Hoping some traders out there can give me some recommendations on appropriate brokers. Right now I trade with Interactive Brokers, doing about 60-100 trades per currency pair each 24 hours. I currently use AmiBroker, with an automated trading system. But I need to diversify ASAP, as IB is under FINRA, which just filed a rule to virtually eliminate leverage for all their Forex retail brokers (down to 1.5:1!). My system depends on leverage in order to work reasonably well. My account size at a new broker would start off around $25,000, and I trade 2-3 x 100,000 lots of each currency pair. Here are the broker requirements that I am ideally looking for: 1. No restrictions on scalping. 2. Good reputation, and well capitalized - no tiny bucket shops. 3. Tightest spreads with low commissions 3. Leverage at least 100:1 4. Do not trade against the trader, do frequent requotes, or any other nonsense meant to eat away at your capital 5. Allows OCA ("One Cancels All") and GAT ("Good After Time" -- exit at Market) orders. Right after I enter a new position, I like to send an OCA order with a triple exit: StopLoss, ProfitStop, and GAT. This protects me in case my net connection goes down - all my exits are stored server side at the broker. 6. Easy to set up for automated trading with either AmiBroker or MT4 Right now, Interactive Brokers allows me to do all of the above. And if it wasn't for FINRA, I wouldn't even think of setting up a second broker. But either way, it's also good to spread ones eggs across many baskets, with financial companies going bust left, right, and center. Any recs much appreciated! Thanks.
The proposed FINRA reg would not be applicable to IB if I read it right: according to the rule, the new regs "would not be applicable to eligible contract participants" which are defined here: http://hedgefund123.com/index.php?o...e-contract-participant&catid=9:forex&Itemid=4
scratch that. re-reading the regs, the "eligible contract participants" refers to the customer, not the brokerage, and since most fx traders don't come anywhere near close to qualifying as an ECP, these rules, if implimented, would affect those FINRA firms. At current, the only other retail equivalent to what you seek is MBT, but the commissions are a little high. If you have 50 - 250k, look at vCap and their institutional level platforms for fx trading. There might be something there for some, maybe not all, of the features you want. Also, they are an introducing broker for a few large FCMs, and as such, do not fall under the control of FINRA.
Dukascopy has been high on my list, based on my recent net research. But their $50k minimum and the lack of MT4 or AmiBroker integration are a hindrance. It would take me some time to reprogram my system to use either their FIX option or funky Java API. I will likely process with DK eventually, as I've only read good things about them. But for now, I need as solid a broker that I can either port over my Amibroker system to, or translate to MT4, and do an MT4 integration.