I am shopping for a Broker to open a live account. I was wondering what do I have to look for to make sure that the broker will not close its doors tomorrow and run with my money?
Since I am in Canada, I was wondering if it was better for me to get a broker that has his offices in Canada so that I am protected by Canadian laws or it just doesnt matter.
Does anyone knows good Canadian brokers? I presently use Oanda for Practice and I like them a lot. They have offices in Toronto but I think their main office are in New York.
We seem to have a lot of misfortune with brokers in Canada. First Refco Canada which in its day was the goto Forex broker went under and their clients were taken over by MFGlobal. Refco Canada clients didn’t lose any money - accounts were frozen for several months. Another broker (something like SmartTrade) was gaining attention and momemtum but they couldn’t survive the competition plus they gave poor service. The latest problem is that brokers in the US and Britain won’t accept Canadian customers in provinces like BC and Ontario because the regulatory structure is too onerous.
I trade with FXDD Malta - the one based in NY can’t accept Canadian customers. They are good, but I don’t like the fact that they switched to variable spreads last summer. I am now looking at FXPro, GO Markets and FXSolutions. FXSolutions so far looks the best with their liquidity and fixed spreads. But they won’t take clients in BC.
UK brokers are not a bad choice, they offer account segregation for security of client funds, and you are protected by them being authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the United Kingdom. In short this means your funds are kept separate to the activity of the broker. If they go bust, you have your money in a safe segregated account.
If you want to protect yourself by Canadian laws then choosing Canadian broker would be better idea. Second thing, come as satisfaction, if you are happy with Oanda then should continue with them.