I need a broker - canada

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
1

Hey everyone,

Havent been on here for quite some time, been reading and trading demo for 6-8 hours a day and I have been consistently profitable for the last 3 months in a row, now I have decided its time to go live. Problem is is that everyone I hear ( read about ) online, and everything I see says my broker Forex.com is a horrible scam, I was hoping some fellow Canadians could pipe in on the best forex brokers for Ontario in particular, I am opening an account with $25 000 USD or CAD whichever will work better for me. I really need some help picking a broker, so far I havent seen any problems with Forex.com but everything I have read says that things arent good once you go live. Anyone that can give some input and help me out it is greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot

2

I am not Canadian but all i know about Forex.com is that they are a market maker so I personally wouldn’t choose them as I prefer an ecn or stp broker. They are probably no worse than most brokers and you have to take into account that most people don’t mention their broker until something goes wrong, so you generally only read bad reviews for most brokers.

I would recommend either staying with them or at least choosing a broker that is also well regulated ie UK, US, Canada or Australia. Examples would be Oanda, FXCM which is Frieberg in Canada or maybe an Australian broker such as Pepperstone. With 25k you could also look at LMAX which I have an account with as it is a trading exchange and has minimum deposit of 10k. They would probably have the lowerest speads that I have seen and are very well regulated being in the UK.

If any one recommends a broker from Seycelles, Virgin Islands etc I would think twice as personally I think they are really just bucket shops.

There is a member on here called Jack Larkin maybe he will see your post and comment. He is Canadian and may have recommendations for suitable brokers and he seems legit :slight_smile:

Good luck with your trading.

3

Thanks for the reply. I will look into LMAX I have also been looking ini Interactive Brokers Canada which is supposed to be ECN. I will get in contact with mr.larkin. Thanks for the help. I have only read bad reviews online and what you said definetly makes sense. I don’t want a broker who isn’t heavily regulated or regulated in Canada. We have major regulation up here which makes Forex trading pricier because of margin but it does help us with our security.

4

dukascopy.

the end.

5

Oanda, Dukas, ThinkForex, HotForex. Luckily we’re not in the US, so we have a larger selection to choose from. :slight_smile:

Just depends on your trading, and what requirements you would need from your broker, aside from tight spreads.

6

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will be looking into the aforementioned companies Clark. I still am interested in an ECN broker which is interactive brokers. The companies you listed were Market Makers correct?

7

The ones I listed are all ECN. None of them are market makers. Correct me if I’m wrong though.

Edit: for Forex, I wouldn’t recommend IB. They’re better suited for other asset classes.

8

if you have / will put in $25,000 to trade live, i’d strongly suggest that whichever broker you use, they DO allow simultaneous logins to your account from various different machines, for example desktop plus tablet, or laptop plus smartphone, or A plus B.

dukas does, which is why i recommended them. been with them for 2 years.

was with Questrade before, they were “ok” as training wheels. i briefly looked at IB but really saw nothing worthy of consideration there - i think they were worse than Q. i have no idea on Oanda since, well, i’ve never had any reason to look away from Dukas.

9

Sound- I assume you’re in Canada, you haven’t had any problems with Dukascopy?

Clark- I’m sorry, I was under the impression they were all market makers, do you trade with any of the said companies?

I was told from day one you are looking for a broker who’s regulated in Canada, Ill do some more research thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate the help.

10

i’m in ontario, been with dukas since 2 years ago, have had ZERO problems of any kind with them. then again, i don’t treat my trading account like an ATM so i don’t do constant deposits / withdrawals, i just threw a bunch of money in there and work on compounding it. have a separate income stream for daily / monthly expenses.

11

Alright sounds good, I will be giving them a call tomorrow, I want to get my account open in the next week or two so Dukascopy is basically at the top of my list for the time being.

I too wont be playing ATM with my account it will be withdrawing once a month that’s about it. How is Dukascopy regulated, how is our money secure is basically what Im asking?

Thanks again guys.

12

hmm, as far as i know, deposits / withdrawals with Dukas are wire transfers, which typically take a few days from start to finish, so if you want to pull money out each and every month they may not be the most convenient choice for you especially if you want to do it to a specific schedule.

the initial account setup (at least when i did it 2 years ago) was a bit long-winded and you gotta see a lawyer / notary to get some of your docs notarized, but it’s a one-time deal so again quite acceptable (and maybe even gives you some additional comfort to know that it’s not as easy as a hotmail address).

i guess deposit/withdraw monthly would still kind of be ATM in my definition. quarterly might not be too bad, though.

i can’t recall the regulation details now, but i’m sure you can find it on their site. if/when you have much more money ($250k or so), you can easily move your money off-site to a separate bank (custodial bank), which may give you even more of a warm-n-fuzzy feeling w.r.t. regulation and safety of your money.

13

Oanda is a Market Maker not an ecn. Even says on their website

About | OANDA
"OANDA is a market maker and a trusted source for currency data."

Thinkforex only has commission on pro accounts so they also are either a MM or STP.

14

Thanks a lot Sound, I will be getting in Contact with them tomorrow, right now its between Interactive Brokers and Dukascopy, both have their pros and cons so tomorrow should decide this.

Stimpy Oanda was never in my picture, I knew they werent ECN.

15

You should really check out Lmax. It is an exchange and probably has the lowerest spreads.
Both IB and Dukascopy will serve you well but LMax well I think it is the best:28:

16

I am in Canada too and I prefer dealing with east Europeans brokers because they offer better leverage and withdrawals options. For example I have 1:1000 leverage with Exness and instant withdrawal with moneybookers.

20

Hey guys,

I am a 46 yr old retired Wall Street equities trader and now full time retail FX trader living in the province of Quebec with a 75k plus account at Oanda for the last three yrs.

Rhickman I think you are wrong to dismiss Oanda so quickly. First of all they are not just operating in Canada, they are headquartered in Toronto, so right off the bat there is a question of keeping your money in the Canadian economy, jobs, helping the home team etc. Which means something to me.

You are putting a serious amount of hard earned cash into [B]someone else’s hands[/B], “counter party risk”, I feel much better with a Canadian counter party, operating within the very tight Canadian regulatory environment.

Also, an accountant friend told me that having an account offshore (with a broker in Switzerland or Cyprus) is a red flag for revenue Canada.

But more importantly I have been really,really pleased with my experience at Oanda. I have never ever had a problem executing trades, entering or adjusting stops or anything else. The site has never ever been unavailable or crashed.

OK, you can’t use 500:1 leverage but, honestly only a fool would. I never exceed 8:1 in any situation.

I try as best I can to live only from my FX profits, which means every few weeks dealing with wire transfers, it gets complicated and I am always happy to be dealing on the phone with people in Toronto. I have been in my bankers office in Quebec and got them on the phone with the Oanda people to resolve wire transfer complications and everything has always turned out great. I always thank god I am not dealing with back office people in freaking Cyprus. Can you imagine?

Forget all this talk about ECN, dealer blah blah blah, What the hell difference does it make? None of us are on interbank dealing desks trading cable by the yard.

One last piece of advice given to me by my fathers old partner in NYC. “Always assume that the trade you are about to put on is not going to work”

to which I said " So, if it’s not going to work why are we doing it? "

" Cause that’s our job, kid! "

1 Like
21

Well to be honest I have been trading with my broker for 3 years now. And i have tried all the so called great brokers who have big brands as well as big promotions.

But any client looks for satisfaction and transparency above anything else :slight_smile:

And i have found both with MAYZUS (previously known as UWCFX) and i would surely recommend them to you :wink:

22

Good luck! There are no good brokers in Canada. Spread and execution in Canada are useless. I am a professional trader and use many brokers. You can look at Alpari NZ, ILQ, AxiTrader.

23

LMAX does not take Canadians anymore.