Forex Brokers and Spreads

Forex trades are constantly growing in popularity. New Forex broker companies are opening up at a very high rate. Many people who are accustomed to working in 9-5 jobs are leaving their jobs and starting to trade with hard currency. There are many explanations for the growth of the forex currency market, some of the most obvious is its size, its simplicity, and its potential benefits.

When one thinks about foreign exchange transactions compared to other world markets, such as the stock market, some very basic differences should come to mind. These include greater liquidity, more volatility, greater multiplier effect, as well as lower trading fees and lower costs. We have already talked about the liquidity, volatility and leverage offered in the forex, so now we are going to learn a little more about trading costs and commissions, compared to other global markets.

Take the stock market, for example. When one trades with stocks, which by the way is a very common phenomenon for currency traders to test stocks before currencies (a lot of people fail to trade stocks and then go back to the forex market, and with reason), the way the transactions are carried out is for the investor to make purchases and sales by paying commissions on both sides of the transaction. What does that mean? When you trade in shares, you usually do it in collaboration with a broker, who charges you a fixed amount per transaction, a dollar amount per share, or a scale commission based on the size of your transaction. This commission applies when you buy a stock, as well as when you sell it.

Now let's talk about Forex trading. The vast majority of online Forex brokers advertise in very large letters on their website that do not charge any commission for trades. With the exception of a few brokers, the currency market allows traders to open and close positions with no commission whatsoever.

Therefore, it does not cost anything to trade in Forex. This, of course, raises the obvious question: How do Forex brokers make money?

This is where it gets complicated. It is true that many brokers do not charge direct commissions for trading in the Forex market, but brokers dedicated to currency trading do not perform trades that tell traders the goodness of their hearts. You can be sure that they are profiting from your services and these are usually quite high. They charge what are known as spreads.

Before understanding what the spreads are and how they are calculated, it is important to understand a fundamental principle on how the Forex trading system works. Everything is based on supply and demand, just like any other market. If there is a greater demand for dollars, the value of the dollar rises against other currencies. This is precisely how spreads are defined and calculated.

The spread is the difference between the price at which a broker is going to buy the currency for you and the price at which it is sold. So, for example, if you open a position where the base currency is the dollar, and since there is no shortage of dollar demand, the spread of this operation will almost always be smaller than a spread for a less common currency . Why? This is again, by supply and demand. The agent will have no problem at all in selling the dollars you just bought, so you do not need to charge the operator, bone you, a higher spread. Now that, if the base currency of the position is the Vietnamese Dong, it is understood that it is very likely that the spread will be higher.

Another feature that Forex brokers take into account when calculating spreads is the type of account in which you are trading. Mini accounts are typically associated with higher spreads. This is, of course, because the agent has to compensate for the relatively low amount of capital being traded at a higher spread, so that he can make a profit.

Now that we have established how attractive Forex trading is, it is not totally free. Next we will establish the difference between the forex spreads and the commissions of the stock market. The main difference is that in the Forex, it is usually only charged the spread of a single side of the transaction, the buying side or the selling side. When you buy or sell the currency, it is when the brokers in general, get their benefits by charging the spread.

It is extremely important that Forex traders understand the importance of the spread when it comes to choosing a forex broker. The difference that a pip can make on the spread of a broker can be the difference between a successful Forex trader and one that fails completely in the currency trading market.

To summarize, let's look at a concrete example of a spread to understand exactly how it works. Let's say we have a USD / CAD purchase price of 120.00 (which is the price at which the agent is willing to buy the USD) and a sale price of 120.05 (the price at which the agent is willing to sell the USD ). In this case, the spread is equal to 0.05, or 0.0005 dollars, and the money goes directly into the pockets of the broker.

There is a lot more to say about spreads in the Forex market, such as if a broker offers fixed or variable spreads, but at least now you have a better understanding about what they are.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EXCELLENT BROKER

When choosing a Forex broker it is very common to research all the features that are available as they should directly affect your buying decision. While this makes sense as a consumer, some of the features may not be necessary, and frankly even be overbearing.

One of the biggest overrated features that is commonly found is something called Auto chartist. This piece of software, randomly, chooses the technical patterns in the table, putting them to your attention. In theory, it's a great idea. But the reality is that by using this software, you are doing nothing to advance your knowledge as a marketer. There is no reason to trade in the forex market if you are not willing to learn it.

Another big problem with this software is that often technical guidelines are given that are suspicious by nature. For example, a pennant pattern on the five-minute chart is nothing to worry about. While the pennant pattern is displayed on the weekly chart as well, the truth is that it shows too many poor quality patterns since the software seems to lack filters to keep away some of the technical adjustments that are not so relevant.

Other factors to consider

Forums are a complete waste of time when it comes to your Forex broker. Most of the forum discussions that can be seen in these topics tend to be non-real. In other words, it's just a lot of people lighting each other on the Internet. At best, you will have plenty of ignorant people trying to convince you that your trading setup is correct, even though you have no idea what they are doing. In the worst case, it becomes a primary school including insults and nicknames.

The analysis may be exaggerated at times. It all boils down to the particular analyst that the company hires. Most of the known analysts are working for the larger brokerage firms. Quite often this is highly respected analyst, but the smaller broker may hire someone who does not necessarily know what they are doing. One of the biggest signs for a suspicious analyst is if they focus primarily on short periods of time. If the analyst tends to display a large number of graphs of five, 15, and one hour, it is very likely that your goal is to generate more trading and thus split your money faster.

One of the most common time wasters you will encounter with Forex brokers is the Dow Jones news source on their MetaTrader4 platform. Although the content of the news is certainly acceptable and professional, at the moment of receiving the news of the platform, the markets are already affected and therefore become useless. It is almost impossible to compete with brokers who use Bloomberg terminals and T-1 connections for their news services.

While not all of these services are dangerous, they may necessarily be a reason to open an account with a specific Forex broker. You will find that most forex brokers are essentially the same, and offer very identical packages. To be honest, the industry is simply not as innovative. By focusing on what is truly important to you in particular, you will find that you will not be absorbed by a Forex broker based on "empty calories."

The Uncertain Future of US Brokers

The United States of America has long been known as the "land of the free and the home of the brave", but when it comes to the Forex market, this term takes on a completely unique meaning. Increasingly restrictive NFA policies designed to protect US investors have been chasing and, in some cases, punishing US currency brokers. The rates imposed to maintain a brokerage firm are prohibitive for most, and trading conditions are limited compared to those in other regions of the world where regulation is less stringent.

In August 2012, FX Club (also known as Forex Club), formerly one of the best brokers in the United States, abandoned its RFED license, the regulation required to accept retail customers. Since then, the company has been accepting only institutional customers, and will likely continue to do so, at least for the foreseeable future. As part of this change, FX Club became another currency broker, replacing its CEO (after OANDA and GFT, among others), with Michael Klena, of E * Trade, who came to lead the change of the company.

Although the FX Club abandoned its RFED license, the NFA continued to investigate the broker, charging the company for $ 300,000 administrative violations, which the broker solved the day the claims were made.
Just two months after the FX Club closed its doors to US retailers, Advanced Markets made the same strategic decision, opting to give up its RFED license and operate only with institutional traders. This decision is much less surprising, since Admiral Markets (aka AMIFX) has always held that only a handful of retailers are admitted who presumably can transfer their accounts quickly with the broker's help if necessary.

What comes next in the forex retail market in the United States is uncertain, but if the NFA fines and increased regulations on brokers are a clue, it would not be surprising if other US brokers throw in the towel . Although I do not think that industry giants like FXCM or Forex.com will disappear in the short term, smaller entities may find themselves fighting an uphill battle. Some may not be interested in fighting much longer.

Is a Good Idea to Change Forex Broker?

One important reason you may have to switch Forex broker is certainly fear for the security of your deposits. If you ever ask your broker to withdraw some funds from your account, and it becomes excessively slow or unresponsive, then this is an excellent reason to switch brokers immediately. Of course, if you hear some reliable information about your broker's financial situation or ethics, it will also be good to consider a change. It is advisable to check from time to time the professionalism of your broker, even if you have obtained some good results, requesting the withdrawal of some of your recent earnings. If there is an unwarranted delay, it is advisable to close the account immediately and, if necessary, threaten to contact the corresponding regulator.

Moving from critical reasons to more common reasons, one of the factors that urged more than one customer to change brokers is the average level of spreads that are charged. For example, there are still brokers charging a spread of 3 pips in the EUR / USD pair. While this was the norm a few years ago, today it is considered extremely expensive. Switching to a broker that offers the EUR / USD at 1.5 pips or less makes sense, since the spread becomes the "cost of doing business", and over time can generate a loss in operator income, especially if you trade frequently using short time frames.

Another good reason to switch brokers can be an unstable platform. If you find that the trading platform is disconnected very frequently or that it takes a long time to execute an operation, then this is a convincing proof of incompetence or dishonesty. Dishonesty is more likely if these disconnections or freezes happen every time you are trying to enter a trade where you would have made profits quickly. Of course, it is important not to be paranoid and not to blame your broker for all your losses. However, as the Forex market does not have a centralized place, brokers have a commercial incentive to "shadow" their spread just above levels where many of their customers have stop-losses set in open trades. determining whether your broker is acting shady is to see if these price movements do not match the price feedback of other brokers.

Watch two or three. If your broker tends to produce sudden and unexplained spikes in price, which are not followed by other brokers, it is time to think about moving away from it.
A good way to get a better understanding of whether a particular agent is the best for you is to think about what the brokers are actually doing, and see things from their point of view. In order to do this, it is helpful to start with some facts about Forex trading:

1. Most currency brokers are not really trading any currency in the market. They are simply providing a price indicator, in the movements of which their customers can bet in exchange for two effective quotas: the spread or commission, and a small charge during the night that incurs each night any position that is left open. These brokers are in antagonistic relationships with their customers: they make money when their customers lose and lose money when their customers win.

2. The remaining currency brokers tend to monitor the trades of customers who have profitable trading data, and cover the aggregate positions of these traders with a bank. These brokers have a less contradictory relationship with their customers, but they may still face problems in the proper way of covering themselves in rapidly evolving markets.

3. The real Forex market is dominated by four large banks which together account for about 85% of the market volume. These banks provide liquidity to the smaller banks, which in turn do the same with smaller banks, who then provide liquidity to the brokers, and so on in the chain in size and importance. This tends to mean that the smaller the broker, the worse the price and the spread that is willing to give, since they themselves will not be able to get premium prices. The dilemma here is that these smaller brokers tend to offer lower minimum deposits. The more money you have to deposit, the better the service that will be available to you. Of course, this does not mean that you have to go higher up the chain than the one that is appropriate for your account size. In general terms, it is a good idea to adapt the Forex broker to the size of your account.

4. Much of the Forex market has a bad reputation and is poorly regulated. When these facts are combined with the natural tendency of the human being to be tarnished by greed, it creates a profitable vacuum for unscrupulous brokerage houses that have no reputation to protect. This is not to say that small Forex brokers are fraudulent, but do not assume that your deposit is secure just because you opened an account with a broker. However, if that broker has a public reputation and is subject to regulations, you will surely be able to sleep peacefully.

There are other good specific reasons that may play a role in determining the choice a broker are as the availability of a specific pair that you want for trade, platform, quality of customer service and other "concrete" things. Now that we have covered all of the critical aspects to consider when choosing a broker, it is time to shift your focus on how you can conquer the forex markets - with hard work and patience, of course!

Five Ways to Detect a Forex Broker Scammer

If you are looking for a new Forex broker, or wondering if your broker is giving you an acceptable deal, then here is a list of some things for you to consider when doing your evaluation.

1. Not All Forex Brokers Are Thieves!

It would be very unfair to take the attitude that Forex brokers are all delinquent. What you should keep in mind, is that most Forex brokers do not place their clients' trades in the real market, and charge us spreads instead of commissions. This means that most Forex brokers are in direct conflict of interest with their customers: the more their customers lose, the more money the brokers earn. In fact, your business model is based on the failure of your customers' trades.

It is a sad fact that most Forex traders lose, but this is mainly due to poor trading methods, and does not mean that Forex brokers have to act dishonestly to make gains

However, more profits are always good news, so there are some tricks that some brokers have in their sleeves to squeeze more money out of flexible customers, and here are some things you should keep in mind.

2. Spreads or High Commissions

Spreads have fallen a lot in recent years. Of course, the more money you have to fund your account, you'll probably find better spreads available to you. This is because brokers offering better spreads often require higher minimum deposits. In any case, you really should compare your options. The days of having to pay a spread of 3 pips per EUR / USD are over.

Recently, more brokers have been introducing commission-based models, where customers pay a fixed amount of cash per trade. When you encounter this, carefully calculate how much you usually risk in a trade per pip, and then calculate that "spread" you will be paying. Sometimes these more commission spread offerings are designed to make the offer look better than it really is, and you can only discover this once you do custom calculations.

3. Financing During the Night

Unless you are a pure day trader and close all positions before 10 pm or London midnight every day, you will pay or receive a small amount (usually less than 1 pip) for each open trade you have at that moment. This is based on the interest rate differentials between the currencies that make up that particular pair, but it is structured by practically every broker as a net loss for the customer. Some brokers are much worse than others, and many do not advertise these rates - you only see it in your statement the next day once the payment or deduction has been made. If you get in touch with most brokers, they will usually be prepared to quote your overnight financing rates. Get some quotes and compare them on the same currency pairs, and maybe be surprised by the results. If you enjoy holding long-term trades, make a few calculations about how much you are likely to pay on this overnight financing. You may find that it significantly decreases or even erases your earnings.

4. Execution of Sudden Stops / Increases

It is not widely understood that brokers control their own prices. There is no central market, and most brokers are not making real trades, and they can quote whatever price they want! Of course, they have to keep the prices fairly honest, otherwise they could use the prices of other brokers to correctly predict price movements, and as a result they would lose money. So you really do not have to worry that your broker will invent the price.

What might worry you is that a broker can see where your customers are grouping their stop loss orders, and if the overall market price comes very close to triggering these stops, the broker might be tempted to quickly push their price on that level and take profits. This can be done even more easily during news announcements or sudden shocks that have the effect of raising the overall price of the market up or down. An unscrupulous broker can always send the price a little higher or lower at those times.

To be fair, mistakes are sometimes made, and brokers often compensate for trades interrupted after excessive peaks when enough of their customers complain. However, it is something for you to be careful about.

5. Interruptions

There are times when the market is fleeing in a clear direction. If you want to trade and can not get a connection with your broker, or the trade is repeatedly rejected for some unknown technical reason, then be careful. This is a type of a broker who is using unfair methods to prevent their customers from placing winning trades. If it happens a lot, it's a suspicious signal.

This is not an exhaustive list of things to consider when choosing a Forex broker, but they are the most common broker problems that can make winning in Forex much more difficult than it should be if you do not consider them.

Ads Brokers

In this section we will include relevant announcements and interesting news related to several of the most important companies in the financial markets sector such as the Forex, especially those related to leading Forex brokers, binary options brokers, stock brokers and others similar companies. This in order that the visitor of this site can learn about some interesting information related to a new product, service, bonus or contest offered by one of these companies to their customers. It is common for brokers to develop quite attractive promotions to attract new customers and to retain those who already have, due to the increasing competition in this sector. Only with regard to Forex brokers, the offer has reached dozens of companies of this type, which struggle to position and grow.


Despite the usefulness and interestingness of this information, most people do not find out about it unless they are fully engaged in some related activity, either because they are professional operators or because they perform some type of activity that offer the opportunity to find out, as in my case I have been developing this site for a longer or shorter time.

By means of the following link, the visitor can know about the last offers in bonuses offered by the most important brokers in order to attract new clients:

-Free Forex Brokers

The purpose of this section is to publicize some of these offers and announcements in such a way that the visitor can make use of them, such as opening a trading account with a broker who is giving a free bonus for the opening from account. Below are the most relevant ads:

• Libertex crypto currency currencies CFD
• XM
• Broker IQOption
• Broker Fortrade
• Roboforex Stocks
• 24option
• FXOpen
• CySEC
• HotForex
• OctaFX Broker

The Forex Brokers Game

Choosing a Forex Broker

It sounds like a strange way of choosing someone who is going to handle a substantial amount of our money but it often seems like this is the way the novice Forex trader makes his choice. Even before you start trading you have to make an important decision, and that's who your Forex broker is going to be. You might think that a decision like this would make a person investigate, ask questions and be careful. However, so many people fall into the trap of Forex scams and questionable Forex brokers that has given the whole industry a bad name, and it should not be so. The Forex market is a wonderful and legitimate way to make a living; but like any industry, it has its thieves and scammers. The first rule is the obvious one: "If it seems too good to be true ... it probably is."


The first thing you want to do is make sure the broker suits your needs. Make sure you offer a demo account; find out your minimum balance and minimum trade; whether or not they have live support or everything is done via email. That kind of things. Very basic things, and most Forex brokers will take care of that. Even the most suspicious.

Regulated Forex Brokers

But here is something you will not have thought of. Make sure your broker is set. Find out which regulatory agencies are registered. They must register with the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as Futures Commodity Trader (FCM). The CFTC and the NFA (National Futures Administration) were created to protect small (and large) traders in fraud, scams and other unpleasant practices from wrongdoers. Use your services and information. They have websites and phone numbers if you have any questions. The Forex broker you choose will have your money in your hands. You should feel completely comfortable with that before you give a penny.

Do not get caught up in flashy websites and bold promises. This is not a casino you are about to enter. This is a business, and like any business, due diligence should be done. Take your time and get answers to all your questions. Then, after you have had all the answers to your questions, find out from other Forex traders what questions you might have missed. There is no such thing as being too careful when choosing the right Forex broker for you.

Five ways to detect a scammer Forex broker

If you are looking for a new Forex broker, or doubt if your broker is giving you an acceptable deal, then I will leave you a list of some things for you to consider when doing your assessment.

1. Not all Forex brokers are thieves! 

It would be very unfair to take the attitude that Forex brokers are all criminals. What you need to keep in mind is that most Forex brokers do not place their customers ' trades on the real market, and they charge spreads instead of commissions. This means that most Forex brokers are in a direct conflict of interest with their customers: the more they lose their customers, the more money the brokers earn. In fact, their business model is based on the failure of their customers ' trades. 

is a sad fact that most forex traders lose, but this is mainly due to poor trading methods, and does not mean that forex brokers have to act dishonestly to make profits. 

However, more profits are always good news, so there are some tricks that some brokers have in their sleeves to squeeze more money from flexible customers, and here are a few things you should consider.

2. Spreads or High Commissions 

The spreads have gone down very much in the last years. All the more money has you to finance its account, probably it will find better spreads available for you. This is due to the fact that the brokers that offer better spreads, usually need higher minimal deposits. In any case, you really must compare its options. The days of having to pay a spread of 3 pips for EUR/USD have ended.

Recently, more brokers have been introducing models based on commissions, where the clients pay a fixed cash quantity for trade. When it meets this, calculates carefully how much it usually risks in a trade for pip, and then calculate this "spread" who will be paying. Sometimes these offers of spread more commission are designed to do that the offer turns out to be better than really it is, and it is possible only to discover this once I realized personalized calculations.

3. Financing During the Night
Unless you are a pure day trader and close all its positions before 10 a.m. pm or the hour of midnight of London every day, you will pay or it will receive a small quantity (generally less than 1 pip) in every open trade that it has in this moment. This is based on the interest rates differential between the coins that compose this pair in particular, but it is structured by practically every broker as clear loss for the client. Some brokers are much worse than different, and many people do not announce these tariffs - you see it in its declaration the following day once the payment or the deduction has been done. If it gets in touch with most of the brokers, in general they will be prepared to quote its financing valuations overnight. Obtain some quotations and compare them in the same pairs of currencies, and perhaps be surprised for the results. If he likes maintaining trades in the long term, do a few calculations on how much it is probable that he pays in this night financing. You can think that you diminish significantly or you even erase its profit.

4. Execution of Stops / Sudden Increases
It is not understood that the brokers control their own prices. There is no central market, and most of the brokers are not doing trades real: and they can quote any price that they want! Of course, they have to maintain the quite honest prices, since otherwise it might use the prices of other brokers to predict correctly the prices movements, and as result they would lose money. So really he does not have to worry that its broker is going to invent the price.

What might worry him is that a broker can see where its clients are grouping its stop loss orders, and if the general price of the market comes very close to unleashing these stops, the broker might feel very tempted to push its price on this level and to take the profit as soon as possible. This can become even more easy during announcements of news or sudden shocks that have the effect of increasing the general price of the market up or down. A broker without conscience can always send the price a little higher or lower in these moments.

To be just persons, sometimes errors are committed, and the brokers often compensate the trades interrupted after excessive peaks when a sufficient quantity of its clients they complain. Nevertheless, it is something so that you are careful.

5. Interruptions 
There are times when the market is fleeing in a clear direction. If you want to make a trade and cannot get a connection with your broker, or the trade is repeatedly rejected for some unknown technical reason, then be careful. This is a type of a broker who is using unfair methods to prevent his customers from placing winning trades. If it happens a lot, it's a suspicious signal. 

This is not a comprehensive list of things to consider when choosing a forex broker, but are the most common broker problems that can make you win in Forex is much more difficult than it should be if you do not consider them.

Types of Brokers

There are 2 types of brokers: Non Dealing Desk (NDD): ECN and STP

Without a doubt, the great offer of Forex brokers and CFD that exists today significantly hinders the process of selecting a suitable online broker to open an account and operate in the market. Both beginner operators and experienced operators are overwhelmed by the increasing number of companies in this sector that seek to differentiate themselves from their competitors and claim to be better than others in aspects such as the offering of trading instruments, trading platforms, execution of operations, types of trading accounts, etc. Terms Such as NDD (Dealing Desk), STP (Straight Through Processing), and ECN (Electronic Communication Network) have become increasingly common and have become part of many brokers' offerings for their clients.

These technologies have emerged as a much-needed alternative to the Market Makers (with trading floor), which present the inherent problem of creating an artificial market, benefiting from the loss of its customers, and interfering with the execution of the trader . Because the term NDD actually represents a category, Non Dealing Desk is not a particular brokerage technology per se, but rather involves the use of STP and ECN-type technologies that operate without a trading desk and route orders from buy / sell transactions directly to liquidity providers, giving customers access to the real market with faster and more efficient executions. This article describes the advantages and disadvantages of these new technologies of execution, and also analyzes the model of negotiation that some brokers present where there is a possible hybridization with a market maker behind the scenes:

Brokers STP (Straight Through Processing)

Brokers ECN (Electronic Communication Network)

Brokers with hybrid technology: ECN / STP with Market Marker.

How Forex Works?

In Forex (FX), as in other markets, trading is speculation. Traders buy (go long) or sell currencies (go short) in anticipation of market behavior either bullish or bearish.

Currency is always quoted in pairs (eg EUR / USD, GBP / EUR, etc.) Each time a trader trades with a pair (say EUR / USD), it means that the base currency is bought (on the left ) and selling the quoted currency (on the right side) simultaneously.

For example, the EUR / USD has a price of 1.2915, which means that 1 € = 1.2915 $. If the investor believes that the price of the base currency (in this case EUR) will increase (to be revalued or appreciated) against the USD, then it will buy EUR / USD. If, on the other hand, you think that the EUR will lose value against the dollar (depreciate), it will sell the EUR / USD pair.

Is a Good Idea to Change Forex Broker?

One important reason you may have to switch Forex broker is certainly fear for the security of your deposits. If you ever ask your broker to withdraw some funds from your account, and it becomes excessively slow or unresponsive, then this is an excellent reason to switch brokers immediately. Of course, if you hear some reliable information about your broker's financial situation or ethics, it will also be good to consider a change. It is advisable to check from time to time the professionalism of your broker, even if you have obtained some good results, requesting the withdrawal of some of your recent earnings. If there is an unwarranted delay, it is advisable to close the account immediately and, if necessary, threaten to contact the corresponding regulator.

Moving from critical reasons to more common reasons, one of the factors that urged more than one customer to change brokers is the average level of spreads that are charged. For example, there are still brokers charging a spread of 3 pips in the EUR / USD pair. While this was the norm a few years ago, today it is considered extremely expensive. Switching to a broker that offers the EUR / USD at 1.5 pips or less makes sense, since the spread becomes the "cost of doing business", and over time can generate a loss in operator income, especially if you trade frequently using short time frames.

Another good reason to switch brokers can be an unstable platform. If you find that the trading platform is disconnected very frequently or that it takes a lot of time to execute an operation, then this is a convincing proof of incompetence or dishonesty. Dishonesty is more likely if these disconnections or freezes happen every time you are trying to enter a trade where you would have made profits quickly. Of course, it is important not to be paranoid and not to blame your broker for all your losses. However, as the Forex market does not have a centralized place, brokers have a commercial incentive to "shadow" their spread just above levels where many of their customers have stop-losses set in open trades. determining whether your broker is acting shady is to see if these price movements do not match the price feedback of other brokers.

Watch two or three. If your broker tends to produce sudden and unexplained spikes in price, which are not followed by other brokers, it is time to think about moving away from it.

A good way to get a better understanding of whether a particular agent is the best for you is to think about what the brokers are actually doing, and see things from their point of view. In order to do this, it is helpful to start with some facts about Forex trading:

1. Most currency brokers are not really trading any currency in the market. They are simply providing a price indicator, in the movements of which their customers can bet in exchange for two effective quotas: the spread or commission, and a small charge during the night that incurs each night any position that is left open. These brokers are in antagonistic relationships with their customers: they make money when their customers lose and lose money when their customers win.

2. The remaining currency brokers tend to monitor the trades of customers who have profitable trading data, and cover the aggregate positions of these traders with a bank. These brokers have a less contradictory relationship with their customers, but they may still face problems in the proper way of covering themselves in rapidly evolving markets.

3. The real Forex market is dominated by four large banks which together account for about 85% of the market volume. These banks provide liquidity to the smaller banks, which in turn do the same with smaller banks, who then provide liquidity to the brokers, and so on in the chain in size and importance. This tends to mean that the smaller the broker, the worse the price and the spread they are willing to give, as they themselves will not be able to get premium prices. The dilemma here is that these smaller brokers tend to offer lower minimum deposits. The more money you have to deposit, the better the service that will be available to you. Of course, this does not mean that you have to go higher up the chain than the one that is appropriate for your account size. In general terms, it is a good idea to adapt the Forex broker to the size of your account.

4. Much of the Forex market has a bad reputation and is poorly regulated. When you are

How does the XTB broker work?

When opening a trading account with an online broker the main doubts of the users are not so much in the operative or the platform of operations but in the processes of deposit and especially of withdrawal of funds: Is the broker reliable? Can we withdraw our money without problems? Is it a simple or complicated process? How long does it take to receive the money?
To try to help you solve these issues, from InvertirEnBolsaWeb.net, we periodically perform various in-depth analyzes of the main online brokers and we show you step by step our real experience, with screenshots, on how to open an account, the data that you the documentation you must send, the ways to deposit funds and how to withdraw your money.
This time it is the XTB broker's turn:

HOW DOES BROKER ONLINE XTB WORK?

XTB (XTB Limited) is one of the leading online Forex brokers and CFDs (the 4th largest broker quoted). It is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and operates under the most stringent European regulations for investor protection. It provides two main trading platforms: xStation (in web format, a fast platform, powerful yet easy to manage) and MetaTrader 4 (the most popular platform worldwide, with its powerful system of graphs, technical analysis tools, possibility to use automatic trading systems, ...)
It is a versatile broker for all types of traders and allows you to trade more than 1,500 different financial instruments: Forex currencies, commodities, gold, silver, oil, ... and a good number of CFDs on stocks, stock indices. There is no minimum deposit to open a real account and the spreads are quite low (from 0.9 pips for Standard accounts and 0.28 pips with commission per lot operated for Pro accounts).


OUR REAL EXPERIENCE WITH XTB:

This real experience consists of 3 different articles: First we have requested the opening of an account in XTB and passed the verification process sending the necessary documentation, then we have seen the forms of income available and deposited funds. Finally we opened and closed a position and ended up requesting the withdrawal of our money. With these articles you can check graphically and in detail how these processes are carried out in the XTB broker and our recommendations in this regard.

The Best Social Brokers

It is not a novelty that, for some years now, social networks have not stopped gaining ground. In this sense, more than one has wanted to join the success car and with more or less virtue has "copied" the style of social networks to transport it to any sector that boasts.

The brokers have not been waiting and, at least, the most affluent already have a live chat that offers a 24-hour customer service (no need to pick up the phone, go). However, others have gone further and have merged traditional online trading with the modus operandi of social networks, so what is this? No worries, below we present all the info on the social brokers and which, in our opinion, offer the best service and tools according to their price.

What is a social broker?

Let's get into the matter: we mean a social broker or social broker (Spanish term) as the operator that not only offers "traditional" online trading services, basically trading shares, commodities, cfds, forex, etc. . but also uses an interface derived directly from the modus operandi used in social networks, namely: live chat, possibility to post videos, photos, comments, send likes, follow x people, etc. The reality is that the invention has been quite well and we will see why.

Advantages of a social broker

• No custody or maintenance fees
• Well, with the roll that it is rather a social community, most have been polished the typical commissions of custody and maintenance.
• Network Community
• The possibilities offered by a social broker are practically the same as those of facebook; we can send videos, talk to other brokers, send likes and comments, create lists or groups of friends, share in social networks, etc.
• Copy to other traders
• This option is one of the most striking claims for most (not all) social brokers, which allow and facilitate the follow-up of other users' positions and copy them on the fly.
• All kinds of conventional tools
• Market analysis, live charts, economic calendar, indicators, updated news, etc.
• Trading Markets
• Spanish stock exchange and regulated international stock exchanges.
• Investment products
• Stocks, CFDs, Forex, commodities, binary options and obligations (rare).
• Trading Platforms
• These can be either the social support of the broker, or more conventional platforms such as Metatrader4. Almost all of them usually have a mobile App.
• Demo Accounts
• Many brokers offer demo accounts without any commitment to take a look at the matter.

Where do they get the benefit?

In principle this class of brokers only benefits from spreads. They also do not play with exchange tables, which is why they do not benefit from your losses. Now, we recommend to always read the fine print before hiring any service; in this case many brokers require a minimum deposit (usually between $ 100 and $ 300), which we would not want to lose for having saved us ten minutes.

What do I have to consider when investing in a social broker?

Well, come to this point it is worth remembering that you should always invest with head and expose ourselves to the risk of losing the investment. Therefore, we recommend to have some aspects in mind in case of being beginners:

• Consult or follow the experts
• Thanks to the social brokers this act has become a little easier. We can follow and analyze the positions of other traders more experts in the matter to learn from their movements.
• Diversify the portfolio of investments (not to lose all the parné of one).
• Be well informed of all the possibilities offered by a broker and not start investing for the most complicated products (such as cdfs, futures and family).
• Compare the best brokers on the market before choosing one.
• Try demos
• Before we start investing we can get a pretty good idea of ​​how the tool works.
• According to experts, long-term investments are more productive than short-term investments.
• Learn how the broker world works, its financial jargon, analysis, tools, etc. and always stay informed of the latest economic news
• Remember that even if the broker is free, you will always have to pay the redemption fee if you buy stocks: all on the stock exchange here.

The best trading platforms

Almost as important as finding the best online broker is the choice of a trading platform that fits what we are looking for. Many traders do not notice this peculiarity and only take into account the commissions and which is the cheapest broker. However, sometimes cheap can be expensive and as we always warned, when investing our money are not worth half measures we have to report well! That's why we bring you a selection with some of the best trading platforms so that you start to operate with the most appropriate tools.

1. Broker and trading platform are not the same

We often have a capital problem that some brokers seem to ignore: we did not find information about the trading platform offered by the broker in question anywhere!

How is this possible? As it turns out that broker and trading platform are not the same: while the former is the intermediary arranged directly between us and the stock market; the trading platform is the working tool through which we will operate, negotiate and issue orders. What does this mean? The broker will offer us a service while the platform will allow us to execute our strategy.

Therefore, if we do not have the appropriate means to invest, our investments can end badly.Two types of brokers: with or without own platform

         2. Two types of brokers: with or without own platform

When it comes to hiring an online broker we are going to run into two possibilities:

•        Brokers who have developed their own trading platform.
•        Brokers that use a multibroker platform (also available to other providers).

Although there are very powerful tools developed in house by some brokers, keep in mind that a multibroker platform can open many doors to you when changing and negotiating with other suppliers.

Learning the operation of a platform is not an easy task, therefore, it is less advisable to hang on a platform that you can only use with a specific broker. As a rule, all brokers offer a platform (either proprietary or not) for free for their customers.

         3. Looking for the best trading platform

• Offer the stock instruments with which you want to invest.
• Have the functionalities you want to work with:
• A social trading platform is useless if you are not interested in following or sharing your trades. This will depend on your strategy and how confident you are with one or other of the functions: analysis indicators, real time, order types, graphs, automatic trading system, etc.
• Platform is friendly and simple to use:
• In an ideal paradigm, the best platform is the one that offers the most complete and easy usability for the user.
• Make it fast.
• That offers software compatible with our operating system:
• If we do not want to be using patches all the time, the better the software is compatible with our computer. Interesting are also the mobile version and online (called webtrader), so that we can operate anywhere in the world with any support without needing to download the program (tablets, mobile, other pcs).
• Access to the tool code:
• Some platforms like Metatrader 4 allow to modify the programming codes to create indicators or own scripts among others.

         4 and 5. The best multibroker trading platforms ( Metatrader )

We started the list with the trading platform par excellence Metatrader 4 (and currently its update 5). Created initially for Forex in 2005 by the company MetaQuotes, today it has been adapted for trading with more instruments.

•  Free trading platform.
• Analyze the market and execute orders (snapshots or pending).
• Customize the graphics and create your own scripts and indicators thanks to its open code, among others.
• You have an internal mail to contact your broker as well as a help system.
• You can have two real counts and as many demos as you want (with pretend money).
• More than 90 indicators.
• Automatic trading system.
• New webtrader format so you do not have to download the software.
• Ability to download the data history.

Ninjatrader

It is a platform whose operation is more focused on execution than on analysis. Ninjatrader is part of the NinjaTrader Group, LLC group, founded in 2003 and currently has more than 40,000 represented through more than 150 brokers around the world.

• Payment trading platform (demo with limited options).
• Operational especially for trading with futures, but also allows shares, forex and CFDs.
• Analyze the market and execute orders directly from the charts.
• Extensive customization of its graphical interface.
• Ability to download the data history.
• Real Time and Strategy Backtesting.

Visual Chart

Visual Chart is a multitasking platform specially designed for technical, graphic and fundamental analysis. Part of the Visual Chart Group, S.L. which was born in Almería in 1998 to expand to other countries like Germany and the United States.

• Advanced charts, custom tables, depth charts, financial news, etc.
• Operational especially for the trading of stocks and futures.
• Execution of orders directly from the charts.
• More than 200 indicators.
• Extensive customization of its graphical interface.
• Ability to download the data history.
• Real Time and Strategy Backtesting.
• Automatic trading system.
• Direct broker access and data history of more than 20 years for backtesting.

Pro Real Time

Pro Real Time is a platform that, like Visual Chart, focuses more on analysis than on execution. Pro Real Time is owned by the French company IT-Finance, which has more than 10 years of experience, 500,000 users worldwide and more than 300 servers managed in different data centers.

• Free tool (although you pay for the data in real time-> you can try to be version for a week without costs).
• Operational especially for the trading of stocks, futures, forex, indices, cfds, commodities, obligations and options.
• Powerful graphics and easy interface.
• More than 100 indicators.
• Possibility to download data history up to 16 years for backtesting.
• Automatic trading system.
• Lightweight version for smartphones
• Customize the platform: fonts and colors, graphics, create custom lists, est.
• Help and support service as well as access to the trading community.

Why invest in Bitcoin? Pros and cons

Why invest in Bitcoin? Pros and cons

Trading with Bitcoin can be quite lucrative; it can not be denied that its revaluation has been explosive in the last five years, resembling its growth to that of other big ones of the network like Facebook or Google.

While it is true, Bitcoin's prices range from astronomical, making it an investment that is excessively volatile. As a general rule, "strong" traditional currencies (such as the GBP) do not experience such steep increases or declines, as they base their value on the swing of the economy and on the regulations of their governments.

Buying bitcoins also does not resemble buying a stock or an investment fund backed and backed by states or companies that "commit" to pay; with the result that, in case of devaluation, no one would be responsible for the losses.

So is it worth investing in Bitcoin? The reality is that it seems an unstoppable process and out of control (like everything that spreads over the internet). Since its inception, many governments have tried to prohibit or limit the reach of Bitcoins and other digital currencies, hindering their entry into the markets (if China here, if Russia there).

However, more and more businesses are joining the network and banks that invest heavily in these technologies; such as JPMorgan Chase & Co's million-dollar investment in Coinbase, Bitcoin's largest platform in the world.

Therefore, everything seems to indicate that the virtual currency has come to stay, at least until the 2,140 (year in which it is scheduled that will stop producing bitcoins). The less has already led to a technological revolution in digital entertainment thanks to its blockchain technology, which has been called to change the world and many experts speak without a doubt of "the industrial revolution of the internet."