Friday, September 27, 2013

True ECN Forex Broker Costs Of Trading

By Johnny Timotherll


A number of traders can't bear having to pay a fee to trade fx for many years I used to be also one of these forex traders, however over the last three years I've developed a far better understanding of how the forex market really works and I would never deal with a broker that does not charge a commission but instead hides their charges in the spreads they display.

It is discouraging to see that lots of forex brokers still advertise themselves as being commission free, however it's crucial to be aware that nothing is free and that all forex brokers must generate income somehow. Sadly forex brokers who do not charge any fee tend to be market makers and widen their spreads in order to limit your money making possibilities and cash in on your losses. On the other hand providers that charge a commission rate often do so as they hedge all of their deals or offer you an ECN trading facility where you can deal on zero or even negative spreads.

Traders that appreciate the forex market and have had an incident dealing with a market maker fx broker will at all times chose an ECN fx broker that charges a commission over a forex broker that hides their cost within the spread. Forex trading with an ECN fx broker guarantees absolute trading transparency along with making certain that you're always trading on the best prices available in the market.

Unfortunately there are hardly any ECN forex brokers around, some also put up big barriers to entry for example placing minimums on the amount which you can open a trading account with. I have conducted a large amount of research into ECN forex brokers over the last one and a half years and have discovered that there are only a few ECN forex brokers that make it easy for retail clients to deal with.

Several ECN fx brokers however aren't real ECN forex brokers as they only use ECN prices to make a market behind the scenes, this means that the broker doesn't hedge your deals in the ECN market place. Fortunately, there are a few legitimate ECN brokers, it's fairly simple to tell whether a forex broker is legitimate or not you are able to do so by checking their deal execution times as well as checking whether or not they pass on slippage to your account that works in your favor.

One further critical aspect that you ought to be aware of is that a few so called ECN fx brokers could have limits on the distance you are able to place your stop loss and take profit orders away from the present market price. Any fx broker that does this is a market maker, this is often done to stop scalpers taking pips from the fx broker.

In my experience I've only ever dealt with regulated True ECN brokers in the US and Australia. There are a few good brokers in both countries. The ECN fx broker that I have been using for the last eighteen months is IC Markets. IC Markets prices are some of the tightest around and their commission rate is $3.50 per lot, which is pretty cheap in comparison to a good number of forex brokers. I am not here push any one broker so you should always try a couple of broker platforms ahead of making your final selection, however I am able to vouch for IC Markets.




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