T2W guide to FX brokers

Which broker for retail FX?

  • Interactive Brokers

    Votes: 70 18.2%

  • Oanda

    Votes: 109 28.3%

  • Hotspot

    Votes: 34 8.8%

  • EFXGroup

    Votes: 22 5.7%

  • FXCM

    Votes: 48 12.5%

  • Finspreads

    Votes: 6 1.6%

  • Capital Spreads

    Votes: 12 3.1%

  • CMC Markets

    Votes: 17 4.4%

  • Alpari

    Votes: 40 10.4%

  • Man Financials

    Votes: 4 1.0%

  • GFX

    Votes: 7 1.8%

  • Saxobank

    Votes: 23 6.0%

  • IG markets

    Votes: 25 6.5%

  • Worldspreads

    Votes: 8 2.1%

  • Cantor Index

    Votes: 7 1.8%
  • Total voters
    385
wasp

wasp

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With no definitive ideal broker in the world of Forex, this thread is here to build up a comprehensive, and ever changing and updating list and poll for the choices in foreign exchange brokers for the retail trader.

I will undoubtedly miss a ton of brokers off the list so with your help, we can at least keep updating the thread with the latest news, views, and details on the brokerages available.

There are so many out there and new ones popping up all the time and as poll threads come and go, this will hopefully give a more definitive answer. So please add comments and help, good or bad on the various brokers so we all stand a better chance with at least one hurdle covered...
 
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who won best FX broker for 2007 in the T2W awards ? that result any good? Could not get on the site the other day so I dont know the result....
 
Crap Buddist said:
who won best FX broker for 2007 in the T2W awards ? that result any good? Could not get on the site the other day so I dont know the result....
Click to expand...

Good question CB and, I don't know! I just tried to have a butchers but couldn't bring up the results..... :eek:
 
Are we talking bucket shop brokers or ECN brokers?

Anyone tried MBTrading?

Finspreads have high margin requirements and quote GBP/JPY 10 wide.
 
TheRumpledOne said:
I have had an EFX account for years. I have visited their offices in Scottsdale, AZ numerous times. EFX is anything but a joke!

EFX is a great company of people who are dedicated to providing the best possible service.
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JP1966 said:
I had a live account with EFX a few years ago and closed it after a week, they were truly hopeless.
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I have copied these over to here too so the feedback on all brokers can be centralized for easier research...

Each to their own but I am happily moving on and trying to get all my brokers in the UK now.

JP1966 said:
I have a number of live accounts at the moment. I don't know your exact requirements Wasp but I like London Capital. Via them I use a number of different ECNs.
Click to expand...

Does anyone use....

Capital Forex Pro
 
a_gnome said:
Hi wasp,
Going back to the question of which alternative broker one might wish to use, with regards to OandA I would like to suggest that you may wish to read a review that I wrote on them a while back entitled "OK but still a bucket shop". It can be found at: OandA FX Trade and you then need to scroll down to the long review with my name at the bottom.
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I shall take a look thanks. Trying to get away from American brokers at the moment but will take a read.

a_gnome said:
As an executive summary: they're generally OK, their spreads are horrendous around news releases and are kept wide for too long after the release, and most importantly they will put you on "manual fill" if you start making too much money from them. This last point should especially be of note as IIUC you do actually do this for a living.

I would suggest either Interactive Brokers who have a pretty good little ECN from what I understand or a Currenex broker such as London Capital. I am assuming that the CME futures markets aren't going to cover the comparatively exotic spreads that you trade.
Click to expand...

1 of my recent decisions that I have wanted to do for quite a while has been to have all my business in the UK. Annoyingly, this discounts IB although I understand they have offices there (UK).

I have been testing out Alpari over the last week and for a deal desk, I have no complaints at all yet. UK based, they use metatrader, the simplicity is amazing, the pairs on offer are more than adequate, money in and out is quick and simple and fills have been sweet as so far...

I am keen to have more of a transparent broker too, one where trading is through a more professional platform and with other banks/traders etc so demoing the currenex platform with London Capital at the moment and it also looks good. If anyone has used them it would be good to hear about?

As for CME FXmarketplace... I understand you need to be a registered hedge fund at a minimum which is an idea to contemplate.....
 
Despite my earlier cool review of alpari, due to requotes/manual dealer confirm around news releases sometimes, i will say this - their customer service team are very helpful - very similar to worldspreads in terms of approachability, patience, etc.
 
FXmarketspace is the joint venture between CME and Reuters for a central Forex exchange.

At present, it looks like its aimed at the top end of the wholesale market, ie: larger currenex/lava/hotspot type clients, with at least $20m account value.

Minimum transaction size is a $1m currency lots.

more info and an FAQ at FXMarketSpace Home
 
Arbitrageur said:
FXmarketspace is the joint venture between CME and Reuters for a central Forex exchange.

At present, it looks like its aimed at the top end of the wholesale market, ie: larger currenex/lava/hotspot type clients, with at least $20m account value.

Minimum transaction size is a $1m currency lots.
Click to expand...

I don't think FXmarketspace serves the ECN platforms such as currencex, lava, hotspot, ...etc but other prime brokers at banks.
ECN platforms are platforms independently supported by banks as liquidity providers, although some of the banks may also be liquidity providers of FXmarketspace.

FXmarketspace only serves institutional traders ( with $1m currency lots or more ) whereas ECN allows trading size smaller than $1m ( eg. $100,000, $10,000, ...etc).
The following information maybe helpful : FX ECNs (electronic communication networks) - London FX Ltd
 
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Which is the most reliable retail ECN model type of broker , where you can trade however you want without getting screwed? I was looking at either hotspot fx or IB.
 
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Capital Forex Pro

These guy use currenex, UK based, jut opened an account so will update all when I have tried them out.

The commission rate is $23 per million.
Margin requirement is 2%.
Minimum average trade size: $200,000
 
wasp said:
Capital Forex Pro

These guy use currenex, UK based, jut opened an account so will update all when I have tried them out.

The commission rate is $23 per million.
Margin requirement is 2%.
Minimum average trade size: $200,000
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Sounds good.commision is low as well, and stationed close where I live. Im going to try out the demo account. What is the minimum deposit to open an account? Didn't find it on the home page.

Late edit: well, i found out that you have to deposit at least USD 35000 or currency equivalent.
 
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A quick example of spreads and setup with Capital Forex Pro for those interested.
 

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GammaJammer said:
It's not really taking off. Reuters have an idea that isn't terrible, but the timing is all wrong, and they massively underestimated the amount of structural and technical inertia inherent in the larger institutions (whose buy-in or otherwise was always going to be the make or break factor).

That said, last time they spoke to me they reported increasing business (although present volatility means that this takes place against a backdrop of across the board increase in volume). Who knows - they have the coffers to stay in it for the long haul so maybe time will tell. But it's definitely not going to take over the world just yet.

GJ
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Good info:)

IMO, one shortfall of fxmarketspace business model is it excludes retail market. What a centralized ( and regulated ) exchange it is that only serves big players ( with over million dollars capital ) and big orders, whereas today the retail forex market is expending ( nearly 10% of total forex market share, if the data is correct ). cf. Almost all stock exchanges in the world serve big and small orders, and all traders are eligible to trade ( of course with a minimum threshold capital ).

If one day an ECN becomes a regulated forex exchange ( I came across a brief info on that ), whose business model will prevail? fxmarketspace or the ECN forex exchange? IMO, the distinction is obvious.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Nothing is perfect

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/brokerages/28713-interactive-brokers-forex-not-24-7-a.html

ianp said:
Hi ,

I thought I had better let IB users know that not all IB fx pairs trade 24/7

I have been trading NZD.USD and have been amazed it is closed from 15.00-17.15 EST

I have noticed other NZD pairs are closed as well.

which means any stops or orders you have pending will not be filled.

pretty poor as other brokers manage to trade 24/7

any comments IB ??

Ian

EDIT : I have now added this to the IB thread so they dont miss it .
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Bloody overrated American brokers! Like all of 'em.... Go English!
 
Guide to fx brokers??

I'm not really sure this works as a guide so far!!

As someone about to make his first trade there is a lot of choice and not a huge amount of info (that is simple to find). I am currently demo trading with forex.com and if this continues well I will be opening up my first account with $5k in two weeks and looking at trading 100,000 unit lots. So which company to use (why I was looking at this post)! There is a lot of choice and everyone has different ideas so maybe a list of forex companies not to touch would be more useful.

For me as a day trader, I want low fixed spreads, no slippage, and a safe trustworthy environment. Add to that that I live in Australia, my money is in the UK and I will be trading a few different pairings.

The two companies I have looked at so far - Forex.com and GFT both seem ok (forex is a little basic) however they both get bad reviews around the web. I don't know if these reviews come from people who are genuinely mistreated or just bad losers.

So any suggestions appreciated.

On a further note, what is a bucket broker?

thanks for your help

igs
 
A bucket shop is where when you place a trade the company you place it with is taking the opposite side of the trade so they are betting against you. Here is a link with over 100 reviews of GFT:

GFT

Here is another link with over 100 reviews of forex.com:

Forex

Both of these companies are bucket shops. There are very few forex brokers that are not bucket shops but Interactive brokers, MB Trading and EFX are what are known as ECNs. They do not take the other side of your trade and place you directly into the market place. They also do not set a spread and take a commission instead but because they reflect the true market then you can get slippage and the spread can be more than a bucket shop although this is unlikely.

If you still wish to use a more reputable non ECN then IG Index is as good as it gets in my view


Paul
 
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