All brokers take the opposite side of your trade, especially if your a beginner, once you become a very profitable trader with an extremely high capital, then they direct your trades straight to the open market. As others have mentioned here, the important thing is to find a trustworthy broker.
Thanks you everyone for your responses. It seems like there is quite a big difference of opinion on this subject coming respectfully from both sides.
I guess the take away from this thread is that MT4 & 5 are not safe if you’re un lucky enough to have a bad broker who’ll trade against you. It seems like an established fact from this thread that brokers can see your trades once placed when using MT4 & 5.
So if using these platforms it seems imperitive to use a trustworthey broker.
I have just opened a new account with FP Markets.
Do people in this thread think FP Markets are 100% trustworthy and that I can safely download their MT4 platform and I’ll be able to trade safely with them ?
Does anyone else here have experiance with using FP Markets using the MT4 or 5 platforms ?
If not then which broker do people trust the most ? Looking through the reviews in Forex peace army it’s hard to find any broker that seems sqeeky clean.
Also not safe if you want accuracy, reliability and indicators that are correctly displayed.
I think they’re not, though there are certainly many worse “brokers”.
No, of course not.
You can’t “safely” download any MT4 platform and use it, from anywhere.
Nor should you.
That’s not even a clean site on which to be looking for reviews in the first place.
I think Oanda and forex.com are both ok.
It’s all personal opinion, though.
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i don’t think there’s a reliable or sensible way of finding out the answer to that question anyway, but if there were, and you actually found out which broker people trusted most, would that be a broker you’d want to use, or a broker you’d want to avoid?
i’m not asking rhetorically; i’m not asking to try to be funny; i’m not asking to try to be “clever” 
i’m asking literally, and seriously, in the hope that thinking about it may help you to appreciate that 95% of the people whose opinions you’d be getting would be unprofitable traders anyway, and that your time would actually be FAR better spent on finding out who the other 5% are (that’s not easy but it’s also not impossible - just something most people don’t bother trying to do at all) so that you can ask them that (among other things?)
just a suggestion, in the form of an observation based on some decades‘ experience - i hope it’s helpful to you
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First off, thanks a ton for your time and the explanation. So, are you saying that even someone who’s already making good money trading could earn even more if the broker didn’t have a clue about their stop loss and take profit points?
@Emi.s If you’re already making good money from trading these Markets then keep doing… What you are doing… You’re in the 5-9% that are adding to their accounts…
I was once afraid of my Broker being on the other side of my positions… You have to realise it’s an advantage as much as a disadvantage of them seeing Market liquidity volumes…
I posted this demonstration somewhere here before… It was a great help to me once I had a better understanding of how the Brokers business model worked… It’s an older video but very informative as to how (and why) the Markets are moved…
You have to be able to look at a chart and see the invisible zones of liquidity that they see…
Placing Stealth orders is more for one’s peace of mind… Not a profit enhancing concept…
If mt4 and mt5 are provided by regulated broker, then no issue. Another thing that you should notice is whether those platforms are free from requotes and slippage issues.
How does regulators makes MT4 / MT5 safe to use?
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There was an uproar when traders learned about the MT4 Dealer desk plugin some years ago. One of the plugin’s functions was dealer manipulation, which some brokers were using to their advantage. Whether this is still the case or not is unclear to me,
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it’s clear to proper regulators, and to anyone who has ever worked in the industry and/or has contacts in it - as any representative of either group will openly tell you, if you ask them - it’s not exactly a secret, it’s just that most people don’t ask (or don’t know how to)
it isn’t quite as specific as that (and of course you’re totally right to be questioning what many people here have said on that subject, above, much of which is just completely wrong) - it’s more a cultural thing: it’s like asking “how does a regulator make the representations on a broker’s website true and accurate?” - the short answer is, unsurprisingly - that they don’t, directly, but in reality they actually do, indirectly, because the websites of properly regulated brokers (ASIC, FCA, CFTC, NFA regulation) are regularly inspected by their regulators (unlike those “regulated” in Caribbean/Pacific island countries not noted for financial probity!) and those brokers will be in big trouble if they say anything on their websites that isn’t true
so there’s some truth on both sides of the discussion, here, to be realistic
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The offshore broker market was pretty much not existing at that time, these were all Regulated MT4 brokers in the world’s most heavily regulated markets that was using that tool
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yes, that’s perfectly true (just like all the content of my post right above it)
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Can a Broker Manipulate the Market?
Yes, a broker can manipulate the market by engaging in unethical practices that often harm other traders.
Can a Forex Chart Be Manipulated?
Unfortunately, yes. Some brokers manipulate charts, for example, to make others believe that a spike is low and trick them into making a purchase.
Can a Broker Manipulate MT4?
Yes. As with other things in the Forex market, MT4 is prone to manipulation as well. Therefore, traders must be cautious and keep their eyes open.
Do Brokers Manipulate?
Yes, many brokers manipulate because they want to achieve their goals no matter what. Also, they don’t care about harming others in the process.
People don’t realize what happens when Regulated Brokers are busted for unethical practices: They get fined but rarely do customers get their money back, only those who can afford to sue get their money back, but all the smaller accounts they scam and millions of dollars made the fine never equaled the amount they gained from their manipulation.
For Immediate Release
December 8, 2022
NFA orders Warren, NJ retail forex dealer and futures commission merchant Gain Capital Group LLC to pay a $700,000 fine
December 8, Chicago—NFA has ordered Gain Capital Group LLC (Gain) to pay a $700,000 fine. Gain, which does business as FOREX.com, is a registered retail forex dealer and futures commission merchant Member of NFA headquartered in Warren, New Jersey.
The Decision, issued by NFA’s Business Conduct Committee (BCC), is based on a Complaint issued by the BCC and a settlement offer submitted by Gain and Alexander Robert Bobinski, Jr. (Bobinski), an associated person and principal of the firm and Associate Member of NFA. In the settlement offer, the firm and Bobinski neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the Complaint.
In its Decision, the BCC found that Gain violated NFA Compliance Rule 2-43(a)(1) by improperly adjusting customer accounts, following a system malfunction; violated NFA Compliance Rule 2-36(c) by its treatment of customers affected by the system malfunction and Gain’s account adjustments; violated NFA Compliance Rules 2-5 and 2-36(c) by submitting inaccurate and incomplete information to NFA; and violated NFA Compliance Rules 2-36(e) and 2-9(a) by failing to supervise. The BCC also found that Bobinski violated NFA Compliance Rule 2-36(e) by failing to supervise.
The complete text of the Complaint and Decision can be viewed on NFA’s website.
Regulators do nothing to get your money back. Fines go to the Regulators, while any profit the broker made off of scamming you needs to be pursued through a lawsuit.
OANDA FINED $200,000 BY NFA AFTER SERIES OF DEFICIENCIES
APRIL 1, 2021
OANDA Corporation has settled charges with the National Futures Association (NFA) relating to a number of compliance failures.
The Toronto-based retail broker has reached a settlement of $200,000 which allows the company to refrain from admitting or denying the allegations of failing to submit accurate daily forex reports to the NFA, and other compliance rules regarding security systems, handling of customer complaints, and appropriate supervision.
Earlier this month (March 8), the NFA issued a complaint against OANDA Corporation and gave the retail FX broker 30 days to respond to the NFA’s complaint.
The broker was facing possible expulsion or suspension from NFA membership, plus a monetary fine not to exceed $500,000 for each violation found, in case OANDA decided to go to court.
The NFA found that ever since OANDA was acquired in 2018 by a subsidiary of a private equity firm (CVC Capital Partners), the broker increased the number and degree of deficiencies occurring at the firm.
On separate occasions, the regulator instructed OANDA to correct the deficiencies and that continued deficiencies could subject the firm to disciplinary action.
Among the deficiencies alleged by the NFA, OANDA staff did not follow protocol and failed to notify OANDA’s AML Compliance Officer and the NFA following the hacking of a customer’s account.
OANDA’s ISSP was insufficient as it did not include numerous required sections, including training, risk assessment, incident response, and access controls. The broker also failed to provide all required employees with training on the ISSP.
Other counts include failures to properly handle customer complaints and inaccurate unrealized profit/loss (UPL) figures in six daily forex reports, as well as failures to diligently supervise its forex business and its employees.
https://financefeeds.com/oanda-fined-e200000-nfa-series-deficiencies/
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Interesting.
Yet another example (as if one were needed) of how things that go wrong can be corrected, if the broker’s properly regulated. 
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Totally get it, and thanks a bunch for all your help – you’ve been amazing. For me, feeling at peace is all about nailing those good results. When I do get them, I just try to keep up the good work and make it even better.
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It’s not properly regulated, this stuff happens all the time and takes years to catch. History tells us that. Also According to complaints, the biggest issue is how regulated brokers scam their traders out of money with tactics that the regulators overlook.
This was back in 2010 and they are still using the same tactics, they do a better job of hiding it
NFA audits Gain, finds many severe violations, fails itself!
NFA just issued a very severe Complaint against Gain Capital and its CEO Glenn Stevens for violating a whole lot of its regulations. Reading through the Complaint it is evident that while Gain may have indeed violated some rules the real culprit here is the NFA itself!
Gain Capital is just another for-profit company in corporate America - it is making money any way it can, as long as it is legal. And if NFA explicitly allows market making activity which is the most profitable financial activity in the world, then Gain and EVERY other NFA registered company will make market to the most possible extreme.
It seems in this case that while NFA’s one hand allows market making, its other hand is punishing brokers for making market! This my friends is either hypocrisy or incompetence. In NFA’s case I believe this to be the latter.
NFA knows or should have known that brokers allowed to make market will make market and will profit from client losses any way they can. This ‘sudden’ discovery of market making practices (by the way it is very interesting how NFA which knows absolutely nothing about forex or forex software knew EXACTLY which plugins and which settings to check and what those settings meant, but that’s another story) only goes to show you how inept NFA is.
Not only NFA failed in its role as a prominent Forex regulator but it is also to blame for creating a deceptive perception to forex trades that regulation is a good thing and that NFA knows what it is doing and is protecting clients.
Brokers are still allowed to hold clients’ trades / market making rather than sending them to their liquidity provider, betting that their traders will lose, creating a conflict of interest. They will send bigger orders to their LP but if they held a trade in-house and it became a winner, they will do whatever they can to prevent you from winning because it comes out of their pockets.
some brokers just don’t want to make money from the spreads by sending your trades to their LP, they want to hold your trades In-house and profit from your losses.
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