Better execution in tiny, no-name Brokers?

I am relatively new to Forex and have so far experiences with 3 brokers. One is a major global player (can name it, if doing so is appropriate) that has been discussed in great detail here on this forum as well. The other two are small local ones in an East European country and are providing local service only.

During volatile times, the two local ones have provided better execution, which I find hard to believe really. What I mean is this sort of scenario:

Several times I had positions in major currency pairs which I was holding at times of major economic announcements. Say I have a buy in EUR USD, I bought in at 1.23050 and the most recent trade is 1.23220. I have a profit and I don't want to lose it all if the prices plummet, so I set a stop loss at, say, 1.23120.

In the above described situation, at a local small broker, if the prices plummet, losing like 150 points in half a second, I had the stop loss get executed very close to my stop loss level. But at the large, global broker I can get out of my position at a far worse price only, say at 1.2350 or worse... How come?

I was told that this is because the large broker will not book the trades but matches/routes them (I have a True ECN account) while the small brokers will book the trades and therefore will execute better under the above described circumstances, which never made sense to me. Of course under normal trading conditions the global broker offers far better terms; trading costs (spread + commission) are far less in the global broker. But in volatile times, it is the local guys (I tried two and both beat the global player) that execute better. Can anyone explain the dynamics here?

I don't have a solid answer, but I have experienced similar results. With the large broker, there seems to be a slight delay in updating price, even in slow times. I think they must have an algorithm that keeps slippage in their favor. With the smaller brokers, so far, trades execute at price and price is what it is. Perhaps the big brokers have more money to invest in software? If that's the case, then it is logical to say that the smaller brokers are closer to ECN conditions.

"small local ones in an East European country" ? i'm looking for a stable broker for new forex account. could you inform the name of the two mentioned? or any suggestion? i trust people's vote. thanks.

" there seems to be a slight delay in updating price"
Do you mean that the prices freeze and every second or so "jump" to a new level, as opposed to smoothly and continuously changing?

"With the smaller brokers, so far, trades execute at price and price is what it is."
Again, please elaborate, because this is an interesting point. Do you mean good old slippage? As in, you see a buy or 1.23450 on the screen, you hit the buy button but you end up buying it at 1.23452.... ? In other words the typical slippage?

Thanks a lot for your input; it brings up interesting points.

Yes, with the bigger broker I'm thinking of, price seems to update every few seconds vs. Instant like others...as far as slippage goes I've never had a real problem with it. In fact I expect it. Price is changing, the odds of it being the exact same a few hundred milliseconds from now are pretty slim. But....as a broker, if you could make your feed deliver every few seconds....you could control the slippage in your favor and / or hide it. Sounds kind of conspiracy theory like, but it's a possibility.
My biggest problem with the broker I was with, was the regs placed by the cftc in the US. Fifo. I'm taking my chances with a smaller unregulated overseas broker. So far so good.