- Is the forex broker regulated?
Forex broker regulation is a very important aspect to take into consideration when choosing your broker. If the broker you are interested in is regulated you should find this information on the brokers' website (usually in the footer or in the "legal" or "about us" section of the brokers' website). Make sure that the broker is regulated by a serious body such as the National Futures Association (NFA), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Financial Conduct Authority, etc. and avoid any brokerage company based offshore in some kind of tax paradise (Panama, Gibraltar, etc.). Forex Brokers regulation is very important because it imposes strict rules to the broker for example in terms of clients' funds safety. Also in case of complain with your broker, a proper regulation will ensure that your request is treated seriously.
- What are the costs associated with trading?
Trading is not free of charge. If you intend to trade Forex, the most common charge that you will have to pay is called the spread. The spread is the difference between bid and ask prices. When you buy a currency pair, you buy at the Ask price, and when you sell the currency pair, you sell it at the Bid price. The Ask price is always higher than the Bid price and the difference between the two is called the spread. You should therefore focus on forex brokers offering tight spreads since the tighter the spread, the cheaper the trading. You should also look at other costs such as deposit fee, withdrawal fee, account management fee, inactivity fee, etc. Serious brokers display all charges on their website. Feel free to have a look!
- Does the broker provide a good trading platform?
Since Forex trading is computerized, you should check the trading platform provided by the forex broker. There are many trading platforms available, such as MetaTrader, cTrader, ProTraders, FXCM station, to name just a few. Brokers usually offer free demo accounts allowing potential clients to try the trading platform before opening a live account. You should carefully check the trading platform of the forex broker in a demo mode before opening a live account to make sure that the platform suits your needs in terms of order execution, charting tools, account management etc.
- How good is the client support team?
While trading with your broker you might need at some point to ask your forex broker some questions of to get some assistance (trading platform installation, place an order over the phone, etc.) . Make sure to choose a forex broker with an efficient and dedicated support team. Before opening a live trading account, feel free to test the reactivity of the broker by sending few questions by email or by chat (usually broker have a Live chat on their website). This will help you evaluate the quality of the customer support of the broker.
As you can see there are few basic questions that you should ask yourself before opening a live trading account with a forex broker. As said earlier there are many forex brokers out there and it is important to take some time to evaluate and compare forex brokers before taking any decision. Feel free to also have a look a the brokers' reviews to check what other traders think about their broker