Best Thread Which Online Forex Broker Is Best?
Jason Rogers
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Forex trading is available to US residents but not in the form of a spreadbet account. You would have to setup a regular forex trading account rather than a spreadbet account. Spreadbet accounts are also specific to residents of the UK and Ireland due to their tax treatment. There are also govt. regulations requiring US traders to open forex trading accounts through a US regulated firm.
Shaun12uk
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OK I am willing to listen which broker/spreadbet account you would put money into ?
Spreadbet account. IG index, capital spreads. None of them are great. If you have 25k to put in, and you're trading forex, i would give GFT,FIXI or LCG a call and setup a forex spreadbet account. You will trade on currenex(DMA) and they will convert to spreadbet.
I've found that Capital spreads don't reject my bets and IG index have only just started rejecting them. IG and Capital Spreads push through £50 a point pretty quickly which helps.
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TraderNumber7
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1) There are dozens, true. But, most are not "good to go."
2) A "genuine" platform depends on the character and the integrity of the business entity standing behind it. Pick-up your phone and make some calls, ask some relevant questions about their business practices, find out if they are easy to talk to by phone or if they appear rude by nature. Find out how they make their revenue. These guys are not in the business of losing money - they either make money on the spread, a commission or some form of both. If you are looking for "Fixed Spreads," then by definition, you are asking to trade with a Buck Shop. FX is not a fixed cost-basis business. Prices come into a trading platform from a pool of liquidity, where software is used to aggregate and stream prices to your platform. Somewhere along that path, the firm MUST make a profit - just find out if the firm is willing to be up front with you about how they do it.
3) Ease of Use, is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. If you feel the platform is clunky and less than intuitive - then it is for YOU, but it might not be for someone else. Of course, all trading platforms should have enough functionality to enable you to easily get into and out of the market with good speed and accuracy. Most Retail FX platforms don't offer complex order types - less than a handful do. But, with most Retail FX trades, complex order types are not necessary for most traders. Very sadly, one of the most visually appealing and easy to use is the FXCM Trade Station II platform. In fact, I would go as far to say that it is one of the most flexible in Retail FX. Unfortunately, it is tied to FXCM and that gets to the heart of my point - its the company behind the platform that matters the most.
4) As far as I am concerned, PT Multi-Station offers the Retail Trader the best overall platform in existence, including the best Charts and the best User Interface. PTMS also allows you to trade through multiple Retail FX Intermediaries with aggregated account detail and the ability to trade across multiple asset classes. This is one of the best, compact solutions that I've seen to date. Unfortunately, and very sadly, the platform's developers have not yet worked out enough bugs to consider this platform ready for Prime Time. When (if) they ever get around to dealing with the bug ridden code, I believe that PT Multi-Station from ProTrader, will have few equals on the market, as it allows you to select your FX intermediary. The problem right now is that it is FAR TOO BUG ridden to even think about using in production level trading. But, I absolutely love the concept of: Independent Trading Platform, Multi-FX Intermediary Access, Aggregated Intermediary Accounts and Cross Asset Class trading capability (FX, Stocks, Options, Futures, Metals, etc.).
Right now, it really all depends on who you can establish a good relationship with and who you fell comfortable with as a Retail Trader (assuming you are still Retail). If I were still Retail, I'd be looking at a platform the offered me access to Currenex liquidity. Divisa Capital (DCFX), is based out of New Zealand and they also have an office in San Diego, California, USA. They have deployed a Currenex Hub with NDD/STP and they have also published their liquidity pool - that's an important point to consider. They don't hide their sources of liquidity from their traders. You get a fairly smooth running and stable plain vanilla Currenex platform and not a lot of bells and whistles. However, you do get sufficient Order Types and Account Views. The charting is not much to write home about, however - but that's Currenex.
For access to multiple asset classes simultaneously, it is pretty hard to beat the "look and feel" of the Saxo Bank Trading Platform. They've had some issues in the past with integrity, but many feel that those days are gone - I personally do not know one way or another. Many people don't like Saxo, or their Platform, but it is still one of the most comprehensive Retail/Commercial/Institutional trading platforms in existence. It has some of the most depth and breath that I've seen and depending on what type of account you set-up and where you host your account (country), you can trade almost anything in terms of asset class. Some say that Saxo is too slow. I personally have not experienced that in my usage or testing. Many say that the platform is too verbose. I would say that it is full-featured and rich with functionality. However, the charting flexibility needs to be improved and the ease of use for the charting interface needs to be completely overhauled and made far more simply and direct. Still, if you want multi asset class access on a simultaneous platform that is full-featured and rich with functionality, then the Saxo Trader Platform is one of the stand-outs in that area.
Ok, my fee for services renders is precisely .02 cents. Do your own homework and I wish you the best.
Blaiserboy
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Wow.... lots of info in that report.
Thanks very much for that
daveM
Thanks very much for that
daveM
TraderNumber7
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BTW - the spreads on Divisa Capital FX, are ridiculously low (for Retail FX) that last time I checked. Last night, I saw a lot of .8 through .6 and even a few .4 and .5 pip spreads on EURUSD.
TraderNumber7
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It is difficult in Retail Hell. Once you get out and into an Institutional and/or Prime Brokerage arrangement, the skies get a lot brighter and your platform choices are better.
If you can survive Retail Hell and build an account to about $300k, then you have earned the privilege of trading through a PM, or direct through an Institutional. But, $300k is about the minimum with most "institutional" intermediaries. At that level, you are open to choices from:
BAXTER-FX
ICAP
BARX FX
HotSpot FX
FXAll
Currenex
LavaFX
Integral
(in no particular order)
At the 7 figure level, you can go direct through some banks around the world. At the 8 figure level, you should be able to go direct through just about any bank. Frankly, if you are a private fund, trading your own capital - simply set-up an LLC, or some kind of legal entity that works for you, and stick with the PM relationship. A lot less hassle that way on taxes and a host of other regulatory issues.
At some point, you will look back on Retail Hell and realize that it was just a training ground. Seriously, one has to learn how to trade, first. Getting through Retail Hell (from about $10k to about $300k), is like getting through Graduate School. At that point, you earned the privilege of being considered a real Trader. Your Ph.D. will come while trading through an Institutional account, or through a PM's institutional credit line. Either way, once you hit your first $5m, you've probably earned the equivalent of a Ph.D. in trading. From that point, you can start giving actual advice and encouragement to other traders that really matters - because you've been there and done that before.
$5m is pretty much the "Hello World" moment in private trading. If you can hit that level from a start of about $10k, then you've finally arrived. From that point, if you want to go on to become a "Big Boy," then the choice will be yours because you will have definitely earned it by that point. When you get there, just remember to come back and offer some kind of encouragement to those seeking the same, from time to time. Don't stay away from Retail boards that you used to frequent, simply because, you've "arrived." Always find a way to give something (no matter how small) back to the community that gave you so much.
Joseff
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TraderNumber7, Were are you from? I'm not a pro trades, but I heard only about few brokers in this list.
simplebeans
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Whats the best broker out there for a mini account lets say for a £100 deposit with trading at £0.50 or £1.00 a pip?
Shaun12uk
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On that basis has to be a spreadbet account with probably ETX, Capital spreads or IG Index. I have use all three at some point, all reasonably good and prob rank in the order written.:clap:
About FXCM that was discussed on this thread, they are being sued for "fraud and racketeering". There is also a flood of negative reviews.
http://forexmagnates.com/fxcm-slapp...on-suit-over-claims-of-fraud-and-racketeering
http://forexmagnates.com/fxcm-slapp...on-suit-over-claims-of-fraud-and-racketeering
Joseff
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I know that FXCM is bad for automated trading.
Is your API offered to retail investors, what is the min deposit for API account, is there a monthly fee for API access?
Thanks.
tripletrade
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Thanks for the incisive comments in your post which clearly demonstrate that you are a savvy and experienced trader.
I have been looking over the DCFX site. I noticed that they "charge $3 per $100,000 to gain access to our core spreads from 9 top tier banks." On trades less than $25k Interactive Brokers charges a commission of roughly 1 pip per side or $2.50 whichever is larger. So do you think Divisa, as with IB, might be somewhat expensive for retail traders trading less than $25k per trade or do you think their commision is reasonable and offset by their low currenx spreads?
I checked with them and they are insured up to NZD100k per account.
They charge $25 for a withdrawal to cover "their fees" which is a bit much compared to the bucketshops you refer to. Actually, it's a bit much generally in the context of my experience with IBAN transfers between companies on various European transactions.