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Mt. Cook Financial

Offers Horrible Trading Experiences

Mt. Cook Financial is a boutique brokerage services providing company. A boutique brokerage service company is a relatively small-sized broker service providing organization. It specializes in personalized services and thus has a limited product portfolio. It works on a special clientele base only. While the company is not functional at a large scale, the lesser-known brand name adds to the worry of the investors. It is always advised to go by the company’s reputation while investing.

Homepage image of Mt. Cook Financial
Mt. Cook Financial has a very narrow client base

Mt. Cook Financial is a financial service provider by Atlantic Pearl Limited, which stands dissolved as if now. It is now held under the Mt.Cook Group of Companies. It is cited to be operating in an agency model capacity only.   

Mt. Cook Financial is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It is regulated under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission ASIC. The other branch offices are regulated under South Africa Financial Services Board (FSB) and Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (FSC). Let us, first of all, clear the illusion of regulation by three different bodies.

ASIC is Australia’s corporate regulator body which acts independently. While ASIC jurisdiction is to Australian clients only, its duty is the enforcement of financial services laws by the companies operating in the continent.

In the year 2017, the Financial Sector Regulation (FSR) Act was incorporated as a law in South Africa. Due to the FSR Act, the Prudential Authority (PA) and the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) were formed. South Africa FSB stands dissolved as if now and little can be drawn about the company’s regulation with its superseding agency. 

Image of FSB's information
The regulator of Mt. Cook Financial in South Africa has been dissolved

My Mt. Cook Financial review has found that the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (FSC) is liable for the regulation of banking and financial services in the region of Vanuatu itself.

The company thus is concluded to be an offshore regulated agency. As explained above, the regulation merely does not make a company safe to trade with. You are strongly advised to check the regulation of the company, the regulation of body details and its jurisdiction. 

You may be interested in: TradeATF

The company is working in an agency model that provides STP-ECN and STP-DMA services. It is into forex, CFDs, metals, etc. 

Trading Accounts

The company has no options in trading accounts. However, you may opt for a demo account but must complete the exercise before it gets expired.

The single account is provided by the company which can be STP or DMA type. The minimum initial investment is $5,000 which is considerably high. The maximum leverage of 1:100 also gets increased in most of the cases. An amount of $5,000 is very high as compared to other service providers considering it an agency itself. The risk involved in funds trading and exponentially fewer profits incurred makes it the worst-case scenario. Also, the spread is very tight and commission fees are charged according to the trading trends.

PAMM accounts with specialized account managers are also available with the company. Needless to say, along with high initial investment, you have to spend extra dollars for the same.

Thus, the company only targets a smaller section of investors i.e. the institutional traders and the professional traders. Mt.Cook Financial is not suitable for amateur traders. If you want to learn trading while implementing your investment strategies, it is not a good option for you.

Their Trading Platform

Like many other brokers, Mt.Cook Financial provides services on the Meta Trader 4 platform. 

MT4 is undoubtedly the best CFD trading, futures, and forex trading platform available in the market. It is developed by a US-based technical giant, MetaQuotes Software Corporation. Every user has access to complete the analytical power of the platform without any additional costs. The built-in programming language allows you to develop customized indicators and automated trading solutions. It is easy for traders to change brokers over MT4 without adjusting to the new interfaces. Demo account with full access to services creates a user friendly environment for the first-timers as well.MT4 is supported by almost all desktop and mobile application software. 

Mt. Cook Financial, unlike its competitors has not kept the platform user-friendly but has added specific configurations. Trades are entered through Meta Trader GUI’s.

Image of MetaTrader 4 Trading Platform
Mt. Cook offers the MT4 Trading Platform

Social Trading Services

The company also offers two products in social trading services. Myfxbook’s auto trade and Zulu. These services copy the best trader deals. 

Myfxbook’s auto trade requires a minimum investment of $1,000 to start your account. While you are fed with a huge amount of data on myfxbook’s auto trade, there is no option to filter out the list of the brokers. For example, if you are in the US and are looking for US-based brokers only, but you have to go through all of the available brokers. Also, brokers do charge an extra commission per trade using myfxbook’s auto trade. This information is not available clearly on the platform so the trader has to contact each broker differently to get information on the commission charges.

Similar report: ITRADER

Zulu trade has a considerable amount of inconsistent signal providers. There is a risk while copying the trades of any person using your demo account. You may be simulating using your capital funds. The signal providers on Zulu trade are not vetted by the company. Another drawback is the constant need for observation required and it is not a user-friendly platform especially if you are a fresher in trading.

Modes of Payment

Mt. Cook Financial accepts bank wire, Neteller, China Union Pay for depositing the funds. While withdrawing your funds, you have to pay a fixed fee of $25 which is not genuine. Customers have to pay to withdraw their funds. Response time is also slow as compared to competitors. No more options for depositing or withdrawing the funds are available.

Customer Support

The company claims to provide live chat, email, and support to US and EU clients over the phone as well. 

Social Media Presence and Website

Our Mt.Cook review is not able to find any working social media accounts of the company. The investment industry thrives on the online reputation of the company. While it boosts user engagement, it engages the customers to check the previous user’s experience and can share their opinions as well. 

There is no awareness of the brand on any social platform.

Not an Attractive Boutique

Being a boutique brokerage agency, the minimum initial investment limit is very high as compared to the facilities provided with the account. The customized services can’t be bought at extremely high prices.

Mt.Cook Financial is not regulated in the E.U., the U.S., and the U.K. Thus trading with an offshore company becomes a risk involving high funds.

Similar review: T1Markets

Out of the options available for trading platforms, best is the most accepted and used Meta Trader platform only. More options with an actual comparison between the choices can help the investors to choose the best for their trading styles.

The company charges considerable amounts as commission against various services and the products are specific only for professional traders.

Withdrawing your funds using the bank wire channel from Mt.Cook attracts an additional fixed cost of $25. There are limited options for depositing and withdrawing funds. Credit cards, Debit cards, Bank transfers, other e-wallets are not available.

Conclusion

My Mt. Cook Financial review didn’t find them satisfactory. Being an offshore broker, license terms are not cleared on the website and it targets a particular customer segment only. The withdrawal fees, commission charges, minimum initial deposits, are relatively high. It is recommended not to fall prey to short term profits while risking your funds with Mt.Cook Financial.

3.5 Total Score
Too Expensive

The commission and payment charges are too high. They have kept their licensing details ambiguous to deceive traders.

3.5Expert Score
Trust
3
Customer Service
2
Pricing
3
Trading Experience
7
4.5User's score
Trust
4.4
Customer Service
4.4
Pricing
4.6
Trading Experience
4.6
CONS
  • Not Regulated in the EU, and the US
  • High Minimum Deposit
  • Greedy Commission
  • Excessive Transaction Fees
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33 Comments
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  1. does anyone know the names of PAMM funds trading through the MT Cook platform

  2. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    I have been using Mt Cook Financial for over a year. The team are exceptional, they respond quickly, deposits and withdrawals are actioned faster than any broker I have ever used. It’s a pleasure working with the team, and I will continue to use Mt Cook for many years to come. I highly recommend Mt Cook Financial to anyone looking for fast, friendly, reliable broker

    + PROS: Fast respsonse Fantastic friendly team Money movements are processed quickly Pleasure to deal with
    - CONS: None
    Helpful(0) Unhelpful(1)You have already voted this
  3. It’s never worth it to get into forex. The industry is filled with vicious scammers. I lot a ton of money due to forex scammers and I don’t think anyone should risk their hard-earned money in this stuff. It would be better to gamble your money away than spend it on a shady broker. The risk is the same but at least you’d know that you aren’t getting scammed when you gamble.

  4. Dear Blanca. The review is not correct. Please check the official FSCA website: https://www.fsca.co.za/Fais/Search_FSP.htm

    You can find our company by the FSP number 50420. As mentioned before, I’d be happy to personally help anyone coming from this website, but so far we haven’t had anyone.

  5. 0.5
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    10
    Trading Experience
    10

    Y’all be commenting here without even reading the review like are you for real?
    That Brody guy says they are regulated by FSCA while the review clearly explained how FSCA is dissolved. Do you not know what dissolved means? It means it doesn’t exist anymore.
    I could have trusted before but you’re lying right in our faces?! That’s not cool and certainly not okay.

    + PROS: None
    - CONS: lying to people in the comment thread their regulator is dissolved
    Helpful(0) Unhelpful(2)You have already voted this
  6. 0.1
    Trust
    0
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    0
    Trading Experience
    0

    I’m thoroughly confused with this charade. All I wanted was a good forex broker, no one told me it is going to be an herculean quest argh.

    + PROS: Idk
    - CONS: i really dunno
    Helpful(1) Unhelpful(5)You have already voted this
  7. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    This is the best broker I have experienced so far.
    They are always on to help, for instance, when I needed some extra help signing in and setting it up – I valued their team’s effort to help me set up my account and I started trading!
    Being shy at first, the team tremendously helped me to start and answered my every question promptly. I am used to ask a lot of questions and when other brokers didnt really bother with me much – MtCook helped me with everything I needed! I guess they have very good support team, always on and ready to help.

    Mt Cook’s team is THE BEST YOU CAN FIND!

    I also must compliment their fair play, money wise. Never been short of anything, I had succesful and still have – trading with them.

    Those negative reviews here are fictional, because everyone who has even slight experience with Mt Cook can say a lot of good stuff about their service and fair play. So I can conclude this negative reviews are fake profiles trying to put down this broker, one of the best on the market.

    I’m using their services so I speak from my personal experience.

    If you want superb service and trading, Mt Cook is a way to go.

    Negative reviewers – try their services first and then comment.

    Mt Cook is the best on the market!

    Lydia, very satisfied trader

    + PROS: Fair play, service, professional
    - CONS: No cons
    Helpful(4) Unhelpful(1)You have already voted this
  8. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    Hello. This is Brody from MtCook Financial support. Let me reply to the posts above:

    @Jason; We do our best for our clients, and it’s a rewarding feeling for all our team seeing satisfied clients leaving positive reviews. Regarding the credit card option; We will be adding that and other payment/withdrawal options in the near future.

    @Davis; I respect your opinion. With all due respect, you don’t sound like you’re one of our clients, therefore you wouldn’t have experience trading with us. We take our client support very seriously, and after reading through the negative comments on this website, we looked through all our records. Two things to note here;

    – We have never had any clients with the experience those critical reviews stated;

    – It’s been 10 days since I replied to all those negative reviews, asking to contact us directly and I would personally look into any issues that they’ve had. No one has come forward;

    It’s easy to say positive reviews are fake. How about the negative ones?

    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(1)You have already voted this
  9. 0.85
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    20
    Pricing
    10
    Trading Experience
    30

    @Jason Laval
    I’m glad you had a good experience with this broker, but labeling critical reviews as fake really makes me suspicious of the validity of your own review.

    But unlike you, I don’t jump to conclusions.

    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(4)You have already voted this
  10. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    These negative views are clearly fake. Mt.Cook are a very reputable brokerage and have been around since forever. Most traders who have been around know this. You don’t stay in business that long if you do not run a tight ship. Obviously you would never stay in business as a broker either if you don’t pay withdrawals. So those comments are obviously a load of bull!

    They have been my go to broker for 4+ years. The spreads I get on their cross pairs, are close to 1 pip tighter than the majority of other brokers I trade at, and that is why I am trading there. I make a withdrawal of my trading profits (when I make a good gain) and have never had to wait more than a 2 days for it to land in my bank. There was as slight delay for me one time around the start of covid, but even then it was not very long. Always swift and professional service with these guys. I’d recommend anyone on the fence to get in to contact with them and judge for yourself. You will see quickly that are you in good hands!

    + PROS: EXTREMELY tight spreads (especially on cross pairs) Super friendly service Speedy withdrawals Two liquidity streams for me to split test my algos on. Reputable brand that has been around for a long time (not a pop-up).
    - CONS: NO credit card deposits (but not a big deal as I usually deposit larger sums).
    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(1)You have already voted this
  11. Hello there, it’s Brody here from MtCook Financial support. Let me reply to the posts above:

    Martin Mohar, thank you for your positive comment. Our team has always been trying to do what’s best for our clients.

    Mike Druzly, thank you too. Regarding the regulation, we’ve chosen to go with the FSCA. That allows our clients to have more flexibility at their trading. Of course there are better regulations out there, however their issues are significantly lower leverages and other limitations that many of the clients don’t want at their trading.

    Jason BL, I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s a dirty game out there, especially in our sector. Founders of MtCook Financial come from money management background, and they couldn’t find a reliable broker that would fit their needs, so they decided to start their own. Nowadays.. Sure there are also good brokers clients can invest with. Our team and our actual clients know that MtCook Financial is one of them.

    Peter, similar to my reply to Jason BL, I (partly) agree with you as well. Yes many clients in this industry learn their lesson the hard way, while MtCook Financial was formed to be different. We’ve been on the market for many years, and started as a purely boutique brokerage, where our model required higher minimum investments. The minimum has been dropped to 1k, which is still higher than many other brokers, but we don’t want to be like many other brokers. MtCook Financial is not for everyone. The market is so big, and our intention is far from trying to get every client. Our mission is only to do what’s best for our clients. I’m sure you’ve found a good brokerage for your own trading since you have years of experience in this business, so I wish you all the best of luck.

    Jason, thank you for your message. Yes MtCook Financial is a legit brokerage, holding the FSCA regulation. Feel free to contact us directly for anything.

    Harris; I’m not here to judge other brokers. I’m only here to say what we are and have been from the beginning. Yes MtCook Financial is a legit brokerage.

  12. 0.1
    Trust
    0
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    0
    Trading Experience
    0

    No they aren’t. Go with IQ Option or IG. Both are excellent 🙂

    Helpful(4) Unhelpful(5)You have already voted this
  13. 0.1
    Trust
    0
    Customer Service
    0
    Pricing
    10
    Trading Experience
    0

    Is Mt Cook legit? I’m really confused! I want to get into the forex thingy but it seems very dangerous now.

    + PROS: Please can anyone help me and tell if they are legitimate
    - CONS: Thanks in advance :D
    Helpful(6) Unhelpful(3)You have already voted this
  14. 0.1
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    0
    Pricing
    0
    Trading Experience
    0

    Let me give you a piece of advice. Don’t use Mt. Cook Financial or any other shady broker if you are serious about Forex. They have an insanely high min. investment which just goes to show that they earn big bucks from each of their clients ~victims~.
    For the love of god don’t @ me. I don’t have time to argue right now. But as a trader with 5 years of experience, I can tell you this much. USE RELIABLE BROKERS! If you have that “bad gut feeling” when looking at a broker, then go with the feeling and avoid them.
    I for example, have that bad gut feeling about this company, so guess what I’m gonna do? Yes! I’m going to stay away from them. Voila

    - CONS: VERY high min. investment Gives me a bad feeling
    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(6)You have already voted this
  15. 0.1
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    0
    Pricing
    0
    Trading Experience
    0

    People are getting played by corporations. These companies make poor and middle class people think that they can earn a living if they give their money to them and then they start showing their true colors.
    Work hard for your money, go to college, get a job. Don’t waste your money on scammers.

    - CONS: Get rich quick scams WILL ruin your life Avoid them please
    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(5)You have already voted this
  16. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    Hello
    I started using Mt Cook financial service and it seems quite cool to me. I don’t see any problems with relationship. Support is always online but first they convinced me about their offer. It seems they can offer small spreads, what fits to my contra trade trading. For trader like that, I have no complication about this broker yet, because I found what I was looking for. If they can listen to this comment. I wish, they will become even better over time.

    + PROS: Regulated for African market. Crazy small spreads. Option for huge leverage. No swaps. Good service and fast response.
    - CONS: I don't see any bad things about them. Maybe regulation might take a part for some big players who don't need a big leverage and are not concerned about spreads. Those are looking more often for highers regulation which is fca regulation.
    Helpful(5) Unhelpful(2)You have already voted this
  17. I’m okay with their service. They change custom relationship as it seems. I have great trading experience. Maybe they start working on their progress.

  18. Hi Frank,

    Thank you for your input. MtCook Financial is an agency model brokerage, which means we don’t take the opposite side of clients’ trades. Our intention is for clients to be positive. We do not freeze accounts, nor do we ever take funds from our clients’ accounts.

    I oversee all our accounting and support tickets, and I cannot find anything in our records that could be identified with what you claimed. It still is an interesting point, and I would like to better explain it;

    On very rare occasions an LP will inform us that the “yield decay” on some accounts are getting flagged as being extremely aggressive as per their algo detection and request that we close the account.

    This is usually tied to algos doing predatory types of trading or exploiting price inefficiencies inside the spread. There are a network of traders who bounce from broker to broker exploiting this, or simply clients who are not aware their algos are causing the problem. If our LPs request this of us, we do follow their request.

    Again this is not a very common occurrence and although rare, it does happen from time to time and is out of our control unfortunately. Upon this ever happening, we simply notify the client that our LP does not want the flow, and they have the choice to cease using the algo causing the flag, or of course withdraw at their leisure. This is always a very courteous exchange on our side with our clients when this happens, and we have never had a confrontation of any kind of this. Most clients are very understanding.

    Please feel free to contact us at accounts@mtcookfinancial, and as previously mentioned, I’ll personally look into any of the issues you might have with your account.

    Kind Regards,
    Brody

  19. Hi Tay and “Better safe than sorry fellas”, thank you for your input. I’d like to add that MtCook Financial is regulated by FSCA:

    http://mtcookfinancial.com/about/regulation/

  20. Dear JJ,

    I read your message that you haven’t been able to get to your funds. We run very tight accounting at our company, and there are no clients owed any funds from us. In fact, all withdrawals that our clients make are sent to them the very next day, in full. If you have any issues, please feel free to contact us at ac******@mt*************.com, and as mentioned before, I’d be happy to personally go through any issues that you had, and help you resolving them.

    Kind Regards,
    Brody

  21. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    Dear client,

    My my name is Brody from MtCook Financial’s support. While I’m sorry about your bad experience, I can’t believe that it could have happened at our brokerage. Our company has been built our clients’ trust that we earned through the years of our service. Among other things, we are very proud of our support that goes over and beyond for our clients.

    Please feel free to contact us at ac******@mt*************.com for anything, and I would be happy to personally look into your account, and resolve any issues that you ever had with us.

    Kind Regards,
    Brody

    Helpful(6) Unhelpful(2)You have already voted this
  22. 1.1
    Trust
    20
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    30
    Trading Experience
    30

    Mt. Cook Financial is a fraud!! I was using their services for the past 2 months and thought they were legitimate but I was so wrong.
    Even though my account was several months old I didn’t use it much prior to August.
    I was trading normally through their platform when they froze my account for unspecified reasons suddenly. Mt. Cook Financial thinks it’s okay to loot users and steal away all their deposits.
    Please don’t sign up on this hideous platform. It freezes your account and takes away all the money you had deposited. The support staff at Mt. Cook doesn’t even tell you why your account got frozen in the first place.

    - CONS: scam
    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(4)You have already voted this
  23. Reply
    Better safe than sorry fellas
    October 15, 2020 at 8:30 am
    0.1
    Trust
    0
    Customer Service
    0
    Pricing
    0
    Trading Experience
    10

    After losing thousands of dollars in forex scams and brokers, I’m not going to sit here and let anyone get scammed. As a forex trader, you should ONLY use trusted and regulated brokers, and Mt. Cook Financial is not that.

    - CONS: Unregulated Insanely high fees
    Helpful(3) Unhelpful(4)You have already voted this
  24. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    Hello, i would like to give my opinion about trading on MtCook. What i like the most are really good spreads, the other very important thing are withdrawals.. You can make millions but if broker does not pay you its worth 0.. I recommend it and will continue to trade with them 🙂

    + PROS: spreads, withdrawals, support
    - CONS: /
    Helpful(4) Unhelpful(3)You have already voted this
  25. 0.5
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    10
    Trading Experience
    10

    They are unregulated? I didn’t know that! This is defiantly an eye-opener for me, because I was trying to get into the whole Forex trading thing and at least now I know which platform not to use. Thanks

    + PROS: thanks for this post
    Helpful(4) Unhelpful(4)You have already voted this
  26. 5
    Trust
    100
    Customer Service
    100
    Pricing
    100
    Trading Experience
    100

    I use Mtcookfinancial for more than 1 year and have very positive experience!

    + PROS: Low spreads Fast withdrawals good support
    - CONS: I do not have negative experience with broker...
    Helpful(4) Unhelpful(2)You have already voted this
  27. 0.5
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    10
    Trading Experience
    10

    I can’t emphasis it enough, Mt Cook Financial is not a reliable broker. Me and my friend have been trying to get a refund from these guys for ages and we haven’t received any significant amount.
    Avoid them pals, they only have fake positive reviews online, don’t fall for them!

    - CONS: Scammers with fake 5star reviews everywhere
    Helpful(4) Unhelpful(4)You have already voted this
    • MtCook Financial is a boutique brokerage, and we have NO clients with the issues you are mentioning. You either confused us with another brokerage, or your intention is to post false statements.
      Brody from MtCook Financial.

    • Scammer Alert????
      I tested this scamming Broker MT Crooks what your name MT Cook stands for ?
      People beware I am a not a bad trader and off and on I open accounts one MT4 to test other servers, and several brokers and I must say Mt Crooks are scammers.
      They always fill the orders with a bad intention,is overpriced !!Wacth out !!!!!

      • Another false statement on this website. As a boutique brokerage we have NO traders with the experience you are mentioning. Our team is available to help our clients all the time, and our real clients would know this. You have never been our client, and your language is very unprofessional.

  28. 1.1
    Trust
    10
    Customer Service
    10
    Pricing
    40
    Trading Experience
    30

    Mt. Cook Financial is a scam!
    They deducted more than 850 USD from my account without notifying me. When I contacted their customer service, they didn’t respond. I’m helpless here. Don’t risk doing business with those thieves.

    Helpful(6) Unhelpful(6)You have already voted this
    • Dear Cameron, if you were ever a client of MtCook Financial, you would know that our service and the team are very professional. Your claims are false and made up. Instead of wasting your and other people’s time here, please visit us and see for yourself.

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