30:1 | 500:1 | 500:1 | 500:1 |
| Minor currency pairs | 20:1 | 20:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 500:1 |
| Exotic pairs | 10:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 |
| Gold | 20:1 | 20:1 | 500:1 | 500:1 | 500:1 |
| Indices | 20:1 | 20:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 |
| Other Commodities | 10:1 | 10:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 |
| Bonds | 5:1 | 5:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 | 100:1 |
Tickmill Bonus
Tickmill offers a no-deposit bonus worth $30 to its new clients.
However, the bonus is only provided by Tickmill Ltd and does not apply to clients from certain countries.
Here are the full details of the bonus scheme:
| Bonus Type | No deposit bonus |
|---|---|
| Bonus Amount | US$30 |
| Provided by | Tickmill Ltd |
| Does not apply to clients from | The European Union, Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Colombia, Georgia, Hong Kong, Iceland, Israel, Kazakhastan, |
Trading Platform
Tickmill’s trading platform is based on the popular MetaTrader 4 platform (MT4). The broker does not offer any other trading platform making it ideal for MT4 lovers.
WebTrader
Tickmill MT4
The MT4 platform is decent enough and can be customized to a high degree. However, the design is getting old, and we would have loved to see the broker offer the MetaTrader 5 platform (MT5), which is the newer version of the platform.
In our test, we placed all our trade through the MT4 app on our iPhone.
Research and Tools
Tickmill provides user-friendly research tools including
- Autochartist
- Myfxbook Copy Trading
- Economic Calendar
- Forex Calculators
- Tickmill VPS
- One-Click Trading
Education
Tickmill does a good job in education. They offer
- Webinars
- Seminars
- Ebooks
- Video Tutorials
- Infographics
- Forex Glossary
- Fundamental Analysis
- Technical Analysis
- Market Insights
Customer Service
Tickmill’s customer support team was helpful and provided relevant answers to our questions.
You can contact Tickmill via Email, and Phone calls. However, we could not reach anyone by phone as our calls went unanswered.
We were disappointed to find out that the broker does not have a Live Chat function, which is a crucial support channel offered by most brokers.
See the results of our test below:
| Question | Response Time | Quality of reply | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Funds Withdrawal | 1 working day | Okay |
We did note that the account opening and verification process was smooth and we did not encounter any issues during the process.
Tickmill Customer service channels:
Conclusion
Our overall experience was smooth. Tickmill allows traders to trade with almost any trading strategy including scalping, which is great for day trading and EA trading. Tickmill also allows traders to change their leverage levels and…
As compared to other brokers. Tickmill offers a limited number of markets and instruments, and we hope that they will add shares CFDs, cryptocurrencies, and ETFs in the future.
We recommend Tickmill for traders who run EAs, scalping and prefer the MT4 platform, as well as those interested in trading with FCA-regulated brokers.
We recommend Tickmill for traders who are
- Experienced traders
- Beginners
- Run Scalping
- Hedging
- EAs trading
- Trading through MT4
Tickmill might not be a fit if you are
- Real Stock / Futures Trading
- Commission based trading
- Prefer other platforms rather than MT4
Author of this review
By George Rossi
Author of this review
I am a well-rounded financial services professional experienced in fundamental and technical analysis, global macroeconomic research, foreign exchange and commodity markets and an independent trader.
Now I am passionate about reviewing and comparing forex brokers.
Everything you find on BrokerTested is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology