| THE BEST FOREX BROKER |
| Written by Ivan Yurukov |
| Thursday, 10 December 2009 22:46 |
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Currency online trading (Foreign Exchange) is quite popular. Here are some of the important factors that must be addressed when choosing a Forex Broker: Popularity and company reviews Look for reviews and opinions about Forexbroker, his manner of work, attitude towards clients, etc. Such information can be found in forums or site publications as well as by people having experience in this business. There are also a few cases in which the broker applies tricks to bigger the profits. Opinions you hear or read can be either positive or negative. They should not surprise you but make you come to appropriate conclusions. Sometimes if a client starts to win fast, he can be placed in infavorable conditions for trade. In this case, when that client is placed on manual implementation there is a delay of execution of orders and often rekotirane. And such situation is quite possible because Forex market is the least regulated international market.
Spread Spread is the difference between the buying rate and selling rate, and hence a major part of the firm's profit. Each broker offers preliminary information on its spread currency pairs which are allowed to be traded. Trends in recent years have been in connection with reducing spreads. Most of the brokers offer 2 or 3 pips spread on EUR / USD, USD / JPY and 3 or 4 pips on GBP / USD USD / CHF etc.. Another question is whether the spread is variable or fixed. Variable spreads in normal liquidity some brokers offer is better than the fixed spread offered by others. But with this increased liquidity spread becomes larger and unfavorable. Check if the broker used a different spread for mini and standard accounts and make sure that this practice is no longer applied. Orders execution
Here the question is connected with the speed with which orders are executed nevertheless they are in force on the market or postponed. Of course every Forex broker advertises immediate execution of orders, but when announcing unexpected news and in cases of liquidity enhancement things are quite different. In such cases real information can be obtained only by the current clients of Forexbroker.Demo servers settings with demo accounts vary, so they can’t be indicative for the performance in real trading . To a larger extent for the speed of execution it is important whether the broker applies automatic execution or any order must be confirmed by the dealer on duty who monitors the transactions. Each broker has a different policy on that matter. Some are fully automated, some require confirmation when orders exceed a certain amount and others manually confirm any order to buy or sell. Another problem is the recordation of execution. Not all brokers
apply the practice to get the price at which you clicked (WYCIWYG – What you click is what you get), even if the price has changed some brokers will offer you a new quote. As with Slippage these rates would have been half in favor of the customer. In general, avoid brokers for whom you have read or heard that have a large number a recordation compared to the number of their total orders.
Slippage Slippage is the price difference between the given order and its execution. One of the signs is the policy of brokers while performing the stop and limit orders. Some of them guarantee proper execution of the orders , but in most cases under certain conditions it is required the price of such orders to differ from the price on the market as an additional condition (let say for example more than 10 pips) .Here the additional conditions will be either the orders to be introduced prior to some fundamental news or until the market closure on Friday. The other types of brokers guarantee these orders with one peculiarity. They just execute such orders at the first traded price on the market i.e. that at the time the market opens or in case of a sudden change in cents the stop and limit are not executed but the market price is taken into consideration. Under other equal conditions it should be as negative as it is positive. If in most of the cases while trading you have negative trade slippage you need to assess fairness of your broker. Margin Margin is guaranteed sum of money which role is the secure open positions and to give an opportunity to trade using funds repeatedly exceeding the amount of the input. This ratio typically ranges from 50:1 to 400:1. The approved standard is 100:1. Margin used in various currency pairs is different. Some brokers also require higher margin over the weekend. Any important information about the policy of closing positions is lack of sufficient funds in the client's account. Interests - swap Brokers find a deficit of interest (swap) to the open positions for caring out transfer of position for the next business day. These rates vary depending on the currency pair and can be positive and negative for the client. They are usually charged at midnight and usually represent the interest rate differential between the currencies plus interest imposed by the broker himself and all this is presented as swap number. Each broker sets himself these swap numbers and their values may vary significantly. The interest on free funds in the accounts of some brokers may be regard as an additional positive feature. Trading Platform All brokers offer opening a demo account (if a broker does not offer a demo account do not pay attention to them), and thus potential customers can learn about opportunities offered by the platform as well as brokers’ conditions. The platforms may also include real-time news, analysis and etc. It should be taken into consideration that demo trading servers are set differently from those of actual accounts. To a large extent they operate in a perfect way for the client. For precisely this reason you should not judge the execution of orders and шге slippage of a given brokertaking into account only the demo accounts Different brokers offer different number of currency pairs trading, CFD and other instruments. Another service that is on the market is automated trading by means of the so called API (Application Programming Interface). A typical example of such a platform Meta Trader. Size of accounts Brokers have different requirements on the minimum amount for opening an account. Some offer two types of accounts - mini and standard. Each has its individual terms of trade, number of instruments, the minimum amount of trading volume, etc. Sometimes there is a requirement for a minimum account balance. When it start falling below it the account should be fed with fresh money or it is closed. Trading volume Brokers have a limit on the minimum and maximum volume of trade (with a few exceptions). As for the minimum volume numerous options have been offered .The most common of them is 1000 units. In most of the cases traded amounts must be multiples of 1000 units or the minimum volume. But there are brokers who offer to trade in any amount, limited only by the upper level.If plan to trade millions things are much more complicated. The maximum volume traded through the platform varies depending on currency pairs.Values encountered range from 1 million to 20 million units. For great deals almost 100% of them pass the manual execution, which increases the ability to put you at a disadvantage. |
| Last Updated on Friday, 07 May 2010 10:09 |
