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Best Broker for Canadians from Alberta

  • #21
  • Apr 3, 2015 6:42am Apr 3, 2015 6:42am
Quoting Alesin
I'm from Canada too. After alpari I'm trying to find a reliable broker, it's a bit tough. Now I'm looking at Globalprime, can anyone share experience? Could not find much info about them. I would really appreciate.
Global Prime is just another low balance, high leverage, STP/DMA but actually MM broker from Australia, in the same works as Pepperstone, IC Markets and etc. Same cost structure, same business model and offering same products basically without cTrader.

No experience with them though.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #22
  • Apr 4, 2015 7:09pm Apr 4, 2015 7:09pm
Alesin, forgot to tell you - I am currently with Vantage, another Australian broker. I like everything about them, it fits my trading. The only problem with Australian brokers, to me, is that they are regulated by ASIC which offers no protection at all if broker goes down like Alpari. Although they keep telling me that they are very solid and backed by a huge bag of money from China and that in Australia no FX broker ever went down, I guess making a point of how good a business model of Australian brokers is.

Although, seeing how Alpari situation develops, probably any such protection is somewhat questionable, but still probably better then no protection at all. I believe Alparians will eventually get their money back, at least a part of it. I had there only 180 USD left to keep an account open so I don't really care but still would not mind getting it back.

Swiss government is covering Swiss broker's clients accounts for 100,000 CHF each. I am closely looking at Dukas for that reason as I decided for security reasons to trade via 2 brokers, kind of solving the same problem of reliability as you, looks like. There is a Swiss Dukas and European Dukas. The first one is covered by Swiss government for 100,000 CHF each account and the second by EU rules for 20,000 EUR each.
  • #23
  • Apr 5, 2015 2:49am Apr 5, 2015 2:49am
Quoting aa1
Alesin, forgot to tell you - I am currently with Vantage, another Australian broker. I like everything about them, it fits my trading. The only problem with Australian brokers, to me, is that they are regulated by ASIC which offers no protection at all if broker goes down like Alpari. Although they keep telling me that they are very solid and backed by a huge bag of money from China and that in Australia no FX broker ever went down, I guess making a point of how good a business model of Australian brokers is. Although, seeing how Alpari situation...
Well actually there is an Financial Ombusman Services (FOS) in Australia that's similiar to FSCS in UK which is able to compensate for any financial losses that an investor has suffered due to the company's insolvency or refusal of your withdraw requests, basically any situation where you can't get your money back besides losing it in the market. The compensation is just not guaranteed and is rewarded on a case-by-case basis. So if your Australian broker is a member of the FOS, if the broker goes under, your investment with them is sort of protected. And majority of the Australian brokers a bit well known like Pepperstone, IC Markets are all members of FOS. So there is SOME protection to investors if you invest with those brokers.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #24
  • Apr 5, 2015 12:22pm Apr 5, 2015 12:22pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Global Prime is just another low balance, high leverage, STP/DMA but actually MM broker from Australia, in the same works as Pepperstone, IC Markets and etc. Same cost structure, same business model and offering same products basically without cTrader. No experience with them though.
Global Prime states they are an ECN and can give you a copy of the receipt from their Liquidity Providers everytime you make a trade. If they are a MM how do they do this? Do they counterfeit the receipt?
  • #25
  • Apr 5, 2015 1:47pm Apr 5, 2015 1:47pm
Quoting mitch77
{quote} Global Prime states they are an ECN and can give you a copy of the receipt from their Liquidity Providers everytime you make a trade. If they are a MM how do they do this? Do they counterfeit the receipt?
Apparently this receipt is something that all of those "ECN" brokers in Australia can give you if you ask them; it doesn't really mean anything. If you take a look at Global Prime's Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), it's EXACTLY the same word for word as the other "ECN" brokers like IC Markets, Pepperstone etc. and it states clearly that they are a market maker.

http://globalprime.com.au/forex/wp-content/uploads/Global-Prime-Product-Disclosure-Statement.pdf Page 2.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #26
  • Apr 5, 2015 2:36pm Apr 5, 2015 2:36pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Apparently this receipt is something that all of those "ECN" brokers in Australia can give you if you ask them; it doesn't really mean anything. If you take a look at Global Prime's Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), it's EXACTLY the same word for word as the other "ECN" brokers like IC Markets, Pepperstone etc. and it states clearly that they are a market maker. http://globalprime.com.au/forex/wp-content/uploads/Global-Prime-Product-Disclosure-Statement.pdf Page 2.
Thanks for the link. And here I was thinking that all these brokers were ECN somehow. You would think that they would not be allowed to promote ECN when it clearly is not.

At least brokers like Oanda are honest enough to say we are a MM.

So are any "ECN" brokers actually ECN?
  • #27
  • Edited 9:18pm Apr 5, 2015 9:07pm | Edited 9:18pm
Thanks again, Forexia, you know so many details about so many things...

I looked through Pepperstone site and did not find anything about their membership in FOS which is actually CIO now. IC Markets does not state it clearly too although I found a mentioning of FOS somewhere in PDFs on their site. Although it is tricky again - the document dated 2013, so they could drop their membership by now, it probably costs money and if it not really required to operate then it is just an extra cost for them.

Sent email to my Vantage if they have this membership.

Search by name on CIO website does not bring in any of them, even IC, for some reason. I see that this is an iffy area even if they have this membership I would wonder how CIO would be dealing with tens of thousand of clients all over the world on case by case basis. It is very doubtful.

Unless Interactive Brokers surprise me on Tuesday I am opening an account with Geneva branch of Dukas. I am probably going to use Ravesa as introducing broker to save on spread a little bit. Are there any drawbacks on using introducing broker do you know? I already learned that I won't be able to take part in Dukas promos but their requirements are unrealistic regarding how much you have to trade to actually get the bonus so I will never get it. Anything else I am missing?
  • #28
  • Apr 5, 2015 10:18pm Apr 5, 2015 10:18pm
Quoting mitch77
{quote} Thanks for the link. And here I was thinking that all these brokers were ECN somehow. You would think that they would not be allowed to promote ECN when it clearly is not. At least brokers like Oanda are honest enough to say we are a MM. So are any "ECN" brokers actually ECN?
Yes there is. True ECN brokers are, according to my knowledge and experience, Interactive Brokers, LMAX, LCG FX, Baxter-FX. There is a simple test you can do to see if your broker is a True ECN broker or not and I posted this somewhere before is to place a limit order with the price in between the bid and the ask and to see if your order shows up on the quote screen. If it does AND it actually DOES reduce the spread then your broker is a true ECN broker if not then your broker is probably internalizing the risk a.k.a a market maker broker. And another clue is that true ECN brokers tend to demand for higher startup capital at least in the 10's of thousands instead of in the hundred's of $'s. The reason why is because if you are starting with a higher capital then it's presumed that you will most probably be trading in larger trade size instead of microlots, so if they trade against you and take the other side of your transaction, they will lose more if you are profiting and they might not want to take that chance so your trade will have a higher chance of ending up on the interbank market to be taken by those liquidity providers (which is really the ultimate market maker. LOL)

Again, as I have stated numerous times before, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING wrong with market maker broker as long as they act in good faith and is fair in their dealing with us traders and aligns their interest in succeeding with ours instead of profiting at our expense. Plenty of traders trade fine with brokers like Oanda and etc. and I even know traders who have left "ECN" brokers like IC Markets to join CMC Markets, a Market Maker broker.

So if you really ARE operating in a market maker business model, you should just come out and say it instead of pretending to be an ECN broker so that way for traders who REALLY want to trade with true ECN brokers, they can do so instead waste their time and energy having to try the fake "ECN's brokers out and then discover their true nature and have to withdraw their capital and search elsewhere. And for the fake "ECN" brokers, they are not winning much either because eventually when the true-ECN-seeking traders discover what business model they are operating in, the traders will take their money and leave so the brokers will end up with nothing anyway not to mention the time and money wasted on processing the application and opening the account and then processing the withdraw request and closing the account. How much would they gain in the few months or even few days that the traders were with them? It doesn't take that long for traders who discover what kind of business model the broker is operating in. Traders today are lot more informed than ten years ago when Forex industry was just starting. It's a lose-lose situation for everybody so I really wish those brokers can stop playing the charade and let everyone find the broker that they want and just concentrate on being a good broker.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #29
  • Edited Apr 6, 2015 2:13am Apr 5, 2015 10:21pm | Edited Apr 6, 2015 2:13am
Quoting aa1
Thanks again, Forexia, you know so many details about so many things... I looked through Pepperstone site and did not find anything about their membership in FOS which is actually CIO now. IC Markets does not state it clearly too although I found a mentioning of FOS somewhere in PDFs on their site. Although it is tricky again - the document dated 2013, so they could drop their membership by now, it probably costs money and if it not really required to operate then it is just an extra cost for them. Sent email to my Vantage if they have this membership....
You have to search on the FOS site to verify their membership. http://fos.org.au/members/search-for-members.jsp Type in the broker's name where it says "Name" and if they come up they are a member otherwise they are not. I checked, Vantage is actually a member.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #30
  • Apr 6, 2015 4:01am Apr 6, 2015 4:01am
Thanks Forexia, for the detailed reply.
  • #31
  • Apr 6, 2015 4:38am Apr 6, 2015 4:38am
Quoting aa1
Are there any drawbacks on using introducing broker do you know? I already learned that I won't be able to take part in Dukas promos but their requirements are unrealistic regarding how much you have to trade to actually get the bonus so I will never get it. Anything else I am missing?
From my personal experience of using introducing brokers, I didn't experience any drawbacks besides enjoying lower commission and/or lower start-up capital. And many times with introducing brokers, they will even try to resolve issues that you encountered with the broker on your behalf because you are sort of their client as well but just like in any trade and profession, there are the good ones and there are the unscrupulous ones and introducing brokers are no exception. So if you are going through introducing brokers, just with brokers, you would need to do research to make sure you will enjoy the benefits that they have promised you.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #32
  • Edited 8:03am Apr 6, 2015 7:17am | Edited 8:03am
well, what can i say - you did it again. i was on this site yesterday but i did not see them and then i found that instead of fos they became cio now so nothing showed there as well, i mean none of 3. not that i am worried about the other 2 - my only interest is vantage as i have an account with them and will probably keep it as i like how they work.

they somewhat increased the spread on swiss pairs that i only trade but it looks like everyone did it and their spread is still smaller than on all others i compared with. that's strange that they react to swiss move now - yes, it was a price tsunami but it passed and will not repeat or at least not with swiss. probably eur is more likely so logically speaking there is nothing to worry about with swiss any more. they should have been worried before it happened not after. i believe that all brokers incurred losses on the january swiss move so now they increased the spreads to recover those losses. anyway, just my thoughts.

thank you again.
  • #33
  • Edited 3:26pm Apr 6, 2015 12:34pm | Edited 3:26pm
I just had a conversation with Interactive Brokers. It was very brief: some Bill said that if I am from Alberta I cannot trade Forex at all with them, I can only exchange currencies if I want. In other words I am not allowed to have any leverage other than 1:1. It is not them, this is Alberta requirement per what he said.

I don't really care is it really so or not and I am proceeding with Dukas.
  • #34
  • Apr 6, 2015 4:43pm Apr 6, 2015 4:43pm
Quoting aa1
well, what can i say - you did it again. i was on this site yesterday but i did not see them and then i found that instead of fos they became cio now so nothing showed there as well, i mean none of 3. not that i am worried about the other 2 - my only interest is vantage as i have an account with them and will probably keep it as i like how they work. they somewhat increased the spread on swiss pairs that i only trade but it looks like everyone did it and their spread is still smaller than on all others i compared with. that's strange that they react...
CIO??? Where did you find CIO? CIO is Information Technology or whatever. Just go to http://fos.org.au/. It clearly says Financial Ombudsman Services Australia. And if you click on "Members" tab at the top and then Search for Member and type in a name "Vantage" to search for it, it's there. See the screenshot below:

And Yes pretty much all brokers increased spread and lowered leverage on CHF pairs because of "increased risk" with trading CHF. Yeah perfect excuse to claw more money from us.
Attached Image (click to enlarge)
Click to Enlarge Name: Vantage_MemberFOS.JPG Size: 173 KB
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #35
  • Apr 6, 2015 5:05pm Apr 6, 2015 5:05pm
Quoting aa1
I just had a conversation with Interactive Brokers. It was very brief: some Bill said that if I am from Alberta I cannot trade Forex at all with them, I can only exchange currencies if I want. In other words I am not allowed to have any leverage other than 1:1. It is not them, this is Alberta requirement per what he said. I don't really care is it really so or not and I am proceeding with Dukas.
Oh that's a bummer. You need to get out of that province. Besides oil, extremely cold weather and MORE cold weather, I don't know what else is there. I have never been there so sorry I don't have any love for that province even though it's in Canada and as a Canadian I am supposed to love all provinces and territories. LOL As I said before, Alberta and British Columbia are the two provinces that have the most draconian "regulations" when it comes to financial investing. It is so backward that besides stock you cannot really trade anything. It's ridiculous!

Good luck!
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
  • #36
  • Apr 7, 2015 10:39am Apr 7, 2015 10:39am
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Oh that's a bummer. You need to get out of that province. Besides oil, extremely cold weather and MORE cold weather, I don't know what else is there. I have never been there so sorry I don't have any love for that province even though it's in Canada and as a Canadian I am supposed to love all provinces and territories. LOL As I said before, Alberta and British Columbia are the two provinces that have the most draconian "regulations" when it comes to financial investing. It is so backward that besides stock you cannot really trade anything....
It is like Albert is not in Canada, but in afganistan. Very strange.
  • #37
  • Apr 7, 2015 9:56pm Apr 7, 2015 9:56pm
Thanks Forexia. I will go with Swiss branch of Dukas unless there are problems. You did help me a lot, thank you. I'll stick with Calgary for now. All the best to you too.
  • #38
  • Apr 7, 2015 11:14pm Apr 7, 2015 11:14pm
Quoting aa1
I just had a conversation with Interactive Brokers. It was very brief: some Bill said that if I am from Alberta I cannot trade Forex at all with them, I can only exchange currencies if I want. In other words I am not allowed to have any leverage other than 1:1. It is not them, this is Alberta requirement per what he said. I don't really care is it really so or not and I am proceeding with Dukas.
That sounds odd to me. I live in Calgary, Alberta and I have no trouble trading forex with my Interactive Brokers account.
  • #39
  • Apr 7, 2015 11:17pm Apr 7, 2015 11:17pm
Quoting Forexia
{quote} Besides oil, extremely cold weather and MORE cold weather, I don't know what else is there.
I don't know, Forexia, we had a pretty nice winter in Calgary this year compared to the rest of the country.
  • #40
  • Apr 7, 2015 11:44pm Apr 7, 2015 11:44pm
Quoting Ian_Lavoie
{quote} That sounds odd to me. I live in Calgary, Alberta and I have no trouble trading forex with my Interactive Brokers account.
Maybe you opened your account BEFORE the change in regulations that now forbids trading of forex for Albertans. I find that if you have opened the account with Interactive Brokers before any regulatory changes and as long as you keep it active then it won't close your account due to the regulatory change but if you want to open any new account after the regulatory change or new regulations then Interactive Brokers will apply the new regulation or change.
Make your losses in demo. Earn your profits live.
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