How to Choose the Right Broker, Platform, and Trading System
You don’t need to use your phones, go to your bank or employ an investment consultant with a diploma in order to trade the Forex market. All you need to do is choose the right forex broker and the best trading platform for you and simply open an account.
Types of brokers:
There are two types of brokers, brokers with a Dealing Desk and brokers with No Dealing Desk.
The following table explains the 2 main groups of brokers:
| Dealing Desk (DD) | No Dealing Desk (NDD) |
| Spreads are fixed | Variable spreads |
| Trade against you (takes the opposite position to yours). Market makers | Operate as bridges between traders (customers) and liquidity providers (banks) |
| Quotes are not precise. There are re-quotes. Can manipulate prices | Real-time quotes. Prices come from market providers |
| Broker controls your trades | Automatic executions |
NDD brokers guarantee an unbiased trade, 100% automatic, without the intervention of dealers. Therefore, there cannot be a conflict of interest (it might happen with DD brokers, who serve as your banks and at the same time trade against you).
There are several important criteria for choosing your broker:
Security: We advise you to choose a broker who is subject to regulation by one of the major regulators – such as the American, German, Australian, British or French regulators. A brokerage that works without regulatory supervision at all might be suspicious.
Trading Platform: The platform has to be very user-friendly and clear. It also has to be simple to operate, and include all technical indicators and tools that you wish to use. Extras such as news sections or commentaries add to the quality of the broker.
Transaction Costs: You have to check and compare spreads, fees or other commissions if there are any.
Call to action: Accurate price quotes and fast reactions to your orders.
An optional practice account: Once again, we recommend practicing a little on your chosen platform before opening a real account.
Three simple, quick steps to start trading:
- Choosing an account type: Determines the capital that you wish to deposit, which derives from the amounts of money that you wish to trade with.
- Registration: Includes filling up your personal details and signing up.
- Account Activation: At the end of the process you get an email from your broker, with username, password, and further instructions.
Tip: Most of our most recommended brokers, such as eToro and AvaTrade, offer a personal account manager when depositing $500 or more in your account. A personal account manager is a fantastic and important service, which you definitely want on your side. It might be the difference between struggling and succeeding, especially if you are a beginner. An account manager will help you with every technical question, tip, trading advice and more.
Remember: Ask for a personal account manager when opening an account, even if it means calling the brokerage’s help desk.
We strongly recommend opening your account with the big, reliable and popular brokers from the FX Leaders recommended forex brokers site. They have already earned a high reputation and large, loyal clientele.
Practice
Go to your practice account. Once the trading platform is in front of you. Let’s do a little general review of what you have just learned:
Start to wander a little between different pairs and timeframes on the platform. Observe and spot different levels of volatility, low to high. Use indicators like Bollinger Bands, ATR and Moving Averages to help you with volatility tracking.
Practice Stop Loss orders on each of your positions. Get used to working with several levels of Stop Loss and Take Profit settings, based on your strategic management
Experience different levels of leverage
Start writing a journal