Founded in 2013, Mt Cook Financial is ECN and DMA forex broker. Aiming their services more towards the professional trader they are looking to provide the best in terms of trading conditions and trading platforms. We will be using this review to dive deep into the services on offer to find out what they offer and so you can see if they are the right broker for you.
Account Types
There are two different account types available, they are based on liquidity streams and execution types. Let’s look at what they are.
ECN Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of $1,000, it uses ECN / STP as its clearing method and has a raw spread. It has an added commission of $32.5 per million per side, which equates to around $6.5 per lot traded. The account can be in EUR, USD, GBP or AUD and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots which go up in increment of 0.01 lots. The account can be leveraged up to !:100 and has access to forex, metals, indices, and futures. The margin call level is set at 80% with the stop out level at 60%. And the account can use the MetaTrader platforms as well as social trading.
DMA Account: This account requires a minimum deposit of $1,000, it uses DMA / STP as its clearing method and has a raw spread. It has an added commission of $30 per million per side, which equates to around $6 per lot traded. The account can be in EUR, USD, GBP or AUD and the minimum trade size is 0.01 lots which go up in increment of 0.01 lots. The account can be leveraged up to !:100 and has access to forex, metals, indices, and futures. The margin call level is set at 80% with the stop out level at 60%. And the account can use the MetaTrader platforms as well as social trading.
Platforms
The main trading platform on offer is MetaTrader 4, but there are also additional social trading platforms that can be used which we have outlined below.
MetaTrader 4 (MT4):
MetaTrader 4 is one of the most innovative and powerful trading platforms and is still favored by the vast majority of professional currency traders. After years of development, its suite of analytic tools and algorithmic trading capabilities provide the user with a powerful platform from which to access the markets. Metatrader platform raises the bar for those familiar with trading on MT4. Mt.Cook’s unique configuration can process trades entered via MetaTrader GUIs in under 20 milliseconds which provides our clients with an operational advantage. The platform is available as a desktop download, web trader and as an application for your mobile device.
Social Trading Platforms:
There are two social trading platforms available to use, these are ZuluTrade and Myfxbook Autotrade. ZuluTrade is one of the largest social trading communities. The users of the platform can follow between thousands of registered talented currency traders from 192 countries automatically. By engaging in auto trading, users can eliminate the potentially harmful factor of emotion and the error-prone human factor from their trading practice. Myfxbook Autotrade is an account mirroring (trade copy) service operated by Myfxbook who happens to be one of the largest social trading communities and FX tech providers in the industry. The AutoTrading service allows you to copy the trades of other profitable traders and systems from the Myfxbook community directly into your Mt.Cook MetaTrader 4 account.
Leverage
The maximum leverage available to both accounts is 1:100, however, this can be increased if you contact the customer service team and they deem it appropriate. The leverage can otherwise be selected when opening up an account.
Trade Sizes
Trade sizes for both accounts start at 0.01 lots and go up in increments of 0.01 lots. We are not sure what the maximum trade size is or what the maximum number of open trades you can have at any one time is.
Trading Costs
Both accounts come with a commission, the ECN account has an added commission of $32.5 per million per side, which equates to around $6.5 per lot traded. The DMA account has an added commission of $30 per million per side, which equates to around $6 per lot traded which is in line with the industry average of $6 per lot traded.
There are also swap charges which are fees charged for holding trades overnight and can be viewed within the MetaTrader 4 platform.
Assets
The assets have been broken down into a few different categories, we will now outline the different instruments within them.
Forex:
AUDCAD, AUDCHF, AUDJPY, AUDNZD, AUDSGD, USDUSD, CADCHF, CADJPY, CADSGD, CHFJPY, CHFSGD, EURAUD, EURCAD, EURCHF, EURDKK, EURHKD, EURJPY, EURMXN, EURNOK, EURNZD, EURPLN, EURSEK, EURSGD, EURTRY, EURUSD, GBPAUD, GBPCAD, GBPCHF, GBPJPY, GBPNOK, GBPNZD, GBPSEK, GBPUSD, HKDJPY, MXNJPY, NOKJPY, NOKSEK, NZDCAD, NZDCHF, NZDJPY, NZDSGD, NZDUSD, SEKJPY, SGDJPY, USDCAD, USDCHF, USDCNH, USDDKK, USDHKD, USDJPY, USDMXN, USDNOK, USDPLN, USDRUB, USDSEK, USDSGD, USDTRY, USDZAR.
Metals:
XAGUSD, XAUUSD, XPDUSD, XPTUSD.
CFD Futures:
WTI Crude Oil, Brent Crude Oil, High Grade Copper, Natural Gas.
CFD Indices:
JP225, EU50, FR40, DE30, HK50, UK100, US500, UT100, US30, ES35, AU200.
Spreads
Both accounts use raw spreads form the markets so they can be as low as 0 pips. The spreads are variable which means they will move with the markets and so when there is added volatility they can be seen a little higher, the spreads will always remain quite low when using raw spreads though.
Minimum Deposit
The minimum amount required to open up an account is $1,000 which gets you to access either of the accounts. We do not know if this amount reduces for further top-up deposits.
Deposit Methods & Costs
There are just a few methods available to deposit, these are Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller, and China Union Pay. There are no added fees from MT cook when depositing funds but be sure to check with your own bank to see if they add any fees of their own.
Withdrawal Methods & Costs
The same methods are available to withdraw with, for clarification these are Bank Wire Transfer, Neteller, and China Union Pay. When withdrawing via Bank Wire Transfer there is a fixed fee of $25 added to the transaction. The other methods do not have any added fees.
Withdrawal Processing & Wait Time
Unfortunately, we do not know what the withdrawal processing times from MT Cook are, however, we would hope that any request is fully processed within 1 to 5 days from the request being made.
Bonuses & Promotions
It doesn’t appear that there are any bonuses or promotions available to take part in. If you are after bonuses then you could contact the customer support team to see if there are any coming up that you could take part in.
Educational & Trading Tools
The only tools that seem to be available are the ones relating to a VPS, these are paid however so the value is not as good as they could be as a lot of other brokers are giving VPS for free as long as certain conditions are met. It would have been nice to see more educational material as many modern brokers are now looking to help their clients improve.
Customer Service
Should you wish to get in contact with MT Cook there are a few different ways you can do it, firstly is the online submission form, fill it in and you should get a reply via email. You can also use live chat features. There is then a number of different phone numbers and email addresses for various departments.
Phone: + 1 (866) 672-8733
Support: [email protected]
General Inquiries: [email protected]
Accounts: [email protected]
Compliance: [email protected]
Partnerships: [email protected]
Demo Account
Demo accounts are available and allow you to both test out the conditions and also strategies without risking any capital. When signing up for a demo account you can select the leverage, account type and the balance that you desire. We are not sure if there is an expiration time on the accounts.
Countries Accepted
The following statement is present on the site: “The information on this site is not directed at residents of the United States and is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person in any country or jurisdiction where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation” If you are still not sure of your eligibility for an account, contact the support team to find out.
Conclusion
MT Cook Financial offers some very competitive trading conditions, the spreads are low and the commission is in line with what you would expect from the industry. Plenty of assets are available to trade and the choice of manual trading or social trading is good to see. It would be nice to have seen a few more deposit methods and to remove the Bank Wire withdrawal fee, but otherwise, the deposits and withdrawals are not too expensive. When looking at the services on offer, MT Cook looks like a promising broker, but the decision to use them or not is yours.
One reply on “Mt Cook Financial Review”
Iam very satisfied with their spreads and support 😀 Also withdrawals are fast.