Forex Blog

Choosing a right Forex broker is not an easy task, I’ve trade a lot of before I found several brokers that I can rely on. If your broker isn’t fast enough you can miss profitable opportunities, or even lose money due to slippage. David Thorpe’s articles is dedicated to this topic - how to chose a Forex broker that will satisfy your trader’s needs and won’t be to abusive or costly in its services:
Choosing the Right Forex Broker - by David Thorpe

General trend: ranging.

Today some important macroeconomic data came out in United States - final data on GDP and final chain deflator for the first quarter of the 2007. Though this data is very important for Forex markets its neutrality prevented any large affect on the market. GDP came out inside the expected borders - 0.7% which is by 0.1% better than previous value. Chain deflator was slightly higher than expected - 4.2% against 4.0%. Today data on initial jobless claims were also released - 313,000 against 315,00 expected - not much surprise here too. FOMC policy statement will be released today - maybe there will be something in it, that will move Forex market out if its flat condition.

FXcast Forex broker announced today that new accounts created on their Pro trading platform are now will have a basic currency USD. Existing accounts will stays as EUR accounts, but all newly created will be held in USD. All deposits are getting exchanged at the current daily rates.

CMC Markets is an international Forex broker based in U.S. which offers its own advanced trading platform. This platform is somewhat similar to Metatrader 4 in its main features, but is generally different software incompatible with Metatrader. To start trading with this hi-end software you’ll have to deposit a minimum $2,000 with no e-currency support for deposit/withdrawal. Demo accounts are available, but are limited to 14 days – a rather short term.

FXcast Forex broker announced that starting from today the minimum account size to use their FXcast Pro trading platform (based on Metatrader 4) is $10. The previous minimum amount was $100.

Dear Partner, we are glad to tell you that we have decreased the minimum deposit for our FXcast Pro platform to 10 USD. Please have in mind that the base currency for this platform is EUR. Due to customer inquiries we plan to change this to USD and we will inform you about the process.

Sinerely Yours,
FXcast Team

It is a good chance for the new traders to get the taste of real Forex without risking hundreds of dollars.

IFX Markets is another broker with a ‘Markets’ in its name (strangely, such brokers offers only Forex market trading, without CFD or stocks). IFX Markets offers their clients a custom trading platform which is slightly above average, but can’t be compared to Metatrader 4 in any way. Financial side is quite poor – bank wire and checks for transfers and $500 minimum, with the rudimental trading fees – $1.25 for every 10,000 lot traded (overnight interest is also applied) – are rare thing in modern on-line Forex world. The good side is Forex trading contests which are available for demo accounts – prizes are usually quite generous.

NorthFinance warns its clients that after July 1st it will stop supporting Metatrader 4 platform versions older than build 200. So, it is about a time to update your Forex trading software if you are trading with NorthFinance. Update can be automatically started on the program startup. Updating your Metatrader 4 platform not only will keep you up to date with NorthFinance, but also will remove some bugs (that are fixed in newer versions) and enhance your experience with expert avisors (that need to be recompiled with almost every build in pre-200 versions).

Forex seems to be ignoring todays macroeconomic data that came from United States - dollar is almost at the same level (slightly better even) as it was when the week started, a ranging week so far. New home sales disappointed U.S. optimists by showing a decline from 981,000 to 915,000 houses for May, it is even lower than experts expected - 925,000. Consumer confidence - one of the basic indicator of economical growth declined in June compared to May - 103.9 from 108.5, while it was expected to come just a little lower - 106.0. Such bad news for U.S. doesn’t add any optimism to USD bulls and can cause some further EUR/USD growth.

Great Britain looks to be rich on Forex brokers (probably, because of slightly less hard regulatory environment than U.S., but with great financial possibilities which London City possesses). IG Markets is Forex broker which started as a CFD broker and then added spot Forex trading to its on-line services. You can trade using both java platform and standard downloadable program. But with IG Markets you are limited to 1:50 leverage. The minimum to start trading with them doesn’t bite – moderate $200. Except standard ways of money deposit/withdrawal (bank wire, credit card, check) Moneybookers is also available.