Trading the UK Session with MT4 - NYC or UK VPS Location?

I am looking to subscribe to a VPS plan to run an EA on MT4. I will be trading only the UK trading session and will be trading the 8 major currencies. I currently reside in Vancouver, Canada.

My question is, should I position my VPS in New York City, USA or London, UK? During the London trading session, will there be a difference in liquidity pool between the 2 locations? Will brokers with servers positioned in NYC have less liquidity access during a UK trading session? I understand that brokers such as Pepperstone (who I am currently with) have their MT4 servers in NYC but their CTrader servers in London. Would that mean that the CTrader platform would be more stable during a volatile period?

I would be willing to search for a broker with a UK based MT4 server if it means I will receive better execution. I started thinking about this because I noticed the other day when the market was volatile that my Pepperstone and Global Prime demo accounts (both located in NYC) were freezing but a Darwinex (London) demo was solid. Thanks, any knowledge how the servers location and liquidity pool works is much appreciated.

I came across this from a VPS service provider that may shed some light on the Question that I had.


"The foreign exchange market is actually a two level market. The top level is the interbank market and the second level is the non‐interbank FX market. Major banks and market maker firms provide quotes for the non‐interbank FX markets. They have an order book, which will go net long or short during the execution of the non‐interbank FX orders. Every liquidity provider has a predetermined level for the maximum size of this net long or short position in each currency pair. When this level is reached, the liquidity provider will reduce the long or short exposure by buying or selling on the interbank market. This buying or selling still mainly occurs on the ICAP EBS or on the Reuters dealing system. If liquidity providers filling and taking retail orders into their books, which are worse than the actual prices of ICAP EBS and Reuters dealing systems than they will suffer unwanted losses. Therefore prices at these two venues act as a reference price for the liquidity providers. ICAP EBS has matching engines in different cities but only London is the only place where the matching engines for both ICAP EBS and Reuters dealing systems can be found. Because of this, London is a unique place regarding forex execution. To receive prices from these venues with the least delay possible, is a crucial element in liquidity provision for the non‐interbank FX market. Here, the importance of colocation comes into play because the closer the liquidity providers are to these two venues, the faster they will receive the reference prices. Non‐interbank forex traders also need to be closer to these venues because most likely, they will see better executable prices coming from the liquidity providers. The Equinix LD4 data center is the best place in this regard and most liquidity providers send quotes to the non‐interbank European venues from there. It is often said ‘everybody who counts in FX business has a presence here”... It’s no accident therefore that UlxxaFX VPS and UlxxaFX Dedicated Servers are located in London (UK), in the Equinix LD4 data center"

FXCM NY4
Interactive Brokers NY4
Forex.com NY4
FinFx NY4
Saxo MT4 LD4
Gallant Capital Markets NY4
Oanda NY4
FxPrimus NY4
Global Prime NY4
IC Markets NY4
FX Open NY4
Go Markets NY4/LD4
Synergy FX LD4
FX Asia NY4
Darwinex NY4
IAMFX NY4
FXPIG NY4
Direct FX NY4
Vital Markets LD4
ForexFS NY4
RubixFX NY4
Tallinex LD4
Tickmill LD4
Pepperstone NY4
Axi Trader NY4
Divisa Capital LD4
ADS Securities LD4
LMAX LD4
FXCC NY4


FUTURE CROSS CONNECTS
Think Forex LD4
IG.com LD4
XM LD4
FXPro LD4
Forex Club NY4
Citi FX NY4
Invast Securities LD4
Vital Markets LD4
ICM Capital LD4

Hi BigSteely,

Equinix LD4 is certainly one of the best locations for FX trading. Out of the two locations it is tough to call as some people prefer being within NY4 based on timezone whilst others don't mind being in LD4... Sometimes it comes down to preference, but reliability wise as you said most of the main providers are based in London.

Connecting up to all of the FX platforms you have specified may cost quite a bit of money as Equinix charge a lot on cross connects - although you may be looking for something that can allow you to access all of these?

To be honest I think your biggest issue here would be the quality of execution by the MT4 platform itself. If you are looking to run autotrader bots seriously, I would suggest going to another platform. Ctrader would already be an upgrade imo.

In my opinion the best scenario would be to select a VPS provider which is physically located as close as possible to the servers of your Broker.