Best ECN, STP and MM MetaTrader4 Forex Brokers

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
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My ECN Broker, fxcc.com

ECN brokers are best for Forex traders that wish to trade on economic news. If you have traded forex before you may have heard stories of traders making a lot of money but the broker refrained from handing over the profits to the trader. returned his investment without the profit and terminated his account. Aside the scammers (not everyone are here to scam you) Market Makers (MM) may disallow traders to trade only on economic news or ban it altogether.

FXCC or Forex Central Clearing Ltd. is fully regulated by CySec and FSA so you may complain to the ‘big brother’ if you feel your broker is shredding your profits. They outline a clear money protection and compensation funds in case of insolvency, which is great as the trader knows his money his safe. It is important to highight ECN accounts (in my view) are best for traders that wish to trade only on economic news. There should be no re-quotes with ECN and full anonymousity is provided.

The catch is if you are not planning to trade on the news there is an additional commission involved aside the variable spread and the slippage in ECN can be far more horrific than with STP or MM. ECN accounts are not suitbale for everyone, there is likely to be a significant difference beween demo and live ECN accounts.

My STP Broker, ForexTrading.com

ForexTrading.com aer operated by the great Saxo Bank, a Danish investment bank. The spreads are relatively tight (2.2 pips for EUR/USD for min investment) and can be as low as 0.8 pips. The spread usually remains tight (unlike ECN accounts) in STP broker, which is great for all that do not hunt the economic releases. The broker is fully regulated by CySec ans has Saxo bank on his side.

There is a great variety of currencies you may trade including RUB, TRY, NOK, SEK, MXN, HUF, SGD, PLN etc. in the Forex market. Indices are also offered such as NASDAQ100, IBEX35 (Spain), SPMIB (Italy, DAX (Germany), CAC40 (France) etc. Aside gold and silver you can also trade in commodities such as Live Cattle, Corn, Sugar, Orange Juice, Soybean, Wheat etc.

The disadvantage of STP brokers is that they cannot offer large trading bonuses (300% bonus for example) and the spreads are not fixed despite the fact the spreads are more stable than ECN accounts.

My MM Broker, Forex.com

Forex.com is a reputable broker, regulated by several financial bodies such as the FSA, SEC, ASIC etc. Being a market maker forex.com provides great spreads for its clients in a certain platform that has fixed spreads. Trading with a market maker is great as you enjoy tight spreads with no exceptionally high investment. It is great to trade with fixed spreads, no-slippage in ‘customized’ market.

However, some traders may not fancy the fact their FX broker is profiting from their losses (unlike ECN and STP).

It is important your broker is fully regulated in any case, no matter what is offered to you as there is a great risk your investment will be ‘dispersed’ in the black water of unregulated liquidity.

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Please post your brokers and see if anyone else is trading with them and what do they think. Knowledge is power

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My superb ECN-style brokers:

  1. Pepperstone
  2. AxiTrader

Checking out HotForex as well ( Currenex, ECN-style ), so far so good.

PS: all 3 have 5-day NY-close charts, very important for me.

PS2: I honestly would not recommend any broker shouting about bonuses (e.g ETORO! )
I know HotForex has a bonus program, hence no live trades on this one.

Cheers

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Have you tried any other ECN brokers before using FXCC for comparison?

I’m looking at FXopen and FCC ECN demo accounts atm. Commision on FXCC seems to be 2 or 3 times higher than FXopen. I’m still wondering if FXopen demo is just one big scam…

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I am not a fan of ECN accounts because of the huge slippage that could occur and the opening of the spreads during economic releases (which could trigger my stops). Aren’t STP brokers the better option?

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just cos a broker ECN doesnt mean that they guarantee fills to u, guarantee execution speed and quality and guarantee no requotes…for u to trade profitably during news times and times of fast market, speed of execution of the trade, the execution of the trade at the price that u want and not getting requotes is what matters…

this has got nothing to do with ECN…ECN brokers are just those who do not add commissions in their spread but rather charge them separately for you…ultimately, if u do the math, ECN and normal brokers become the same as far as spread is concerned…the key is STP and execution speed and quality…not ECN or otherwise…

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ECN brokers that do not charge a mark-up (profiting from the spread rather than the trading volume) is not suitable for small investments. This is only for large investors and still may not suit everyone’s needs. As long as the spread is low I think STP overtakes ECN. With market makers, despite the fact the stop is guaranteed I don’t apprecaite stop hunting as the broker is controling the feed. I may be wrong here so this is merely my personanl view on market markers.

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Did anyone experience any slippage on on the latest EUR/USD rally?

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Withdrawal fees, bank transfer:

Forex.com $25 withdrawal fee for bank transfers within the US. $40 withdrawal fee for bank transfers outside the US.

ForexTrading.com $10 withdrawal fee for bank transfers below $1,000. $20 withdrawal fee for bank transfers above $1,000.

Fxcc.com Bank transfer fee only, minimum withdrawal amount is $50.

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STP Broker: Vantage FX

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Vantage FX have great spreads, swap points and offer a variety of platforms. Fully regulated, seem to be a farily decent broker. Nevertheless Mr Gone if you wish to spread your risk in global markets I still believe ForexTrading.com offers a wider range of financial instruments in all fields (forex, commodities and indices) with realtively tight spreads. Spreads in a small account may not be suitable for scalping but I think if you are a pro they offer a great deal of trading instruments.

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Well Vantage have a PRO or something account wich minimum is 5000 USD and they offer much lower spreads like 0.4 iwith FIBRE but i don’t have that money yet and i am not a scalper. 1.8 spread on cable for now is good enough for me.

Thanks for the review. I am still testing the broker though, the only way to know if the are a NDD broker is testing them for at least one year. They first thing you can notice about a DD broker is the strange feeling of being observed.

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I just checked the Vantage PRO account, there is a catch. You will receive a low spread but you will have to pay a commission of AUD 3.5 per lot (100,000 units). The commission is relatively high which means that you are actually paing more money despite the low spread. It’s very important to read the small letters. I am not a scalper either but I am farily comfertable with ForexTrading.com. They are owned by Saxo Bank. There nothing exciting about my account to watch lol

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Hello,
I really need to confirm if withdrawal is possible from Forextrading.com.
I am considering the platform.

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As far as I know on Meta Trader is only possible STP Broker, but is is the same as ECN in fact for traders, have the same effect.

I am using DIF Broker platform, DIF FX Meta Trader and I am very contant with this solution.

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Sure, the broker is regulated and part of Saxo Bank. You will have no issues withdrawing from them :slight_smile:

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It is not about the platform, it is about the quotes. A broker can be a Market Maker, STP and ECN through the MetaTrader4. There is something I don’t like about your broker, please explain this to me as I may be wrong:

“When funding by credit card, charges from payment gateway will apply. The charges are 0.35 Euro (fixed) and 2.6% on Visa/Master Card and 4.95% on American Express (variable). The service tax will also apply on these charges. These charges shall be debited from the amount you fund.”.

This is a very high commission from an investment using a credit card, why? I also noticed the highest investment one can make using a credit card is $2k, is this correct?

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My ECN brokers are:

  1. Forexmetal
  2. Fxsolutions

Checking out these, so far so good and reliable.

I honestly only recommend that broker who is reliable, regulated and have good reputation regarding withdrawal and executions. This is all my experience.

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Forex Metal are unregulated, this FM Finance or whatever it is are not as strong as the FSA or CySec, very weak. FXsolutions on the other looks great but 3 pips for EUR/USD and 7 pips for GBPJPY… looks they they forgot to updaet their spreads since the new millenium

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Broker Update: ForexTrading.com are now working with ZuluTrade and Currensee.