Worked example
Practising on Admirals (Admiral Markets)'s numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that Admirals (Admiral Markets) publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
The spread is the gap between the price you can buy at and the price you can sell at, and you pay it the instant you enter. Admirals (Admiral Markets) publishes 0.5 pips on EUR/USD. On its own that number means nothing. Here is how it becomes money.
Compare this broker's 0.5 pip EUR/USD figure against the "from" number in its own advertising.
Now do it without us
Take the spread of any other firm on the practice index, run the same four steps, and write both figures down — per lot and per micro. When you can do that in your head you have stopped shopping on marketing copy and started shopping on cost. The pip value calculator will check your working on pairs where the pip is not a flat ten dollars.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. Admirals (Admiral Markets) offers 6 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
- Trade.MT5The entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- Zero.MT5A higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- Trade.MT4A higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- Zero.MT4A higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- Invest.MT5A higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- DemoA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
Account names as published: Trade.MT5, Zero.MT5, Trade.MT4, Zero.MT4, Invest.MT5, Demo. Platforms listed: MT4, MT5, MetaTrader WebTrader, Admirals proprietary platform, Mobile app.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are Admirals (Admiral Markets)'s lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCA · UK | Admiral Markets UK Ltd | 595450 | a top-tier regulator: compensation scheme, capital rules and a public register you can search yourself |
| CySEC · Cyprus | Admirals Europe Ltd | 201/13 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| Estonian Financial Supervision Authority (EFSA) · Estonia | Admiral Markets AS | not verified | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
1 of these line is top-tier — held by Admiral Markets UK Ltd. If you are onboarded to a different entity than those, the protections attached to the top-tier line are not yours, however prominently the regulator's initials appear in the marketing. We could not confirm a licence number on 1 line, which is exactly the kind of gap you should close yourself on the regulator's own register before depositing.
The record behind these numbers
- The group operates under the Admirals brand, having rebranded from Admiral Markets.
- Admiral Markets UK Ltd is authorised by the FCA under firm reference number 595450.
- Admirals Europe Ltd holds CySEC CIF licence number 201/13.
- The group is headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia.
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: Founding year — sources give both 2001 and 26 February 2003 (Estonian incorporation); EFSA licence number; Minimum deposit varies by entity and account type; EUR/USD spread figure is a marketing 'from' value; public listing status. Confidence in this file overall: medium. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
PipMentor does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.