Forex Brokers Ratings

Are you simply fed up with browsing the internet for finding out the right forex broker? Then what you need is some authentic forex broker rating. Your Forex trading depends on the brokers, as they help you to succeed in the market. Forex brokers are individuals or agencies who help you to gain from the market and to cover the risk of your investment. The brokers help you in managing your accounts, in executing your orders, or to inform you of market trends. So the forex broker rating is what you need before zeroing on the right broker you are looking for.

You will find a number of websites suggesting forex broker rating. There are some criteria, which you must consider to find out a good, dependable broker. Few basic parameters will be to know what is the minimum amount the broker is asking for to open up an account, will there any commission charged, or the facility to operate a mini account etc.

The first thing you need is to identify your personal selection criteria for your forex broker rating. Your forex broker rating criteria must make it sure to confirm that they are registered under the regulatory agencies like Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and they have membership in NFA. These agencies are instituted to save investors from the impostors and to stop abusive trade practices, manipulation etc.

Another important factor for rating the forex brokers will be to judge their reputations. If the broker is from an agency you can be more assured, as the broker will be regulated by the agency itself. Your forex broker rating should be formed by evaluating the type of account you want to open, the demo-accounts they offer or the kind of trade platform they have.

Some forex brokers may offer you to open an account with various currencies like yen, dollar, pound, etc. If you have decided to trade in a particular currency, you must be aware of the exchange rates. Forex broker rating should consider the brokerage or the commission asked for. Very few brokers in forex ask for direct commission, and therefore, you should find out what special they are offering in exchange of this commission. Try to find out if the broker is having any signal services, which may influence your forex broker rating greatly.

Leverage is another factor that helps you to succeed in forex trading. So, while rating the forex brokers you have to consider on the fact the amount of leverage they are offering. But one thing you must remember that as you increase your leverage, your risk also increases. In forex broker rating you can look for whether the broker may offer you some customized service either free of cost or with some small subscriptions. Judge the brokers very carefully based on the forex broker rating as the selection can make or break your trading.

How To Pick A Good Forex Broker

If you are doing forex trading, then you know the importance of a good forex broker. This is especially true if you are just starting out and do not have a lot of experience. A good forex trader will work with you and provide the information and tips you need to make the best trading.

Even though your forex broker will be offering you tips and advice, they do not make the final decision to buy or sell. You do. Therefore it is important you know what you want and make your own decision. It is ok to ask a lot of newbie forex questions to your broker if you are new to forex trading but make your own mind and accept the results.

As you can see, a good forex broker is important as you will be seeking his/her advice and you certainly want someone who’s the best in the forex business. So how do you go about choosing one? Here are some tips to help you

1. Registered Forex Broker

It is important that your forex broker is a registered member of a financial institution. Ask for his/her credentials. You want the assurance that he/she will be able to act on your decision and access the funds needed.

Check with the NFA (National Futures Association) if you doubt your forex broker is registered.

2. On-call Broker

Your forex broker should remain in contact at all times. Whether it be via cell phone, email, instant messaging etc. Your broker should know forex trading is a 24 hour standby job and fluctuations in trading can happen quite quickly. Therefore it is important you can get hold of your forex broker when you need him/her

3. Experienced Broker

Before you select a forex broker, ask for his/her references. Call those references and ask them about their opinions on the forex trader. By doing this, you can assert whether the forex broker is experienced and whether he/she is able to execute a trade effectively and successfully.

It would be best to contact more than one references to get an accurate feedback on the forex broker.

4. Cost of Broker

Many people when looking for a forex broker are overly concerned about the cost. Usually more experienced forex brokers as well as those with a good track record of successful trades demand a higher price.

My recommendation is to select a few forex brokers that you are comfortable with, have credentials, have a proven good track record. Once you have done that, then you can talk about cost.

Sometimes the price for a forex broker with the above qualifications can be high, however you need to keep in mind, they can help you make more money in the long run and offset the cost.

Online Forex Brokers

An online forex broker is a firm that facilitates retail trading using Internet technologies. Global Forex Trading (GFT), one of the popular online forex brokers. It provides retail traders with a free demo trading account, allows users to open a live account, gives live help, provides software called DealBook FX 2, and allows viewing of account documents. (DealBook FX 2 can be downloaded for the demo trading account).

Gain Capital Group’s Online Forex offers 200:1 leverage. In some cases, the total return on investment is higher due to leverage. For example, with $1000 cash in a margin account, the investor can control up to $200,000 in notional value. Of course, trading on leverage magnifies both the investor’s profits and losses.

GCI Financial Ltd. offers commission-free online trading in forex. GCI offers Internet trading software, fast and efficient execution, and 0.5% margin requirements. This broker offers USD or Euro denominated trading accounts. The spreads are 3 pips in EUR/USD and USD/JPY, and are 4 to 5 pips for other major commissions. Clients can hedge by opening positions in the same currency in opposite directions. Risk to the investor is limited to the deposited funds. Market analysis and research, real-time charts, and forex trading signals are available at no charge.

ACM, part of the REFCO group, offers 3 pip spreads on all major currencies, which works out to between 0.02% and 0.03% on the dollar value. They also offer commission-free trading, and forex trading with a 1% margin, which means that a trader can control $1,000,000 with $10,000 in his account.

There are many online forex brokers that offer free demo accounts for potential forex traders to practice trading. It is only a matter of registering and starting demo trading to get a feel for forex trading. In addition, at most sites, traders can find free forex news to assist them with their trade strategies.

An Informative Forex Broker Review

According to our forex broker review, Gain Capital and Oanda come out on top.

Forex broker Gain Capial has set a high standard with trailing stops. The trailing stop can only be entered as a separate order. Once the investor is in an order he can enter his trailing stop limit in pips to trail the market the distance the investor has set with the closest distance the investor can go being 10 pips. Gain Capital also has a facility whereby a trader can download 5 years of tick data on the 6 major currencies. In addition, an investor can also download a free DDE application whereby he can obtain live quotes.

While most brokers allow only the standard ($100,000) or mini ($10,000) lot size, Oanda gives traders the ability to trade any lot amount. Another attractive quality is that has its own user forum. In addition, Oanda has the capacity to have multi-denominated sub accounts other than in USD with no minimum deposit. The different currency accounts available include AUD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD & CHF. This allows the user to transfer between their primary account and their sub account easily, with the only restriction being that the investor cannot externally withdraw funds from a sub account, and withdrawals must come out of the primary account only.

FXCM Review

What’s The Attraction?

I lost my forex trading virginity with FXCM. When I had learnt the basics of the forex trading world and felt ready to open a live account I thought that by trading with the largest forex broker in the world I would no doubt be trading with the best.

Unfortunately FXCM began to wear quite thin quite quickly - the large spreads (at that point in time) were one of the largest in the business and their platform was nothing spectacular. I immediately began to wonder why they were the largest in the business as there certainly wasn’t anything that kept me attracted to it.

So, after being a client of FXCM for a couple of years I failed to see the reason for the large attraction. Maybe it was their large advertising budget… maybe it was their ability to large land clients… or maybe it’s their ability to offer such a great commission to referrers who land clients for them (FXCM pay the highest commission to referrers who open a live account and have their clients trade with them). Whatever it is though I think you too will be pleasantly surprised at why this featureless forex broker is the largest in the business.

But then again maybe that is the attraction: FXCM is just simple. I know from my personal experiences in life that the simple things are often the best! Maybe FXCM have been able to successfully apply this adage to their business!

Therefore, if you’re looking for a good reliable platform then look no further than what FXCM has to offer.

Live & Demo Differences

One of the best aspects to FXCM is that there are no differences between their demo and live accounts. What you see in the demo account is what you will get in the live account. In fact all you need once you have a live account is to simply flick the switch on your login entry screen from “demo” to “live”. That’s probably the only difference!

What We Liked About FXCM:

Once upon a time the best feature at FXCM was its ability to honor stops. Unfortunately those days of guaranteeing stops are no longer around especially around volatile announcements such as the Non Farm Payrolls.

But what we do like about FXCM is its ability to offer 18 different currency pairs with the 4 majors having 5 pip spreads bar the EURUSD which has 4 pip spreads (FXCM has changed and they now offer 3 pip spreads on the EURUSD & USDJPY) which remain fixed regardless of the underlying market conditions.

FXCM also offer mini accounts ($10k contract sizes) with leverage of 200:1 alongside their standard accounts ($100k contract sizes) with leverage of 100:1.

What We Didn’t Like About FXCM:

Some of the restrictions recently imposed by FXCM weigh on the negative side for FXCM. As FXCM seem hell bent on maintaining a no slippage policy they have resorted to these restrictive measures to help the “client”. These measures deny any stop or limit orders being placed 5-15 minutes prior to a major announcement, and deny any stop entry orders being filled if the currency never trades at your stop entry price! This makes designing a forex system very difficult if your forex system utilizes stop entry orders, because now you have to wonder if FXCM wouls have been able to enter you into your hypothetical backtesting trades… and if they wouldn’t have then you’ll have to reanalyze your backtesting data!

Another problem we found was that you can only open an account in USD. This is fine for the majority of forex traders that live inside the US, but can be a little annoying for our international partners who have a currency that is appreciating against the USD and thereby has to lose capital while the US dollar continues to depreciate. Of course this can work the other way too. I think it would be great if FXCM could offer the ability to have multiple currency denominated accounts so that the customer can have their capital appreciate over the long-term by transferring funds into the currency that will appreciate the best in the long-term. The client receives the income from their trading activities, plus the appreciation of their capital. Other forex firms have this capability with Oanda being the smoothest.

We also particularly didn’t like FXCM’s news and charting platforms - two klunky programs that need a LOT of polishing.

Lastly, we found that mini positions do not accumulate interest during rollover. This is only a minor issue, but other forex brokers pay interest regardless of what the position is, one notable forex broker that pays rollover interest on mini positions is CMS.

In summary then…

FXCM PROS:

• One of the largest forex brokerage firms in the world (has partnered with the Refco Group)
• Excellent platform, easy to use
• 100:1 leverage
• Good 24/7 Support
• 3 pip spreads on some majors

FXCM CONS:

• FXCM’s entry order restrictions
• Charting and news packages could be better
• No rollover interest received on mini positions
• Platform fairly basic and featureless