How to Choose the Right Dealer? (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

Almost 90% of the investors in currency markets are short term speculators. Most of the investors want quick capital gains by starting forex day trading as a speculating venture. If you have made the positive decision to start currency trading, your first step should be choosing the right forex broker. The right choice of a broker will greatly influence the success of your whole enterprise.

These days, the market is overcrowded with companies and banks offering online brokerage services to individual traders and investors to access the currency markets. It is not easy to make the right choice without a certain set of criteria. These criteria will mostly depend on the interests, preferences and means of each individual trader depending on his/her trading strategies and tactics.

The best method to choose the right forex broker is to compose a list of questions to ask the forex broker before making a final decision. The following are some of the suggested questions that you should ask the forex broker before making a final decision.

What is the amount of the interday and overnight margin required by the forex broker? What is the corresponding leverage offered? Many online forex brokers offer margin between 1 to 5%. They provide leverage ranging from 20:1 to 200:1. Margin is the amount the broker sets aside as guarantee against your trading losses. Higher margin requirement means lower investment efficiency for you.

However, lower margin means that most of the time the forex broker will be against his own clients and will do everything possible to prevent them from winning. It will become difficult for you to work under such conditions because you will face many trading problems.

What is the minimum contract size? Now days, the standard contract size is $100,000. This contract size is quite affordable and allows for reasonably effective money management with limited capital. This contract size also allows small individual investors to participate in currency speculation.

What are the requirements of minimum deposit? The investment and financial means of traders differ. It is common that many new traders dont have sufficient funds to open an account. In my opinion, the optimal minimum amount is $10,000 with 2% margin requirement. I think $10,000 is the required minimum amount corresponding to the forex market conditions.

What are the terms and conditions of setting and executing stop and limit orders? The ideal condition should be the execution of the stop and limit orders at the fixed price. This should be regardless of the speed or direction of the market conditions. Good forex dealers provide this type of execution. Most brokers reserve the right to fulfill an order with slippage under unsteady market conditions. Conditions mostly defined by the broker themselves.

The value of slippage depends on the current state of the market. It can fluctuate from a few pips to tens of pips. Although it is practically impossible to arbitrate the price received from the broker during the transaction. The slippage creates favorable conditions for the abuse of the trader by the broker.

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