What To Look For In A Forex Broker To Keep Your Money Safe, Get The Most Popular Trading Platform & Create The Best Trading Environment
One of the first decisions you need to make is what broker you are going to use.
A Forex broker is a firm that gives currency traders access to a platform where they can buy and sell foreign currencies.
Obviously, if you are to make real money trading Forex, you need to open a live, funded broker account in order to place your transactions. As you are probably well aware, there are a lot of considerations to take into account when choosing a broker.
To keep things short, look for a broker with these characteristics:
♦ A Broker That Offers The Free Metatrader4 Platform
This is an easy one, since most brokers offer the MT4 platform. Metatrader4 is the most popular trading platform and most widely used. I personally use the Metatrader4 Platform and recommend it.
The strategies I share and the trading tools I provide are for the MT4 platform, so to get the most out of my services, it is recommended to use the MT4 platform for your trading as well.
However, you can use any trading platform you wish, as long as you can place trades, move your stop loss and manually close trades.
♦ Make Sure The Broker Offers The Market You Want To Trade
You’ll want to make sure the broker you choose provides the market you want to trade. I use trading to accumulate wealth faster on my quest to secure my financial future. Therefore, I want to trade markets that provide for the best wealth accumulation opportunities.
Look for a broker that provides trading for various markets: Forex, Crypto, Indices, Commodities, etc.
Sometimes, what you are allowed to trade depends on the country you are from, so explore your options.
♦ Use a Regulated Broker
Where your funds are kept in segregated accounts at leading, accredited banks and fast and easy deposit and withdrawal options are available.
This means your funds are going to be safe and secure so you can concentrate on your trading and not waste time worrying about your money. It also means you should be able to fund and make withdrawals from your account without a hassle.
♦ Dealing Desk or No Dealing Desk?
A Dealing Desk broker is also called a Market Maker.
Market Makers are counterparty to the trader, meaning the trader does not trade directly with the liquidity providers. The broker is on the other side of your trade, meaning your losses are its profits.
A No Dealing Desk broker provides direct access to the interbank market. No Dealing Desk brokers can be Straight Through Processing (STP) where transactions are computerized and are immediately processed on the interbank market, or Electronic Communication Network (ECN) where they provide real time order book information offered by banks and the interbank market.
(Unlike the message of a lot of marketing information out there, you can make money or lose money with either a Dealing Desk Broker or a No Dealing Desk Broker. One type is not necessarily better than the other.The most important thing is to find a reputable broker from a respected country that is regulated).
The broker should have tight spreads, low slippage and fast trade execution. (You want the best trading environment possible so your trades reflect your trading decisions, and not discrepancies caused by the broker).
We personally look for brokers where the Daily Candle closes at 5 PM Eastern Time. (Most brokers use this time as the end of the day and the start of the next. I like to use this time period, and my trading systems results reflect trading on a broker where the daily candle closes at 5 PM Eastern Time).
There are many other things you are going to want to take into account, such as what country the broker is located in, funding and withdrawal methods, etc.
Many people realize their broker choice is important from the viewpoint of keeping their funds secure. But until you’ve been trading on a live account with a broker for a while, it is harder to tell how much your broker selection can affect your profits and trading results.
It is surprising to learn just how different your performance can be from one broker to the next when using Intraday or Scalping trading strategies.
However, my way of trading eliminates a lot of these problems. Since we are only trading once a day and placing one trade per account, the impact the broker you use on results is less. Similar results can be obtained regardless of the broker choice.
In conclusion, take the broker decision seriously. But don’t get bogged down and suffer from paralysis by analysis. Do your due diligence, make a decision and open an account.
The process of opening a broker account is usually very simple and straightforward. Once your account is accepted, make sure to fund it so you are ready to start trading.
♦ Which Broker Am I Using?
Taking everything into consideration, I am using RoboForex. They allow trading for all the assets I want to trade and provide good trading conditions. I especially like this broker for trading Crypto, as the market is open 7 days a week and they allow for 7 day a week trading.
Plus, they allow for the funding of accounts in Bitcoin. This means I can trade Bitcoin accounts and grow my Bitcoin holdings through trading. Then, if Bitcoin’s price continues to rise, I’ll have more of it. (This is a win-win).
As an added feature, they have a copy trade service called CopyFX where I can set up accounts where people can copy my trades on autopilot. This is a great option for people who don’t want to place the trades themselves.
Keep in mind, it is not necessary to use the exact same broker I do to get similar results. Depending on where you are in the world, some of you won’t be able to join this broker. But any broker you choose can work with my style of trading.
Anyway, I’ve been with this broker for a long time now and very satisfied.
♦ Opening & Funding A Live Account
Since there are so many different brokers out there from all over the world it is impossible for me to give you exact instructions on how to open an account.
But rest assured, the process is very simple.
- Go to the broker of your choice.
- Click on the button to open a live account.
- Follow the instructions.
Each broker will provide specific instructions on how to get your account up and running. Just follow the instructions.
Once you have your account, you will need to fund it. Again, the options available and how you want to fund your account will vary according to the broker and where you are in the world. But don’t worry, this is also a very simple process.
If you get stuck along the way, just contact your broker and they will be happy to help.
