Like a lot of people I want to choose a broker but would appreciate some advice form more experienced traders about important factors to look for when choosing a broker.
Some things I seen while browsing the forums included:
[B]1) Low spreads[/B] -3 or 4 pips on the major pairs, no more than 6 pips on any pair. this is not that important if you are making less than 20 trades a month. but watch out!!! all those little pips add up!
[B]2) Customer Support[/B] - call them up and ask a random question. do they act like pompous bastards?
[B]3) Guaranteed stops:[/B] make sure if your stop gets jumped in a fast move, make sure the brokerage will honor the stop. this could cause serious damage to your account! i once lost 20% of my account because of a missed stop.
What are your list of essential factors for broker selection and why? I’m sure a lot of people would appreciate to hear your opinions.
good customer service (I always make a phone call before opening an account),
minimum required difference in pips between current price and price of a buystop or sellstop order must be reasonable (I closed Alpari account because during big news releases the minimum difference would jump to 30+ pips, NOT ACCEPTABLE),
Even though low spreads are attractive due to negative stories about scam brokers I like to put “regulated” at nr.1, if your broker is regulated by for example the NFA I expect a lot less issues.