Forex Peace Army Education>

[dances with Forex]

Can someone advise how to view the responses referenced by "More replies below current depth"? I click on the link, and it only takes me to Pharoah's first post. Nothing lopens up or looks any different at the top directory, either.

[9ja]

...As far as which countries have the best regulations, I read somewhere that Canada actually insures the balance in your account against the broker going out of business (but not against losing trades). I think if the Swiss get through their current regulatory fiasco, they will probably be pretty good. I'm not sure about the rest of Europe.

NFA in the US and FSA in the UK are ok. At least they provide you with some method to complain if your regulated broker starts doing strange things. Maybe one of our UK based traders can give some more info on comparing the NFA and the FSA.

Pharaoh's contribution on the vexatious issue of genuine and fair dealing brokers is quite timely. Am also aware of Felix's first shot on this issue but was not comfortable with an endorse that was not global in its operations but is rather discriminatory in its clientèle for geographic reasons.

As for brokers being regulated, let me quote my text reply earlier today when a friend asked:"As for regulation, once you are based outside EUROPE/USA, trading becomes a gamble. And if you are based in Africa, then it becomes a double jeopardy". This is so because in the event of a dispute, mere letter writing and telephone calls will not solve your problem. What with VISA restrictions etc.

I implore Pharaoh to do further research on this issue as to provide us with options as variety is the spice of life. Hopefully, competition may then force MBT out of its slumber as to make them more proactive.

9ja

[piphog]

I'm absolutely shocked that margin requirements and/or leverage flexibility are not even mentioned as considerations. If you're stuck with 100:1 like with 90% of the garbage brokers, this is not good, it's not the same to take a 100K position leveraged 99% as it is to take a 100K position that is leveraged only 10:1 with 10K margin requirement. It's laughable for anyone who has worked with a hedge fund or investment bank to see any of these "experts" recommending brokers with 100:1 fixed leverage. Sorry to be a broken record, but this is a serious issue that causes serious problems and trading 100:1 is NOT proper! I used to love Felix and the bunch, but then when i seriously got into fund management and pit-trading, i realized how absurd it is to take these 100:1 positions. Risk management is one thing, but leverage is a different sort of issue, you can risk 5% of your account or whatever and if that 5% is leveraged to the hill it's not the same as if it's not!

[Pharaoh]

As mentioned, different people have different requirements. Also, just because you have 100:1 (or 10:1 or 400:1) doesn't force you to trade that much. 1 pip is still $10 for a full lot on xxxUSD pairs no matter what your margin is.

Following simple risk management strategies can keep you from quickly getting into trouble no matter what margin you have available. Just determine the maximum amount of money you can risk losing and the stoploss you need. This will let you calculate the maximum number of lots (or mini, micro, or nano lots) you can use for any one trade.

Read this if you need more info on risk management:
How to Manage Risk while Forex Trading

[dances with Forex]

Maybe you can advise me, Pharoah. I'm getting emails that there are more responses to posts in this thread; but I can't see them. There is a link that says "More replies below current depth..." but the link takes me your original post. And nothing more shows up in the thread window than before. Who can advise?

[Pharaoh]

That's truly odd. Must be a quirk of being subscribed to the thread and following the link in the emails.

Try navigating to the thread by clicking "Education" from the top menu, then "Forex Basics Boot Camp", then click on the thread and see if it will let you view all the replies.

Of course, if you can't see all the replies, you might not see this.

[lkdolz]

dear Mr pharaoh,

I need you to send me a 4-broker list,that will meet my short absolute requirement and they are:

1. Regulated both(government and private).

2. Operate a micro acc. size

3. Minimum opening acc. fee of $500.00

4. Metatrader platform.

5. Low bank-wire charges.

6. Accept clients from my country(Nigeria).

7. And must be from England.

TO avoid any form of advertisement,you can get across to me by lkdolz@gmail.com
your speedy response will be highly appreciated.thanks

[Pharaoh]

Hi Lkdolz,

You have a reasonable set of requirements, so should be able to find a broker that meets them by following the method laid out on the first page of this thread.

I can save you some time. Start with the requirements that will eliminate the most brokers. Many brokers around the world use MetaTrader, so don't use that first. I'd suggest starting with brokers in the UK, then see if they accept clients from your country. That should give you a smaller list to work from for checking the other requirements.

[PistolDave]

Salute to you Pharoh. Thanks for taking the time to help us.

Can you explain why some brokers are set up for trading using the Metatrader platform and others don't use it? I have heard that if a broker uses it then they are most likely a dealing desk or "bucket shop" and they tend to take the opposite side of your trade. I don't like the implications of that. I have checked out so-called "ECN" brokers like MB Trading and Hotspot. They seem to get mostly good reviews but they don't use Metatrader platform so that seems to rule out the use of the EAs that I would like to trade with which run on MT4. Is there any way around this problem?

I'm open to any ideas you can suggest, or any thoughts on this situation, since it is one of the main issues I have left to deal with in my selection of a broker.

Thanks in advance for your help.
------- PistolDave

[Pharaoh]

MetaTrader is probably the most common platform you will encounter. Although many brokers have claimed they passed orders from MT4 straight through to their liquidity providers (STP - Straight through processing) there have been issues with this. There are even reports of special server-side plugins that delay the order for 1-5 seconds and fill it at the worst price (from the trader's perspective) available during that time.

The good news is that there are reports of major improvements in connections to liquidity. Several MT4 brokers now claim success with STP and others are claiming to be about to have full ECN abilities. I haven't personally evaluated these claims, so don't want to name the brokers involved.