The Great Broker Debate- Taking the plunge!

[soul786]

I've been weighing my options in terms of going Live very soon in the forex market. As I've been on the forums and researching as much as I can, I'm at a point where I have a certain amount of funds I'm putting up JUST for forex. Money I willingly risk knowing I'm going live.

The question remains what broker to choose. Thus, just like many traders have the same questions, I'd like to create this thread as a journey through the process of CHOOSING, and signing up for a certain broker of my liking for the first time.

Input from forum members IS ASKED OF as I'm still unsure of my final decision.

Take this as a preface; the following post will explain more.

[soul786]

As stated prior, I have a certain amount of funds I'll be depositing.

First off, I will state that my general bias to a broker is ECN no doubt. I know of the respected names with retail brokers and have demo'd them all. MT4 is a platform of choice though I can just as easily use a demo from one broker and trade in another platform (i.e MT4 and Oanda as most do).

The dilema lies herein:

With limited capital (my deposit will be limited to $1000 USD), I'm left with few ECN options. MB Trading was my first, FXOpen my second. With MB Trading however, age restrictions leave me in the 'Keep demoing for another year and a half' pool of people, whereas FXOpen has a lower age limit.

Conversly (as if it had to be this way) FXOpen is based out of Mauritius- or some such name and is not NFA regulated. MB Trading is.

Here I open it up to the community:

1.Any experience with these brokers?
2.For those that are live, ECN or MM and which one?
3.Why the choice?
4.When you went demo to live; how did you make your decision?

As I come across new information, I will readily post it here. I intend to use this thread as a transitional tool for me (and others to see and refer to) going from a demo environment to a Live one.

Subsequently, I will readily post my experience with that broker, possible turn this thread into an active following of the system I intend to trade one the paperwork is filled and ready to go.

Thank you for any input you all have. Live traders please do leave comments; I'm in it for the long haul!

[ThePhoenix]

Originally Posted by soul786

I've been weighing my options in terms of going Live very soon in the forex market. As I've been on the forums and researching as much as I can, I'm at a point where I have a certain amount of funds I'm putting up JUST for forex. Money I willingly risk knowing I'm going live.

The question remains what broker to choose. Thus, just like many traders have the same questions, I'd like to create this thread as a journey through the process of CHOOSING, and signing up for a certain broker of my liking for the first time.

Input from forum members IS ASKED OF as I'm still unsure of my final decision.

Take this as a preface; the following post will explain more.

I've been trading with ibfx live for two years now and have found them to be a fair broker that doesn't play bucket shop games.

Ibfx was easy to start the account, funded quickly and has excellent customer support via live chat. When I first started I had a few angry question about things I didn't understand, and they were still very helpful despite my sometimes rude attitude.

At ibfx you can start with a very small amount and trade all the way down to 1 cent a pip. Which I recommend when starting live for the first time. Ease into it and build up your account, and if things go well wire more into it gradually.

I've checked their prices against other brokers and there havn't been any weird devations.

I initially was only considering mb trading because they are a STP broker and not a market maker. But, decided since I was new it wouldn't be a good idea because not only do you pay the spread you pay their commission. So, if you lose you really lose. You pay commission on top of losses.

I'm doing rather well now and might open a second account with MB to see how I like it. Myself, living in the U.S. I'd only consider three brokers, Ibfx, MB or Oanda. I base the other two off of the repeated postive things I've read about them on boards like this.

[n_aftab]

I'm with Oanda and i would say they are one of the better ones out there.

N

[simonjf77]

I am currently with Oanda at the moment and I am happy with them. I think this is the best broker for someone to start out with and is also the best broker for someone with limited funds. You are both new and have limited funds.
Sure, the platform is not the best, but as you said, you can use an MT4 demo along side it. I do this.

I also had the same dilemma with an ECN broker. My choice of brokers was narrowed down to Dukascopy (best ECN imo) and Oanda. I choose Oanda because I wanted to trade smaller lots then Dukascopy would allow.

Dukascopy now accept retail accounts as small as $5000 by the way.

[tymen1]

Originally Posted by n_aftab

I'm with Oanda and i would say they are one of the better ones out there.

Yes they are.

Unfortunately, their charting platform is not so hot.

You may need to run MT4 next to it for the charting work and use Oanda for the trading side of things.

[soul786]

Originally Posted by ThePhoenix

I've been trading with ibfx live for two years now and have found them to be a fair broker that doesn't play bucket shop games.
.......
.......
I'm doing rather well now and might open a second account with MB to see how I like it. Myself, living in the U.S. I'd only consider three brokers, Ibfx, MB or Oanda. I base the other two off of the repeated postive things I've read about them on boards like this.

After demoing IBFX, it was an option for me to go live but a few reviews turned me off that option. Even after taking a skim on the NFA website, I noticed a couple cases that had been closed leaving IBFX with some hefty fines to pay.

I did quite a bit of reading last night and think I may have come to some sort of conclusion as to what I may be doing, please see the next post for that.

Originally Posted by Tymen

Yes they are.

Unfortunately, their charting platform is not so hot.

You may need to run MT4 next to it for the charting work and use Oanda for the trading side of things.

I demo'd with Oanda also and yes, charting was one thing to get my head around. Coming from metatrader 4 it's like day and night.

Tymen, I have a feeling my choice may interest you as per one of the PM's I sent you earlier. Please tell me what you think about my next post

[soul786]

As per much reading last night, I decided against choosing an ECN straight off the bat. Being unsure of how safe my money would be with FXOpen (mauritius, not nfa regulated, their regulation over there can be purchased for 10000 USD ), I'm left with an ECN option of MB Trading due to capital restraints. I still can't trade with them because of age which is the ONLY reason I've decided to choose a retail broker which I feel comfortable with.

After looking further into the bigger names, I had a list of 3: GFT Forex, Alpari US/UK, Interbank FX. Why these three? Metatrader 4 (GFT aside- which still seems to have a good platform in DealBook360), NFA regulation, and a reputation around these forums as being the bigger names worth trading with.

My decision:

Alpari: No
Why?- Spreads are lower than IBFX, however limitations in the withdrawals and deposits of money (in regards to fees) make it worthless for me to deposit small capital and have fees eating up capital.

Interbank FX: No
Why?- Issues and cases I saw in the NFA files led me to feel safer against it, EVEN THOUGH they were solved.

GFT Forex: Yes
Why?- Many on the forums told me GFT is worth it. Reviewpips had the same sentiment for the most part and though I'm still looking into how the spreads will be (opening a demo with them today), I feel okay depositing the minimum of $200 usd JUST to get started.

The idea of me going live right now is not to make a living, I know I'm not doing that yet . The idea for me is testing the waters, limiting risk, while experiencing how the LIVE market differs from that of a demo account.
----------------------------------------------------

Now, in the time leading up to when I hope to trade with MB Trading (the ECN), I hope to use GFT's live account profitably. That is my only goal. If I can grow that $200 account to double or more within a year, I'll feel comfortable moving to MB Trading or even sticking with GFT as my main broker.

What are your guys' thoughts?

[o990l6mh]

Originally Posted by soul786

As per much reading last night, I decided against choosing an ECN straight off the bat. Being unsure of how safe my money would be with FXOpen (mauritius, not nfa regulated, their regulation over there can be purchased for 10000 USD ), I'm left with an ECN option of MB Trading due to capital restraints. I still can't trade with them because of age which is the ONLY reason I've decided to choose a retail broker which I feel comfortable with.

After looking further into the bigger names, I had a list of 3: GFT Forex, Alpari US/UK, Interbank FX. Why these three? Metatrader 4 (GFT aside- which still seems to have a good platform in DealBook360), NFA regulation, and a reputation around these forums as being the bigger names worth trading with.

My decision:

Alpari: No
Why?- Spreads are lower than IBFX, however limitations in the withdrawals and deposits of money (in regards to fees) make it worthless for me to deposit small capital and have fees eating up capital.

Interbank FX: No
Why?- Issues and cases I saw in the NFA files led me to feel safer against it, EVEN THOUGH they were solved.

GFT Forex: Yes
Why?- Many on the forums told me GFT is worth it. Reviewpips had the same sentiment for the most part and though I'm still looking into how the spreads will be (opening a demo with them today), I feel okay depositing the minimum of $200 usd JUST to get started.

The idea of me going live right now is not to make a living, I know I'm not doing that yet . The idea for me is testing the waters, limiting risk, while experiencing how the LIVE market differs from that of a demo account.
----------------------------------------------------

Now, in the time leading up to when I hope to trade with MB Trading (the ECN), I hope to use GFT's live account profitably. That is my only goal. If I can grow that $200 account to double or more within a year, I'll feel comfortable moving to MB Trading or even sticking with GFT as my main broker.

What are your guys' thoughts?

Have you seen the difference in level of service that GFT gives, it depends on what deposit/account type you open. At least that's how it is for GFT UK.

I have to say that I totally agree with thePhoenix, Oanda, IBFX or MB Trading. I have live accounts with the first two and have had no problems.

Give Oanda a look before you decide.

[pippy longstocking]

A lot of people have said they don't like the charting feature of Onada. I am using Oanda and I have no complaints with the charts.