What brokers do Professional traders use? Do they have any problems? | Page 2 | Forex Factory

Options

Go to
Permalinks
Print Thread

Similar Threads

Any way to create professional EA without any coding knowledge 34 replies

any professional forex news traders? 6 replies

Name major brokers for professional traders! 43 replies

What indicators do Hedge Funds use or do they even use one? 12 replies

Attachments: What brokers do Professional traders use? Do they have any problems?
Exit Attachments

What brokers do Professional traders use? Do they have any problems?

  • #21
  • Jul 23, 2013 5:41am Jul 23, 2013 5:41am
Quoting lasty
{quote} We are talking about institutional clients here so 0.5 isnt uncommon for them via brokers. Prime brokers will charge you a fee per trade and limit your leverage. probably 5% = 20:1 What do banks offer on leverage compared to brokers ? A lot less hence thats why brokers are in business Quality brokers just have an STP model or DMA directly through to the liquidity providers so the pricing reflects the market conditions. Friday evening obviously the market liquidity is thinning as banks try and scale down their risk they widen prices. Margin...
who told you to deal with one bank..... I was referring to the service you can get from a bank compare to a broker.....
my only interest is to be done at the price I want to be done and on that front the bank is far superior than a broker.
  • #22
  • Jul 23, 2013 6:44am Jul 23, 2013 6:44am
Quoting TheMaxx
{quote} I've seen hundreds of hedge fund offering documents and not one hedge fund trades with InteractiveBrokers.
So why do you think they are in the 14th place among top 50 brokerages worldwide? (see pdf)
Attached File(s)
File Type: pdf Top50Brokers_201263.pdf   486 KB | 1,602 downloads
Take care,Sulz.
  • #23
  • Jul 23, 2013 7:49am Jul 23, 2013 7:49am
Quoting Forexnuts
Been using Trader's Way, FXCM and Alpari..and satisfied with the lot so far. On ecn/non ecn brokers, the waters a tad muddy with many brokers claiming to be ecn when they are not..and of course, a market maker will prob trade against you so if your broker is one, well your orders will get rejected.
Trader's Way I had an account deleted with an email saying unethical trading, this was for swap arbitrage. I've been through over 10 MT4 brokers past few months, some bigger names including Armada, LQD and so on. When churning up to 500% a day with a HFT arb strategy they all start sabotaging your trades, even in ways you can't see or explain. Basically telling you to go away.

Any broker offering MT4 and have the buzzwords, ECN, STP, DMA (insert next big thing) stay away if you are looking for something professional. Go with a bank. Deutsche Bank's Autobahn system, CitiFxPro comes to mind
  • #24
  • Jul 23, 2013 8:41am Jul 23, 2013 8:41am
you will probably face the same problem at some stage with the like of autobahn or any others.
  • #25
  • Jul 23, 2013 8:47am Jul 23, 2013 8:47am
Quoting Forexnuts
Been using Trader's Way, FXCM and Alpari..and satisfied with the lot so far. On ecn/non ecn brokers, the waters a tad muddy with many brokers claiming to be ecn when they are not..and of course, a market maker will prob trade against you so if your broker is one, well your orders will get rejected.
With regards to Alpari check the following link out http://www.alpari.co.uk/support/product-legal-documents check the order execution policy for all account types. They state in no uncertain terms that they are the acting principle to all your trades (regardless of account type) - I think this contradicts what most people like to term as ECN/STP trading.

Please note I am not bashing Alpari (I am a customer) I suspect this is true for the vast majority of brokers - just that Alpari are being somewhat more honest than others.

Whilst I'm on the subject why do these forums call them brokers? As they trade our orders into their inventories and assume the risk (The conflict of interest we are all so concerned about) surely they assume the role of dealer? Broker is someone who finds us counter parties and charges for it - not to fill the role of the counterparty... however I digress.... :-)

BBCMicro
  • #26
  • Jul 23, 2013 6:01pm Jul 23, 2013 6:01pm
Quoting systematicfx
{quote} who told you to deal with one bank..... I was referring to the service you can get from a bank compare to a broker..... my only interest is to be done at the price I want to be done and on that front the bank is far superior than a broker.
Having dealt with both I beg to differ .

A bank will show you their spread their skew.

A broker will show you multiple banks spreads and their skew as well as non banks liquidity eg hedge funds.
The more liquidity providers the better the depth and tightness of price.

If you aren't getting a professional service from your broker change it.
  • #27
  • Jul 23, 2013 10:02pm Jul 23, 2013 10:02pm
Quoting BBCMicro
{quote} With regards to Alpari check the following link out http://www.alpari.co.uk/support/product-legal-documents check the order execution policy for all account types. They state in no uncertain terms that they are the acting principle to all your trades (regardless of account type) - I think this contradicts what most people like to term as ECN/STP trading.
The broker will always be acting as principal i.e. the counter-party to your trade, regardless of whether they are ECN, STP, MM. You have a legal agreement with your broker, not the liquidity provider who is actually filling your trade.

Your broker's counter-party will be their prime broker, the party who settles their trades (unless they have direct credit lines which is unlikely... )

it is one big credit party and banks will only deal with each other aka "the interbank market"
  • #28
  • Jul 24, 2013 4:23am Jul 24, 2013 4:23am
Quoting eurscalpr
{quote} The broker will always be acting as principal i.e. the counter-party to your trade, regardless of whether they are ECN, STP, MM. You have a legal agreement with your broker, not the liquidity provider who is actually filling your trade. Your broker's counter-party will be their prime broker, the party who settles their trades (unless they have direct credit lines which is unlikely... ) it is one big credit party and banks will only deal with each other aka "the interbank market"
eurscalpr,

You make a very good point. The broker must be principle otherwise I guess I would have to have a credit arrangement/agreement with a variety of interbank participants - unlikely I think you'll agree! - I think we therefore 'offload' this responsibility to the broker.

The important part I think is how our counterparty fills our order - do they fill the order and then 'manage' it themselves (the dealer role or MM) or only fill the order after they have hedged the trade on the interbank market (broker role - STP/ECN)

Therefore I would expect an STP/ECN order to take longer to fill - 50-100ms for your client + 10-30ms for them to hedge the order vs 50-100ms for a MM fill (I'm making up the numbers of course as these depend on internet links and processing overheads etc) - this would be applicable to market orders only I would think as limit orders can be set away from the market and the broker has plenty of time to place and equivalent limit order on the interbank market. Assuming the above is true I would expect more slippage (due to overall latency and moving prices) on a STP/ECN type transaction as opposed to a MM/dealer based one.

I'll go away now... I'm waffling as usual..

:-)

BBCMicro
  • #29
  • Jul 24, 2013 5:38am Jul 24, 2013 5:38am
28 posts and still no one can say I'm a professional trader I trade with so and so broker/dealer for so and so reasons.


Anyway my own question is does anyone here use trade copier software, which one would you recommend?
Let it turn and find your entry.
  • #30
  • Jul 25, 2013 3:59am Jul 25, 2013 3:59am
Quoting Intrepidpips
28 posts and still no one can say I'm a professional trader I trade with so and so broker/dealer for so and so reasons. Anyway my own question is does anyone here use trade copier software, which one would you recommend?
http://multiterminal.net/ is pretty good..
  • #31
  • Jul 25, 2013 4:00am Jul 25, 2013 4:00am
Quoting BBCMicro
{quote} eurscalpr, You make a very good point. The broker must be principle otherwise I guess I would have to have a credit arrangement/agreement with a variety of interbank participants - unlikely I think you'll agree! - I think we therefore 'offload' this responsibility to the broker. The important part I think is how our counterparty fills our order - do they fill the order and then 'manage' it themselves (the dealer role or MM) or only fill the order after they have hedged the trade on the interbank market (broker role - STP/ECN) Therefore I...
was there a question in there for me?
  • #32
  • Jul 25, 2013 9:03am Jul 25, 2013 9:03am
Quoting eurscalpr
{quote} http://multiterminal.net/ is pretty good..

Thanks will check them out
Let it turn and find your entry.
  • #33
  • Jul 25, 2013 11:13am Jul 25, 2013 11:13am
Quoting eurscalpr
{quote} was there a question in there for me?
haha... no not particularly... just thinking out loud as it were.....

BBCMirco
  • #34
  • Jul 26, 2013 8:26am Jul 26, 2013 8:26am
How do you define pro-trader?

I make a living out of forex, but I will be honest and say I make the average salary. At least I have freedom.

For me a pro trader is someone who doesnt trade with a retail broker. So basically he is almost directly connected to the real interbank market. That means he must have around 1 million $ real equity, so nobody has to take the other sides of his trades.
If you aim for the stars- but miss, you still get the moon...
  • #35
  • Jul 26, 2013 5:46pm Jul 26, 2013 5:46pm
Quoting aiming4stars
How do you define pro-trader? I make a living out of forex, but I will be honest and say I make the average salary. At least I have freedom. For me a pro trader is someone who doesnt trade with a retail broker. So basically he is almost directly connected to the real interbank market. That means he must have around 1 million $ real equity, so nobody has to take the other sides of his trades.
I hope you realise that if you trade directly with a bank you are not guaranteed better pricing than through a retail broker, infact you are likely to get worse pricing.

Banks are in it to make money just like brokers. they're not going to give some professional trader doing a yard a month the same commissions and spreads as a retail broker doing 10, 20 100 yards through them. Furthermore, the type of flow you're giving the bank(s) will determine how tight they are going to price you and even if they're going to price you.

The advantage of trading through a retail broker is

1. higher leverage - it is higher than dealing through a bank
2. Lower commissions - a retail broker will be more aggressive with their commissions to remain competitive. banks are less likely to move lower without flow.
3. spreads - you can leverage off your brokers volumes to get better spreads. a bank will only tighten if you're doing high volumes or your flow is really terrible and they can make money off you.
4. anonymity - your flow is hidden/mixed with the rest of the brokers clients flow so the banks are unable to reverse engineer your trades and widen pricing on YOU or reject YOUR trades.

i could keep going. the point is the grass is not greener unless you do ridiculous volumes and can afford to get your own PB. even then its not worth the hassle, paperwork and the end result wont be really different. the upside is the added transparency. at this point you realise that you were actually on a pretty good wicket with your broker and the markets a cruel bitch, you're still getting slipped, spreads blowing out and so on.....
  • #36
  • Jul 30, 2013 2:35pm Jul 30, 2013 2:35pm
Why is it so hard to say...I have been trading with such and such brokers for 3yrs, 4yrs or 5yrs and be honest about your experience. Most people in the forum likes to talk about how things works but can't stand proudly behind any broker. I have spent about 3 weeks researching Forex brokers and downloading their demos as a test drive...it is hard to find an honest Forex broker. I live in Canada and I have narrowed it down to ATC Brokers, USA and PFD (Pacific Financial Derivatives), New Zealand. Please, if you have any information about this two brokers it will be nice to share it. I have a list of fake brokers with ridiculous leverage and lots of stories on how they got scammed.
  • #37
  • Jul 30, 2013 7:31pm Jul 30, 2013 7:31pm
I try to avoid brokers from Cyprus, Russia and those from the Islands...not fair but I am having a hard time trusting them. Are you recommending instaforex? I will try the demo for few days and see how it goes...I just want a good Broker with no stupid games. PFD is off my book...I don't like their platform, it spikes a lot and that is not good for scalping.
  • #38
  • Jul 30, 2013 7:58pm Jul 30, 2013 7:58pm
Excel Markets is very good low spreads and good fills happy customer here
  • #39
  • Jul 31, 2013 8:50am Jul 31, 2013 8:50am
hummm, my post was deleted...
  • #40
  • Jul 31, 2013 8:52am Jul 31, 2013 8:52am
Quoting Hankmca
I try to avoid brokers from Cyprus, Russia and those from the Islands...not fair but I am having a hard time trusting them. Are you recommending instaforex? I will try the demo for few days and see how it goes...I just want a good Broker with no stupid games. PFD is off my book...I don't like their platform, it spikes a lot and that is not good for scalping.
I have not heard from anyone over here about them, I am checking them.
0 traders viewing now