Listed below are all the brokers from our database that offer ECN (Electronic Communication Network) and STP (Straight-through Processing). This is important to many traders because it is closer to trading in the interbank market than what Market Makers can offer. ECN brokers offer deeper liquidity, more transparency, often (though not always) lower transaction costs, and perhaps most importantly, no manipulation of prices or execution, as there is no monetary incentive to do so. Please note that all the brokers listed here offer ECN style trading, but not necessarily to all account holders - there may be conditions that need to be met for ECN/STP accounts are enabled. Please read through the reviews in their entirety and contact the brokers themselves to ensure all information is satisfactory to you before opening a live trading account.
Silver (XAG), while somewhat correlated with Gold, does tend to do its own thing at times - financial markets do still rely on real supply and demand to some degree. If you are looking for a forex broker that offers clients the ability to trade silver, see the listing below. Please note that in most cases silver is traded against USD (US Dollar) but some brokers also offer XAG/EUR, XAG/AUD etc.
Alpari NZ (not the same company as Alpari UK or US), enjoys one of the best reputations for honesty among all retail forex brokers. There are numerous reports on the internet about Alpari spontaneously returning customers' money on orders that didn't get filled properly as a result of some error on Alpari's part. This is almost unheard of in the retail forex world, as most traders have to fight tooth-and-nail with their brokers for every pip. If this is the sort of service you value, and you should, then look no further than Alpari.
Location:
New Zealand
Guaranteed stop losses:
No
Swap-free accounts:
$10 per standard lot (100,000) round turn trade. Trade can be held for unlimited time period.
DeltaStock offers some of the best trading conditions available, even among other premier forex brokers. In fact, we were so impressed with DeltaStock, that it is actually difficult to find anything negative to say about them. The only borderline negatives are that the Delta Trading platform is a bit complicated and difficult to manage with all those separate windows flying around, but really, for a platforms with so much functionality, it is a very minor complaint. Any trader that considers himself/herself a professional, cannot at the same time say that they are put off by slightly steeper learning curve in exchange for a wealth of functionality. Despite this however, MT4 is on offer if you prefer simplicity (or auto trading).
Location:
Sofia, Bulgaria
Guaranteed stop losses:
No, all orders are executed at best available price.
AFB FX is a forex and OTC futures broker based in Cyprus. By far the best feature offered by AFB FX is the availability of Professional Accounts, which offer highly flexible trading conditions. The spreads, margin requirements and virtually all other parameters are negotiable on Professional Accounts, making them the preferred choice among account managers. Having said that though, most of the other accounts also offer trading conditions that are quite reasonable.
Location:
Cyprus
Guaranteed stop losses:
Yes, limit and stop orders are guaranteed against slippage, except under market conditions
Swap-free accounts:
Yes - no extra charges and available to everyone, not just Islamic traders
If you are looking for a strong Asian forex broker offering, you are well advised to at least consider InstaForex, as it is one of the most successful brokers to come out of Russia (and that is saying a lot when considering that Alpari and EXNESS are both originally Russian). In fact, InstaForex was named the best broker in all of Asia in 2009 and 2010, beating out some fairly tough competition.
Location:
Russia
Guaranteed stop losses:
No, all orders are executed at best available price
Swap-free accounts:
Yes - no extra fees are incurred on Islamic style accounts
Hantec Markets offers professional traders a very solid forex trading package, along with all the advantages and disadvantages that the MT4 and Currenex platforms come with. The great thing is that you get access to a real ECN and can trade to something very similar to the interbank market (although not in the interbank market itself). You can see the liquidity and pending orders, you can use complex order types such as if/then and one-cancels-other (OCO), and make use of many other professional level features available on Currenex.
Location:
London, UK
Guaranteed stop losses:
No, all orders are executed at best available price
