Please be as critical as possible, b/c I'm choosing one of these guys. And feel free to add your own favorite, supplied with reasons. Keep in mind I'm an American resident.
Don't want to admit it, but after a week, or more precisely 15+ hours of researching brokers , I've came to a list of 4, from best to worst:
1) Alpari (US) Pro w/ Alpari Direct Currenex.
2) MB Trading w/ MBT Desktop Pro.
3) ATC w/ MT4.
4) Fast Brokers w/ Pathfinder or Ninjatrader.
Criteria in order of importance:
[X] ECN
[X] Low spreads+commissions. See below.
[X] No NFA actions. Coincidentally this didn't filter much, and I still considered brokers that had violations. Searched here: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/
[X] Year founded. Plus overall popularity, b/c the more profitable a honest broker is, the less likely he is to screw us over later and ruin a hard-earned, clean image.
Costs:
Went here http://www.fxintel.com/
Took a few samples of the hourly average of EUR/USD, AUD/USD and GBP/JPY (for variety) for initial screening. Then took a few samples of the average of all of the majors for second screening. For the top 4, their typical average of the majors spread + commission:
Alpari Pro: $1.20
ATC: $1.45
Fast: $1.65
MBT: $1.75 (EDIT: Didn't carefully consider MB's limit order promotion!)
Sample size isn't large to know the exact average, what's important is the differences.
Year founded:
MBT 1999
Fast 2004
ATC 2005
Alpari 2006
Don't want to admit it, but after a week, or more precisely 15+ hours of researching brokers , I've came to a list of 4, from best to worst:
1) Alpari (US) Pro w/ Alpari Direct Currenex.
2) MB Trading w/ MBT Desktop Pro.
3) ATC w/ MT4.
4) Fast Brokers w/ Pathfinder or Ninjatrader.
Criteria in order of importance:
[X] ECN
[X] Low spreads+commissions. See below.
[X] No NFA actions. Coincidentally this didn't filter much, and I still considered brokers that had violations. Searched here: http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/
[X] Year founded. Plus overall popularity, b/c the more profitable a honest broker is, the less likely he is to screw us over later and ruin a hard-earned, clean image.
Costs:
Went here http://www.fxintel.com/
Took a few samples of the hourly average of EUR/USD, AUD/USD and GBP/JPY (for variety) for initial screening. Then took a few samples of the average of all of the majors for second screening. For the top 4, their typical average of the majors spread + commission:
Alpari Pro: $1.20
ATC: $1.45
Fast: $1.65
MBT: $1.75 (EDIT: Didn't carefully consider MB's limit order promotion!)
Sample size isn't large to know the exact average, what's important is the differences.
Year founded:
MBT 1999
Fast 2004
ATC 2005
Alpari 2006