Best ECN forex brokers.
Choosing the Best ECN forex brokers is critical to you as a new trader. It doesn't matter if you are new to trading or an experienced trader. Either way, you need to have a reliable and strong trading platform. Having the best ECN brokers will mean everything in the world to you. The more you know about the different ECN brokers available and the different trading platforms they support, the better off you will be.
For instance, what type of customer support do they offer? How quick do they respond to your inquiries? Are they able to help you setup a training course for you, or do you have to hire someone to do that for you? Most importantly, how many types of trading pairs do they support? Once again, if you're new to trading or an experienced trader you should be looking specifically for a liquidity provider.
ECN Forex brokers can be broken down into two categories: full service and dealer based. Full service ECN brokers are actual banks that provide all of the necessary tools to traders. This includes market makers, liquidity providers, order entry services, reporting, technical analysis tools, and other tools. These brokers take care of everything, from buying and selling currencies to executing trades themselves. They also often act as a clearing house for all transactions. Many people consider full-service ECN brokers to be the "go to" specialists.
Dealer based brokers on the other hand, are simply middlemen. The job of these brokers is to connect multiple traders to one centralized platform. What they actually do is they take a small fee from each trade made by the trader, which they then pass along to the customer. In essence, what these brokers do is take a small slice of each trade and split it up amongst multiple buyers and sellers. This is the "unified" method by which these types of brokers provide support to smaller traders and newer ones looking to break into the market.
There are some advantages to having an ECN broker versus a full service one. The main advantage is that smaller traders and newer ones can break into the market with less capital and credit than they would have if they had gone through a full service brokerage. Often times, these smaller traders will trade using leverage and smaller funds. Leverage allows them to control greater amounts of money than their counterparts using a full service broker. The availability of lower margin requirements and lower spread fees make this even more appealing.
Many ECN brokers have the ability to provide automated trading. In other words, they offer a feature wherein traders can set parameters to stop loss and take profits. If a trade goes according to these settings, the ECN broker makes money. However, most of the best ECN brokers also offer a wide variety of trading options for the bigger players as well. The fact that smaller trades can be run by default is a huge perk for many small investors, and not something to be overlooked.
While market makers offer liquidity to the market, the ECN provides more control and liquidity than market makers provide. Since market makers set your transaction limit and stop loss parameters, it is very difficult for the average investor to participate in the Forex market unless they have thousands of dollars in assets to trade with. The ECN broker does not require you to do this.
These are just a few advantages of using an ECN Forex broker compared to a regular broker. There are many more, including the fact that you do not have to pay to open up an account or manage your trading funds. You also do not have to worry about dealing with spread charges, because the ECN broker is free from all these fees. It is simply an option that should be taken advantage of by anyone who wants to take part in the Forex market making opportunities offered by this global financial institution.