Which FX Broker

Considering opening another account.

Have the following on a short list:

AC Markets

Interactive Brokers

Oanda

AC Markets are trying to buy back the shares held in their company by passive investor -Refco. I like the idea of the WYSIWYG fills they offer and 2 pip spread on Euro and Yen v $$$ if you put in more than US$50K.

All comments appreciated.

Interactive Brokers are outstanding. The quotes are very aggessive (four global banks are making markets through them) and its not unusual to see 1 or 2 pip spreads in the Cable. I've compaired both Oanda and FXCM live quotes and by comparison.... well there is none. They are in a league of their own. I keep my primary account with them.

Oanda is my second choice and this is why: http://fxtrade.oanda.com/billofrights/

From what I've seen and experienced so far, they really do live up to it.

Hope this helps.

Steve

steve

is that 1-2 pips on cable does that vary? As I pay 4 pips (with another broker)would be like to know more??

Yes IB (Interactive Brokers) does vary. I've seen the spread go to five but only for a couple of secs while Oanda was a 7-8 for much more extended periods of time. With FXCM the spread sticks at 5 BUT in reality they are much more because they are leaning heavily into the market.
i.e. Cable moving down, Ib is quoting 1.7250/.7252, Oanda is at 1.7248/.7251 (typically they lean into the market by a pip or two, which is their "mark-up" as it were) and FXCM will be a 1.7544/.7249 leaning heavily the way of the market.

I monitored live trading platforms for IB, Oanda and FXCM. IB, even during volitile times, was by far the most competitive but that is to be expected since IB has five market makers competing with each other for your business.

Where as Oanda is managing their risk by manipulating their spread , IB is showing you the best bid and best ask on offer. What's happening is that you'll see a bid from say UBS and an offer from Deutsche Bank and that's why the spread remains tight. In addition to this, the banks making markets with IB are part of the interbank market, therefore the prices you see quoted will be closer to true interbank prices than will be quoted at a spot MM because there is less of a premium due to the fact that you are dealing on the 2nd tier rather than the 3rd.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Steve

Is it true that you need 25,000 USD to trade forex with Interactive Broker? And they have separate commision for every trade?
Thanks.

Yes. The trade size minimum is $25k so for someone trading 1-2 lot mini's its probably not an option.
The commission is .00002 trading currency value with $2.50 minimum each side up to $50k. This is a couple of bucks more expensive when you are trading $25k but its it gets alot cheaper by comparison when you start trading $30k+ sized orders.

Steve