I would just like to know why anyone would choose to go through a broker? I am trading through a bank in London and it costs nothing, the spread is 0.6 pips and they supply all the trading software for free.
Hi man.
Here just some possible reasons:
- Not everyone has the possibility to trade directly with a bank.
- A broker most probably offers wider instrument list for trading
- A genuine broker most probably is getting liquidity from more liquidity providers, resulting in better trading environment.
- My understanding is that a bank is a counterparty of a trade, meaning it is taking the orders in their book, thus it might be interested in client losing his money. Fixed spread is also an indicator of a market making practice. Just to add: a spread of 0.6 pips is similar to a 6 USD commission per lot
- IMO a broker is more likely to offer customer support to its clients, including timely response per email, 24/5 live chat and phone call availability. A bank closes at 5 or 6 PM right?
- A broker would provide you additional education events (webinars), trading tools (EA, Indicators etc.) and videos which might be useful for beginners and more experienced traders too.
As usual there are many pro and cons so everyone should find the partner that suits him best
Cheers
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Hi eyedfondue, no that is not true, this bank I am trading with accept even a 100 Pound deposit, you can trade micro lots, and our trades are so small that the bank wouldnt care if you make a profit or not, I get full live chat, reports views, news analysis and more than enough support. Well, that is just my opinion.
So you’re saying that all of the 6 points are not true? 
Well the bank might not be interested when it’s about a 100 GBP account trading micro lots. Probably the case would be different when it comes to higher volumes
Can you please give me a link where I can read more about the specification of the accounts? Maybe I can test a demo account
https://www.cityindex.co.uk/
Here is a link or just Google City index. I have been with them for many years and I can not complain one bit about their service. They cater for very small accounts as well. Give it a go and good luck to you!
Thanks man. I went through the site (which is IMO good looking) and saw some things that made me change my mind: Guaranteed stop loses, spread betting and the spread for forex isn’t 0.6 pips but 1.7 for EURUSD on MT4, so I’ll pass.
Anyways, since you are trading there for years with them I am happy that you’ve found the broker that suits you best
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Hello SystemX,
I have been trading via a market maker for 3 years. I want to change to an ECN broker and among the list of brokers I got, appeared a swiss Bank (Dukascopy) and now I am wondering whether it would make sense to trade with a bank, a bank being the ultimate ECN broker ( I maybe wrong)…Are you still trading via your bank ? Are they ECN brokers?
and who is stopping you from changing your company to a real broker with good and favorable conditions?