FXCM, Oanda and forex.com, Which is best?

Has anyone checked out MahiFX yet? They’ve launched now and according to the press they are offering pricing down at EUR/USD 0.8 pips, EUR/GBP 0.8, USD/JPY 0.8. I’m just about to log into the demo account and see if the platform is any good :slight_smile:

Totaly new to this . Want to know if you guys with real accounts have ever had a hard time getting your money cashed out?

The site looks very attractive, they have a very good designer:) Very interesting that they are proud that they are market maker. Never see like that before. Interesting…

My advice would be to stay away from new small brokers, and wait till they have an established reputation for integrity and quality. Traders obsess over the spread size (I used to be the same way) but unless you’re trading 5 minute charts, the spread is one of the least important things about your broker. Too many of these start up firms have turned out to be bucketshops, or worse ponzi schemes. You’re better off picking a company that has good support and you know will pay you promptly should you ever turn a profit.

Personally I use FXCM. Their spreads are competitive and if you sign up through cashbackforexusa.com or a similar rebate company, you get 0.7 pips rebated per trade, which can be pretty significant at the end of the month. Their platform is very stable, and as long as you’re trading the majors the spreads are just fine. That said, I’m probably looking to open a second account at a new broker soon, ATC brokers looks promising.

One more thought about FXCM. Make sure you open a standard account, not a micro account if you’re serious about trading. Correct me if I’m wrong, but i believe FXCM makes the market for the micro accounts while the standard account is an STP model so you don’t have the conflict of interest with the broker.

Hi Warlock,

FXCM used to make the market for micro accounts when FXCM Micro was initially launched. We did this because I believe only 2 liquidity providers were accepting micro lots via NDD at the time and spreads/execution would have been poor with only 2. Over time, more liquidity providers started to accept micro lots via NDD, and all micro accounts were switched over to NDD a few years ago. So all forex transactions, including micro, with FXCM are now executed via NDD.

Hope that helps :slight_smile: and have a great weekend.

Jason

Excellent Information, thank you. I knew you’d step in if I got my facts wrong. FXCM Really does take the right approach to their business.

My choice is Oanda from this list.He is provider of the liquidity for many well-known financial institutions.

hi traders,
l’m with fxcm account holder and there serious platform connection problem over the last couple of days, has’nt been working although we can log in but charts won’t load… l’m in Australia, JUST LOOKING FOR OTHERS IN SAME POSITION that this’s effecting :34: l here it’s a big problem, it’s effecting along the south pacific rim and with telsta carriers. dame you FXCM . GET IN TOUCH traders as i don’t believe what the wires are sayings cheers… j

Ive never had a problem with Oanda in the past year i have been using them. Easy to deposit , easy to withdraw. Good spreads and decent customer support …

there is no a perfect broker, each broker has their own advantages, you need to know what you are looking for, the best way to check is to use some forex broker comparison websites, you may find some extra information about the broker which you can not see it from their website

Anybody ever use MIG and Dukascopy? They both seem to have compatitive spread, but what about the cust support and wihdrawal?

i havent used dukascopy but heard they are good. iv opened a account with oanda.com and im very happy so far. all my trades i have made a profit and unlike other brokers it hasnt gone to a loss when i trade.

using oanda and im very pleased. would reccomend to any person wanting to get into forex.

Well i heard Dukascopy is very good too and they are ECN broker, so their spread is small. But i don’t know about their execution and their support?

I suggest you Google “Dukascopy Scam”. I have found numerous reviews of Dukascopy this way. Most of the ones I’ve read alternate between 1 star (“it’s a scam”) and 5 stars (“they are the best”). My personal opinion - and I’ve talked to Dukascopy and to FINMA (the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority) by phone - is that the first group of reviewers may be closer to the truth.

I would urge readers to wherever possible trade FX through a major bank - Citibank or similar. With the many smaller operations like Dukascopy you will not know how they actually operate or how good/bad they are until something unfortunate happens to your account. And it’s not difficult to open a bank in Switzerland - they have an awful lot of them for a small country.

I have been contacted by sales at FXCM several times to sign up. I reviewed their service on the forums. From what I have read the customer service is not good, but the platform is OK. So, I decided to give them a try.

I have been trying to start an account with FXCM since Thursday (4 days now). On Thursday night, I contacted the customer service via chat. I chatted with Shalom. He told me he was busy chatting with other customers and could not answer my questions, but he did send me the sign up information. He told me the process would take 2-3 days.

On Friday I tried to sign up, but their servers were down until Sunday night. I paid $2,000 USD on my credit card. My bank sent me confirmation that this amount was paid. I submitted my ID and Proof of Residence.

Then on Sunday night I receive an email from FXCM that my credit card could not be processed, because I didn’t fill out the application? The servers are online now (Monday morning), I fill out the application, and when I am asked for my Country of Residence, the United States is not available as a possible selection! So , I select the next closest country - The United Kingdom. Now, I am receiving emails for FXCM UK.

My sales rep, William Stamps, assures me he will have me up an running for trading Monday morning. So far four days of headaches and no opportunity to trade.

Jason Rogers at FXCM, I tried to email you directly. But, I am a newbie with less than 20 posts, so I cant send emails through this Forum at this time.

So today I received a phone call from my rep William at FXCM at 12:05 PM when he arrived in the office. He told me that he received my information. Then he told that I filled out the application wrong, by including my Country of Residence as The United Kingdom. I asked him if he read my email. He said “yes”.

In my emails I explained the FXCM online application would not allow The United States as a country of residence (this has now been fixed).

William explained to me that this problem has happened in the past. Then he explained to me that he “can’t promise me anything” about getting online today. I paid the deposit, filled out the applications, completed the verifications…and nothing.

I sent an email to Jason Rogers with FXCM from this site, but I have yet to receive a response.

I have invested approximately 8 hours going through the FXCM “sign up” process.

Hi Pipswoody,

I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you had this morning. It turns out, the reason you could not find the United States in the drop down menu for Country of Residence is because you initially completed the account application for FXCM UK, which does not accept US residents. My colleague David has informed me that since then, he spoke with you and helped you complete the account opening process with FXCM US. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Jason

As I have been explaining in previous posts, The United States was not present in the drop down menus (the problem was confirmed by William at FXCM). As a result, I selected The United Kingdom, because the drop down menu has an Astrix (*) and I had to select a country or my application would not be submitted.

Now, you are telling me its my fault because I filled out the wrong application. :33:

The problem is that the FXCM did not properly Beta Test the application. Again, William confirmed that FXCM was having problems in this area. Unfortunately, neither you nor William understood the issue I was having despite having received my emails.

I am up and trading now. I am working with David, a Sales Manager at FXCM. He is on top of my account and I will be working with him exclusively to avoid any more issues in the future.