I will be starting a new FOREX account this week. I have come down to three options, which one do you guys think is the best? 1. Oanda with MT4 2. FXCM with MT4 3. TD Ameritrade with TOS Any comments would be greatly appreciated, so thanks in advance!
Oanda is great, but I'd highly suggest you stick with their fxTrade platform over MT4. Their MT4 bridge setup is far from perfect, and most complaints I hear about the broker stem from trying to use MT4 instead of fxTrade. You can always keep MT4 open for charting, writing custom indicators and such, but for execution and order management fxTrade is your best bet. ---- FXCM... good company, good support... but they actually charge a higher spread markup for the use of MT4 over their native platform. Unfortunately, their spreads are a little too wide to make scalping strategies effective. If you swing trade, low frequency stuff (a hand full or less trades a week) then you'll be fine... but if you like day trading then you'll have to look at their ActiveTrader platform instead of a standard account. ----- TOS is a great platform but I haven't heard much out of them for forex... I use them for options trades and have been a client since before the TDA merger (and yes, things have gone down hill a bit since, sad really.) ===== All that aside, are you from the US? Or do you live outside the US? I could point out a few more places to consider...
Frankly, I like FXCM's "FXCM TRADING STATION" platform. I've heard so many awful things about MT4, that I've stayed away. Of course, our strategies are non-algorithmic and fairly simply by way of execution. If yours are as well, I would give it a go. They allow you to sim trade the platform to gain familiarity.
Hey thanks for the advice. I really like TOS too I am trying to find people who use them for FOREX. And yes I am from US.
There are many great options for non-US traders, but sadly thanks to the way the US is regulated, your options get quite limited. It's not an entirely bad thing, just limiting. So... for US, I usually point out Oanda (which you've already considered) and leave it at that, but lately MBTrading's FreeEXN account has been impressing me. I can't speak up for them the same way I can for Oanda (since I've done quite a bit of business through Oanda and can't say the same about MBT,) but they are worth checking out at least.
Alright cool. People have been saying Oanda is slipping on the MT4 platform, do you know anything about this?
Like I mentioned in my earlier post... Oanda's MT4 bridge leaves a lot to be desired. I'll put it this way, they didn't start with an MT4 environment, they cobbled on an MT4 bridge server to their systems once enough customers asked for it. fxTrade rocks for execution and manual order management... so you can always keep MT4 open for charting, custom indicators, heck even EA's to give you signals... but do the execution part in fxTrade. At least, if you want to use MT4 for execution too, keep fxTrade open on the side as a backup in case MT4 has issues. I'm not saying it's complete garbage... in fact, it's often acceptable and works without issues... but it's not quite as good as other broker's implementations of MT4 (stability and execution wise,) and even the best MT4-only broker still has to deal with general MT4 buggy crap...
Okay. Sounds great. I'll probably start an account with them after a little more research. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!
Can anyone recommend a quality Uk forex broker? I have seen (and ignored) alpari and a a few others that I have demod that had bad reviews (plus 500 for one) and I am struggling to see past the bucket shops.... I am looking for standard stuff... Safety of my capital decent spreads fast order placement legitimate market prices and order placement I would be grateful of all help. I am currently seeing tradestation as my best option ( I think they are US based though), but would appreciate some help and info. thanks