There are so many different forex ECN brokers all over the world, so it's quite difficult to choose who is the best ECN broker. Each of them has their own strength and weakness. For example, the US and UK brokers generally are the most reliable brokers in the world. However, their trading conditions are not as good as Cyprus brokers. Cyprus brokers, on other hand, provides their traders with amazing trading terms and conditions. These may include low commission, low spread and better trading tools and platforms. As a longtime trader, I have been trading with many different forex brokers and gained some experience. From what I knew, I want to share with you, especially new traders about vital factors to consider before choosing an ECN broker. They include:
● Reputation
● Transaction costs
● Customer support
● Broker quotes
I think the following information can be helpful for you in case you want to choose the best ECN broker to trade with. I will pick five of the top ECN forex brokers in the world and explain my choices. They are:
No Broker names Rating 1 Exness.com 8/10 2 FxPro.com 7.5/10 3 XM.com 7.5/10 4 ICmarkets.com 7/10 5 FXTM.com 6.5/10
Reputation of Best ECN Brokers
Reputation is the first and most important criteria to identify if a broker is reliable. For ECN accounts, most big and professional traders only choose trusted brokers. These traders often put hundreds or thousands of dollars in their accounts, and they have to pay commission to the broker. To know if your ECN broker is reliable or not, you can check their regulations. The regulations, in reality, are licenses or certificates that are recognized by famous organizations. They can show the standards, capabilities and achievements of the broker.
Types of regulation
There are many different types of license required for forex activity. Some trusted and well-known license include FSA (Japan), CySEC (Cyprus), ASIC (Australia), NFA (United States), CFTC (United States), and FCA (United Kingdom). Here are some regulations that top best ECN brokers I suggested above have.
No Broker names Regulations
1 Exness.com CySEC, FCA (UK)
2 FxPro.com CySEC, FCA (UK), DFSA (Dubai), FSB (South Africa)
3 XM.com CySEC, FCA, ASIC
4 ICmarkets.com ASIC (Australia)
5 FXTM.com IFSC
Advantages of regulation
These regulations are very important for controlling brokers. According to this, regulated brokers have to follow the policies required by that organization. For example:
● Minimum operation fund
● Broker's quotes quality
● Maximum leverage
● Commission and bonus
● Other policies, such as advertising messages and securities account
Disadvantages of regulation
Regulations can help manage verified brokers and protect their clients. However, they can cause some negative impacts on regulated brokers. Because brokers have to pay fee to those organization, they often offer less trading tools and charge higher spreads and commissions.
Moreover, these regulations can be territorial. For example, the US and UK brokers cannot protect their clients of other countries. Meanwhile, Asian brokers can perform well because these regulations are not so strict there.
Apart from regulations, some other factors can also help confirm if the broker is reliable. They are:
● Detailed personal information
● Transparent financial reports
● High trading volume
● High search traffic
Exness, XM and FxPro are some of the top forex brokers with positive reputation and high transparency. They show all their personal information, including their financial reports on their websites. Some brokers even reveal how much money they own in the bank, like Exness. Trading volume, in addition, can help to recognize the reputation of a broker. In my opinion, the higher the broker's trading volume is, the more reliable they are. Here are monthly trading volume of some best ECN brokers.
● FxPro: $100 billion a month
● XM: $300 billion a month
● Exness: $400 billion a month
For these reasons, you should check the broker's reputation before investing money. Many new traders do not understand this problem and eventually pick the wrong broker.
Transaction Costs of Best ECN Brokers
Good ECN brokers often charge low transaction costs. Besides, they should offer better trading conditions. For example:
Low spread and commission
Spreads and commissions are how brokers make their money. US brokers often charge very high commission and spread. However, the top ECN brokers I mentioned before charge very little spreads, lower than US brokers. For example, for the most popular currency pair, Forex.com can charge up to 2 pip. Meanwhile, Exness charges a very low spread of 0.0xx pip. Sometimes, they charge no spread and only ask for 5$ commission for each lot traded. Other brokers, for example, XM can charge 6$ and ICMarket can charge from 6$ to 7$.
Better payment systems
Many traders pay high attention to withdrawal and transfer system. Domestic brokers can provide their traders with faster withdrawal and transfer time. However, they are not as reliable as foreign brokers. International brokers, on other hand, can be very trusted. However, their trading process may take longer time (for some hours or even some days).
Besides, payment methods and trading policies can be different among these ECN brokers. For example, although the US and UK brokers charge high spread and commission, they provide their local traders with good systems. Meantime, Asian and African brokers can be quite bad outside of their country.
Exness- best ECN broker with fast payment systems
Personally, I think that good brokers should offer good local payment systems and methods. From my experience, Exness is the best broker with the best withdrawal and transfer systems. Currently, they offer more than 30 different, modern payment options. Most of these systems are completely free charged. Because Exness leaves their work for the machine, their trading process only takes a few seconds. So check trading costs if you want to know which ECN broker is the best.
Customer Support of Best ECN Brokers
Customer support is extremely important for all traders, especially for beginners. Most brokers can only assist their traders in English and give help or advice online. Meanwhile, ECN brokers listed above can help their clients in more than 20 languages. They currently work in many Asian and African countries, including Thailand, China, Russia, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Africa and Arab countries. Their offices are located in some of the biggest forex markets, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, China and Dubai. In addition to online support, these brokers offer live chat and phone support for traders in the areas that they don't have representative offices. Here are some of the with great customer service.
● XM has 24/7 customer service and assists 30 languages
● FxPro has 24/7 customer service and assists 19 languages
● Exness has 24/7 customer service and assists 13 languages
● Hotforex assists 27 languages
So look for reviews on the broker's customer service before you choose them.
Quotes of Best ECN Brokers
When being asked about the best account for forex trading, 95 percent of traders think ECN. However, Market Maker and STP accounts are common types they choose to trade with. ECN accounts guarantee the transparency and offer low transaction costs. However, trading with this type of forex accounts can have some risks. For example, their quotes are not stable and their slippages can be very high. Moreover, ECN accounts be much more volatile than MM and STP accounts.
So choose ECN brokers that have less slippages and better quote quality. Before deciding to trade with an ECN broker, you should carefully check their characteristics. I hope that my review will offer you valuable information about these brokers.