"Real Brokers"

Doomberg

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Ok so i did a post last week about market makers and asking if they are really that bad.. after various opinions that people shared i'd prefer not to use Spread betting as a means for trading if possible, especially now i'm about to open some larger trading accounts. Basically i'm just looking for my best options and opinions if its really worth doing it this way, here's where i am up to now.

For Forex i will open up an account with Dukascopy as they seem to have a brilliant reputation and are an ECN broker with tight spreads so i'd be happy to use them, they seem very professional... unfortunately they do not have Indices as a product and day trading these is the biggest part of my trading. I have called every known ECN broker to ask about Indices most don't supply Indices, the ones that do don't offer good spreads as i would like to have no more than 1 on FTSE & Dax and 2 or less on Dow.

A friend of mine uses Fxflat.com they are a german CFD firm and are very professional, they are a white label of GFT that supply to Germany, after talking with GFT they basically are the same product and as my main language is english its best i go with GFT. The CFD service has a good reputation although its taxable, i asked them if there is any difference to their Spread betting service and they said that the CFD is more real prices as the SB prices are 'based' on the CFD prices... also unlike spread betting they enter the market with trades etc.

Whats your views on this? Worth me going from SB to the above options?

Doomberg
 
How are you struggling to get indices? Loads of brokers offer them, IB, for example. Or try Velocity.

If you just want a simple, all-in thing and are prepared to pay a bit more per RT, look at someone like Lions.

Anyway, they all do indices.
 
Ok so i did a post last week about market makers and asking if they are really that bad.. after various opinions that people shared i'd prefer not to use Spread betting as a means for trading if possible, especially now i'm about to open some larger trading accounts. Basically i'm just looking for my best options and opinions if its really worth doing it this way, here's where i am up to now.

For Forex i will open up an account with Dukascopy as they seem to have a brilliant reputation and are an ECN broker with tight spreads so i'd be happy to use them, they seem very professional... unfortunately they do not have Indices as a product and day trading these is the biggest part of my trading. I have called every known ECN broker to ask about Indices most don't supply Indices, the ones that do don't offer good spreads as i would like to have no more than 1 on FTSE & Dax and 2 or less on Dow.

A friend of mine uses Fxflat.com they are a german CFD firm and are very professional, they are a white label of GFT that supply to Germany, after talking with GFT they basically are the same product and as my main language is english its best i go with GFT. The CFD service has a good reputation although its taxable, i asked them if there is any difference to their Spread betting service and they said that the CFD is more real prices as the SB prices are 'based' on the CFD prices... also unlike spread betting they enter the market with trades etc.

Whats your views on this? Worth me going from SB to the above options?

Doomberg

You might be looking in the wrong place, there are plenty of futures brokers that offer the more liquid indices (e mini DOW, e mini S&P, Eurostoxx). Try Global, Velocity etc etc.
 
I'm looking for a broker that has 1 point spread on FTSE and Dax and 2 on Dow....

Its difficult to find companies that have 'fixed spreads' on this, GFT are attractive
because its fixed pretty much all day and only changes at night time

I'll have a look at the ones you mentioned, cheers :)
 
I'm looking for a broker that has 1 point spread on FTSE and Dax and 2 on Dow....

Its difficult to find companies that have 'fixed spreads' on this, GFT are attractive
because its fixed pretty much all day and only changes at night time

I'll have a look at the ones you mentioned, cheers :)

You may be confusing futures with spreadbetting. With futures there is a bid and ask price which are generally 1 tick apart (on the contracts I mentioned). You pay a commission of course but its equivalent to about 1/4 of a tick on the e mini S&P for instance.
 
I'm looking for a broker that has 1 point spread on FTSE and Dax and 2 on Dow....

Its difficult to find companies that have 'fixed spreads' on this, GFT are attractive
because its fixed pretty much all day and only changes at night time

I'll have a look at the ones you mentioned, cheers :)

If you are talking about a "real" broker, they cannot fix the spread. They place your order in the market, and that's that.
 
If you are talking about a "real" broker, they cannot fix the spread. They place your order in the market, and that's that.

Attached is a screenshot showing the bid and offer as we speak.
 

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    bid ask.jpg
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1 pip spread on Dow O_O thats good, what about Dax?

It's not good, it's just what it is. Don't forget you need to add commission to that per contract.

With spread betting, you pay a wider spread (often effectively fixed). When trading in the actual market, you have a smaller spread but you have to add commissions, exchange fees etc, and you pay this for every contract you trade.
 
If you are talking about a "real" broker, they cannot fix the spread. They place your order in the market, and that's that.

Yeah i was just looking for one thats transparent, and not one who says "could be 1 could be 10"
 
It's not good, it's just what it is. Don't forget you need to add commission to that per contract.

With spread betting, you pay a wider spread (often effectively fixed). When trading in the actual market, you have a smaller spread but you have to add commissions, exchange fees etc, and you pay this for every contract you trade.

Ah ok so you'd pay an in and out fee on top, fair enough... considering my trades are often as little as 10 minutes i think using a good CFD broker will suit me, at least then i know that if i'm trading Dax for example i have from 8am -9pm with 1pip spread without transaction fees, as they don't charge an in and out fee for indices at GFT
 
1 pip spread on Dow O_O thats good, what about Dax?

Don't trade the dax, the volume is low. Trade the DJ Eurostoxx instead. Commissions should be about $4 or $5 on the e mini S&P and €2 or €3ish on the Eurostoxx.
 
Ah ok so you'd pay an in and out fee on top, fair enough... considering my trades are often as little as 10 minutes i think using a good CFD broker will suit me, at least then i know that if i'm trading Dax for example i have from 8am -9pm with 1pip spread without transaction fees, as they don't charge an in and out fee for indices at GFT


I think you miss the point. If you pay a one point spread then you pay €10 on the Eurostoxx for example. If you trade the futures you pay 2 or 3 euros commission with no spread plus there is no funny business with spreads widening or platforms freezing.
 
Don't trade the dax, the volume is low. Trade the DJ Eurostoxx instead. Commissions should be about $4 or $5 on the e mini S&P and €2 or €3ish on the Eurostoxx.

Dax has been my favourite of the Indices until now but i'll take a look at the suggested, thanks
 
I think you miss the point. If you pay a one point spread then you pay €10 on the Eurostoxx for example. If you trade the futures you pay 2 or 3 euros commission with no spread plus there is no funny business with spreads widening or platforms freezing.

Ok, so trading futures with low commission like that where would i need to look?
 
Ok, so trading futures with low commission like that where would i need to look?

Commissions vary widely - obviously, the more round trips you do, the lower the commissions per trip.

It also depends. Some will charge you a higher commission, but you've got everything included (a bit like your SB set up). Others charge a lower commission, but then you need to pay for everything else separately. So you'll need a platform, a charting package, you'll need to pay for a data feed from Eurex (for Eurostoxx), another one from CME if you want ES, etc etc.

So it all depends on what you need, how much volume you're doing etc.
 
Yeah i think for what i'm looking for, i'll be fine with a fixed cost of 1pip on CFD's tbf

I'll only be doing about a max of 5 trades per day, looking for 10-20 points a time
 
Yeah i think for what i'm looking for, i'll be fine with a fixed cost of 1pip on CFD's tbf

I'll only be doing about a max of 5 trades per day, looking for 10-20 points a time

If that's what you're talking about, you'll probably be better off with a bundled cost where everything is included. You'll pay higher commissions, but that will probably be cheaper overall.

Have a look at Velocity Futures (not a recommendation, just a suggestion). :)
 
Ok i'll have a look, i hope you get your referral fee if i join, ha jokes :LOL:
 
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