Finding a new broker - need help please

I am looking to change my trading style, and I need a new broker. It is always struggle with finding a new broker, I find it difficult to make a reasoned decision without experience of a broker first, and it would be impossible to test everyone out there in order to find the best.

I am intending to hold positions for longer in the future, and my current broker charges an overnight rolling fee irrespective of whether the carry is positive or negative - it is a spread betting company in actual fact so I can't actually complain.

Here are my requirements:
-A broker that pays the carry
-A broker which is an ECN
-A broker which allows me to trade both forex, futures and options (that could be a big ask)

Any help much appreciated.

For Forex, there are quite a few ECN's or NDD's that do pay +ve rollovers as long as the buy/sell interest rate differential is +ve. (ex: AUDUSD long = +ve swaps, and AUDUSD short = -ve swaps. Haven't come across a broker that pays +ve swaps irrespective. You could avoid this altogether with a sharia/islamic account, but that is subject to verification by the broker that you fall under this purview).

Futures: Most of it are CFD types and they do come with an expiry date (some brokers just rollover to the next month). Unless you trade with a specific futures broker, the MT4 types usually make the market so there's a fixed spread regardless.

Options: I think there's only a handful of brokers that offer Options (binary) as well from the same platform (MT4).

You'd be better off looking for 3 different brokers in such as case as the chance of meeting your requirements individually is much higher.

But try this one for starts, rjobrien.co.uk

Thanks mate, they look decent, unfortunately I am unwilling to meet that minimum deposit - I haven't proved to myself I am good enough to go losing $50,000

I think you are right, I might have to look for seperate brokers.

Currently I am looking at either
-Dukscopy
-MB
-Atom8
-LMAX
-interactive Broker
-Peppersonte

Hi MC,

in your case focus on the swaps. Dukas is bad with overnights. Better Alpari, maybe IronFX.
Try to negotiate with your account opening clerk to pay more spread but get interbank rolling or
premium client rolling cost. Tell him you will generate super-high volumes, etc. and see what he
offers. Then fix those overnights with him and make sure to get frequent updates of the overnight
costs so that he doesn't fool you over time and in 3 months gives you bad swaps. Carry is the name
of the game at the moment for pro traders and we need good swaps.

Actually the trader with set of your requirements will be at a loss to any broker. Their earnings is spread, there is no sense or benefit for them to pay carry or swaps expenses for you . Almost every normal broker claims that it has ECN and STP accounts ready to go, but regarding third requirement I recall only Hotforex with their Optiontrade binary trading facility. Try to go over again your demands and make them more realistic, otherwise you will just mark time in search for the broker with a philantropy bent

Thanks to both of you for replying.

In the end I went for Alpari, I just didn't like the fact that some of these brokers didn't have good regulation.

In the end safety of funds came down as the most important requirement.

Alpari pay a decent carry, so I am happy enough for the moment.

Thanks again Lee and fxways

MCRotter,

good choice. Alpari has good swap rates and allows you to effectively trade carry, which I do every day. Happy trading for you!