True ECN Forex Broker Commission Rates
Tuesday, May 1st, 2012Certain traders can’t bear paying a commission to trade foreign currency for many years I used to be also one of these traders, however over the last three years I’ve developed a much better awareness of how the fx market really works and I’d never trade with a fx broker that does not charge a fee but instead hides their charges inside the prices they quote.
It is discouraging to see that lots of fx brokers still promote themselves as being commission free, however it is crucial to note that nothing is free and that all brokers must generate profits one way or another. Sadly forex brokers who don’t charge any commission tend to be market makers and widen their spreads in order to limit your money making chances and profit from your losses. On the other hand brokers that charge a commission rate often do so as they hedge all of their deals or give you an ECN trading facility where it is possible to trade on zero or even negative prices.
Traders that appreciate the forex market and have had an incident dealing with a market maker forex broker will always chose an ECN fx broker that charges a fee over a broker that hides their cost within the spread. Trading with an ECN broker guarantees complete trading transparency in addition to making certain that you’re always trading on the best prices obtainable in the market.
Unfortunately there are very few ECN forex brokers around, some also put up big barriers to entry such as placing minimums on the amount which you can open a trading account with. I have conducted a lot of research into ECN forex brokers over the last one and a half years and have found that there are only a handful of ECN brokers that make it uncomplicated for retail clients to deal with.
Various ECN forex brokers however are not actual ECN brokers as they simply use ECN liquidity to make a market behind the scenes, this means that the broker doesn’t hedge your deals inside the ECN market place. Fortunately, there are a few legitimate ECN brokers, it’s very easy to tell whether a fx broker is legitimate or not you can do so by checking their order execution times in addition to checking whether or not they pass on slippage to your account that works in your favor.
One other crucial feature that you should be familiar with is that a few so called ECN forex brokers may have limits on the distance you are able to put your stop loss and take profit orders away from the current market price. Any broker that does this is a market maker, this is done to stop scalpers taking pips from the forex provider.
In my experience I’ve only ever dealt with regulated True ECN fx brokers in the US and Australia. There are a few good fx brokers in both nations. The ECN fx broker that I have been dealing with for the last 18 months is IC Markets. IC Markets prices are some of the tightest around and their commission rate is $3.50 per lot, that’s pretty cheap compared to the majority of fx brokers. I’m not here promote any one forex broker so you should trial a number of broker platforms before making your final selection, however I am able to vouch for IC Markets.