Testing Brokers and Tools

I am currently evaluating where to make my Forex trades:

Forex.com. Easy to use interface, both 1:100, 1:200 margins. However, the 5 pips spread is just too high price for me to pay. Their customer service was fast to respond.

Amibroker charting tool. Excellent tool. Since I am a computer professional, I can appreciate the built in features they provide. Can work with eSignal and other data feeds. Programable in Amibroker Formula Language. Amibroker is head to head with Tradestation and eSignal.

Oanda.com. Tight spread. Excellent tools such as "open positions summary", trading hours, currency converter. Unfortunately, requires a separate charting tool to use. The fxgame only has 1:40 leverage, not too much.

MIG Investments: http://www.migfx.ch/. It uses "MetaTrader"platform with 2-3 pips spread: http://www.metaquotes.net/ It is a good trading platform with some nice feature like scripts, automatic execution, etc. however, I did not like the way the charts are moving around. It is very nice how you can graphically set your stop loss/take profit limits.

Saxo Bank: http://www.saxobank.com/. It is a well respected bank offering not just "spot" Forex but many more products to trade on. When I was using the platform, the spread fluctuated, however, it is good feature that you get sell/buy quotes to one lower digit than on most platforms. The wide range of Forex products also makes this platform good to have.The margin, however, is only 1:50. One more reason to visit http://www.saxobank.com/ is its considerable education available on the website for free. One of the surprise of this platform for me was when it started to play even a recorded television program from that day.

Canadian MarketMaker Demo from CMC Markets: http://www.cmcmarkets.ca/. The demo tool was so sluggish that I just stop using it. On the positive-side, the large quote screens make it very easy on the eye and to the point for the Forex trading. CMC Markets is one of the market leaders so I was really surprised on the very beginning level of their trading course sample chapter and the slow tool. It is probably excellent for beginners but I had a feeling that they made Forex trading sound too easy.

eSignal: Market leading data feed provider. Also a tradestation. One of the cool things I found with it was that it can give me quotes from several brokers at the same time. Provides Forex feed from over 200 sources and programable in Javascript. For Forex, I would say the price outweights the benefits.

www.ixspreads.com, www.wordspreads.com: Offers 1-pip tradnig on my favourite currencies. It has no charts or special service but the rate it offers is excellent. Charts can be used with another platform.

Cyber Trader Pro: An decent level-2 trading platform. Unfortunatly, I dod not see Forex support, only futures. I will come back with more review later as it is part of my training course that I am just taking for 2 weeks.



IFX Markets, www.cbfx.com: A nice looking platform (see apicture attached). It has some news and the basic charting features including technical studies organized in a very useful way. Leverage 1:100, 2 pips on my currencies, and for some mysterious reason they also charge a 1.25$ transaction fee.

IFX Markets: www.ifxmarkets.com: This website (same company as above, different website) offers 3 pips on currencies.

GFX Forex, www.forex.ch: 2-pip spread (3-pip on USD/JPY), 1:200 leverage, lot sizes can be changed very flexibly and it also has HUF/USD. Cool feature that I can have opposite positions open at the same time without needing to offset them against each other. Unfortunatly, it is too basic platform for me and the news provides is not enough for my needs.

www.ProRealTime.com: Provides a trading station. Cool feature that it is java based so I can use it from anywhere with or without my computer. Another cool feature that the windows are no longer tied to a background window but I can place them freely anywhere. 2-pip on JPY. Unfortunatly, each trade has a considerable broker fee and I did nto see leverage on Forex data - probably looked at the wrong place? It is possible to code alerts and backtesting. Merlin's platform. Webiste: www.townsendanalytics.com

TradeStation, www.tradestation.com: Market leading tradestation, clearly a recommended platform. It is the platform of the famous "EasyLanguage". On Forex, it offers 1:100, 3 pips trading with GAIN Capital as the broker. Tradestation is head to head with Amibroker and eSignal on the market.

GCI Financial: http://www.gcitrading.com. Market leader in CFD market. Platform is 3-pips, 1:200. Java based. Good thing about it that a single chart list the most important indexes, metals, and currencies. Charting tool is not the best but useable for the purpose, and historical data does not go back to far, unfortunatly. It also has a WIndows downloadble platform (faster to launch). It has all the relevant basic funcionalities like possibility to trade several accounts, trailing stops. What I really liked about it that it had all the relevant indexes, some important shares, and forex in one single screen and you can put up real-time tick level charts.

www.easy2spreadbet.com: They offer usual spread bettin platform. 1:200 on currencies, however, I am not sure if they keep 3-pip spreads for JPY or they can make it bigger.

Interbank FX, www.interbankfx.com: They use the same trading platfrom as MIG Investments above. However, they only offer 3-pip spread for JPY. The good thing of using companies like Interbank FX that they have back-up servers in case one accidentally brakes down and the professional platform can connect to any platform.



Cantor Index, www.cantorindex.co.uk: One of the oldest spread betting companies. In UK spread betting is tax free. For my Forex trading, they have way too wide spreads. However, since they have lost of products. The best feature is the ability to spread bet from a Pocket PC which is a very decent platfrom. One reason there are so many spread betting companies currently, is the white labeling they provide at Cantor.



Tradeindex, http://www.tradindex.com/. Another mobile spread bet provider. The cool thing about this website that no need to log in to be able to view the bets: a fast way to look up some data. You can use any browser-enabled mobile device to access them.

City Index, www.cityindex.co.uk. Offers both spread and CFDs. They also have some well-advertised partnership programs.

IG Index, www.igindex.co.uk: Another mobile enabled platform for spread betting. It has excellent spreads. Unfortunatly, it was not possible to open a "demo account". However, the platform they provide seem to be a decent one.

Capital Spreads, www.capitalspreads.com: Another spread betting company. It offered 3-pip on JPY, however, the platform itself is very slow to use for my style.

Cantor Fitzgerald Group, http://www.cantorindex.co.uk/index.jsp.

Berkeley Futures Limited, www.bfl.co.uk: They offer 3-pip java based platform support also conditional orders. The cool thing about the company that they can trade on all major UK, US, European exchanges.

REFCO www.refco.com: A range of products and services. The article annoucing REFCO FX ProTrader, however, has 4-pip on JPY which is too much, I think.

Fidelity.com: Offers a wide range of tools to equity traders. Since I am interested in Forex, I did not pilot them.

EFXGroup, www.efxgroup.com: Acces to several banks system, lower than 1-pip spread plus commission. Very competetive approach to forex. Their platform even features a level-2 information panel which is very unique on Forex. (Must watch this platform.)

FXDD, www.fxdd.com: They claim to be one of the largest Forex dealers and they also support MetaTrader platform.

E*Trade, www.etrade.co.uk: E*Trade Professional provides 3-pip on JPY. It is the one of the market leaders in the UK market, they provide about 100 currency pairs just in Forex market and acces to US and UK stocks. They also provide streaming news on Forex.

GNI Touch, www.gnitouch.com: Another leading firm with wide range of products. Unfortunatly 5-pip was on JPY on the screen shots.

IG Markets, www.igmarkets.com: Market leader firm. 3-pip on JPY. A very large range of products in various markets and exchanges.

Barcleys Stockbrokers, www.stockbrokers.barclays.co.uk: I did not see Forex on this site, unfortunatly.

Charles Schwab, www.charlesschwab.co.uk: Another market leader, providing some excellent services. However, I did not see clearly how they support Forex.

TD Waterhouse, www.tdwaterhouse.co.uk: Another respected market leader, providing some excellent investment services. However, not so much information on direct trading and Forex.

RealTick, www.realtick.com: Trading tool. A market leader. One of the oldest. (Check for Forex history!)

EASCTrend, www.ablesys.com: It is a very advanced trading platform. However, it uses "black box" approach that is not sympatetic to me. On the other hand, it is possible to couple it with Realtick, for example.

IBTWS, www.interactivebrokers.de: One of the tradestations with automatic order routing. JPY was on 1 pip and sometimes even less!

Ninjatrader, www.ninjatrader.com: A tradestation. It can trade with several brokers and accounts. Forex data?

Dynaorder, www.dynaorder.com: A tradestation. Forex?

Bracket Trader, www.brackettrader.com: A tradestation. Forex?

Dysen, www.fipertec.de: A programable tradestation. Forex?

www.ckeppler.de: Excel based trading routins. Unfortunatly, the website is not in English. Forex?

Aquarius by Communicating Limited: TODO: check. It is a tool for spread traders calculating future prices fast. Tool can help to minimize spreads by finding even 10-legged trades.

ActivTrades, www.activtrades.com: The importance of this broker that they are http://www.toptradercup.com prefered broker that available also in English and runs Forex. It is a 3-pip on JPY. This is a championship I want to try my hands on.

Cantor CFDs, http://www.cantorcfds.co.uk/CFDHome.cfm: UK market leader in CFDs.

FuturesBetting.com: Spread bets on futures.

MetaStock Pro FX, www.equis.com: Reuters owned company equis can now integrated to MetaStock Pro FX software. Check for historical data (Reuters is a big player).

www.visualchart.com: I have not tested this. One of the nicer charting tools, some good features for scalpers.

neuimex.com: They have a Forex trading competition. Their website lists various market times. They use the very same trading terminal as MIG. They pip did not seem competative, however, they organize trader's competitions that can be important.

J-Trader, IQ-Trader) www.patsystems.com: Use by some exchanged. I did not check it. It has some very interesting featues built in without programming, like trandline stops to name one.

www.fx-auto.com: They don't have backtesting data. However at http://www.fx-performance.com/ they list all the automated trading systems they support with profits, drawdowns, etc.

http://www.ac-markets.com/ Forex data provider

www.igmarketspro.com Spread betting on FX, options, indices, etc. Spread betting companies are a good alternative to buying expensive data feeds.

A list of Forex Broker is available here:

http://www.trade2win.com/knowledge/forex/brokers/

http://www.tradenavigator.net/ Provides data feeds and strategy development tool.

1 comment:

Spreadbetter said...

Hi, may I suggest you to add my trader website to your links section please (http://pfornai.blogspot.com/2007/01/brokers.html)

http://www.financial-spread-betting.com

I would of course be willing to reciprocate the link. Please contact me at trader@financial-spread-betting.com

thanks,

Andy