Thanks a lot for your sharing your experience.
I traded this year on average around 65 million USD equivalent notional per day, not much to qualify for the top brass of PB desks. But then it is not that I am drawn to them. I am interested in someone with very competitive commission rates and well, a solid technology stack. And any sort of markups are a direct and total deal killer for me. CySEC, well, I prefer a firm that is properly registered in either the US, Europe (excl. Cyprus). Pepperstone, for example, seems to mark up their spreads, no matter how much they deny it. When you look at the spreads they post of their liquidity pool then it clearly is way wider even than some individual ECNs I know. Lots of scams, grey zones, and pitfalls in this industry to be aware of.
In summary, thanks again for sharing, but yes Cyprus registered firms are kinda not under consideration, maybe someone a little more reputable.