Hi, I’m considering any of these brokers. XM and FXCM are market makers and from some info, people keep advising me to avoid market makers. Currently, I am using XM and like the fact that they provide me a debit card and give me no contract bonus for every deposit. Of course I didn’t use the bonus to the max, I only take advantage of it at certain times. However, some concerns is that someone at FPA said that once you’ve profited consistently with XM, they will cause you lots of problems with usual bucket shop tactics. My fx teacher at KL Malaysia used FXCM, but given the number of complaints of FXCM all over the web, I’m somewhat skeptical to use it. OctaFX is an ECN type but the withdrawal options is somewhat limited. Which one do you recommend? Thanks.
I’ve also been advised that you’d better avoid market makers. Honestly, I haven’t tried XM or FXCM (I don’t really want to risk with market makers) and from my research I’m quite sceptical about them in any case.
Hi Azlan, Karlsen and MikaR,
I can’t speak for other brokers, but FXCM provides traders with No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution on all standard accounts (2k minimum opening balance) where each client order is offset one-for-one with the best prices from competing liquidity providers. Some people refer to this as ECN-style, but we prefer the term NDD.
As an alternative for traders with a smaller balance, we also offer a DD execution option (AKA market maker) for mini accounts ($50 minimum opening balance). More information about FXCM’s trade execution can be found here: Forex Execution - FXCM
It’s important to keep in mind when reading online reviews that the vast majority of FXCM clients are pleased with our service and execution. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have $1 billion in customer equity. That makes us many times larger than other brokers you may be comparing to us.
We’ve also been in business since 1999 which makes us one of the oldest firms in what is still a relatively young industry. If less than 1% of our clients or past clients express a grievance about something, while that may seem like a large number of traders compared to other brokers, it’s not as large when you consider the percentages.
That’s not to say that we don’t take such client feedback seriously. My role on forums such as this is to answer questions about FXCM and address any potential concerns. And if you see my other posts here on BabyPips, you will find that I don’t simply promote FXCM. I actively contribute to discussions to provide service and education to traders: 301 Moved Permanently
This also highlights how FXCM dedicates a greater amount of resources to educating new traders than most other brokers. That means more novice traders begin their forex journey with us. The flip side of this is that when they misunderstand something about how the market works, they sometimes blame us. Here’s a typical example: FXCM how can you
Huh Jason, don’t say that it’s not a promotion, even the size of your post looks like an advertising brochure 
Azlan00IM, why do you want to use these brokers, if you have so many arguments against them? I used both XM and OctaFx and I had no idea that XM is a market maker, what it based on? If we look at different forums and other resources, we will see that now almost all brokers are considered as market makers, that’s weird I think. OctaFx is now attracts me by their contests which help me to try my luck and give another chance to get some money from the broker. Yeah maybe their withdrawal option is limited, but I don’t quite remember that I had any problems with what they provide.
yepp a lot of people keep saying that the brokers are market makers even if they don’t claim to be. in some cases it’s not as bad as many of us think. otherwise, the market makers (at least those who openly state that they are these) wouldn’t exist at all.
as for weithdrawal options - i don’t see any problem. i have a neteller account and use it solely for tradinmg withdrawals and it’s okay. instant, free and easy to open.
I trade with FXCM and I don’t have a problem with them. I can’t say anything about the other two, but what I can say is that the broker complaints I normally read that those are very often bogus and easily explainable. Like slippage during news events or lock down of demo accounts after a period of inactivity.
Don’t rely on those reviews.
It is good to be very conscious where you trade, but also consider that you are probably not the Wall street warriors that are in the position to trade under the best conditions. Try them, take due notice of how execution goes and move on when you don’t like it. Most traders try multiple brokers before they decide and switch once a while.
Over-analyzing brokers als a beginning trader sounds more like an escape from trading to me. 
You should be thinking about tweaking your strategies. 
Well Azlan asked himself he was considering brokers and Jason gave his opinion. All what he says is also available in their Annual report, which you should read as a trader when joining a broker. 
He helps babypip memers out when they have issues with FXCM or resolves unclarities. I think that deserves some room to promote what they have to offer. I don’t see XM, OctaFx, Oanda or Alpari here actively participating.
That’s not an opinion, just advertising “We’ve also been in business since 1999”, “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have $1 billion in customer equity” - what’s that…opinion, seriously? Brokers reps do good job helping to resolve some issues, but, please, don’t go to such threads where one trader wants to talk with another trader for poorly advertising purposes. How this thread will look like, if other brokers reps just go there and shove down their praising brochures? I suppose Advertisement threads exist for such purposes.
“I trade with FXCM and I don’t have a problem with them” - Nice done job!!!:35:
I am giving Jason some slack here. He is always there for us and is a member for about 6,5 yrs already. When there is some advertising in his opinions that is still way better than three one day old members who discuss with each other in a thread how awesome klukilooky fx is with their awesome bonusses and their true ECN accounts starting from $0.01 deposit with 5000:1 leverage and who never return after three posts.
Be glad that Jason didn’t start about their 14B trading volume in 2015 and their free vps services on their ECN-style accounts, their trading contest, their active trading program with volume discounts and excellent low spreads. That would be advertising!
Also, he can’t respond too much to critisism here because of his job. That would be very frustrating to me if I would be standing in his shoes.
Now I think of it. Is it indeed a Jason behind that account, or any other FXCM client support officer that is in the mood to read through forum threads??? :eek:
Ah well, if the last applies, They are all Jason to me.
Hi Toekan,
I’ve worked at FXCM for 11 years. All the Jason Rogers posts you see here are by me, unless I’m out sick and something requires an urgent response before I’m back in the office.
Excellent!
If need reliability, then from these three can only choose FXCM.
As far as online reviews are concerned the are not trustworthy because there are so many paid reviews and on the other hand so many paid reviews from competitor of that broker, yes there are real reviews but it is too difficult to filter them from all, that,s why i think reviews are not too important.
What i used to do to find good broker is i contact to people on internet which i know and trust able to me, ask them their review in personal message and get reviews. In the open forum it is very difficult to access the right situation rather they will confuse you even more.
But what if most of us don’t have such trustable people on internet and at all, if we are alone in this business? What should we believe in, just nothing? How do you understand that one review is fake and another is true?
Yes, I also think the same way. Even in the offline world, most people who promote or recommend one particular broker is actually the IB of that broker. However, on the internet, like forexpeacearmy for example, I can detect whether the review is genuine or not. Like:
- If it is negative review, usually the representative of that broker will respond. So, we just read the real story of both sides.
- If it is positive review, if it is too short, then, it shouldn’t be trusted.
As for XM being a market maker, I actually contacted their support and this is the respond:
Dear Valued Client ,
We thank you for choosing XM as your trusted broker.
Regarding your concern please note that XM is classified as a ‘market maker’ because we operate a dealing desk whose primary function is to process telephone orders. However, all client positions are covered through multiple liquidity providers and we do not benefit from client losses in any way. Our execution is highly optimized, with 99.35% of all orders being executed in less than 1 second, coupled with a strict no re-quotes and no rejections policy.
I have tried XM and Octafx both, Octafx bonus is very hard to cash out, just $1/lot, and you have to unlock 100% of you bonus after that you can withdraw you bonus. but I Octafx for low spread.
You know, the more a broker offer the more suspicious I get. When a broker offers a zero account or large bonuses, there is something behind it. Brokers aren’t philantropic. The money has to come from somewhere.
I want to make a buck and my broker wants to make a buck, I get that. When I take good care of them I hope they take good care of me. So when a broker offers things for free, I don’t understand where that buck for him will come from, but I know he wants it, so how does he get it from me?
But dear this is why humans have brain and brokers have demo account, I believe majority of the stuff can be easily judged without investment and now days apart from the mention difficulties there are easier parts too like having no deposit bonuses, demo contest or such stuff, so we don’t even required to invest to test broker and at the same point, we never get our time wasted IF the broker is right due to the useful stuff. For scalpers it is absolutely awesome with their low spreads, one more thing I want to know how do you rate OctaFX bonus in general? I mean it is obvious not everyone wants to withdraw it, we just want to use it to cover things, so what’s your take on that? I personally feel satisfied on that note.
Guys FXCM almost went bankrupt after the Swiss Franc debacle, so for me they are already out of equation.
I withdrawed more than 18k$ with XM over Skrill… so they get my vote = Photoshar.in - Free & Detailed Image Hosting