hi all,
I know brokers have been discussed endlessly over every forum, and thus i wont be asking of any good brokers.
What I wish to ask is if theres any way to know that a broker might be maniuplating things behind your back, like if you have a doubt, have can you test/prove it?
Having another account with another broker wont help since prices will obviously differ from each.
Since many say that brokers cheat by widening the spread, will having a fixed spread broker eliminate the possibility of them shifting/widening the spread or hasn’t it got nothing to do with it?
Also, can brokers change prices for a particular user only, or when they fiddle with the ask/bid prices it will be a change for all of their users?
most of local brokers has got both ecn and non ecn, and also a hybrid setup (ecn/stp). ECN carry about 8-10$ charge per lot tho, so not sure its good idea to start with such a high commission dont you think?
Focus on big brokers with a good reputation (if there such thing ) and in a good jurisdiction. Then rest assured nobody will touch you until you make some decent profit. If you can make such a profit you will know how to protect yourself.
Look for a company that is regulated fully , with audited accounts (can be found at companies house) as these wont move markets to stop out a ÂŁ1 a pip player as would get hammered by FSA
It depends on the size of the broker, the country you live in, the size of the initial deposit, how fast is your account growing, and so on. But probably the moment you reach a 5-digit profit, you’ll start blinking on risk manager’s screen
Fixed spread is usually too wide to keep trading profitable. There is additional markup from the broker that protects their profit from spread in 95% of market time, that’s why the markup is pretty high. I use occasionally fixed spread account from Hotforex to trade news, but the list of trading ideas where such trading conditions can be applied is narrow. The rest of time I trade on Premium with floating spread.
One point to note is that broker won’t cheat without purpose. It can be a kind of response if your system starts to trade too much “in profit” and if broker is B-book it will start to protect themselves by raising the spreads or worsening trade conditions somehow. Remember they need to keep balance between competitive trading conditions but not to the extent where easy profit opportunities arise.
Some brokers charge far lower commission per trade. Seems like 8 to 10dollar is a fixed fee. Most offshore brokers offer lower spreads and fees in case you are concerned about that.
You cannot get perfect conditions from one Forex broker. For example if you want a highly regulated broker, you may kiss lower spreads or high leverage good bye. Some might argue about this, but its the truth. So if your broker is charging too high on commission, and you not comfortable with it, find another broker.
Hotforex charges 8$ round turn, Tickmill charges 4$. But Hotforex’ average spreads are a bit lower, so in average I guess my transaction costs are equal between them. It makes sense to compare broker conditions after you run enough trades to see what accumulates on average.
and there goes my anxiety for broker related issues…
honestly, broker topics scares me more than trading itself, cause you could have great trades and setups but get screwed over by the broker, and as like anything else theres no perfect broker, and more so no perfect review of a broker.
When they provide you the fine print agreement, what are the main topics one should look at to be on the safer side? Like for example, if theres withdrawal limits, or if theres any insurance in case it goes bust etc (those are the 2 things i can mostly think of since im not familiar with how they work yet, im still on demo)
) and in a good jurisdiction. Then rest assured nobody will touch you until you make some decent profit. If you can make such a profit you will know how to protect yourself.