Trusting a Broker?

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if you can generally trust a broker with your green backs. Because essentially with some brokers and the agreements you sign they have complete authority over your account. So it just makes me a little cautious trusting a broker with my disposable income. I heard of this idea of just given them a portion of your trading capital but still trading as if you had all of your trading capital with them. Which I figure isn’t a bad idea as long as you have enough in there to keep your positions open so you don’t get a margin call. So I guess my general question is, can we trust brokers with your trading capital or would it be a good idea to only have them hold onto the bare minimum so you can get your trading done? The problem with that idea I see is if you have a losing streak that you would probably have to put more money in so that you can start trading again and that would slow you down. So I suppose you would have to consider your max draw down and add that on top of your trading capital that is sufficient enough for you to make your trades. Any thoughts?

Hi,

I have 2 brokers, i`m based in the uk and over here we have the fsa financial something authority, they wont screw you out of your money if thats your worry, as long as you stick to some of the more established brokers, which there are plenty.

I`m not saying goe with one of these, but saxobank
forex.com
cmcforex

don`t go with anybody small, there are other reccomendations in this forum its worth having a look at those threads

saxobank is a pretty good bet. I would recommend going over the forexbastards review site on brokers, but it seems its getting a little too cluttered with info. n_aftab has a good point, there are other threads in this forum that talk about brokers. Also, it depends on what kind of trading you are going to be doing?..spreads on the GBP, EUR…etc

wow, forex bastards have alot of scary reviews on oanda and fxcm. i was considering opening an account with oanda but now im worried. i also used to trade with fxcm and never really saw a problem but people claim its a scam? man, im back at square one and looking for a broker that allows micro lots.

I trade with Oanda for a year, it’s simple and plain, I do not know but you surely scared me :slight_smile:

Saxobank is a strong choice indeed. If you want to be with big boys.

I traded with Refco for a while, then FXCM. They both were extremely disappointing. Recently, I opened an account with forex.com, and really like some of the offers they make in terms of research.
I’ve heard good things about Saxo, but I don’t want my money being held overseas.

i want to open an account with interbank fx. they offer micro lots which is great for me. also they use MT4 as their platform, which is a system i really like to work with. my biggest concern is with carry trading. i was going to trade with Oanda to try Carry trading but since im considering IBFX i really want to know if their rates are good or do they rip people off.

Oanda pays interest on time every day. That is what I have experienced.

Man, my head is spinning. finding a reliable broker is so hard. after reading forexbastards i really dont think Oanda is as reliable as thought and they have so many kinks in their systems that is just rediculouse for a professional broker. im surprised they havent worked out the obviouse problems and complaints first before they started introducing some cute gagets. i personally like the MT4 platform better but i dont know if i trust them at all either. i dont know what to do. i can live with the pip spread growing to as much as 30 pips (just as long as it doesnt stop me out of a trade prematurely), i can live with a 50:1 leverage (i can always double my account then double my trades), the one thing i cant really stand is their lack of a trailing stop and the fact that i keep getting disconnected while im on th platform. i am testing other platforms right now and i dont notice this at all with the others but for some reason oanda is just disconnecting. also i read that they have a dealing desks whitch delays orders from being placed.

i really would like to know what to do. but if interbankfx pays interest well i will definately go with them.

I haven’t experienced any disconnects with Oanda. Perhaps that is because I am only demoing? I probably going to start small with a micro account until I trust a broker. Even though I have the capital for a mini probably be a good idea to start micro especially if I do not trust a broker.

I am live trading, I know what you talk about.
I get disconnected also. Lack of trailing stop, hmm small leverage, java platform, not very good charting…

But regarding trustworthy, it’s worth it.

I want to open an account at NorthFinance, but I hesitate too much…not promising review!

i am also trading with Oanda’s demo account. i dont know if the fxtrade account has the same glitch (i hope not). on the oanda forum for platforms, a rep from oanda claims that the problem has been fixed. i really dont see a difference but what ever. its really stressful if you want to get in or out of a bad trade and you just cant connect. so far, by most of the broker review sites, Oanda is the best broker. its also the one broker that gets the most reviews written about them by traders. i will probably trade with them. the trailing stop is not the biggest problem i could have anyways. my biggest worry are their spreads and slippage. i get that Oanda is probably one of the most trust worthy brokers but i need stability but there are only a hand full of brokers that allow micro accounts and pays interests well on balance and carry trades. has anyone experience huge slippage and/or spreads higher then 30 pips?

also check out forex bastards.
is this true? and is this really a bad thing?
“From: John, USA
Rating: SCAM
Date of Post: 08/13/06
Review: Did you people read Oanda’s trading agreement. In the trading agreement it is stated that Oanda trades against its clients. They have a fund for that! … READ THE TRADING AGREEMENT … cheers”.

honeb,

This is NOT true. OANDA does not trade against our clients, OANDA hedges all client positions so OANDA’s revenue is not correlated to whether a client is profitable or not.

when Oanda hedges, does this mean Oanda takes the opposite trade to their clients. so, if their client wins then Oanda looses? right? and if so then that would be Oanda would have a huge interest trying to protect themselves against profitable traders. right?

Honeb,

No, that is incorrect. OANDA does not profit from its customers trading at a loss since we hedge our customers’ aggregate positions. For example: If the aggregate customer position is $100M on the EUR, then OANDA will also be long $100M on the EUR. If the EUR goes up and the OANDA traders make a profit, then OANDA will make the same profit because it has (more or less) the same position. Alternatively is the EUR goes down and our traders have a loss, then we will have the same loss. (It is for this reason, that OANDA does not profit from customers’ losses.)

We want all our customers only trade with a profit, because that would lead to increased trading, and thus increased volume and revenue for OANDA since we profit off the spread.

I see now. thanks for filling me in. very informative.

Well…We all know what type of traders(news traders:eek: ) post their reveiws on forexbastards.com . felixbastard makes every other company look like crooks except his. dont fall for these crap guys, please make your own judgment by getting your information through more unbiased sources.

Do you really beleive this guy?. If he’s telling the truth Oanda must be the only broker who do this.

Yes, I do believe him. And I very seriously doubt that Oanda is the only one doing that. The absolute last thing brokers want is large net exposures, which is what they could have if they just took the other side of customer positions. They are in the business of providing transactional opportunities to their customers - for which they get paid (spread and/or commission). They are not (in the vast majority of cases) trading for their own account.

A question was tearing me appart for about 2 years allready…i know its stupid......but anywayz!:) Can a brocker(is there any?) afford to pay up to a succesful(VERY SUCCESFULL) trader lets say....100000000$ MONTHLY? (if youre to lazy to read all the zeros, than thats 1 hundred million$)