This debate is killing me. People speak of this situation like there is something going on that can't be readily seen. Like they could be taken advantage of and never know it.
If you are trading a real account, and you are using your brokers data source exclusively then you will have no idea if you are being cheated or not. I would never ever recommend anyone trade a real account without an independant data source for your charting. If you are serious about trading, which if you are using real money you should be, then you should be using a seperate company for charting like e-signal, trade station, ensign, metatrader, etc. If you do, it will be obvious very quickly if your broker is: spiking your stops, holding the price, leading the market etc. Bad fills are obvious no matter what.
All this "trading against you", "not passing your trade to the bank", "profiling your strategies" has absolutely no effect on your trading success whatsoever-AS LONG AS-YOUR TRADE GETS EXECUTED PROPERLY AND THE DATA YOU ARE TRADING ON IS ACCURATE.
If you use a seperate charting and data service who has no interest in cheating you then you will immediatley see any inproprieties. If you have a broker who is cheating you and they wont make it right then move to another broker and tell everyone who will listen about the bad broker.
Here is the real deal.
1.)Your broker should match your independant charting within a couple pips at all times.
2.) You should get filled at the price of your market order with no slippage or requotes except in the most volatile markets. (during these times entry orders with stop losses and limits is THE ONLY WAY TO GO).
Only choose a broker that gaurentees fills on the exact price of your entry orders.
3.) Find a platform that makes sense FOR YOU. Different platforms have different features. some are complex, some are very simple. Do you always use entry orders? markets orders? is one clicking market orders important to you? or do you prefer complex entry orders?? Is the platform intuitive for you or just plain irritating???
4.) Do the research. There is tons of feedback in the forums out there as who not to use. Be careful of the really persistant ringing endorsements out there too. Alot of those endorsements come from people with an interest in the company or just plain old fools trying to prove to the world they made the right choice.
It seems like there is a limitless amount of choices out there. But, when you start imposing your criteria, the number of acceptable choices gets very limited. No broker will please you all of the time. It is part of your job as a trader to keep an eye on your broker and evaluate your relationship continually.
I hope this is a helpful perspective.
If you are trading a real account, and you are using your brokers data source exclusively then you will have no idea if you are being cheated or not. I would never ever recommend anyone trade a real account without an independant data source for your charting. If you are serious about trading, which if you are using real money you should be, then you should be using a seperate company for charting like e-signal, trade station, ensign, metatrader, etc. If you do, it will be obvious very quickly if your broker is: spiking your stops, holding the price, leading the market etc. Bad fills are obvious no matter what.
All this "trading against you", "not passing your trade to the bank", "profiling your strategies" has absolutely no effect on your trading success whatsoever-AS LONG AS-YOUR TRADE GETS EXECUTED PROPERLY AND THE DATA YOU ARE TRADING ON IS ACCURATE.
If you use a seperate charting and data service who has no interest in cheating you then you will immediatley see any inproprieties. If you have a broker who is cheating you and they wont make it right then move to another broker and tell everyone who will listen about the bad broker.
Here is the real deal.
1.)Your broker should match your independant charting within a couple pips at all times.
2.) You should get filled at the price of your market order with no slippage or requotes except in the most volatile markets. (during these times entry orders with stop losses and limits is THE ONLY WAY TO GO).
Only choose a broker that gaurentees fills on the exact price of your entry orders.
3.) Find a platform that makes sense FOR YOU. Different platforms have different features. some are complex, some are very simple. Do you always use entry orders? markets orders? is one clicking market orders important to you? or do you prefer complex entry orders?? Is the platform intuitive for you or just plain irritating???
4.) Do the research. There is tons of feedback in the forums out there as who not to use. Be careful of the really persistant ringing endorsements out there too. Alot of those endorsements come from people with an interest in the company or just plain old fools trying to prove to the world they made the right choice.
It seems like there is a limitless amount of choices out there. But, when you start imposing your criteria, the number of acceptable choices gets very limited. No broker will please you all of the time. It is part of your job as a trader to keep an eye on your broker and evaluate your relationship continually.
I hope this is a helpful perspective.
Profit is where readiness meets Opportunity
