Forex Brokers - Helping to Maximize Your Success

Forex Brokers - Helping to Maximize Your Success

Forex Brokers—Your Ultimate Partners In Success

A Forex broker is a broker dealing in foreign exchange, just like real estate broker who deals in real estate and properties. Simply, a Forex broker is an advisor who advises you about the forex market. However, the Forex market is not the perfect place to play with as a novice and beginner as there are many criticalities involved along with much risk bearing capacities. Novices can very quickly get their fingers badly burnt. But inexperience is not the only reason to consider using a Forex broker to trade in the high-risk international currencies market.

So, the Forex broker is an advisor who advises you about the forex market and allows you to work for 24 hours a day with major currencies like EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF etc against the US dollar on the spot, i.e. according to the current prices on the forex international exchange market. But the level of profits depends only on your abilities as well as your timely decision.

Although the role of the Forex broker is relatively redundant as a result of technological advancement and increased awareness, we cannot completely underestimate his role. The new paradigm shift has had something of a democratizing effect on the financial markets, and in the years that have followed a plethora of banks and brokerages have extended the range of their services to a new market by packaging up their online trading systems for the retail market, enabling the more modest investor to trade from their own computer screen - even on the previously out-of-reach currency markets. This is where the real role of Forex broker starts.

PIP is nothing special but Price Interest Points. In the forex market, currencies are always priced in pairs. The quoted price is the level where we, acting as the market maker, are willing to buy/sell the currency pair. In the wholesale market, currencies are quoted out to four decimal places, with the last placeholder called a point or a pip. A pip in most currencies is one /10,000th of an exchange rate (in USD/JPY, it is one /100th, likewise you can find for others).

Let’s see some more information about Spread. As with all financial products, forex quotes include terms like 'bid' and 'ask”'. The 'bid', in its simplest terms is the price at which a dealer is willing to buy (and clients can sell) the base currency in exchange for the counter currency. The 'ask' is the price at which dealer will sell (and clients can buy) the base currency in exchange for the counter currency. The difference between the bid and the ask price is referred to as the spread. The spread defines the trader’s cost, which can be recovered with a favorable currency move in the market. The value of a pip is determined by the pair of currencies being traded, the rate at which the currency pair is trading and the size of the position being traded.

Forex Brokers - Honest or Scam?

Forex Brokers - Honest or Scam?

by Danielle Franklin

Forex brokers - as forex traders we cannot live without them! They are our magic bridge between humble living and the vast world of forex market. And in order to survive in forex market you have to make sure that the forex broker you have picked is honest and reliable.

To everyone's regret, not all forex brokers are reliable though. So in order to avoid "I can't live with or without my broker" situation you have to check every term and condition of the forex broker you have picked. Don't let any condition or extra fee catch you by surprise. The more you know about your forex broker, the better!

In my opinion, the first thing you should check is support. While trading you can run into technical problems, find yourself asking trading questions or even be unable to locate your trading history. Forex broker should provide a fast and professional support to every question that might arise via chat, email or phone call. I think the best way to check this is to open a demo account and see how fast support answers your requests. After all, if a forex broker doesn't take a good care of potential traders what will happen when you turn into a real client? A professional forex broker will give an outstanding support, especially in technical area.

Second thing that I would check in a forex broker is leverage options. Just a reminder for those who forgot - leverage is like a loan. For example a leverage of 1:100 will turn your $1000 into $100,000. But, of course, never ever forget that there is a great risk involved with this trading option. I suggest not drooling over high leverage option. It might just be a perfect trap where you loose all your savings!

One more thing that is crucial in choosing the right forex broker is the spread. You might ask why to care about spread? If the spread is how forex brokers are getting paid for their service why would I care about it? Just a quick reminder, spread is a difference between buying and selling price. So the bigger the spread is, the more the exchange rate has to rise in your favor to break even. To make things short - avoid high spreads! Whenever you see spreads higher then, let's say, 6 pips, RUN!

Let's not forget the trading platform. There are two options web-based and download trading platforms offered by forex brokers. Which one is better? This is something you should decide for yourself. Whether download or web-based, make sure that the trading platform has every trading tool you need, including charts, news, available currencies etc.

Just to summarize - investigate, interrogate and cross-examine your forex broker before you jump in! Test your forex broker with demo accounts and make sure to read those extremely boring terms and conditions. Oh, and one more thing, don't miss anything written in tiny letters in beige font - it might just be another "invisible" extra fee.

There, I said it all. Here is the list of forex brokers that I believe to be honest and reliable, big thanks to ForexExplore Team.

Forex Brokers by Javid Shaik

Forex Brokers

by Javid Shaik

Forex brokers are in abundance and that makes it very hard for someone new to forex trading to decide which is the right company to go with.

First off, I am not an Introducing Broker or affiliated with any forex broker. An Introducing Broker otherwise know as IB or an affiliate is a person or organization promoting the broker in return for some form of commission either once off or ongoing. I have previously promoted a particular company from my website but soon realized that this is not in the best interest of my readers and now do not promote any forex brokers. Quite often IB's or affiliates will advertise brokers on their websites as graphics. I was on a seminar where the seminar company was heavily promoting a broker and offering all sorts of freebies if we signed up this weekend. It was clear they were some how associated with the broker and they were serving their own needs and not the seminar attendees requirements.

Never rush into signing up with a broker. You wouldnt buy a car without knowing something about it so don't rush into opening a broker account without knowing more about them.

Choosing a forex broker can be confusing but here are some tips to help you identify the qualities your broker should have.

Low Spreads: The spreads is the difference between the buy price and sell price and is measured in pips. Compare spreads across a few brokers and look for the brokers with smaller spreads.

Accounts: New forex traders should look to start trading with either a Micro or Mini account. Once experienced then a trader can move onto a Standard account. Your broker should offer a micro or mini account.

Regulation: The forex broker should be registered as a Futures Commission Merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CTFC).

Customer Service and Speed: Trading in forex is available 24 hours a day from Sunday evening until Friday evening. Customer service should be open during these exact times. Try calling the trading desk or helpdesk to see if they are open and check the speed at which they answer the phone. When in a trade the last thing a forex trader wants is to be kept waiting for the phone to be answered.

Trading Platform: If you use many different computers you may prefer the trading platform that is web based. If you will be trading from just one computer all the time then downloading and installing the software to your computer will be fine. Check to see if your broker is software based or web based. Some brokers offer both options which would be the better option.

How Many Currencies: Check to see what currencies they offer trading on. As a guidance confirm they trade most of the major pairs and all the ones that you may like to trade in addition.

Leverage: How much leverage does the broker offer? For inexperienced traders using mini accounts should not use too much leverage and 100:1 would be adequate in most cases.

Money: Check what the procedure is to fund your account and also to withdraw your profits including the time it takes to do both.

Tools: What tools are offered with the account? Some brokers offer an array of charting tools and although useful and well worth having I do not recommend relying on these solely for your trading. You get what you pay for and even though any free tools offered with the trading account is always great, a trader needs to invest in good tools to become a good trader. You can read more about the tools I use on my blog.

The above is just a guideline to help choosing the right broker. Dynamic Trader offers a forex blog for traders providing free forex lessons.

Forex Brokers - Be Careful Many of There Services Help You Lose!

Forex Brokers - Be Careful Many of There Services Help You Lose!

by kelly Price

You have a choice of lots of good forex brokers but most traders don't really understand that many of the services they offer will see you destroy your account.

Let's make a couple of points clear about the majority of forex brokers:

They are market makers this means when you lose they win as they take your account on there book - there interest is in you losing to make money. Now is this a bad thing?

No not at all it's why they are able to offer you such a great service and the fact they win when you lose helps them provide a service.

Don't fall for the myth that brokers hunt stops and try and make you lose - brokers don't bother. They know that the trader will beat himself without any help from them, so they don't need to.

95% of trading accounts get wiped out and that ends up in the broker's pocket.

So they offer great services but most traders don't know what to expect from a broker and misuse them and fail and keep in mind the broker is playing the odds of most traders losing and if you cannot use the services they provide properly that's your fault.

Leverage

You can get up o 400:1 with most brokers today and that's great but high leverage in a novices hands soon leads to wipe out just because you get given bi leverage doesn't mean you have to use it all! 10 20:1 is enough for most traders especially novice ones.

Low Minimum

You can open an account with $50 online today and while this allows anyone to get involved trading $50.00 is pointless as you will get destroyed by random volatility and of course leverage if you use it. Sure anyone can trade but forex trading needs a capital base which can allow you to take a few losses so think in the 1 - 5,000 as a minimum and 10 - 20:1 leverage as the maximum you should use.

Forex trading is all about staying power you are going to lose at some point and have drawdown and you need to ride these periods out and you wont do that on 50 or 100 bucks. If that's all you have, forget forex trading.

Broker Trading Guides and Research

Most of the critical info provided in the guides is nothing of the sort its stuff you can get anywhere online. Do you really need to be told to cut losses and run profits or you must be disciplined? Research is normally news stories and obvious technical levels - if you want to lose follow there research!

Demo Account

A good idea on learning the basics of the trading platform waste of time in seeing if you can win at trading. Many traders are good in demo account and then blow their accounts up in real time. Real time trading involves pressure and without it you don't have an authentic trading experience.

When you get a broker keep in mind all you need to do is select them on the basis of pip spreads, ease and reliability of trading platform use and the security of your money and then all the services offered to you be careful of them as they are double edged sword.

Brokers don't make you lose, they provide you with the base to win and offer excellent services but make sure you understand them and use them correctly.

Online Forex Brokers - A fantastic Idea for Novice Traders

Online Forex Brokers - A fantastic Idea for Novice Traders

by kelly Price

Will you make money at currency trading? This is a question most traders try and answer by trading a demo account - but the problem with demo accounts is there is no pressure, i.e no money on the line and it proves nothing.
Most traders who make money with demo account lose when they open an account with a forex broker. Now there is a fantastic way for traders to see if they have what it takes. There is a new account called a protected account and it acts as a bridge between a demo and a full trading account. The concept is:

The Protected Account works as a funded demo account in which the client pre-determines their risk level. Among its features are:

-Trade up to 100 times your initial deposit, even with a negative balance.

- Make as many trades as desired, 24 hours a day, using any currency pair.

- At the end of the a set period, (normally two weeks) any positive balance is the clients to keep the broker covers the losses. This has significant advantages over a demo account, as it simulates the feeling of trading real money on the Foreign Exchange and let's face it when money is on the line we feel and act differently.

Trading is probably 20&% method and 89% mindset and it's a fact that most traders fail because they don't trade with discipline.

To make money you not only need a method but you need the discipline to follow your method when the going gets tough. Its easy to score a penalty goal in your back garden but not so easy when its a huge game and you have to score to win and have 100,000 people watching you!

The Protected Account acts as a bridge between a demo account and a real one, providing an authentic trading experience, but of course the risk is managed and a huge advantage is - even if you go debit on the first day you can still keep trading so you get plenty of trades and plenty of practice.

These accounts are being now provided by forex brokers and they are a fantastic way to get your feet wet, before progressing to a full trading account and will help you determine if you have what it takes to become a successful forex trader.