Hi peeps,
Looking for some advice on SB brokers for a specific forex strategy.
I used to work in the market (LSE) back in the late eighties, traded options, bonds and stocks for private and institutional clients. Also worked in M&A. I'm therefore reasonably savvy but I split from the market after not many years and went washing dishes and working in ski resorts, travelling and general fun, etc.
For reasons I won't bore ya with I've ended up physically disabled and don't have oodles of cash, despite my promising career start 😆 but I do have a grand spare to party in the spread betting market with (and too much time on my hands).
For two weeks I've been practicing a trading regime on the DFMarkets dummy account - I trade about five times a day using no more than 50% of the margin I'll be funding whatever account I might open.
I'm usually in and out of the market in 5 -15 minutes on each trade and making reliable daily profits I'm happy with. Occasionally I'll let a trade run longer but I'm ruthless about cutting losses.
I've decided to take the plunge and go live with this strategy but reading this thread am wondering about which SB company to go with as, from some comments herein, it seems I'd be classed as scalping and not welcomed at every door. Trying to research firms on the net seems like wading through treacle for some reason.
The DFMarkets platform has been working for me - I've yet to wade through their full T&C's to check if my trading would be acceptable to them and I've found it hard to find recent reviews/recommendations for them.
I've also looked at Alpari who offer SB accounts trading on MT4 - look OK but again need to read/wade through the full T&C's.
Does anyone have any comment on either of the above brokers please? Or, any specific recommendations of SB brokers who will not object to the kinds of trading described above?
Any helps and advice gratefully received.
This is not a recommendation, since I have never used them, but I'd have thought Prospreads were worth considering, and it looks like they are scalper-friendly.
I was surprised to see that the minimum initial funding now is only £500. I thought it used to be £10k. However, they now offer minilots, so maybe that's the reason.
From the Trading Platform section of their website:
The ProSpreads platform allows you to trade in 4 different ways:
Order ticket – This is the more traditional way of executing any order and is typically utilised by the longer term or less seasoned pro.
Single click – This method is used by the more experienced individual, where speed and simplicity are important. A simple click of the mouse will instantly execute a ‘market’ on ‘limit’ order with a user defined default quantity.
Depth of market – otherwise known as Level 2 execution. Users can place their orders on level 2 screen which shows the underlying depth of market.
Ladder – The ladder is the most popular way to trade and allows the user to place the most common types of order on a dynamic depth of market screen. This is the scalpers choice for executing spread bet orders.
Whichever way you choose to execute your spread bet, ProSpreads will not restrict the level you place any of your orders. You are free to place your limit and stop orders at any price, including at a level which is inside the underlying market spread!
Looks quite attractive to me, and now it only costs £500 to try.
Hmm..there used to be a Prospreads thread here...is it still going?
A downside for some may be that it's offshore (Gibraltar), and not regulated under UK law, although it is regulated under Gibraltar law. (Though I presume that if Gibraltar went bust, the UK would have to bail it out, just to save face, after all the fuss we've made in the past about hanging on to it).
What's to lose by trying it?
....just looked back at your post - I think I was confusing it with someone else's - but I don't think what you are doing is the kind of scalping that most SB firms usually hate.
Do you depend on MT4, btw? Don't think you'd get that with Prospreads, but, as well as Alpari, there's GKFX, IG and Capital Spreads offering MT4 these days (as I was surprised to recently find, having been out of the game for a couple of years). So long as it's only indicators you are needing (and not EA's), you can always use a small account with an MT4 offering for the indicators, but trade elsewhere for execution - no trading from the MT4 chart of course, but that may not be a problem.
Whatever you end up doing, I wish you lots of luck, and don't forget to let us know how you get on.
🙂
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BTW, are there any independent charting providers who provide MT4, so you can code indicators on charts that are independent of the broker you are using, does anybody know? - Thanks.
