FOREX broker suggestions?

[fxnewbie]

I would appreciate your advice on forex brokers that can accept $500 for a start .Kindly give names of such brokers that are registered with CFTC.

[Alb]

Have you looked at OANDA ?

[FOREXme]

There are many FOREX broker reviews on the internet. Beware, they are not all unbiased. Here is a suggestion. Research the difference between an ECN and a MM. Don't know what that means?

Be careful!

[abee]

I would appreciate your advice on forex brokers that can accept $500 for a start .Kindly give names of such brokers that are registered with CFTC.

Just take a look here (http://www.fxstreet.com/brokers/forex-brokers/) for brokerage list.

Hope this help

[FibMaster]

Spam alert? Agreed that is a list of brokers. But the quality of the list is suspect. Sure many of those brokers cater to smaller micro accounts, but beware.

Two of the larger ECN brokers are not even mentioned on that list.

I've seen Market Maker brokers actually increase the spread to 28 pips around news time. Guess what happens? All stop-losses get taken out within that pip range. No profitable exits, just stop losses. I'm speaking from experience on that one. Beware market makers.

I'm not recommending any brokers, but for smaller accounts, consider "EFX" (MB Trading), "HotSpot", and "Interactive Brokers" for your ECN alternatives. If you have a larger account (50,000, 100,000 or more), there are other ECN's that will serve you better.

It is certainly an understatement to say that it is no simple task to find the ideal forex broker, one who meets your every need and trading preference. The following is a short list of the major factors you might want to consider before you open an account and start active trading.

Brokers fall into one of two classifications – market makers (MMs) and those who offer Electronic Communications Network (ECN) trading. Market makers (MMs), the vast majority, offer traders the means to trade with and against the broker. MMs offer a single bid/ask price per currency pair. The second group, Electronic Communications Network (ECN) brokers, offer traders the ability to post their own bid/ask rates. As a result, traders often see multiple bid/ask prices driven not by the broker but fellow spot traders and liquidity providers. MMs offer fixed spreads that on average range from a 1 1/2 to 5 pips. Spreads on ECN platforms are driven by demand and typically range from 0 – 3 pips. While a very small number of MMs charge a transaction fee, the vast majority do not. ECN brokers charge a nominal transaction fee which ranges from $4 to $10 a round turn ($2 to $5 a side) per standard lot.

Brokers offer leverage anywhere from 50:1 to 400:1. Generally speaking, the lower the initial deposit requirement, the higher the leverage offered. Brokers who offer 400:1 leverage appeal to traders willing to take greater risk. Those offering 50:1 have a tendency to appeal to conservative traders.

The speed at which a live order is filled. A delay of a second is common place but any greater delay is a sign that the broker doesn’t have enough liquidity to cover the position, the broker doesn’t have enough bandwidth to handle active trading, or the broker is manually controlling the order fulfillment process. Execution times in a demo account should never be used as a measure of a broker’s ability to fill an order. Demo platforms offer unlimited liquidity so there is nothing (except limited bandwidth) to delay order fulfillment. Of all of the factors to be taken into consideration, in the end this is by far the most important.

Much of the information for this post comes from the following web page. Serious traders should read that page carefully..
http://www.forexinterbank.com/trading.php

[ownshook]

With a small starting capital, you may want to look into Oanda.

The main benefit is you are not subject to a strict micro (1000) - mini (10000) - standard lot (100000) setup. You can trade any amount such as 1/2 a mini @5000.
The maximum leverage they have is 50:1

Strong company with a, I believe, $49 million backbone far and above the NFA new regulation.
http://www.nfa.futures.org/
http://www.nfa.futures.org/compliance/forex.asp

I personally use Oanda at this time.

[ownshook]

Wanted to post this pdf link to the cftc.gov website listing the latest financial data for brokers. The minimum requirment is $5 million. I correct my last post to say the backbone of Oanda is actually $159 million.

http://www.cftc.gov/files/tm/fcm/fcmdata1107.pdf