Which FX broker? An illustrated answer.

That statement needs to be parsed. :)

- "the first" - no, that's marketing BS. IB was a latecomer to retail forex, and a number of ECNs had already been there for a long time.

- "interbank quality spreads" - I was never an institutional trader, so will let others comment on that. Within retail forex, IB's spreads are highly competitive most of the time on the pairs I trade, but at times can get either wide enough or far off the market enough, to be untradeable. And I'm not talking news release times. Another reason why you can't rely on just one forex dealer.

- "institutional size" - not even close, unfortunately. I wish. They've made evolutionary changes in response to feedback, but are still not competitive, size-wise, even with many bucketshops.

- "no conflict of interest" - yes, absolutely. It's your basic ECN model, the way forex should be.
 
Quote from late apex:

That statement needs to be parsed. :)

- "the first" - no, that's marketing BS. IB was a latecomer to retail forex, and a number of ECNs had already been there for a long time.

- "interbank quality spreads" - I was never an institutional trader, so will let others comment on that. Within retail forex, IB's spreads are highly competitive most of the time on the pairs I trade, but at times can get either wide enough or far off the market enough, to be untradeable. And I'm not talking news release times. Another reason why you can't rely on just one forex dealer.

- "institutional size" - not even close, unfortunately. I wish. They've gotten better in response to feedback, but are still not competitive, size-wise, even with most bucketshops.

- "no conflict of interest" - yes, absolutely. It's your basic ECN model, the way forex should be.
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thanks Late -- who are the other ecns out there?
 
Some of the better-known retail forex ECNs, in alphabetical order:

COESfx
Currenex
FXall
HotspotFX
Interactive Brokers

Websites exactly as you'd expect. No endorsement from me implied in any way.
 
Ummm, I dont use IB, but any employees fiduciary responsibility is to their employer, not a customer. So, if you're expecting qoutes and milk and cookies, probably wont happen.

From all these posts I get the sense that y'all want to be told its OK to trade FX. FX is dominated by huge powerhouse banks that trade endlessly in every product. Why not simply go to a bank and ask them about trading direct?
 
Quote from sgsaxton:

The spikes aren't 30 pip massive skyscrapers. What happens is that when the market comes within or 12 to 15 pips of you, suddenly you find you've been stopped out. Not everytime but enough. Want to know what's really disgusting? (This has happened to me a half dozen times this year.) The "spike" half the time doesn't even show up on the chart!!!
How insulting is that??!!!

I mean for crying out load!! I may be an idiot but I'm not a total farm animal!!!
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never ever ever use stops when trading with FX dealers. its suicide.

surf
 
Quote from tomcole:

......
From all these posts I get the sense that y'all want to be told its OK to trade FX. FX is dominated by huge powerhouse banks that trade endlessly in every product. Why not simply go to a bank and ask them about trading direct?
More...

I encourage you to read the thread in its entirety. Thus far, or the most part, what's been addressed and debated are the disgraceful and dishonest practices of certain spot Forex dealers.

Forex in and of itself is just another bundle of products which one can choose to trade and potentially profit from. How and through whom one facilitates that trading is one of the key factors in maintaining long term success.
 
Trade exchange-traded currency futures. it is a real market where your are not trading against the house (and their quote feed) in the style of equity bucket shops that were outlawed about 100 years ago.

At some point the FX bucket shops will also be closed down when enough people start screaming.

I think there are still mini futures for those seeking smaller leverage and margins.

If you have more than 100K you can trade the real interbank market, even through Refco.
 
Quote from ellokn:

Trade exchange-traded currency futures. it is a real market where your are not trading against the house (and their quote feed) in the style of equity bucket shops that were outlawed about 100 years ago.

At some point the FX bucket shops will also be closed down when enough people start screaming.

I think there are still mini futures for those seeking smaller leverage and margins.

If you have more than 100K you can trade the real interbank market, even through Refco.
More...


How does that work, exactly, "trading the interbank market". Are you automatically "trading the interbank market" when your order size exceeds 110k? And, once you are "trading the interbank market," what does that mean, as a practical matter? Do the posted prices suddenly match the prices you see on your independent chart services?
 
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