Aussie FX Brokers

I've been FX demo trading for over 12 months now and am ready for the leap into the Forex arena with real cash. Naturally I'm gonna start off with a mini account and work my way up from there, but can anybody suggest a reliable Aussie FX brokers? A few I've come across are CMC Markets, Man Financial, GFT FX?? What are they like? Your experience with these brokers please?

http://www.forexfactory.com/forexfor...read.php?t=530

Go to this link

I can't view this thread, it says I dont have permission???? Can anybody view it and paste it into this thread??? Thanks!

Hey Serj

I cant send through the link again for some reason.

anyways the brokers you named are all fine.

GFT is regulated in Australia, and offer mini accounts.

Man financial is a larger brokerage house, but their leverage is 40:1 if you want that option.

FXCM - also offer aussies good deals.

CMC is ok -they probabaly arent as big as the firms above - but they are quite good. Their customer service however, lacks.

Serj. Give IG Markets a run better than CMC

I have been using them for years and very reliable
regards Saint

I used CMC about 18 months ago trading CFD's and found their ethics and practices to be questionable.

I'm not sure how their forex trading platform compares to their CFD stock offering so my comments here are based on my experience with CFD's.

Being market makers you are betting against the house and they ALWAYS hold all the cards. When a stock was trending strongly they would purposely dry up liquidity to prevent buying/selling. They would also strongly manipulate the price and spread in their favor. In addition, the requoting was continuous, to their benefit of course.

CMC definitely stop-hunts. I've seen their quoted prices climb more than 100 points while the underlying security didin't move at all...

You won't make any money trying to scalp with CMC so consider your trading strategy first.

I found it almost impossible to make any money from CMC and consider myself a profitable trader. Switching to MBTrading was like a breath of fresh air.

Why Aussie considering that you can get better value internationally? As an Aussie, I'm sorry to say that the Aussie CFD brokerages offer less value than many international ones so unless your patriotic values compel you to give $$$ to Aussie brokers then I recommend you consider an international firm that specialises in forex trading.

Consider these points when making a choice:
* Spread - this is important if you choose to scalp
* Customer base size - the more customers the more liquid a Market Maker will be
* Market capitalisation - their cash reserves.
* Trade commissions - some brokers offer 1 pip spreads but charge the equivalent of 3 pips in commission per trade. I personally prefer no commission with wider spread than low spread + commission but that's a personal choice.
* ECN versus Market Maker - ECN's do not take the other side of the trade whereas Market Makers do. Using a Market Maker is not a problem when trading small amounts but once you become very profitable you should consider switching to an ECN that deals directly with the global liquidity pool.
* Reputation/reviews - be careful about what you read, positive or negative. It's a cut throat business and brokers will go to great lengths to destroy the reputation of the competition.
* Deposit/withdrawal - process and time it takes to do this.

Good luck with your choice.

TrevA

I have been working on the CMC platform for a while now.

I also use esignal, and I have proven they do stop hunt. If you have tight stops you're screwed. So here's a novel idea, don't use a stop.

As for their forex trading, it is probably the most ethical of their practices. Their price data is based on a sort of MA of Reuters, Bloomberg and a couple of other data providers.

As for their CFD's I don't even waste my time. Using esignal as well as Pulse (a proprietary software used on ASX) I have proven as the other gentleman said, that they tweak the data, and you might as well go to the casino.

On one occassion I was in a no brainer trade on an ASX CFD and in the money. I watched pulse and esignal data provide market depth consistent, while suddenly, CMC went the other way and the market depth, you could easily tell, was being manipulated.

When I called them on it, the feed suddenly corrected to match esignal and Pulse. Go figure.

There are now ASX CFD's that you can trade through other brokers. If you are into CFD's I would recommend against CMC. If you are just starting in forex, and you don't care about placing automated trades, I would recommend CMC, but only for forex.

Hope this helps.

If I am to sign up with a broker outside of australia, is it recommended that you open the account in USD, or the AUD as a base currency? Pros/Cons?

There is obviously an exchange rate cost in funding a USD account, then withdrawing any gains back to AUD. So therefore is there any benefit of funding in USD?

Matt

I was with GFT for two years and found it difficult to be consistently profitable. The Dealbook FX platform froze frequently and their account reporting is confusing. I switched to MBT around 12 months ago and use Metatrader (Alpari) demo for charts. I noticed an immediate improvement in consistency and reliability.

I am an Aussie and have looked at other Australian deals, but for my money I am staying with MBT.


Kristo

HI Kristo have you got a link for MBT i have been using CMC and have had no problems I like the Broker I am using I like the platform and I like being able to ring up and get some one who speaks my language.

Plus I did not want to go to the EA as I wanted to be a bit more hands on as I learn more like that.

OK But last night changed that because I have been placing orders like this.


GBP/USD spot stop/buy 1.9580 as a buy trade
stop/sell 1.9535 as a stop if it goes against me
Limit/sell 1.9620 to close out if I goes in my favor.


But MY limit order got filled as a stop to sell and of course the market just kept climbing and I got caned.


So after a long phone conversation with John on the dealers desk it turns out that
I cannot place three linked orders,

I can only place a stop to sell or buy then another stop to buy or sell but if I place a limit order as a stop profit so to speak it will just sit there If the stop loss is triggered and then becomes another trade. and that is what happened last night.

The stop/buy executed the stop/sell hit, position closed out should have been end of story???

Then the limit/sell executed as a stop/Sell and I get caned.
I thought the limit order which is linked to the first order would be not executed as the other two positions had been hit this is the first time this has happened????


SOOO I want to know if this is what happens with other Brokers can you set a buy then stop loss and then a stop profit??????
any help appreciated.


Looks like I am changing Brokers as well

I am not familiar with the CMC platform, but certainly on the GFT Dealbook platform the scenario you describe was entirely possible. OCO Orders (One Cancels the Other) or a Parent/Contingency Orders was what I used to place to avoid that sort of mishap.

Whatever platform you decide to run with, I believe it is crucial to be entirely familiar with all its functions before trading live and in that regard the MBT platform does take a bit of getting used to. The MBT site is www.mbtrading.com

Hope this helps.

K

Here are some tutorials for the MBT / EFX Navigator you might find useful;

http://www.efxgroup.com/events

If you have any questions, feel free to visit the EFX thread or email me directly.

Aussie brokers peeps?? wheres the thread gone?
Which broker are you using? any recommendations?

disclaimer.. Im just a lonely dog spot fx trader ok

Do you want Australian brokers or brokers that are in Australia ?

Then it depends what type of product that you are after ?

Australian Brokers. Basically wanting to move away from IG.
I have looked at the options, my preference so far Pro Real time for data, due to my trading style.
Do they have accounts also? or what would you advise? O/s brokers?

thanks in advance

Apologies to answer the latter question directly, i mainly trade Spot FX, Index cfds. (4yrs). Would like to try ECN vs Market makers just for curiosity.

ig started requoting me and playing a few dirty tricks when I started making a bit

ProRealTime trading, premium, offered at no extra cost if you use IG.
but not available in australia.

Best Aussie brokers are Pepperstone, AXI-trader, and Go Markets. The pro accounts all claim to the ECN (which I have no reason to to believe), spreads are small, execution is good and they don't seem to be dodgey.

I was recommended AXi. Cheers