Tickmill Review 2026

A regulator licenses brokers and supervises how they treat clients. Top-tier regulators such as the FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia) and CySEC (EU) set strict rules on client money, leverage and complaints; offshore regulators set lighter ones. Most brokers run several companies, and the one named in your client agreement decides which rules protect you. Negative balance protection means you cannot lose more than the money in your account.

Before you can trade or withdraw, a broker must check who you are. This is called KYC, short for "know your customer". You usually upload a photo ID and a recent bill or bank statement showing your address. Practise on a demo account with virtual money before you deposit real money.

The spread is the gap between the buy and sell price, and it is the main cost on accounts without commission. A pip is the fourth decimal on most currency pairs (0.0001); on one standard lot of EUR/USD, 1 pip is worth about $10. Raw and ECN accounts have tighter spreads but add a fixed commission per lot, so always compare the total cost.

A swap is interest you pay or earn when you keep a trade open past the daily rollover, because a currency trade borrows one currency to buy another. Many brokers charge three days on Wednesday to cover the weekend. An Islamic or swap-free account removes this interest, sometimes with a fixed admin fee instead.

A standard lot is 100,000 units of currency, a mini lot 10,000 and a micro lot 1,000. A cent account shows your balance in cents, so you can trade very small sizes while you learn. Standard accounts usually cost more in spread; raw accounts cost less in spread but charge commission.

Leverage lets you open a bigger position with less money: at 1:100, $100 controls $10,000. It multiplies losses exactly as much as profits. Margin is the money held to keep a trade open; at the margin call level you are warned, and at the stop out level the broker starts closing your trades. Most beginners are safer with low leverage.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5) are the most widely used trading platforms; MT5 is newer, with more markets and tools. cTrader and TradingView are popular for their charts. Expert advisors (EAs) are programs that trade automatically on MetaTrader.

Most of what brokers offer are CFDs (contracts for difference): you trade the price of gold, an index, a share or a coin without owning it. Spreads differ from market to market and usually widen around big news and when markets open.

Market execution fills your order at the best price available, which can be slightly different from the price you clicked; that difference is called slippage. Scalping means holding trades for seconds or minutes. A VPS is a remote computer that keeps your platform and EAs running when your own computer is off.

Copy trading automatically copies another trader's positions into your account. Their past results do not guarantee future ones, and you pay them through a profit share or a wider spread. Start with a small amount and keep a stop loss.

To stop money laundering, brokers usually send withdrawals back to the card, bank or wallet you deposited from, and only to an account in your own name. You must be verified to withdraw, and your bank or payment provider can add its own time and fees.

A deposit bonus is usually trading credit, not cash. It adds margin to your account, but you cannot withdraw it, only the profits you make, and often only after trading a set volume. Read the terms before you accept one.