How do you know whick brokers are real ECN brokers?

[ThePhoenix]

I'm live with IBFX on a micro account. Didn't go with an ECN, because all the ones that I think were legitimate didn't have micro accounts, and I wanted to start extremely small with my first account.

So, far they are working very nicely, I won some, I lost some. Wins are starting to outweigh my losses and be much larger, platform and trades are still behaving as usual. I've been doing a trade journal and so far my losses seem just about all my fault and not because of any shenanigans.

They are not an ECN. However, they also claim they are not a deal desk and that they do not trade against you. I was talking with a live chat rep today. They claim they use a large pool of banks as liquidity providers. So, they are a market maker, but not a deal desk. They claim "STP, straight through processing," to the market they create. And as other brokers claim to make their money from the spread that they show you.

I've seen some requotes when price is moving fast, which is annoying, but to be expected. You can't close or buy/sell at certain price if it isn't in the market anymore.

While I like the idea of an ECN very much, I do not like having to add commision on top of my losses or subtracting them from my winners.

Mathmatically an ECN with a nice commsion structure would be cheaper. I think it was MB's?, MBT navigator?, commission structure that basically added up to about a pip.

[Ritpip]

I'm live with IBFX on a micro account. Didn't go with an ECN, because all the ones that I think were legitimate didn't have micro accounts, and I wanted to start extremely small with my first account.

So, far they are working very nicely, I won some, I lost some. Wins are starting to outweigh my losses and be much larger, platform and trades are still behaving as usual. I've been doing a trade journal and so far my losses seem just about all my fault and not because of any shenanigans.

They are not an ECN. However, they also claim they are not a deal desk and that they do not trade against you. I was talking with a live chat rep today. They claim they use a large pool of banks as liquidity providers. So, they are a market maker, but not a deal desk. They claim "STP, straight through processing," to the market they create. And as other brokers claim to make their money from the spread that they show you.

I've seen some requotes when price is moving fast, which is annoying, but to be expected. You can't close or buy/sell at certain price if it isn't in the market anymore.

While I like the idea of an ECN very much, I do not like having to add commision on top of my losses or subtracting them from my winners.

Mathmatically an ECN with a nice commsion structure would be cheaper. I think it was MB's?, MBT navigator?, commission structure that basically added up to about a pip.

Well I thought there was a foundation about ECN not having micro accounts, I guess if you get to trade on an ECN is because you have a considerable amount of money. About they claiming not to trade against you, I guess that's something that might be an advantage, though I used to have an account with them, but my problem was execution so I had to go with some other broker.

[Ryan Klein]

Its hard to find a true ECN broker cuz a lot of brokers called themselves ECn when they are not or they are just market makers. A real ECN does not have dealing desk and it sends the client's orders directly to the market, also real ECN will let you enter the market at any time, but not always in the price you ask, when spreads are wide, ECN broker gives you much more liquidity, as I said, there are many brokers that considered as ECN but they are not really ECN brokers. I can say t ha I am trading with 2 real ECN Brokers like Dukascopy and Sunbird, but I recomend you to always try the demo firs before you start trading in real..

[MaxGold]

Actually there is not really a 100 % way to know if a broker is real ECN or not, what you can do, is to test the broker, meaning that if the broker lets you trade while volatile moments, during news, platform doesn't crash, if the withdrawals are being executed fast without any complications, it is very important to be able to see how transparent the company is and that they are always on you side..

[dpaterso]

Hello.

Well there's a simple answer to this question: just take the broker's word for it!!!

Deltastock is a TRUE ECN/STP Broker with Level II Market Depth and mutiple liquity providers SHOWN to the client in order for the client to choose the best price quote. See deltastock.co.za.

See: simple.

Regards,

Dale Paterseon
Deltastock!!! LOL!!!

[pipsqueak3]

Nice plug, but why doesn't Multicharts add you to their supported brokers list?

Also, as far as ECNs go, the true battle is between Dukas Vs. MB Trading Vs. Interactive Brokers. And, anyone seeking out an ECN purely out of safety of their equity as a primary concern should go with Dukas, as they are a FX BANK... They have opened up European operations with micro account capabilities as well.

If you go through Molecule 6 is your Introducing Agent, you get 45% of all commissions back after each full trade executed. This makes their overall fee structure less than a retail broker, with infinite higher safety. Biggest problem is they don't accept American citizens to join... I'm Canadian so no issues.

Dukas uses JForex as the platform, a suiss cheese logic system that is Java based, but difficult to grasp (Even for programmers). They can bridge over to MT4 and Ninjatrader, if you wish to use free platforms with unreliable data sources.

However, someone like Multicharts does work through Dukas - which means that if you spend months backtesting and strategy testing before going live, your results will be as accurate as possible in the live account.

If you are American, MB Trading Vs. IB Is your only choice in my opinion, as I fully agree, it's just not worth the risk of moving to a market maker with fixed spreads even if there are minor benefits through headline activity due to fixed spreads..

Eric

Hello.

Well there's a simple answer to this question: just take the broker's word for it!!!

Deltastock is a TRUE ECN/STP Broker with Level II Market Depth and mutiple liquity providers SHOWN to the client in order for the client to choose the best price quote. See deltastock.co.za.

See: simple.

Regards,

Dale Paterseon
Deltastock!!! LOL!!!

[pinoypips]

I believe even with ECN broker if you don't know how the Bank manipulates the market you can be still at the losing end of the trade. Particularly the stop run mentioned by Jimmy, I read a trading strategy basically based around this assumptions at day trading forex live, you can even search in youtube their stop run video. Here is the link regarding their article about bank manipulation they called BankTradingStrategy.

[Fxmall]

Figuring out if the broker is a real ecn broker or not sounds simple and at times, not so much. Guess as others have stated, the only way is to do a dry run with a micro account, trade when market is volatile and track your trades carefully.
Some brokers do offer ECN accounts with level two liquidity, but as to whether they are for real is anyone's guess.

[scalpingmonster]

Usually they say ECN account, try the demo and if you do well, trade with it