I've found a new tool to research broker performance.
I noticed on the MYFXBOOK WEBSITE, that you get a realtime picture of all broker's spreads sampling for 10 different pairs.
These are all the brokers that deal with myfxbook.
I picked out the best ones, clicked on their details, and you then get a comparison for each spread, versus all the various brokers.
It seems to be always the same brokers who have a MASSIVE difference in spreads, either in the positive or negative, with all the others. While most have a deviation of a few pips at most, the worse ones have deviations in the hundreds of pips!
Attention, I'm not spamming! I'm just posting some links to better illustrate what I'm talking about.
Here are the brokers, and the spreads in realtime:
Spreads | Myfxbook
I picked one out of the bunch, that consistently had very low spreads (in their 25,000euro min deposit account - this illustrates the importance of verifying which account they are quoting)
Compare Sensus Capital Markets Broker Quotes | Myfxbook
and you will notice, that while the majority of brokers have a deviation in the less than one pip, some brokers have very large differences. (at the time of writing this, AVA had a difference of over 450 pips!). My best guess, is that the brokers with the insane spreads are actually acting as market makers, quoting prices that favor their position in a pair, until the market evens out.
You can get other useful information from that website too, like volume per pair, if you want to make sure that your orders get prompt execution in volatile times.
How to navigate their site: look at the menu bar on top, right below the top banner ad. on the right, there is a tab called brokers. under brokers, you'll see useful comparisons like spreads, swaps, volume.
According to that website, the brokers that I have identified, at the time I was perusing the site, as having
abnormal discrepancies with the market, are the following:
(note that some only have severe discrepancies in some pairs - for example, Admiral markets does well on most pairs, but at time of writing, they had more than 900 pips difference with the market mean on the CADCHF pair, but seemed OK with most other pairs I click on. mind you, it's not the worse in the list... at the same moment, Easyforex has a 2.1K pips difference on the AUDCHF pair!).
This list compiled with the following pairs on 24 March 2014 afternoon gmt-4, by simply adding the pips spread of all of them:
EUR/USD GBP/USD USD/JPY GBP/JPY USD/CAD EUR/AUD EUR/JPY EUR/GBP NZD/USD USD/CHF
afx capital
ava fx
easyforex
exness ecn
fibo
fxdd
forex place
fxclearing
fxPrimus ecn
fxsalt
fxstart
gallant capital markets pro
gftforex (XAU)
markets.com
mbtrading
roboforex
trader's way
tradeview
Later on, 25march2014 02:00 with the following pairs:
GBP/USD USD/JPY USD/CAD EUR/AUD EUR/JPY AUD/NZD CAD/JPY EUR/CAD GBP/CAD USD/CHF
(note, this isn't your usual roster of pairs, to get a better random sampling (yet nothing too exotic), rather than the pairs many brokers lower, knowing those may be the only ones looked at (ie: EURUSD))
afx capital
alpari
ava fx
easyforex
exness ecn
fibo
fxdd
forex broker inc
forex place
fxclearing
fxopen
fxoptimax
fx solutions
fxPrimus ecn
fxsalt
fxstart
gallant capital markets pro
gftforex (XAU)
ikon
instaforex
liteforex
markets.com
mbtrading
roboforex fix cent
sunbird
tradefort
tradeview
x-trade brokers
Some had a sum-total of all spreads in pips that were abnormally high. Those include: AFX, FIBI, FXstart, Ikon, Instafored, Liteforex, Markets.com, Sunbird. As you will note, when you move off the beaten path of advertised pairs, the picture can change quite a bit.
I could give you the brokers that consistently showed lowest spreads. However, that may be misleadign and unfair for some of them, because it doesn't give you the complete picture: do they use a platform like MT4 where they can see your stops and orders, how much slippage is there with their servers (or business model), and what is the latency on trades and fullfillment rate and execution time? If you are quoting the world's lowest spreads but make up for it my inserting slippage, what good are those numbers?
For example, the company AGEA has chosen to establish their offices in a country where forex is NOT regulated - if they took this decision, will you make the decision to trust them and their numbers?
Also, don't forget that you still need to do your due dilligence (homework), on many things, including whether they are regulated, where the office that handles YOUR geographical location is regulated and if you have the same guarantees or recourses as their other clients dealing with their main office, etc.
Please feel free to add, update, or correct this list, to keep it current.