US$30/month for 8Mbps, though you get lower speed for international connections. Still plenty for trading though. No comment on remote areas, Bangkok works fine.
Saw a thread on Thaivisa some time back, chaps were using Oanda and quite happy with them. Other than that I know nothing about forex brokers so you'll have to check them out yourself.
Normally I'd back Oanda here but I have no clue where they have local servers to you... maybe you should drop them an email... Other than that, Pepperstone out of Australia is ASIC regulated and has a datacenter in Singapore for relay. They are an STP/ECN type broker and I'm happy with them myself. http://pepperstone.com/trading-accounts/accounts-razor.php I use Oanda as well though... either works.
Thanks gentlemen, Looks like Oanda is the one i will give a try. Does anyone knows if the HK branch reports your earning to the country of your residence ?
Short answer: not exactly. Long answer: don't count on any offshore firm protecting you from the local tax man. There's always a chance that one day they give in under pressure... just like UBS. Also, good choice with Oanda, I forgot they have a HK branch... leverage rules are a bit different there but it's a local relay and Oanda quality.
Which gives better spreads? I see Pepperstone have commissions on the Razor accounts in return for tighter spreads. How does this wash out? Also, Oanda are MMs, Pepperstone are ECN. Any difference in fills?
Oanda averages about 1.2 pips on EUR/USD during the overlap between London and NYC sessions and up to 4pm EST on NYC session.. Then it goes to about 1.4 pips total spread during the Asian and early London session. In between the sessions they can go higher, ~2+ pips. During news releases they widen as well, sometimes to 10 pips for a min or two during the release if it's major enough (employment numbers, interest rate changes, etc..) So Oanda isn't the best for news trading.. otherwise they are pretty competitive. Pepperstone doesn't have this problem between sessions and keeps a pretty consistent spread. Liquidity does get a bit thin, which is why Oanda raises their spread between sessions, but the spread stays the same (only a problem if you are execution 10Million+ orders at 5pm EST before Sydney opens.) Razor will average 0.4-5 pips spread and often drop down to 0.1-2 at times... EUR/USD again in this example... commissions work out to be about 0.7 pips in cost per trade (~$70 per million.) so that has you at an average total cost of 1.1-1.2 pips on EUR/USD So overall Pepperstone works out to be slightly cheaper during active market hours and very much so cheaper during non-liquid times. Point is, scalpers and short time frame traders will see the difference with Pepper in both cost and times of day they can trade with thin spreads. Overall they are both great choices though, Oanda has their own strong points. Execution wise, both are fast.. Oanda's fast since they are dealing to you so they can confirm your order quickly. Pepperstone has one of the fastest execution times I've seen for an ECN/STP, almost instant execution.. thanks to having a DC at NY4 and a fiber link to Integral's ECN Grid in North America and relays in Asia. This fact, (aside from the great total cost of trading EUR/USD) is the main reason I trade with them. Scalpers need quality execution... Buddy of mine trades from the UK and uses the DC in New York with Pepper, he gets 'click' to fill execution of ~400ms... that's great considering his order has to cross the pond first, get pushed to Integral's ECN grid, get confirmed by a LP or bank, then flow back to his client... I compare that to VantageFX that 2-3 seconds to fill my order on average.. or FXCM that takes ~1-1.5 seconds on average. This stuff matters when you scalp and a few pips of slippage thanks to execution delays can really eat into your profits.