I completely agree with trader-Zayn. There is not way that you can find out if the broker is ECN or market maket maker. The best way to decide is to read the reviews online, see which broker has good reputation. There are many brokers who show low spreads on their platform but when you place a trade, you experience slippage. I personally faced this and that is why I can say this with confidence. There are many brokers like Coinexx, Oanda,IC markets with whom you won’t face such an issue.
The above mentioned points surely make it to the list of an ECN broker along with quick trade execution and low commission structure. You can try Saxo Markets, IC Markets and Coinexx, all of them are in every way pure ECN broker and additionally they also have some affiliate programmes, which are a good source to earn money as well.
There is also a little-known broker RannForex, but the company offers very favorable trading conditions. Only one minus - no regulation 
There continues to be a lot of misinformation on this thread.
An updated Broker 101 course has been released and I recommend new traders start with the firstt lesson, How to Choose a Forex Broker.
I have heard Oanda is really good, however Oanda is not a true ECN broker.
Folks, there’s no such thing as an “ECN broker”.
I continue to see posts touting the “benefits” of an “ECN broker” that are just wrong.
Please refer to my previous post for more information.
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ECN brokers offer liquidity from several providers this is their key advantage compare to STP brokers. Examples of brokers which offer ECN execution are Hotforex, Tickmill and Exness, moreover they are regulated by FCA which is a big plus.
It’s not really a key advantage. ANY reputable broker would source their prices from multiple LPs to get price competition. No need to market oneself as an “ECN broker”.
STP is an execution method, not a type of broker, so brokers who hedge through an ECN would “STP” their order. They have to fill their order first with the counterparty on the ECN before it fills your order.
The question is does the broker really have access to the ECN? Or are they going through a PoP that provides them an aggregated feed where one of the sources may be from the ECN that the PoP has access to (but the broker does not).
Lastly, how do you even know? Can the broker prove it? Will it provide you a full leg execution report for any one particular position?
What really matters is not some acronym but whether the prices you get are competitive (i.e. mirror prices in institutional FX market) and whether you get filled at (or better than) your requested prices.
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A real ECN broker will not restrict your trading in any way, it is in their interest that they make trading as comfortable for you as possible so you can make the most volumes.
For example, one big, well known broker I have used pretend to be ecn but they force you to keep trade open for so many minutes or market distance. Other once allows to trade max 60 lots at the same time…what’s that, lol?
Look for no limits for SL and TP, min trade 0.01 max trade 1000 lots, no strategy restrictions or limits.
You can try trading with CMC Markets, Hot Forex and [removed for Forums violation]. They offer leverages up to 500x, which can be customised by the trader as per his choice. And the minimum trading lot starts from 0.01 and the brokers provide quite tight spreads to their clients.
There is no such as a “real ECN” broker. This is simply a marketing phrase.
Trading restrictions are subject to a broker’s hedging policy not whether they are an “ECN broker” (which doesn’t exist).
How many retail traders trade 60 lots at a time? That’s a 6M position size. Even institutional traders wouldn’t trade at this size as they would break up their orders into 1M blocks (or smaller).
Why would traders trade 500:1 leverage? There’s a reason why such high leverage is offered…to entice traders to open large positions with small account balances so a tiny unfavorable price fluctuation breaches the Stop Out level and their position is auto-liquidated and losses are realized.
Or if the position manages to remain open, then you get eaten alive with sky-high overnight financing fees, and watch your equity rapidly vanish to the point you can’t meet the variation margin requirement to keep the position open, resulting in…being auto-liquidated and losses being realized.
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You’d be surprised, pal- you are making assumptions on your own trading, I guess?
I don’t there is way to identify the broker as ECN or not. But if you really want to trade with ECN Brokers then you should try brokers like Coinexx, FXTM and eToro. Their spreads are really tight and I have never seen any manipulations made by these brokers. However, I will advice you to do list down your requirements and choose the broker accordingly.
None of these brokers are “ECN Brokers”. Please stop giving wrong information.
For example, Coinexx is not even regulated. If you visit their website, they don’t even provide a physical address or a phone number. Do they even have an office? The only way to contact them is via email.
They also don’t provide any details about their order execution policy.
ICMARKETS isnot a MM, from the start i began to trade i stay with them, ECN i dont really mind, some or many call themselves ECN or even STP, only certain they are very serious…
IC Markets is a market maker in the sense that it “makes a market” for its customers to trade. It may rely on third-party LPs for prices and available volume of the different
financial instruments it offers but it’s still your counterparty. This is what makes it a market maker.
You can see this clearly stated in their Order Execution Policy:
Execution Venues are the entities with which the orders are placed, or to which we transmit orders for execution. For the purposes of orders for the financial instruments we provide, we act as principal at all times and not as agent. Although we may transmit your orders for execution to third party liquidity providers, contractually, Raw Trading Ltd is the sole counterparty to your trades and any execution of orders is done in our name. Therefore, we are the sole Execution Venue for the execution of Clients’orders.
All retail forex brokers act as “market makers” to their customers. Some brokers may try to use marketing lingo to obfuscate this fact but it doesn’t make it any less true.
A lot of them are there to choose from. You can create your demo account with them to see if they have the features you are looking for in your broker.
Spreads are the best part of ECN brokers.
Real ECN brokers can let you trade effectively and more profitably which is a good factor. Spreads are lower with most. Most importantly, they never trade against you.
ECN brokers are not market makers. So why use any other.