Hi guys, First of all just wanted to say this site has been a great learning tool for me. I’ve been reading up for about a month and I’ve been through the pips school twice. I feel I’m ready to start a demo account. I prefer to trade a few times a day, never holding a position more then 2-3 days max. Mainly holding on to a position for an hour or 2. I have been looking at EFX to try out but are the commissions going to kill me since I’m making a higher number of trades?
In short should I go for a an ecn or market maker. thank you
I can tell you that most on here are with market makers. The reason is, a true ECN will require a higher initial deposit than a market maker. Most here are still learning and have small initial accounts. If you make a lot of trades and are worried about spreads, Oanda has very low spreads. I don’t have an account with them but many here do. Also they are internet based, so you dont have to download their platform to trade. You can trade from any computer, anywhere.
I have an account with oanda, they seem pretty honest and reliable to me. I looked around and most comments I found on them were positive, and they are a registered broker. Their spreads seem pretty good, I’ve heard they get high during news events but I’ve never experienced this. There charts are not that great I’d recommend meta trader.
Everyone has heard the stories about the Introducing brokers and various FCM’s that increase their spreads during numbers and take opposite sides of positions. Until the NFA/CFTC have complete regulation on the forex business, certain brokers will continue to bucket their clients orders knowing full well that 95% of new traders lose their initial deposit on leverage over 20 to 1 leverage. Risk managment goes out the window once you introduce 100 to 1 leverage.
If you are serious about trading I think Oanda is an excellent choice compared to most other brokers. Their spreads are competitive and the have a great API for automated trading. I write to FIX protocol at a Currenex provider with a high liquidity pool. Their spreads are tighter, but like previously mentioned, require a much larger deposit, and don’t allow you to trade anything besides the standard 0.1m.
Although I have my reservations about how full regulation will improve the overall forex brokerage scene, in the end it will help filter out shops from going below/above true market to hit client stops. :rolleyes: