Differences in chart prices

I have been trying out some demos on MT4 platforms and have noticed that the prices for the day differ between suppliers - ie Axitrader, FXCM, Apari, GoTrader - and when I compare say the Dow Jones with stockcharts.com charts they are all different again. Why are these prices all different, or is it something to do with the suppliers giving you their own figures?

Cheers

How different is "different"?

Can you give examples?

Each broker has its own clearing house that it works with and each clearing house has its own bank or groups of banks that it works with. Thus with each new level comes a difference in quote prices and spreads. These will all differ slightly from the "real" price. By the way...the "real" price as quoted by whom?

just trade what you're offered. If you find there is a lag between the "real" price as your broker's quotes you have a valuable advantage...use that and clean up.

Exactly on the money!

Wolf69, I see you've been a member since 2007, surely you shouldn't be asking these sorts of questions by now. Don't be overly concerned about the "differences" in price. Forex is a highly liquid market and will (usually) never allow "differences" to last long enough for the arbitrageurs to take advantage of. (Except maybe in the FX swaps market, but that's a different story)

In the interbank market I used to belong to, if I'm looking to go long (or short) and I see a broker with the best offer (or bid), I'd take that offer (or hit that bid) faster than you can wink at with no mercy, and the market for that pair will be at equilibrium (at least for that split second before the next bid/offer price is dealt).

A large number of retail traders might not have the luxury of shopping many brokers at once, so it's up to them to find a broker with consistently the most reliable and deal-able spreads.

Thanks for the replies, and yes I have been a member of this forum for some years. Originally I only used one online system, but have only recently tried other ones and that is how I noticed the different price quotes. I do not trade every day, just now and again, getting on in years, it is more a hobby and challenge. Thanks however for explaining the situation. Much appreciated.

No worries. I may have sounded a lil harsh and for that, I apologize.

Anyways, the process of determining price in the markets is know by several terms, the most common (I think) is the concept of "price discovery".

Hope you find that clarifies things somewhat.

regards,