Rewind few years and you will find that forex trading was considered an exotic activity only performed by major banks, multinational businesses and importers and exporters. Fast forward a few years, the activity has become a lot more mainstream. Due to global interaction regularly. Forex trading along with the number of traders and forex broker offering their services have observed a rapid rise in popularity over the past decade.
Why is Selecting a Broker an Important Decision?
It might sound a bit odd but the forex broker you select is going to be the biggest trade you will ever make. Why? Because you are handing over a substantial amount of capital to your broker along with your expectations of making profits after you withdraw it. You might have a great forex strategy that you plan to implement, but if your broker turns out to be a fraud and decides to run off with the money, all of your hard work and extensive research will amount to nothing.
How To Find The Best Copy Trading Forex Broker?
If you are new to forex trading working with a broker or trader can prove to be extremely helpful. There are, however, a lot of risks involved. With hundreds and thousands of forex brokers to choose from, selecting the right one can turn out to be a challenging and time-consuming process. It is even more perplexing to determine a broker that is reputable and can meet your demands. The straightforward criteria to use in selecting a broker is fairly simple.
So without further ado, let’s dive into some tips and tricks that will help you identify the perfect broker.
Trading Costs and Company Type
Various types of companies offer the services of retail forex trading. These may include dealers, brokers or ECN brokerages. Trading costs can vary from broker to broker depending on the type and quality of service they offer. The method implemented by brokers is called Straight Through Process (STP) method. In this method, the orders get executed by another party. Usually, brokerages will charge for their services via a bid-ask spread. However, if you are new to forex trading, seek out brokers that have a narrower spread on average so that you can reduce the cost of trading across various trades.
Trading Platforms
It is up to the trader to choose what kind of hardware and trading application they find more intriguing. Some traders prefer web-based applications, whereas others choose desktop software. The importance of choosing the right trading platform is crucial, especially if you are interested in copy trading. The trading platform should be fully optimized and reliable to avoid freezing and crashing. It should have the ability to constantly update itself so it can keep up with the global events and breaking news. Therefore, when it comes to searching for trading platforms, reliability is what you should be after with features and design being a close second.
Customer Service
Brokers vary greatly in the type of customer services they offer. Some may come to you like full-service brokerages offering access to a plethora of markets, services and trading platforms or discount brokerages which are fairly limited in the types of services they offer. Some brokers also refer to themselves as boutique brokers that offer custom based services that allow you to easily contact their customer care representative in case of issues and queries.
Regulation
Think of regulation as a form of insurance while hiring the services of a broker. Regulation when it comes to brokerages is of paramount importance and is undoubtedly the single most important factor to consider before choosing a broker. Whether or not your broker is regulated will decide if you can turn to it in case of a trade dispute. If your broker is unregulated, he can do whatever he pleases with your trading funds. These types of brokers are nothing more than a fraud that is scamming unwary trader. So, being aware of these online scams is extremely important. A trustworthy broker’s activity is always monitored by an official regulator whose job is to preserve the integrity of the brokerage operation. Regulated brokers have a license, so in this regard, it is also worth knowing about the year of licence issuance as it may also carry some significance.
Broker Types
The type of broker you opt for can also have a significant impact on your overall result and trading performance. Brokers usually offer one of the two services, dealing desk trading or no dealing desk trading. Few brokers may be offering both. If the broker is operating as a dealing desk, it will take the place of the trader’s position to ensure that the trader gets always exposed to a liquid trading environment. This trading option provides a predictable and constant spread, but it comes with the downside of restricting gain opportunities because the broker can fill the order on a discretionary basis.
When it comes to no dealing desk trading, the trader has access to pricing conditions in the market; This may be done through STP or via a communication network. No desk deal trading exposes traders to actual market prices but can suffer from variable spreads or thin liquidity.
Margin
Margin is something that a trader should also keep in mind while acquiring the services of a brokerage. It is essentially a loan offered by the brokerages that assist the trader in increasing their initial capital and therefore increase the total amount of profit earned while withdrawing it. The traders should keep in mind that a large margin while being enticing is a very risky endeavor as this can multiply their losses as well.
Test Your Broker Personally
By now your list of possible brokers should be smaller. But do not make a decision yet. Instead, try testing out your broker personally before you hand them over your trading funds. To do this, you can open a demo account and observe it for several weeks. If everything is going according to plan, then you can look forward to opening a live account. Now you can deposit the rest of your trading capital and commence trading as usual.
The Bottom Line
As reiterated several times above, selecting the right broker will greatly impact your trading venture. To increase your chances of success, you need a well-regulated broker, features a convenient trading platform, provides excellent services at competitive market rates and synergizes with your trading style. It might be a dauntless task, but a must-have if you want to be successful at Forex trading. There are a lot of copy trading brokers out there, and with the right amount of research, you can find the one that best suits your needs.
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