ECN broker with good Charting UI for trading

I am a visual trader and trade exclusively from the charts. I've been with Oanda for 2.5 yrs and sort of quite used to its simple Chart UI for trading. I am looking for an alternative to Oanda. I am looking for :

1) ECN
2) Regulated (I am not looking at BVI, tax havens, Cyprus, Middle East, Russian, African or LatAm based brokers)
3) Charting user interface for trading (not so much of techical analysis) Mostly order entry, visual indication of order placed/traded on the charts itself. (The average cost line on the chart is so useful but very few UI ofers it). Would love more order management flexibility than Oanda's.
4)The spreads+commission has to better Oanda's spread
5)Hedging. Oanda doesn't offer this and I guess all US based brokers are out. Right now am using subaccounts to hedge.
6) Segregated funds or something with sufficient security.
7) Reasonable rollovers.
8) Interest on excess funds. Many brokers do not offer this and I'd guess is a funding source most will want to keep quiet. Not a lot of impact given low interest rates currently. However, if base currency is AUD, that is an extra 4% annually.
9) Looking for lots of currencies. Gold, silver, oil would be a bonus.

I trade for a living and I want to improve my cost structures so every pip, interest counts.

So far my search has narrowed to Dukascopy and their Jforex platform is the closest. They don't offer 3rd party charting software so that flexibility is not there. However, the spreads for EURUSD is not neceesarily better than Oanda's all the time as it fluctuates constantly between 0.5 - 1 pip. Or at least this is what I saw on the demo. Oanda 0.9 spread at least stays for reasonable length of time throughout the day outside of news time. So if you average out 0.75 pip + commission, may or may not be better than Oanda even with the 50% Introducing Broker rebate. I guess the savings depends on the portfolio of currencies traded. AUD based pairs are about the same as Oanda's spreadwise.

Also considered Interactive Brokers. However, the minimum trade size is 25k (for resonable commission). However, I don't know enough about the trading interface and the 3rd party software that works with it. Ninja trader and Sierra Chart were mentioned. If anyone with experience with the IB interface and/or Ninja Trader/Sierra Chart etc care to share their experience that will be really useful. How about Amibroker as an interface for trading? Does anyone here know whether that will suit my need?

Also demoed London Capital Group's Capital Forex Pro. Haven't got the hang of it in short. Maybe I am not so smart in learning new software.

Am considering these as well: Nordmarkets, Baxter-fx, Vcap and Icap. I think Nordmarkets fell out due to some nasty comments from traders.

My trading style is : ad hoc. I scalp when the opportunity arises and take positions when it is at the "right place of the graph". So it is a mix.

Lastly, not a fan of Metatrader.

My capital is >USD50k and trade tens of millions monthly.

Would appreciate your comments. Thanks.


Why would I want to move out from Oanda? Diversification and trying to get better costs. I estimate I can squeeze and extra 1 to 2k savings from an ECN monthly. Oanda's platform is prone to disconnects and data and charts may show lags. Execution times can be better and reporting capability and customer service can be much much better. For a company with that kind of funding and size perhaps i was expecting more.

Right off the bat, your choices are limited to IB, MBT, & FXCM AT (and their IB, ATC). All other ECNs, such as the Currenex portals, won't offer charting, so they're out. (* I believe some Currenex brokers offer a retail platform called Viking Currenex that may offer charting, I'm not familiar with it, however I'm pretty sure the spreads are inferior to their main Currenex offerings)

Likely impossible as Oanda's spreads currently beat ECNs + commissions. But you're not trading interbank with Oanda, you're trading in their sandbox, so the spreads are merely theoretical, and therefore somewhat unfair for direct comparison. You'll be dealing with their Director of Slippage, Director of Disconnects, Director of Artificial Spread Widening, etc. There's a reason they're able to offer such spreads.. the free drinks in Vegas aren't necessarily "free" either.

There's a reason you can't hedge in the futures market, the same reason why they banned it for forex in the US - it's completely illogical. But I think FXCM UK still offers it if you really need it.

IB & FXCM UK.

I'm only aware of IB that offers both of these. #8 is especially hard to find.

They fail your regulation requirement.


Since you trade "tens of millions monthly", how is a 25k min an issue?

It all works great, but it will take some time getting acclimated with.

I would hold off trading "tens of millions monthly" until you learn the interface.

I can't speak for Nord, but the latter fail your charting requirement.

Classic.

Thanks Trader KGB

In response to "Since you trade "tens of millions monthly", how is a 25k min an issue?" My trading size can fluctuate between 5k to 100k depending on the situation and how I read the market. I'd like to follow a trend but often times when it gets to extreme ends of the graph, I get cold feet and I size down my trade. I also use small trades to test the waters. If I am on the right path, the volume scales up till the point of cold feet.

On Dukascopy regulation, you do consider it as not regulated by Swiss standards? I'd have to ask them about that. But I really like the idea that you can place your funds in a Swiss bank instead of Dukascopy and trade from that bank account. (I haven't reach that size yet thougth BTW)

It is not surprising to rack up 10s of millions when you get in and out quickly of positions. I average 80 trades a day or 40 trades round trip x 25k. Definetely will hold off voluminous trading till I get familiar with the interface.

Thanks for your inputs!

Absolutely, 100% unregulated. Their bank license hasn't been approved yet, I'm not sure what's holding it up, it's been well over a year. Since the Swiss gov't requires all local forex brokers to have banking licenses (and thus be FINMA regulated), Duka is currently unregulated.

Also investigated the bank funding option of theirs a while back. It's a bit fishy, you sign an agreement giving direct withdrawing rights from your bank account not to Duka itself, but directly to their CEO in personal name. Not sure what's up with that, but it was a partial red flag to me. It also impacts the margins pretty heavily too, 20 or 30:1 max I believe. This might have changed, who knows, they're not very forthcoming with details on their website about it.

Thanks.