Hello,
I have started trading again and was looking for particular brokers around Australia to register with for Forex Trading.
In the past when I dabbled with things I was with Vantage FX. I thought about going with them again but was always thinking about Pepperstone. There are certain people that run managed funds that use pepperstone who wont even talk to you unless you have $250,000 to invest (big players).
Anyway all that made me think why not try something new. I did all the reading I can online about commissions, spreads, and all that stuff…
At the end of the day, what Is most important is, who will you make the most money with or lose the least. So after you click to buy/sell a trade, all that matters is the commissions/spreads, which broker leaves you with the most profit after expenses catered for.
VantageFX as example have a $2 per side commission on their PRO-ECN account with a minimum deposit of $20,000 to open this.
Pepperstone have their Razor Account with no deposit requirement, it is also an ECN account from my understanding, even though they don’t call it that (due to everyone having different ideas about what ECN is). They are both no dealing desk etc etc. Pepperstone however have a $3.5 commission per side. So vantage FX look better in this regard. However when it comes to “spreads” as it is a variable I have no idea if this is where Vantage end up more expensive.
Eg: if vantage have just 1 pip spread higher than pepperstone… then at 1 standard lot that is $10 more expensive per trade. So even though the commission is $2 per side ($4 round trip) only, its more expensive than 3.5 per side (7 round trip) and then saving $10 on 1 standard lot. Once you add up many trades, or higher lot sizes, that spread count (even at 1 pip) will add up to a lot more costly.
What threw me off is, Vantage require a 20,000 deposit for this 'Pro ECN" account… if pepperstones RAZOR is also a true ECN, no dealing desk as Vantages PRO-ECN is… why on earth is pepperstone not wanting a 20,000 account opening fee like vantage?
There standard account and RAZOR account have no opening fee which also doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone get a ‘standard account’… because a beginner does not want to pay commissions? They will pay more in spread than they would of commission, so to me it seems like the ‘standard’ account has absolutely no point to it considering you can open a razor with no minimum deposit. Opening standard account just to lose more money? I don’t understand.
Also then there is the whole ‘liquidity providers’ - Pepperstones are all Tier 1, over 20 of them Vantage have 14 and a mixed bag or TIer 1 and others, whats that mean?
They have citibank, barclays, jp morgan and what not. Pepperstone wont disclose who theirs are… does anyone know who they use? Does more liquidity providers mean better spreads as more options to fulfill orders?
Then I heard about ICmarkets in Sydney.
FX-Pro
IG-markets
IB - broker
Plus500.
How do all these stack up with pepperstone/vantage for Forex Trading?
Im generally after the lowest spreads and commissions, meaning, when I click to buy/sell, that most of the profits stay with me not end up taken in commissions and spreads.
Next question:
Does the latency on the account (when you log into MT4, MT5 etc… it has the ping of the account in the options) - does that change based on where the broker is compare to where you live or is that based on something else?
Over a year ago when I used vantage FX I thought the ping for me was like 70. With pepperstone it shows 265 ping.
I am near Sydney… Pepperstone is in Melbourne, VantageFX headquarters is in Sydney. Has that got anything to do with it or not?
Last question now that brokers are out of the way.
Platforms…
I did as much reading/comparing I could with this, MT4, MT5, C-Trader.
Most comparisons talk about “well everyone uses MT4, so they dont want to change to something new” (re-learn) and others who want things to be easier for them C-trader and bla bla.
Im looking at this from a functional perspective. I am not used to MT4, MT5 or C-trader, so WHICHEVER I choose to use I will need to learn to navigate around it. So from this perspective it makes no difference which one I choose.
From everything I have been able to read online, MT5 offers everything MT4 does and extra. In which case for someone starting out, no point getting MT4 when MT5 offers all the same features + extra.
C-Trader on the other hand some say is more basic, others say looks cleaner, others say i dont even know what.
MT5/C-trader - which one is the more professional platform that allows you to do technical analysis type forex trading? Am I better off with MT4/5 Platforms or C-trader for technical analysis type trading and why?
I guess what I am asking here is, which one has less limitations. If you think about it like a car, sure, you only need to drive 110, so any car can do it, a lambo might have 350 that you will never use… but… the point is… if you WANTED to you could go faster while a regular car could not. Meaning, a regular car is simply limited in speed compare to a lambo. Looking at that analogy, which platform simply allows you to do more with less limitations.