TECfinine Review

TECfinine.com briefly

TECfinine is a trading name of TEC International (Cyprus) Ltd, which is authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The brokerage company claims to combine optimal liquidity with straight through processing (STP) execution, giving the customers a competitive edge in the global capital market. TECfinine provides online trading in currency pairs, indices, and commodities through the powerful trading terminal – cTrader. You can start trading by investing at least USD2,000.

Regulation

One of the first things you need to be aware of is the company regulation. TECfinine is the trade name of TEC International (Cyprus) Ltd. It is a registered Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) authorized and regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under license number 382/20. It operates on the European market in accordance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) and is authorized to provide investment services across the European Union. Services include reception and transmission of orders and execution of orders. TECfinine ensures the safety of clients’ funds by maintaining accounts with top tier banks, adhering to segregation of clients’ funds, and providing an automated risk-management system to ensure that retail account balances will never go negative, the company claims. In addition, the company is a member of the Investor Compensation Fund (ICF) for customers of Cypriot Investment Firms (CIFs), so in the event of bankruptcy, the ICF provides compensation to clients.

Account Types

There is only one type of real account, so trading conditions are equal for all categories of traders. Spreads are floating, and the average one is 1.2 pips for the EUR/USD pair. The minimum deposit is USD2,000 and the leverage can be up to 1:100 for professional clients. As required by ESMA, the default leverage for retail clients is 1:30 for major currency pairs, 1:20 for non-major currency pairs, Gold, and major indices and 1:10 for commodities other than Gold and non-major indices.

What Type of Brokerage the Company is?

The Order Execution Policy is the document that answers this question. It shows that despite the claims that TEC International (Cyprus) Ltd uses the STP model to execute customer’s orders, the company is always the counterparty to every trade. The company acts as principal and not as agent on the client’s behalf; therefore, the company is the sole execution venue for the execution of the client’s orders. This means that TEC International (Cyprus) Ltd is a market maker. Market makers usually make their money from the spreads that are embedded in the price of the instrument. However, under the market maker model of order fulfillment, each trade creates a direct financial exposure for the provider, which may or may not be hedged with a counterparty. Market makers make additional money from the client losses as well, and they are interested in such situations to happen. The company is EU regulated and such a situation is unlikely to occur, but the conflict of interest exists.

The same document reveals that under specific trading conditions you may be re-quoted (if you submit an instant order for fulfillment) or your order may be filled with slippage (if you use a market execution mode). So, when the requested price is no longer available, your orders will be filled at the first available market price (if you use a market execution mode).  This means that market orders are subject to slippage and stop loss orders are not guaranteed.

The Client Agreement file informs that the company applies a “Negative Balance Protection” policy for retail clients. This means you cannot lose more than your total investment in the account.

Fees

There are common fees such as spreads and rollovers. We were unable to find information about the so-called inactivity fee, so you can pause trading for as long as you like.

Deposits and Withdrawals

Deposits can be made by bank transfer, credit/debit cards Skrill and Neteller. Please note that in the case of bank transfers, if you transfer less than the required minimum of 100, your trading account will be credited and deactivated for trading, so you can deposit the difference and start trading or request a refund. The deposits are instant, excluding wire transfer, which will be credited as soon as funds reach the company’s bank account.

Withdrawals can be made in the same ways as deposits – bank transfer, credit/debit cards, Neteller and Skrill. Withdrawals are processed in one business day. Then, it depends on the method of withdrawal how soon the funds will be in the customer’s account: up to e of 5 working days by bank wire, maximum 7 working days by credit card and up to 10 minutes by Skrill or Neteller. The company does not charge any fees, but banks usually do.

Trading Platforms

The company provides its services through the well-known cTrader platform. The terminal offers fast asynchronous execution of all types of orders, allowing multiple orders to be placed at once. One of the main features is that cTrader displays the market depth – Level II quotes. This means that you will see the full range of executable prices directly from the liquidity providers. The platform executes orders using Volume Weighted Average Prices. There is a possibility to place advanced trailing stops and stop loss orders. They are used to scale the position at multiple levels. cTrader also offers two stop outs types. The Smart Stop-Out closes partially the position with the largest margin first. The Fair Stop-Out closes the position with the largest margin entirely, freeing as much margin as possible. You can organize your favorite watchlist with an unlimited number of assets and can save it in the cloud for further use.

Assets

Currency pairs – CFDs on 30 currency pairs are available for trading. Spreads are floating and the minimum value for the EUR/USD pair is 0.8 pips, while the average value is 1.2 pips. The spread for the GBP/USD starts at 1 pip and has the average value of 1.3 pips. Trading is commission free.

Indices – You can trade CFDs on 10 of the major and minor indices, such as Dow Jones Industrial Average (US30) and DAX30 (DE30). The leverage is 1:20 for major indices and 1:10 for minor ones. Trading is commission free.

Commodities – There are CFDs on 5 commodities. They are CFDs on Gold, Silver, Oil, Brent, and Natural Gas. The average spread for the Gold is USD0.54 and for the Silver is USD0.052. Trading is commission free.

Summary

TECfinine is a brokerage firm regulated by the CySEC that claims to use the STP model to execute client orders. However, the legal documents show that the company acts as a market maker, so the major conflict of interest exists. You can trade currency pairs, commodities, and indices through the cTrader platform, available as a web-based version. You can deposit by bank transfer, debit/credit cards, and e-wallets. You can start trading with a deposit of at least USD2,000. Spreads are variable and the one for the EUR/USD pair has a minimum value of 0.8 pips. All instruments can be traded without commission.