What do you trade with them, just futures or do you trade spot as well? Have they sorted out FX Trader yet?
Right now there are very few choices for retail traders: if you are a rapid in/rapid out trader (common misused term is scalper) then you want to look at one of the ECN shops out there. An ECN doesn't take the other side - they only try to match it up either thru existing orders on their system or thru their interbank liquidity partners. They don't care about your trading because they have no vested interest - they make their money on the commission. The top 2 are IB (which allows you to trade spot vs futures) and HotSpotFXr, a division of Knight Trading. The hotspot platform is one of the top platforms of choice on many hedge fund and bank and brokers desks. A third choice is MB trading, but I have no direct recent experience to forward an opinion. There are enough people here and elsewhere to give you their assessment on this broker. If you are more of a swing trader and trade smaller sizes, then the MM house may be your best bet. GFT and Oanda are the top 2. Yes there is an Oanda thread here that is not too complimentary but it may be that the style of trading leads to conflict with the broker's system. There are others here, and elsewhere, who can offer their opinion of these firms. Firms to avoid: FXCM (unless you are just starting out and in the learning stage - they have a great visual platform and you can open account with as little as 500); Saxobank (also rebranded CitiFx), just about any metatrader platform broker (they are great for charting, but contrary to what anyone claims on their webpage, if they use metatrader then there IS a dealing desk behind the the platform - it is part of the software) Also, check out the recent financials of the broker you wish to work with here: http://www.cftc.gov/marketreports/financialdataforfcms/ You can get an idea of the financial health of the firm from these figures. You say you are new to fx trading - I suggest you take your time to feel the market. It takes time to learn this market and it is best to use little or no money until you feel confident to risk a greater share of your assets. Also, get good with TA. No other market is as affected by TA than fx, imo. Regards.
If you use the FX Trader 'bolt-on' does it all work ok now because when I used it a couple of years ago there were all sorts of problems (I actually had an order filled on Eur/Usd when I'd clicked Gbp/Usd, I'm serious!), and position and p/l tracking was a nightmare. I quite liked the platform so if it works ok now it might be worth another look. Thanks
ECNs *ARE* the real Forex marketplace, not the buket shops that use Metatrader. I totally agree. Search for "metatrader fraud" on google ... I think this is the BEST tip someone could give to you: DO NOT USE REAL MONEY !!! Spot is the best place to simulate: request a long term demo account, and trade as if you put real money on it. This is the only way to start and survive.
Maybe the right marketplace to play in is the one where all these guys play: Aareal Bank ABN AMRO AIG ANZ Banking Group Banca Nazionale di Lavoro Bank of America Bank of Ireland Bank of Montreal Bank of New York Bank of New Zealand Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Bank One Banque Cantonale Vaudoise Banque Générale du Luxembourg Barclays Capital Bayerische Landesbank Bear Stearns BNP Paribas Brown Brothers Harriman Business Development Bank of Canada Calyon CDC IXIS CIBC World Markets Citibank Commerzbank Commonwealth Bank of Australia Credit Suisse First Boston Danske Bank Deutsche Bank Deutsche Postbank International Dexia Bank Dresdner Bank DZ Bank Fifth Third Bancorp Fimat Fortis Bank Goldman Sachs Handelsbanken HSBC HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt HSH Nordbank HypoVereinsbank ING ING BHF-Bank IntesaBCI JPMorgan Chase Jyske Bank KBC Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen LBBW Lehman Brothers Lloyds TSB Macquarie Bank Mellon Bank Merrill Lynch Metzler Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corp Morgan Stanley National Australia Bank Nordea PNC Bank Rabobank Rand Merchant Bank Royal Bank of Canada Royal Bank of Scotland Scotia Capital SEB Société Générale Standard Bank of South Africa Standard Chartered Bank State Street Sumitomo Trust & Banking Swiss Union of Raiffeisen Banks Svenska Handelsbanken The Northern Trust Company The Travelex Group Toronto Dominion Bank Trust & Custody Services Bank UBS UFJ Bank Wachovia Securities Westfalenbank WestLB Westpac WGZ-Bank Zürcher Kantonalbank Is it real enough or I'm missing someone ?
I thought the ECN v Marketmaker Bucketshop issue had been debated to death, obviously not! Bucketshops have their place, ECN's are not automatically the best place for every trader, it depends on what you need. There was a good thread about it here Price manipulation aside, one of the plusses about companies like Oanda is you can place and manage trades over the weekend, you can't do that with an ECN! Another plus can be across volatile data like NFP, a bucketshop just fills your market order up to 10m no problem whereas you're quite likely to get partial fills at best on an ECN. Minimum account opening balance and trade size is smaller with a bucketshop, ideal for someone just starting out.......need I go on? If the bucketshop you choose is reasonably honest then why bother with the 'real' market, personally I don't really care who's on the other side of my trade as long as they stay solvent! A lot of the ECN-style NDD hype is just a marketing exercise by companies looking for new ways to increase market share in a competitive business. A lot of these companies aren't truly brokers anyway, they're counterparty just like a bucketshop, with the same conflicts of interest and motives to trade against clients. Why fix what ain't broke? If they fill your orders at the price you want and don't manipulate price too much or run your stops then what's the problem?
Using a demo is great to learn this market, but sooner or later you have to drop the trigger on a real trade that has YOUR money at stake. Trading demo and trading live can be 2 very different experiences as psychology can play a strong role in how it affects your trading decisions. So demo for a while and then try your own money with an account that allows to to trade small sizes, i.e 10,000 bcu as opposed to the standard 100k. If you can succeed in this environment with real money on the line only then are you able to move to the next level. There are SO MANY people who have traded this market and made mistakes and either learned from them or failed. I strongly suggest you seek out this information and try to take it to heart. It is all on the net. You just have to take the time to look for it and read it. Learn from someone else's mistakes - don't repeat the same thing if you could have avoided it. Good Luck.