Broker For Scalping

[I] have been trading demo accounts for over a year.[/I]have had great results scalping with the demos. I am looking for input on a good broker to open up a live acount. Tick charts are very important to my method. Currently using metatrader demo.

any input is welcome - thank you

Hi Tom, congratulations on having the discipline to practice on a demo account for a year! I�m not sure what you question is, you are looking for a broker? If so, there are many brokers out there, basically you look for the lowest interest rate. But, from which broker did you download your demo account, can�t you use that one?

For some reason I am unable to post a quick reply. I should have been more informative / specific. I am currently trading a demo account with sigmaforex. Due to the abundance of negative info related to this broker I do not feel comfortable about opening a live account with them.
I am looking for a honest broker that will not hassle me about scalping , and not rob my money.

Thank you in advance - TOM 2

read up on ECN brokers.

Hi there, well I think if you’re looking for an impartial opinion you could always refer yourself to the NFA web page. I once talked to them about a broker I had my doubts of and they answered everything. Try it.

I also had some demos from different brokers. Just matter to compare what was the best to go live. I found many good ones but after having an insight about what a broker is required to be good I stuck with Tradeview’s mini account.

I have tradeview�s demo account too, I�m about to complete six months with it and I�m thinking about sticking with it. How long have you had it?

since this subject is about scalping there is one thing youre not gonna be talking about, BUT I WILL BE !

EVERY broker has a MINIMUM amount of pips AWAY from the present price where you can change your posted take profit point — the best allow ZER0 pips difference to modify the order, while the WORST (that means they DONT want you scalping) will set your modification abilities to 6 - 10 pips, which is useless when scalping for 5 pips !

so if scalping (golly, even though its the wrong word, now im using it), look for the broker who allows you to modify your tp by the LEAST amount of pips AWAY from the present price !

otherwise, all your scalps will have to be manually exited, which can be a drag when one wants a cafe mocha supremmo double latte capuchinno and has to leave the trade station.

btw — ARE YOU COOL LIKE ME ?

I have a TRADE STATION and a DESK with duplicate monitors — Im uber kewl !

LOL

mp

I use MB Trading for scalping but there is a commission charge. You can put in orders in between the spreads… I’m sure we’ll see more and more brokers give that ability as time goes on to stay competitive.

I’ve sent the ‘quick reply’ bug to our techies and hopefully it will get resolved soon. Thanks for the heads up!

i use an overseas broker AND MB, and there are very mixed results one must watch for.

While you pay a commission that “theoretically” is smaller by a bit than trading the spread thru a broker, you are still trading with the spread unfortunately, so you now have BOTH to contend with, as MB spreads are fairly wide at this point.

“IN THEORY” you can split the spread and buy in the middle, but in REALITY, it is rare that it really happens — youre trading against some pretty hot traders, as well as the interbanks, and they dont want you eating their lunch — in fact, they want to eat yours !

another problem with the ECN’s is that you cannot “hedge” or open a counter trade in the same currency without a subaccount, which slows you down a lot since you have to open one, close the other, take your trade, close that one and open your main trade.

where this becomes a problem is where you may be holding a “core” position and want to scalp the ups and downs of the one minute chart, let us say — its just too hard to do with MB.

MB DOES work well if you ONLY work in one direction, but that is a VERY limiting way of trading.

a broker supplies charts, trading panel and news and takes the spread to pay for it all and make a profit, and at least for me, allows me to counter trade all day long without which ability, i may as well sell bagels on a street corner !

EVERYTHING in this world is a trade off — one simply spends the time and learns whether any particular “tradeoff” is worth it to THEM !

enjoy and trade well

mp

[B][I]Within the great hall at Elfinore stands a wondrous coffer, precisely four cubits square and securely latched against the outside world. Inside that repository, shut away from impertinent eyes, abides many an intriquing trading secret garnered from around the world and over the ages !

As a child, i used to watch from the darkness as the secrets were debated and annotated by the elders. No one there held a single thought of my presence – BUT I KNOW WHERE THEY HID THE KEY !! [/I][/B]

No I’m not cool (can’t scalp cause I have a day job)
Yes I have multiple monitors.
BTW. You are not uber cool until you get a duplexer and can support THREE or more monitors.

well lets see — im gonna stick with uberkewl

3 monitors at the work station but only two at the desk, BUT i also have one dedicated computer and monitor for email and “baby pips” with voice recognition for posting !

and i can SCALP !!

LOL

mp

And how are they going to stop you from capturing the spread? If your order is the best bid or ask and it matches a market buy or sell order, then your limit order is the one which gets filled, right?. If not, the FX would be a pseudo-market with rigged order matching rules.
And I doubt they are idiotic enough to deliberately step in front of a relatively small order, since then you’d be a small fish with the ability to manipulate the hell out of their bid (or ask) prices. That is, if they chase, you could then quickly cancel your bid (or ask) order and reverse position, giving them their heads on a silver platter.

Well I’ve been with them for a little bit more, I am now live with them though I still recur to my demo, you know, just to test some patterns. I’ve been doing great so far with them and now I also going with their Multi Account Manager which has happened great at least to develop a risk management strategy.

Appreciate everyone’s input. Would like to wish everyone a happy holiday.

Thanks - Tom

Hi Tom,

This is not neccessarily a recommendation, just telling you what I use.
I have been trading with Oanda for a while and overall they have been pretty good for some ‘scalping’ methods I have tried. They have spreads that vary depending on when I am trading, but I can usually get 0.9 pips on EURUSD during London & New York hours except close to news announcements when they can fatten out considerably.

Also as a note to what mp mentioned in his post, I have put limit orders in with no problem as close as 0.1 pip away from market. Never tried to put a stop loss less than 5 pips from market, but I have put in 1 pip TPs with no probs.

Oh, and they don’t have tick charts, but they do have 5 second time charts.

Happy trading :smiley:

Oanda or any ECn brokers will do

Yosako,

youre giving me theory and i gave you reality — if you use them, WATCH !!

NO insult meant, but i deal in realities and not theory or philosophy !

(and they will step in front of you, and they will lower the bid so that youre high bidder and they will do a ton of things — to the pros, this aint no game !)

mp

You’re right, there’s a big difference between what’s supposed to happen and what really happens on Forex. Just take a look on some brokers, manipulations gets worst in some of them. I had to get my feed from some other provider because it was getting insane.