I'm not American, first. Second, all these brokers I've mentioned are under FCA or ASIC regulations if you're not aware of. and I'm not talking about offshore entity which is not backed by solid regulations. I strongly refute that as well. It's too easy to judge anything, isn't it?
You are correct, I could have been more clear... I was speaking of heavily-promoted retail forex pure-plays, most of which are offshore and are borderline (if not outright) scams. IB, in contrast, seems to offer good rates, as do a number of institutional brokers who are not primarily forex brokers. But even then I would hew towards the futures markets for frequent trading within the US, as they do offer a market that is a "two-sided double auction", which of course is impossible unless the bid/offer are competitive.
The brokers you mentioned are absolute scams. If you don't understand why then you still have a lot to learn in this business.
I'm just trying to understand that I may be misunderstanding something here. What, in your definition, is MT4 and MT5?
Now we're getting somewhere. So the question still stands. Before we can go any further, what, in YOUR definition and not in "Google's", is MT4 and MT5?
Is anybody here that can say something about European based brokers? Plus500, AvaTrade, InteractiveBrokers, SaxoBank ... ?
Data visualization platforms that are almost exclusively used by brokers of questionable ethical and moral character or outright deceptive or criminal histories. Data is usually fx from usually non disclosed data aggregators and contributors or cfd data where there is a strong motivation for the broker to act against the client's best interest. Most highly reputable brokers stay away from those 2 platforms exactly because they are associated with poor customer care and service. I believe the origins of this poor reputation stem from the time when the creator of MTx.x wrote plugins for licensing brokers with features to deceive and steal from client trading accounts. You can Google the background. I hope I satisfied your inquisitive mind.
And now we get to the crux of the issue. You do realize the Metatrader series does more than FX? "...Any broker that offers mt4 or mt5 is highly suspicious in my book. Go with a US based broker which is regulated by every agency that regulates the asset class the broker is dealing in..." AMP is a US-regulated broker, and they do not trade FX. So your blanket statement is contradictory, about "any broker". Sorry to side-step down into the issue, but it pisses me off when blanket statements are tossed around like that, because they are not always true.
I mentioned cfds did I not? Of course you now mention futures and stocks. Sure they might now be offered on MT5. You could have mentioned in one line that you disagree re Amp and we could have agreed. Otherwise I stand by my assessment. If you disagree I am good with that. You most likely have no idea about the history of MT4 and MT5 even though you can find it with a simple mouse click.