How to choose a good forex broker

I address to those who have experience in Forex trading and are trading years. Please share your own opinion on how to choose a good broker. I am planning to start trading but at first I have to find a reliable broker.
I appreciate any help that you will provide.

We can do trading with any broker as long as it is a reliable broker and also make sure it is a ECN :slight_smile:

NDD is okay too.
Classic accounts are good for beginners. I have one and there weren’t any problems with little sums withdrawals.

Micro accounts are best for newbies, especially cent accounts where “pay for fail” is not too big, while newbies are gaining precious experience of trading live. Imo micro account from hotforex is best for that purpose.

How much can you withdraw with a classic account? Are there withdrawal problems of big amounts of money, with ECN accounts?

“Sued” being very much the operative word, with the all-but-unregulated offshore brokers some people choose to use!

It doesn’t matter which type of account you use, withdrawal problems related only to broker financial health. Try to trade with several brokers and don’t keep all eggs in one basket.

n my view, a good forex broker is the one who does not trade against their clients. A pure ECN broker with good customer support. Look into their reviews, visit their website, and talk to their existing clients or use their demo. Or you can start with a small live account with the broker you shortlisted so at least you get a glimpse of the reality and if satisfied, you can go ahead with bigger funds with that very broker. Just for a reference, you can consider pepperstone, hotforex, finpro trading, FXCM etc.

Just wanted to reply to Edico. It’s all the same but if you are sure that broker is not scam you can invest your money there. But as profitbaby says, it’s a good idea to keep money on different brokers accs. I know people do so, but as a newbie, I haven’t enough money to invest them in “different baskets” at the moment

At first check broker regulation. CySEC, ASIC or FCA should be ok. Second thing is the feedback from traders. Try to check as much forums and review websites as you can to get complete picture of the broker reputation in the internet. Most brokers are almost identical when trading on low volumes but issues surface when you start to constantly earn or use some strategies that hunt for easy profit (such as HFT scalping or news trading). Also keep an eye on broker spreads and compare them with other brokers so you can quickly detect broker cheating.
Regarding my personal choice I trade on Hotforex zero spread Account and FXCM regular account, these brokers are most fair among those I had experience with. They have large client base and they won’t spoil their reputation cheating or ripping off traders.

Thanks [B]profitbaby[/B] and [B]Mohdfx11[/B] !
I am currious if there are brokers that pay 5 or 6 digits sums of money? When you say withdrawals, at what interval of time you refer, after a month of trading or after an year?
There are brokers that say they offer ECN accounts for only 100 USD, wich make me rise an eyebrow. Is it possible that a broker can say an account is ECN and is not? How can I know if my account is ECN?
With an ECN account a broker can make me problems, like trading against me, slipage, …, or any other?

I don’t know about big sums as I’m not a trader of such a level. I’m a newbie in fact and trade live more that 1 month only… I’ve withdrawn 50 bucks already. :slight_smile:
When I started, my broker offered me to open a depo with $100 and even less… I don’t know if I made a right decision in choosing a broker, but now they treat me nice and I’ve got my money once already. I looked on regulations and documents.
I also believe that ECN is one of proofs that a company is honest. I trade on ECN and it gives me some psychological comfort… There can be slippage, but people say that it’s a normal thing for the market itself…

The execution venue for traders with small capital are brokers itself. Absolutely all without any exclusions. And you shouldn’t worry about that because on the long enough run, using huge leverage like 1:200 or 1:500 you are doomed to lose as your deposit won’t be able to withstand a row of losses which are guaranteed to happen on the long enough run - 500+ orders (check streak calculator for reference).
The only way to remain on the winning side - trade by system using lowest leverage as possible, risking fixed % per trade and keeping statistics (spread cost should be counted as well).
Remember that system (market) can be defeated only by another system.

If you’re deciding on a broker, first read the reviews of traders that trade with it. Mainly, there should be no complaints about the broker doesn’t withdraw money. But to really be sure that you’re not being lied to, ask the broker to make a screenshot of account history of a trader, who can prove that he really trades with it. In that case you’ll be sure, that the person who responded to you really does trade with this broker.

Nice idea, but there are not so many traders who want to share their acc stats, as far as I know.
Reviews can be different too. If a broker has positive reviews only, I’d doubt in their honesty. I’d rather think it’s some sort of marketing. But it’s only my humble opinion,so… :slight_smile:

How can I know if my broker is ECN? Or if a type of account is ECN? How can I know if I trade directly in the market?
Is it possible that an ECN broker can scam you in some way?

I think these are certain situations from where you can get an idea about the credibility of a broker
• Whether the broker allows you to place trade between bid and ask
• Whether they have any restriction on fixing stop loss and target profit or restriction on placing a trade in specific time frames
• Their trading conditions remains static, no matter of trading volume and profit
• Broker allows you to use your own EA’s and strategies
• Broker is providing you with very quick market updates
• Market transparency with 5 decimal spread

If you are just starting out, I would recommend you pick a broker in a well regulated jurisdiction, and begin with a small deposit. There are lots of reviews on this site and others, see who people are happily trading with and go from there.

Well basically we should choose the Broker after searching a basket of them. We should not just go to the first one because we have seen they say in the website “BEST BROKER in the Market” or “Leader in Asia, Europe or wateva”. We should not even choose a Broker because one of our friends told us to trade with that one instead of the one you were thinking. As a traders, we should have a basket of Trader we think could be the best due to Regulation, ECN/STP model, Spreads, Commissions, etc and then compare between them with a DEMO account first. I obviously like when my friends recommend me a Broker but then I check that one compared with others and test the Platform and every single thing. People could think “come on mate is just a Broker” but THATS WRONG! They have our money and we should avoid any future surprise with that. And of course, charts can be manipulated as well with the wrong Broker (typical market maker with offshore regulation).