IMPORTANT, READ BEFORE YOU POST: I am ONLY interested in opinion from experienced traders, as voucher system is obviously flawed, I donīt want to limit it this way, but I beg you - if you are a kiddo playing with microlots and couple hundred dollars blowing 30th account in a row and blaming "that naughty broker" for all that, please spare me (us) of your opinion. I want to keep this discussion on a certain level. Thank you!
NO FLAMING, NO BLAMING of brokers, I am ONLY interested in constructive opinions. NO NOOBS who just blew their account and blame everyone except for themselves.
Primary focus of this thread is to help myself obviously, but if it establishes itself and helps other traders as well, even better.
*****
Hi fellas,
Iīve been in the business for almost 2 years now (before - 3 years of studying and 1 year of demo trading), being scalping 99% of the time as itīs closest to my nature - and will very probably continue scalping further on.
Currently, my broker starts to slightly piss me off. I wont name him as I donīt want to make any harm to anyoneīs business and also, it might be just me, but the more I am successful, the more situations that I would describe as "dirty tricks" occur to me. Requoting, slippage, SL hunt, often disconnections of my platform at crucial moments, these are all part of the business, ey? No broker plays for you, itīs you against him. But there are certain boundaries and I feel as my account grows bigger, my broker is throwing bigger and bigger obstacles in my way.
******
Anyway...
As a scalper, what I am basically looking for is pretty obvious:
GENERAL:
- trustworthy - registered with authorities in respected country (US, Western Europe) and with clean record. No Cyprus, Russia or Cayman islands...
- big player - properly capitalized and with an established position and reputation in the market
- good, intuitive and reliable platform (MT4 is not necessary, I use it for demo purposes and some charting only)
SCALPING FRIENDLY:
- immediate execution of Market orders, as well as SLs, PTs, Limit orders (as I open and close vast majority of my trades manually, the 1st condition is the most important)
- low spread (mainly EUR/USD and AUD/USD)
- low commisions (I donīt mind paying commisions if itīs worth it)
- reliable price feed - no sudden spikes nowhere to be found in other brokerīs data etc.
After MANY hours browsing many forums, review websites, comparison sheets etc. etc., I narrowed my (I donīt say it applies generally) my selection to basically 4 brokers, sorted alphabetically:
1. Dukascopy - swiss bank (if you do finance, you know why swiss means business), respected ECN, but some reviews reported many problems with their platform, also problems with slippage, sudden price spikes, also they are not exactly the cheapest ones.
PROS - ECN, swiss bank, reliable, clean record, well established, flawless support, appropriate spreads, higher account leverage (100:1)
CONS - not exactly low commisions, platform technical problems, sudden price spikes, reviews claiming they take opposite trades
2. Interactive brokers - everybody knows them. They are one of the biggest in the business (talking about retail level), many report problems with their support, they are generally very cheap, but they focus mainly on futures and stock trading (if you are trading indices like E-mini Russell, they are obvious choice), their platform may be too complicated for some and also some (not me) might have problems with minimum deposit ($10k). High ranks by Barronīs on yearly basis.
PROS - US, UK based, reliable, clean record afaik, well established, overall cheap, big player
CONS - main focus on futures&stocks, complicated platform, bad support, min. deposit might be high for some
3. MB Trading - ECN, as IB, they are ranked high by Barronīs and many other, overall (spread+comm) they seem to be very cheap, although Iīve also stumbled upon some reviews complaining about their poor services (large slippage more than compensating low spread, slow execution, requoting, technical problems...), They support MT4 which might be advantage for some.
PROS - ECN, good reviews, clean record, seems to be reputable, very cheap, MT4 support
CONS - a few alarming reviews, support issues, not largely capitalized
4. Oanda - plenty of you guys use this one, although itīs the MM (you usually donīt want to scalp with market maker but theyīre said to be the "best" for scalping among them). But they openly admit it on their website and many favour Oanda for (at least they claim it) fair, transparent and opened environment which is more than a lot of brokers can offer. They are one of the big players as well although Iīve also read some disappointing reviews and they are not exactly cheap as well. They are also well known for huge spreads in news time.
PROS - well established, used by many scalpers, no commision, usually good spread, good platform, MT4 support
CONS - market maker, some reviews blame them of dirty tricks, not a clean record, huge spreads during events
******
Well, thatīs just about it. As written above, I welcome opinions from any experienced trader, primarily those, who have ANY experience with one of these (or obviously any other, if itīs a good experience). I will gladly add those you have good experience with on the list and into the poll.
Thank you for helping me to find the best current solution in the market for a scalper.
Happy pipping to you all.
NO FLAMING, NO BLAMING of brokers, I am ONLY interested in constructive opinions. NO NOOBS who just blew their account and blame everyone except for themselves.
Primary focus of this thread is to help myself obviously, but if it establishes itself and helps other traders as well, even better.
*****
Hi fellas,
Iīve been in the business for almost 2 years now (before - 3 years of studying and 1 year of demo trading), being scalping 99% of the time as itīs closest to my nature - and will very probably continue scalping further on.
Currently, my broker starts to slightly piss me off. I wont name him as I donīt want to make any harm to anyoneīs business and also, it might be just me, but the more I am successful, the more situations that I would describe as "dirty tricks" occur to me. Requoting, slippage, SL hunt, often disconnections of my platform at crucial moments, these are all part of the business, ey? No broker plays for you, itīs you against him. But there are certain boundaries and I feel as my account grows bigger, my broker is throwing bigger and bigger obstacles in my way.
******
Anyway...
As a scalper, what I am basically looking for is pretty obvious:
GENERAL:
- trustworthy - registered with authorities in respected country (US, Western Europe) and with clean record. No Cyprus, Russia or Cayman islands...
- big player - properly capitalized and with an established position and reputation in the market
- good, intuitive and reliable platform (MT4 is not necessary, I use it for demo purposes and some charting only)
SCALPING FRIENDLY:
- immediate execution of Market orders, as well as SLs, PTs, Limit orders (as I open and close vast majority of my trades manually, the 1st condition is the most important)
- low spread (mainly EUR/USD and AUD/USD)
- low commisions (I donīt mind paying commisions if itīs worth it)
- reliable price feed - no sudden spikes nowhere to be found in other brokerīs data etc.
After MANY hours browsing many forums, review websites, comparison sheets etc. etc., I narrowed my (I donīt say it applies generally) my selection to basically 4 brokers, sorted alphabetically:
1. Dukascopy - swiss bank (if you do finance, you know why swiss means business), respected ECN, but some reviews reported many problems with their platform, also problems with slippage, sudden price spikes, also they are not exactly the cheapest ones.
PROS - ECN, swiss bank, reliable, clean record, well established, flawless support, appropriate spreads, higher account leverage (100:1)
CONS - not exactly low commisions, platform technical problems, sudden price spikes, reviews claiming they take opposite trades
2. Interactive brokers - everybody knows them. They are one of the biggest in the business (talking about retail level), many report problems with their support, they are generally very cheap, but they focus mainly on futures and stock trading (if you are trading indices like E-mini Russell, they are obvious choice), their platform may be too complicated for some and also some (not me) might have problems with minimum deposit ($10k). High ranks by Barronīs on yearly basis.
PROS - US, UK based, reliable, clean record afaik, well established, overall cheap, big player
CONS - main focus on futures&stocks, complicated platform, bad support, min. deposit might be high for some
3. MB Trading - ECN, as IB, they are ranked high by Barronīs and many other, overall (spread+comm) they seem to be very cheap, although Iīve also stumbled upon some reviews complaining about their poor services (large slippage more than compensating low spread, slow execution, requoting, technical problems...), They support MT4 which might be advantage for some.
PROS - ECN, good reviews, clean record, seems to be reputable, very cheap, MT4 support
CONS - a few alarming reviews, support issues, not largely capitalized
4. Oanda - plenty of you guys use this one, although itīs the MM (you usually donīt want to scalp with market maker but theyīre said to be the "best" for scalping among them). But they openly admit it on their website and many favour Oanda for (at least they claim it) fair, transparent and opened environment which is more than a lot of brokers can offer. They are one of the big players as well although Iīve also read some disappointing reviews and they are not exactly cheap as well. They are also well known for huge spreads in news time.
PROS - well established, used by many scalpers, no commision, usually good spread, good platform, MT4 support
CONS - market maker, some reviews blame them of dirty tricks, not a clean record, huge spreads during events
******
Well, thatīs just about it. As written above, I welcome opinions from any experienced trader, primarily those, who have ANY experience with one of these (or obviously any other, if itīs a good experience). I will gladly add those you have good experience with on the list and into the poll.
Thank you for helping me to find the best current solution in the market for a scalper.
Happy pipping to you all.
Quant Hedge Fund CEO