Time and time again my students ask me what to check out in a fx broker, of course a lot of them are influenced by promotional material produced by forex brokers and are of the assumption that they must be trading using a broker that has tight spreads, however more often than not they fail to think about a few of the most important elements of selecting a forex broker and tight spreads are one of the least essential aspects.
To aid my pupils in choosing a forex broker I always suggest they think about these factors ahead of selecting a broker:
1. Execution Speed
2. Depth of Liquidity
3. Prices Over news Periods
4. Broker Regulation
5. Currency Pairs Offered
Execution Speed
Envisage placing an order simply to have the deal hang on you after which it gets executed at a very different price. This may occur for two different reasons, the 1st reason that this occurs is just because the price has changed from the time the deal is placed to when it is filled, this frequently happens when the you’ve a bad internet link or when the brokers server is located a long distance away another reason this occurs is because the broker is slowing the order as they are a market maker and they’re deliberately preventing you from being filled at the price quoted cashing in on the price difference. Always select an ECN broker this way you’ll be able to be guaranteed that your deals will be filled in a timely manner and the forex broker is not seeking to take advantage of your losses.
Depth of Liquidity
Not many forex traders realize that when tight spreads are displayed to them on a broker platform it does not always mean that they are able to trade on those spreads. More often than not brokers will quote spreads that can’t be dealt on for any decent volume. Not being able to trade on fx broker prices is usually irritating for a lot of traders and frequently leads to deals being executed with slippage which will frequently work against the trader. It is vital that you ask your forex broker what their liquidity is like to make sure that if you’re trading any sort of volume your orders are filled at the price displayed on the brokers platform or alternately trade with an ECN fx broker where you are guaranteed bottomless liquidity.
Spreads Over News Periods
Ahead of choosing a broker you should make sure you spend a while keeping track of their prices over news announcements. On the list of the issues fx traders often encounter is widened prices over news announcements. Widened prices are caused by investment banks refusing to show prices over this period until they can determine the effect of the news announcement on the currency. A great forex broker will aggregate a number of bank feeds to make sure that if one bank isn’t quoting prices there are others that will. If you decide to deal with an ECN broker as a rule you won’t have any issues with prices over news announcements.
Forex provider Regulation
Choose a forex broker that’s regulated and even better one that is regulated in the country which you live. If you decide on a fx broker that is regulated in the country that you live you will have the best chance of getting your money back if something goes wrong. In case you can not find a suitable forex broker within the country that you live in it is best to search for a forex broker in a country which has a first-class regulatory regime, forex brokers in countries such as the USA, UK and Australia tend to be the safest in the world.
Foreign currency Pairs Accessible
There isn’t any point selecting a fx broker that does not offer the pairs which you trade so take a close look at what your forex provider offers prior to opening an account. There are several forex brokers that do not offer most of the more exotic crosses and only stick to the majors, other forex brokers will offer a full variety of foreign currencies as well as gold and silver.
I trust this helps you in choosing the right fx broker, personally I’ve dealt with a good number of brokers around the world and in Australia but I have ended up settling with ECN broker IC Markets. International Capital Markets (IC Markets) can offer me a full array of currencies and commodities, are regulated in Australia by AISC, have deep liquidity behind the prices shown and fast execution speed which helps my scalping plan. Of course you should always do your own research before selecting a forex broker however I can without doubt vouch for IC Markets.
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Posted under Currency Trading
This post was written by admin on April 15, 2012
