NicoFX Review

NicoFX is a trading name of Mount Nico Corp Ltd. The company is authorised and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license number 226/14. Mount Nico Corp Ltd operates in accordance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) of the European Union.

Trading assets include 47 currency pairs and 4 commodities (Gold, Silver, Platinum and Palladium). There are no indices or shares available for trading.

NicoFX offers the award-winning MetaTrader 4 (MT4) terminal, one of the most innovative and powerful trading platforms. It combines an accessible, easy-to-use interface with a wide range of powerful features, making it a highly flexible platform for customers of any range. MT4 is available as a desktop version and as a mobile application for iOS and Android devices.

The company has designed Standard, Premium, and VIP accounts to suit the needs of many types of investors and traders. They differ mainly in the minimum initial deposit and the offered spreads. The Standard account requires USD100 to open and the spread for the EUR/USD pair starts at 2.6 pips. The Premium account requires USD5,000 to open and the minimum spread for majors starts from 1.8 pips. You must invest at least USD10,000 to open a VIP account and will receive spreads from 0.9 pips. Customers can fund their accounts by bank transfer, credit/debit card, Neteller, Skrill and UnionPay.

In the Order Execution Policy document the company warns that the price at which an order is executed may vary significantly from the original requested price during unusual market conditions such as when the market opens, during news, during volatile markets, when there is а rapid price movement, when liquidity is insufficient. This means the stop loss orders are not guaranteed. Market orders can be subject to re-quoting or slippage depending on the model of execution. If an instant order has been submitted, the company will re-quote it if the requested price is not available. The secondary quote is the next available price received by the company from its liquidity providers. If a market execution model is used and at the time that an order is presented for fulfillment, the specific price requested by the customer may not be available; therefore the order will be executed close to or a number of pips away from the customer’s requested price. This execution refers to slippage. We note that in the Trading accounts section it is written that the company provides the market execution model, so all your orders will be subject to slippage.

The company announces it uses the Straight Through Processing (STP) model to execute orders and even in the account presentation it is written STP/ECN execution model. However, the Order Execution Policy document informs that: “For the purposes of orders for the Financial Instruments provided by the Company, the Company acts as principal and not as agent on the Customer’s behalf. Although the Company may transmit the Customer’s orders for execution to third party liquidity providers, contractually the Company is the sole counterparty to the Customer’s trades and any execution of orders is done in the Company’s name. Therefore, the Company is the sole Execution Venue for the execution of the Customer’s orders.” All that shows the company acts as a market maker and the conflict of interest exists.

Although the Risk Disclosure document reveals that the leverage investment can be extremely risky as the investor may lose more than he/she originally invested, the company claims all retail clients are covered by negative balance protection.

Overall, the company has a strict regulation by the CySEC and must comply with the ESMA’s requirements. Although it claims to be an STP broker, the documents show it can also be a market maker. There are only a few instruments available (currency pairs and commodities) and you must invest at least USD10,000 to receive decent spreads.