[QUOTE=dianajs;752774]Stay away from ATC Brokers, their American branch recently filed for bankruptcy. Does anyone know whether the British branch is reliable or not?[/QUOTE]
nope, it isn’t. why would you even consider it? i can’t understand. there is plenty of articles written up on the founders and by reading all of that you can get a pretty good idea that perhaps if they are issues at the top of the company, well then, maybe not such a great idea to put your trust and money there.
anyway, there are so many more agency model brokers out there: just go with them and trade like a pro, not like a clueless retail trader. Baxter-FX (Australia), Invast (Australia, but Japanese company), LMAX (UK), JFD Brokers (Cyprus regulated by MiFid)), Dukascopy (EU + CHF, hybrid model and high cost), Interactive Brokers (US, CA), FXCM Pro (US, non-retail accounts), etc…
but stay away from any offshore broker because if the owners decide to disappear with client accounts or go bankrupt, you will have even less recourse than in the EU, UK, and North America where there are legal frameworks and regulators willing to apply them.
1 thing i noticed on here, most of you guys seem to think very short term. if you love trading and think of yourself as a trader and not just some $ greedy monkey, then you are in this for the long term, and long term means being consistently profitable over years and years of trading, in which case spreads, commission, funding methods, all that, albeit somewhat important, is not as important as execution quality and DMA to the liquidity. without the latter, you might just as well play with OANDA, because that’s what it will be for you: play and not a serious business in which you strive to find quality of service beyond the bullsh1t you see on the marketing websites.
a good starting point: read the Bank of England ‘Fair and Effective Markets Review’ report to learn more about this business. for your convenience, i have attached it here.