I don’t want to restart the debate about “Dealing Desk vs No dealing Desk”, but I read some horror stories about “Market Makers” who closed account and kept profits of successful traders… or “No dealing Desk” brokers who have a lot of slippage… or the famous “[B]Stop loss hunting[/B]” from different brokers.
Personally, I prefer fight the market nor the brokers. Because of that, I ask you your opinions and your trading experiences with Theses Company.
FXCM and Forex.com are possibly my choices, but I don’t know which to choose between these two.
Out of those five, I’ve used IB (not their Canadian branch, but I don’t think that makes any real difference?) and Oanda, each extensively, myself, and I give them both a big “yes”. IB as a genuine broker and Oanda as a counterparty market-maker.
I give GAIN capital/Forex.com a big “no” but only on second-hand information (albeit quite a lot of it).
I’ve never heard of Questrade.
FXCM I give the biggest “no” ever: their very long international history of adverse regulatory rulings and multiple fines of multiple millions, arising directly over issues to do with the way they treat their clients, is breathtaking. I’m amazed, given the reality, by those traders who say “Well, I’ve been there for years and never had a single complaint”, and I can only assume that these people simply don’t know the difference between anecdotal experience and objective, proven, hard fact involving large numbers of victims.
That almost reminds me of the guy who jumps off the top of the Empire State Building and when asked, a few feet from the ground, how it’s going, says “So far, so good”.
Thanks for the response lexys… Oanda as “Market Marker” is not the same type as Forex.com?? I’m not searching the perfect broker (Anyway, we don’t have a lot of choice here) but, I try to avoid any problems.
The same “type”, in that sense; yes - but with very strikingly different behavioural standards and customer service, in my opinion. Like a large number of people in the trading world, I regard forex.com as basically a scam broker through and through (albeit not on the same scale of nastiness as FXCM, but who is?). I’d have a good look around online at complaints about them, if I were you. I think you’ll find that they don’t compare at all with the handful of adverse information you’ll find about Oanda, who seem entirely ethical and honest, to me. It’s all personal opinion, I suppose.
As FXCM’s representative here on BabyPips, I’m happy to answer any questions you have about us. Please feel free to reach out to me in the Broker Aid Station.
To address the concerns Lexys raised about FXCM, few if any other retail forex brokers are regulated on 5 continents. Our sheer size means we are subject to a greater level of scrutiny than smaller firms with fewer clients. FXCM holds itself accountable to financial rules and standards for transparency that less-regulated brokers do not have to meet.
In 2006, FXCM pioneered No Dealing Desk (NDD) execution in the retail forex industry specifically to align our interests with those of our clients. With the NDD model, we offset each client order one-for-one with the best prices from competing liquidity providers, and don’t profit from client losses, or lose from client profits. Instead, FXCM profits from client trading volume. That means we want our clients to be profitable, so they can trade more.
Our clients appreciate this which is why the latest figures from the CFTC show traders have more money on deposit with us than any other US-regulated forex broker.
We offer the same NDD execution to traders in Canada, and you get the added benefit of CIPF insurance for up to $1 million by setting up your account through Friedberg Direct powered by FXCM technology.
FXCM are not a realistic option for most traders living in Alberta due to the ‘Sophisticated investor’ regulation requirements that traders have $5M in capital available for trading Forex, not including real estate.
