Comparing FX brokers - same milk different bottle!

Traders often look to compare brokers which is a natural human tendency. Once you are with a broker and make use of their services you use them as a benchmark when looking at new firms to trade with.

Tight spreads, regulation, research and a bonus not to forget the multi lingual sales staff! Is that all that differentiates brokers from each other. A recent article by The Exchange Magazine compared different brokers targeting different client types e.g. novices, professionals, automated traders etc.

The article was focusing on the difference between US based brokers who have expanded their wings across the Atlantic and European brokers.

I think the crucial point for traders is the quality of research and education. The Forex markets are constantly changing with price movements in micro seconds. The daily economic calendar paint the picture of a currency’s daily work around; hitting new highs or retracing back 200 pips.

FXDD a US based NFA and CFTC registered broker was highlighted in the report for its Education and Market Analysis.

Having been in business as a retail focused broker since the last ten years FXDD has excelled in the educational space, currently their Director of Education and Technical Research James Chen and chief market strategist Greg Michalowski are regular contributors to the leading news portals like CNBC and Bloomberg. FXDD has taken the traditional clatter brokers put on their websites to intrigue new traders like; what is Forex, webinars and weekly commentary and jazzed them up in addition offered to their diverse client base in English, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Arabic.

Traders need the golden spoon even if the broker doesn’t actually feed them, especially when your under the regulators scanner and can't say buy gold NOW!. Hand holding is very useful for traders especially when assessing which way a currency pair will move. On the one hand Gold is hitting new highs on the other hand equities are rallying? Which way will the dollar go? Extensive research and analysis covering all aspects of what factors are impacting the currency pair are crucial to any traders success.

The article continues to compare Citi Fx pro and Alpari UK's offering to professional and institutional traders. The climate is changing in this space. More and more brokers are giving traders access to pure interbank pricing, execution and trade conditions and reducing their commissions to win the business. The larger FX brokers now have some sort of Prime Brokerage relationship where they are able to source best Liquidity pools and aggregate these prices to clients. Citi FX being one of the leading commercial banks in FX clearly takes the lead position. Not only have they gathered the best platforms, research tools and customer service, their reputation in the institutional space gives them extra credibility.

Services for novice traders, E-toro vs Easy Forex. The newbie trader is quite distinct in their understanding of the product. The first few trade are trial and error and once traders are finding their feet they have blow their accounts. The article gives both broker equal scores.

The best mobile trading application was the next discussion point. GFT against City Index, as City Index were the frist to launch the i-phone app they are awarded the golden points.

Traders cab benefit from knowing all they can about brokers before actually trying them. Last years Investment Trends report on CFD trading found that most traders were happy to switch and try new brokers.

TheExchange_We’ll Fight Them on the Floor_ We’ll Fight Them in the Markets_Sept. 2011

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