The amount of Brokers out there is massive and it is always a question as to which one you should use. I mean, which one won’t try and rip you off?, which one won’t give you massive spreads?, which one won’t fill your positions in a timely fashion?. Only experience can really help you here and so I would like to share with you any Brokers that I have had a good experience with so far. All of these Brokers support MetaTrader 4 and all of the tools available here at ElectroFX.
 

FxPro

FxPro are what is known as a Market Maker and I have been using them for over 3 years now at the time of writing this. They are a very reputable Broker and I have not had much in the way of bad experiences with them. They are Sponsors for both the IRC and WRC as well as the Virgin Racing F1 team. Simply put they are not just another bucket shop trying to make a quick buck. They are here to stay and they have a lot of capitol behind them. Here is what they have to offer and below I will explain any problems I did encounter.

Key Benefits of Trading Forex with FxPro

Dealing Spreads – Low fractional dealing spreads starting from 0.5 pips. On firm interbank pricing

Margin – More buying power with leverage from 1:1 up to 1:500

Hedging – Great capabilities with no margin required when hedging your positions with FxPro

Quality of Execution – FxPro offers innovative and discrete systems to execute all of your transactions, fully integrated with global financial news, market data and analysis from industry leaders

Safety & Regulation – Stability, safety and security are defended and fortified by a well-built business continuity plan. Our regulated brokerage service offers unbeatable asset protection for all of their clients

Superior Online Charting Capabilities – FxPro uses one of the most advanced and user-friendly trading platforms, MetaTrader 4, integrated with highly sophisticated charting tools

Hedging – Great capabilities with no margin required when hedging your positions with FxPro

Conclusion

I can conclude that FxPro is a great Broker to start with but unfortunately they no longer accept residents of the USA. Those residing in the USA will need to go down the list on this page to find a Broker. I say that FxPro is a great Broker to start with because they have no commissions and great spreads as well as the maximum leverage; they have great execution time until you reach the higher lot size trading at which point they can be frustrating. The smallest lot size you can trade with them is 0.1 of a standard lot and I can say that you can trade with them hassle free until you reach 3.0 standard lots and beyond at which time you may experience some delays. This can happen anywhere of course.

Join FxPro using this link and be eligible for ElectroFX prizes/giveaways

Go Markets

GoMarkets are what is known as an STP/ECN style Broker. I have been using them for around 6 months at the time of writing this and I have not had any bad experiences with them. They are very competitive with their spreads and leverage and being an ECN style Broker there is no dealing desk like there is with a Market Maker. Here is what they have to offer and below I will explain any problems I did encounter.

Five Reasons to Use Go Markets

Multi-Bank Price Feed – With up to 70 institutes fighting to give you the best bid and ask rates, get Forex spreads usually available only to the banks!

No Dealing Desk Execution + Straight Through Processing – Go Markets offer 100% straight through processing with no dealing desk execution. These features combine to give you the best possible execution speeds and prices. All trades are automatically executed at the market price meaning there are no requotes, ever. No dealing desk execution means you will never suffer from price manipulation or stop-hunting.

Forex Spreads from 0.5 pips – Go Markets are able to offer the tightest Forex spreads available because of several factors. Our price feed is aggregated from leading banks and institutions meaning the best available spreads are on offer to clients. Our MT4 uses a 5 decimal place system meaning we can offer fractional spreads. For example you will be able to get spreads of 1.3 pips instead of 2 with other brokers.

Australian Regulations – Go Markets are regulated in Australia by ASIC and holds an AFS Licence (254963). This means you are not bound to NFA restrictions on your trading. You can therefore benefit from unrestricted trading. There are no restrictions on hedging or the use of pending orders including stop loss orders.

Personalized Service – Go Markets give all traders a personal account manager who can give assistance and training with the MT4 platform. Your account manager can also give assistance on trading where required. We pride ourselves on our customer service including the speedy process of applications and account funding or withdrawals.

Conclusion

I can conclude that GoMarkets is a great Broker so far and they no longer accept residents of USA. The smallest lot size you can trade with them is 0.01 of a standard lot which is a micro lot. I have had no bad experiences or reports of bad experiences to speak of yet but I will update this page if I do.

Join GoMarkets using this link and be eligible for ElectroFX prizes/giveaways

PFGBESTDirect – US Residents Accepted

The information below provided by Ricardo at www.PFGBESTDirect.net

PFG is proud to have successfully converted the MetaTrader 4 into a true ECN platform.
(ECN = Electronic Connection Network)

What we have done is that we have created a bridge that allows more than 9 banks to provide their bank feed and take the trades that you place on our MT4. Their bids and offers come through our bridge but that is where there information stops because they never get to see where your entry orders, stop losses, trailing stops, or take profit targets are. As for you using expert advisors or robots the banks will never see them either, so they never know and won’t be able to manipulate the price action in the market to throw your expert advisor or robots off. PFG does not take the opposite side of the trade but does straight through processing of your trades directly to the banks. I am sure you agree with me when I say, “Finally a platform that gives Forex Trader’s a fair playing field when trading against the banks”.

PFG provides low variable institutional spreads giving traders the ability to break even faster on a profitable trade.

A bonus is that you can trade mini lots and standard lots on all twenty eight (28) pairs. But because PFG is providing you with institutional bank feeds we can only offer 50:1 Leverage on our platform.

Named by Futures magazine for six straight years as one of the Top 50 Brokers, PFGBEST is recognized for its success in anticipating customer needs in online and full-service brokerage and trading.

What does PFGBEST offer when you trade on our ECN MT4:

1) Full functionality on the front end of MT4 while PFGBEST process your trades through our proprietary back office with the new NFA Regulations that other Dealing desk brokers won’t do for you.
2) Trader Anonymity because the banks cannot see through our proprietary bridge what you are doing on our platform.
3) Multiple banks; nine (9) banks that compete for your trade giving you the best bid and offer.
4) Better execution on your trades because we have more than one bank that will take your trades.
5) EA and Robot Friendly.

My experience:

I traded with PFG 2 years ago and decided to leave for 2 primary reasons. The first was my lack of ability to be a consistent trader. The second was that I went live with them very shortly after they integrated the MT4 platform into their back office and they were experiencing technology issues causing MT4 client disconnects. In the 2 years since then, Theo has helped me with issue number 1 and time and technology seems to have helped PFG with issue number 2. I have been trading demo with them now again for enough time to decide that it is time to go back to them for live trading which I have just restarted with them. The price feeds for spreads and commission that we have negotiated for electrofx.com members is very competitive and the speed of order execution is fantastic. As a side note; back when I was with them last time and we were experiencing technology issues with client / server disconnects as mentioned above. Ricardo gave me his cell phone number instructing me to contact him if needed. There indeed was a time when the deal desk could not manage a trade for me. A call to Ricardo (in the middle of the night) was all it took to get me what I needed done on the trade. His customer service is second to none.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would say that I have done enough due diligence to now be able to finally recommend that our US members take a serious look at PFG. The 50:1 leverage is not an issue for us any longer the way we are trading, and frankly I would rather spend my time trading versus trying to find alternatives to our US trader requirements. The customer service is outstanding, the spreads and commission that we have negotiated for our members are very competitive and they have a very long track record as a broker in both Futures and Forex.

-Chuck

To obtain a Demo or Live account with the special EFX pricing please contact Ricardo via email at the link below.
rmenjivar [at] pfgbestdirect [dot] net

Smart Live Markets (SLM)

SLM are a relatively new company who started in early 2010. Their claim to fame is they are the only Spread Betting (SB) company who offer Metatrader 4 as their trading platform. Right now their spreads are fixed but they are converting to variable spreads at the end of February. Their spreads are competitive: for example GU is 2 pips, EU 1 pip and EJ 3 pips. They claim average spreads will be smaller after the change. SLM is a Market Maker.

SB simplifies Forex trading arithmetic greatly; MT4 has been reconfigured so that 1 lot equals £1 per point on every market so a mini lot of 0.1 is 10 pence per point/pip, which is the minimum trade size.
The suffix ‘SB’ is added to all the fx pair names and to all instrument names so that for example GBPUSD becomes GBPUSDSB.

Margin on Forex is 1% which (on GU at 1.6123) equates to £161.23 margin on a £1 (1 lot) bet.

The website very well laid out and contains all the information needed.
As a normal SB company, along with a large choice of FX pairs, they offer good ranges of global Equites and Indices.

Conclusion:
To date questions have been answered quickly and clearly by email and phone.
Demos are readily available.
The use of Metatrader for spread betting is a revolution in UK spread betting. It will be interesting to see if any other SB companies also adopt Metatrader.
The benefits of spread betting are of course only available to UK residents. SML do not accept residents of USA.

Join SLM using this link and be eligible for ElectroFX prizes/giveaways

SunbirdFX

SunbirdFX offer both MT4 with Dealing Desk (Market Maker Style Broker) and MT4 without Dealing Desk (STP/ECN style Broker). If you wish to wisely use the STP/ECN style option then the initial minimum account size is much greater but clearly the way to go. They are very competitive with their spreads and leverage but do not appear to accept US Residents like most others. If you are not a confident trader and would like to have your account traded for you by people who know how they offer programs such as Mirror Trader and Zulu Trade, you can choose the best performing trader and have his/her trades copied to your account.

The features offered at SunbirdFX are certainly quite amazing but I have not yet had enough trading experience with them to give you my feedback, I always support STP/ECN Brokers with MT4 (MetaTrader 4) though so I will give them a try soon and post my thoughts here.

Join SunbirdFX using this link and be eligible for ElectroFX prizes/giveaways