23 Jan
Choosing a Forex Broker
Before trading Forex you need to set up an account with a Forex Broker. So what exactly is a broker? In simplest terms, a broker is an individual or a company that buys and sells orders according to the trader’s decisions. Brokers earn money by charging a commission or a fee for their services.
- Find out if the broker is regulated
When selecting a prospective Forex broker, find out with which regulatory agencies it is registered with.
Traders are recommended to deal only with authorized currency traders. If you are trading in United States, make sure your Forex brokerage firm is registered with Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Also, most large brokerage firms are connected in some way to a bank or financial institution. Since the majority of Forex business is based on credit, the partnership with financial institution is crucial to offers their clients better in Forex investment.
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Customer Service
Forex is a 24-hour market, so 24-hour support is a must! Can you contact the firm by phone, email, chat, etc.? Do the reps seem knowledgeable? The quality of support can vary drastically from broker to broker, so be sure to check them out before opening an account.
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Online Trading Platform
Trading software is very important. Get a feel for the options that are available by trying out a demo account at a few online brokers. Good trading software will show live prices that you can actually trade at, not just indicative quotes. It will offer Limit and Stop orders, and ideally will let you attach these to your entry order. One-Cancels-Other orders are another useful feature - they mean you can set up your trade and then leave the software to get on with it. And the most important feature of all - can you actually understand the platform? Having all the bells and whistles is of no use if you can’t use them, so again, get a demo account and give it a go.
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Spreads
Currencies are normally traded in pairs of ask-bid price. The difference of the selling (bid) and the buying (ask) is known as spread. For example of EUR/USD 1.2435/1.2440, the Forex quote here means you can buy 1 Euro Dollar with 1.2440 USD or sell 1 Euro 1.2435, and the spread is (1.2440 - 1.2435) = 0.0005. As Forex brokers do not charge commissions on their client trades, they are making money off the spreads. If the spreads are low, this means they are offering a cheaper service and thus traders have better profit value. Thus, Forex brokerage that offers lower spread is more preferred.
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Leverage
Some brokers offer 1:50 trade margins and some offer 1:200. The fact is leverage level might varies a lot for different brokerage firm. While higher trade margin does not guarantee your profit in Forex market, higher trade margin however will give you a better chance to win big when the opportunity comes. High leverage level is especially important when you have little capital outlay.