My Top 4 Brokers

Please be as critical as possible, b/c I'm choosing one of these guys. And feel free to add your own favorite, supplied with reasons. Keep in mind I'm an American resident.

Don't want to admit it, but after a week, or more precisely 15+ hours of researching brokers , I've came to a list of 4, from best to worst:


1) Alpari (US) Pro w/ Alpari Direct Currenex.
2) MB Trading w/ MBT Desktop Pro.
3) ATC w/ MT4.
4) Fast Brokers w/ Pathfinder or Ninjatrader.



Criteria in order of importance:
[X] ECN
[X] Low spreads+commissions. See below.
[X] No NFA actions. Coincidentally this didn't filter much, and I still considered brokers that had violations. Searched here: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/
[X] Year founded. Plus overall popularity, b/c the more profitable a honest broker is, the less likely he is to screw us over later and ruin a hard-earned, clean image.

Costs:
Went here http://www.fxintel.com/
Took a few samples of the hourly average of EUR/USD, AUD/USD and GBP/JPY (for variety) for initial screening. Then took a few samples of the average of all of the majors for second screening. For the top 4, their typical average of the majors spread + commission:

Alpari Pro: $1.20
ATC: $1.45
Fast: $1.65
MBT: $1.75 (EDIT: Didn't carefully consider MB's limit order promotion!)

Sample size isn't large to know the exact average, what's important is the differences.

Year founded:
MBT 1999
Fast 2004
ATC 2005
Alpari 2006

If you can deposit more than $10k, your choice is Interactive Brokers + Ninja Trader.

Interactive Brokers is regulated and also offers insured deposits, it has a good ECN with low commissions. It is biggest than all your top 4 combined.

any comment about this broker http://www.axitrader.com.au/ ?

You did some excellent work grimreaper... I too would like to hear the opinions of fellow members.

jagui -
I agree, however, they're only good commission wise if you're trading multiple lots, which is too much action for a $10k account.

nbafx-
Didn't research them, they don't serve US customers.

trader07-
Thanks.

Grim, good to see you do proper research and due dilligence in your choice of broker, refreshing to see.

FinFX is also a very good choice.
I used them for several months, and I can say only good things about them.
They're not regulated, but only because in Finland forex isn't regulated, so they simply can't.

I've heard nothing but positive things about MB Trading. As I live in Europe, I am considering opening an account with them as they've recently launched a branch in the UK. Never heard of ATC or Fast Brokers.

Other brokers I like are FxPro (but smallest order is .1 lots, so I closed my account), Alpari was decent (but they require a large price difference for limit orders). Am about to try out InstaForex tomorrow...will let you know how that goes after I trade with them for a month or so.

a broker cheated once so they will cheat twice
so FXpro.com is a NO GO

i wonder if gaincapital still offers a free ninjatrader licence since i found an article that they revoked that offer

MB Trading has got extremely bad reviews lately over at FPA: http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public....mbtrading.com

WOW, I made a huge oversight.

I thought the commission is $2.95 and you get a $1.95 rebate with limit orders, but no, looks like MB PAYS you $1.95 instead of charging anything. An example of how a very strong bias can lead to failure.

Looks like it's a no brainer to be with MB Trading. I'll crunch the numbers later today, thought I correct myself asap before this thread got more views.

This is being discussed here:
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...45#post4894245

Can US residents open accts with finfx?

Yes

I too have been doing a lot of research and ended up with a short list of potential brokers. I would also say that my research has made me completely disregard anything posted on ForexPeaceArmy. They are clearly a site designed to make money from the brokers, and I'm sure based on their traffic that they skew results to lead people down a path that makes them money from whichever broker is willing to cut them the best deal. Consumer Reports, they are not.

I would suggest that after you narrow your possibilities down to a few based on what you think they have, you do Demo AND small Live trading to see for yourself. A lot of the reviews that I have seen on FPA do not remotely match off to what I am seeing with these brokers.

Kindly help me understand. The new regulations don't allow US residents to open forex accts with overseas brokers, correct?

Correct, they operate outside the law, hoping that they will not get caught. It is entirely your choice to use them, just keep the potential consequences in mind when you do. I for one would never ever use a broker that blatantly ignores regulatory requirements.

I concur, plus regulations keep a standard, I will probably give them a little account maybe $200 dollars, whatever the min. is, call it an outlaws experiment. Any winning will be withdrawn right away.

if I had it my way, it would be citifx at the 50k and above accounts with commissions. i once saw a glimpse of the spreads you don't see in demo mode in mt4 once. they're tough to beat. but I'm at MBtrading right now.

if you use a take profit with MbTrading, you will get paid for that to because that is a limit order to exit the market.

they also have MBt institutional as well that work with esignal charts if you money game is up there.

I agree that MBT is the most cost effective choice.

There is a catch with the pay for limit orders. They will pay for a limit order however, if you want to attach a stop and take profit order to a trade, that is a different order type. It will actually send a market order once your target is hit and this is not considered a limit order and doesent pay. You have to place a seperate stop order and limit order to get paid if your target is hit. This means you cant set and forget your trade, you must monitor it so you can cancel the other order once your stop or limit is triggered. I think this is pretty lame
Apart from this they are a great broker with an excellent platform spreads and execution