Forex Brokers Explained
Most currency exchange brokers offering accounts to retail traders operate in one of two ways. It is unlikely that you’re going to be signing up with a broker who has their own dealing desk. More likely, you’ll be having a look at either an ECN broker or a market maker.
1. ECN currency exchange brokers
These corporations use the Electronic Communication Network, a worldwide online marketplace that caters for many differing types of trader from retail to the massive banks and market makers. The spread on the ECN is small, infrequently just about non existent, so brokers using this network will typically either add two pips to the real spread or charge commission or fees per deal. You can often get better prices from an ECN broker but take a close look at their fee structure and consider what it would mean to you on a normal deal.
ECN brokers are usually better for scalpers and can even welcome them because they are dealing without delay with a massive market. Slippage isn’t such a lot of a problem either for scalping or at times of currency exchange reports reports. They are also sometimes well regulated.
On the downside, the variable spread can imply more uncertainty when setting stop losses and limit orders. ECN brokers also tend to offer fewer charts and can have a less user friendly dealing platform because they don’t seem to be especially trying to attract newbies. They generally tend to say that you know what you do and have a paid subscription to do your technical research somewhere else.
If you’re interested in ECN brokers check out FXOpen.
2. Forex market makers
Market makers sometimes offer you their own costs, based mostly on the price that they are expecting to get on the ECN. When you open a deal they have to match it in the ECN to cover their risk. Clearly here there is room for the price to modify in the instant between you clicking the button and the deal going on to the ECN. This is slippage. It can imply that you don’t get the price that you predict, which can be a difficulty, especially for scalpers who are generally searching for miniscule profits from each trade. For that reason scalpers and market makers are not a good mix and may be unwelcome.
On the positive side, market makers can be a good choice for an amateur. They will often provide good technical research, reports alerts, a user friendly platform and a demo account. They will almost always offer a mini foreign exchange trading account so that you can start trading with a couple of hundred dollars or less. This is a important factor for many new traders selecting forex brokers.