I am very new and was wondering what to expect if i am only a part-time trader at this point. What are the monthly fee’s related to trading and do i have to pay monthly fee’s for the software. I know you have to pay per trade, but with some of the monthly fees i have heard about i do not know if i will be able to trade part-time or not. What can i expect ?
Sure, some platforms bill you a monthly fee for the signal and the platform. However you can avoid that.
MT4 is a free platform. Many brokers use it as a platform and will not charge you for a signal feed provided you are trading with them.
I use IBFX for a micro account. The only fees they are charging is for the spread when I trade.
Go ahead and try their demo and see if you like them.
Do they charge more fee’s than other brokers becuase they do not charge for their platform?
Consider Oanda, they have pretty low spreads (especially on the EUR/USD, typically .9 pips during busy daytime hours) and the platform is fairly intuitive. You can then get a free MT4 demo if you want it for charting. Like many other brokers, Oanda has no monthly fees, you just pay the spread each time you make a trade.
Try Oanda’s FXGame, it’s their demo version. You can adjust the money amount you begin with so it’s more realistic when you go live.
They make the spread and that is it. For instance if I trade a pair and the current bid/ask is 1.4556/1.4552, then IBFX makes 4 pips off of me.
Some brokers make their money through the spread other charge you a fixed commision for each trade.
Usually a market maker type broker with charge the spread and an ECN will charge a commsion. Their is pros and cons to both, but avoid anyone that charges fees other than that, IMO. There are enough brokers that don’t charge any fees except the spread or commision that you shouldn’t have to pay them.
I do not get charged a monthly fee for the platform, their signal or anything else.
MT4 is a free platform and used by a lot of traders because of it’s flexibility, charting and programability. It is not owned by IBFX, the platform has simply been retro fitted to a lot of different brokers because of it’s popularity.
I appreciate you taking your time to answer my question. I think you know how it is when you are a newbie at something.
Thanks again
Paul
I use ODL, and they have been pretty good. They too use a MT4 platform, only they dont offer micro accounts and have a $2000.00 min deposit for a mini account. Only charge is the spread per trade which of note they haven’t been manipulating the spread as i’ve seen with several other brokers during these volitile times, I pretty much only trade the GBP/JPY and the spread has been pretty consitent between 6-8 pips where as IBFX and FXCM anywhere from 9 to 40 changing at random.