Thursday, June 15, 2006

Forex Broker Commissions

Most forex brokers do not charge commissions. GFT Forex Brokers, like other forex brokers, are compensated by revenues from their activities as currency dealers, including proceeds from buying, selling, converting and holding currencies, interest on deposited funds, and rollover fees.

Many may wonder how brokers work without commissions. The forex dealer is like a middleman. Considering forex broker commissions, the forex dealer will let the trader buy from him at 1.1971 and will let the trader sell to him at 1.1967. The difference 0.0004 is known as the spread. And this spread is where the forex “middleman” makes his money.

If the trader were to buy at 1.1971, then the instant the trader buys, he is “down” 0.0004, because if the trader wanted out of the trade, the best price he could sell it for is 1.1967. So as the forex dealer takes varying trades from people, each buying or selling, he can make money from this price gap. Each minimum increment, 0.0001 is referred to as a “pip”. So the spread in this example is 4 pips. In terms of dollars, for a forex contract of $100,000, this transaction would cost you $40 ($100,000 x 0.0004) or 4 pips. So the trader will find that some companies will advertise a spread of 3 pips on some currencies, usually ranging up to five on others. In forex trading, the tighter the spread is, the better.

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