Best/Favourite (Reputable) Forex Broker in Australia or New Zealand?

FXCM, IC Markets, Axitrader, Thinkforex, IG Markets, Global Prime or Alpari? Any recommendations would be appreciated. I am based in Auckland,NZ and therefore would prefer broker a little closer to 'home'; I can't seem to make a decision on which broker to choose as they all seem to have some sort underlying hidden agenda of taking and making money by ANY means possible... I would like to hear honest opinions from fellow traders please. Thank you.

Re: Best/Favourite(Reputable) Broker in Australia or New Zealand

moyes said:

FXCM, IC Markets, Axitrader, Thinkforex, IG Markets, Global Prime or Alpari? Any recommendations would be appreciated. I am based in Auckland,NZ and therefore would prefer broker a little closer to 'home'; I can't seem to make a decision on which broker to choose as they all seem to have some sort underlying hidden agenda of taking and making money by ANY means possible... I would like to hear honest opinions from fellow traders please. Thank you.

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This one imo, tight spreads on True ECN, $7 round trip on Forex.
http://www.icmarkets.com/forex-trading/trading-conditions/spreads/

Re: Best/Favourite(Reputable) Broker in Australia or New Zealand

Boggo said:

This one imo, tight spreads on True ECN, $7 round trip on Forex.
http://www.icmarkets.com/forex-trading/trading-conditions/spreads/

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Are they reputable and are they market makers/dealing desk broker? Thanks.

Re: Best/Favourite(Reputable) Broker in Australia or New Zealand

moyes said:

... are they market makers/dealing desk broker? Thanks.

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I don't see why this even matters. The key is what you are paying to put on a trade; spread, transaction costs, slippage and also execution speed. If you want reputable, trade futures, if you don't have the money for futures, reputable doesn't matter as much.

I spoke to them, as far as I can understand they have liquidity providers, so they route your orders through to them, not take the other side of your trade (does it even matter though, wouldn't you be happy for them to take the other side as long as you are getting the best price?)

They key for me though and why I didn't use them is if you place a limit order with them it will only by filled if the other side of the bid/ask hits it. So you have to pay the spread. Basically a limit order is not actually a limit order, if you place a bid between the spread and someone presses sell market, it hits the bid behind you of the liquidity provider that is a worse price than your order and does not fill your order. This is NOT how a real market works despite what some spot retail brokers tell you.

Other thing, paying $7 rt commission is f crazy. Aussie spot forex brokers are not competitive with overseas companies, considering the costs involved to run a business here versus Eastern Europe you can't really blame them for that though.

moyes said:

...they all seem to have some sort underlying hidden agenda of taking and making money by ANY means possible... .

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Also, this is largely a myth. They make money from the spread/commissions and really don't need to rip people off. The market is so competitive these days a broker doing something like this would not last. I would be alot more worried about a broker going bust than ripping me off

Re: Best/Favourite(Reputable) Broker in Australia or New Zealand

havaiana said:

they route your orders through to them, not take the other side of your trade (does it even matter though, wouldn't you be happy for them to take the other side as long as you are getting the best price?)

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Just to clarify this, some bucket shops with fixed spreads who are not ecns and probably are taking the other side of your trade are cheaper to trade with during certain times when you factor in the spread+commission of your "ecn" broker. The nature of an ecn mean the spread will increase during certain times due to lack of liquidity and/or increased volatility, while some bucket shops will keep their fixed spreads except during crucial news releases.

Thanks for that. I think Aussie brokers are competitive. What broker out there has better spreads and commissions than IC markets, Axi Trader, Pepperstone, FXCM? Who would you recommend if you think these brokers are a expensive??

moyes said:

Thanks for that. I think Aussie brokers are competitive. What broker out there has better spreads and commissions than IC markets, Axi Trader, Pepperstone, FXCM? Who would you recommend if you think these brokers are a expensive??

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They are fine to start with if you have a small account and if you don't trade with limit orders. You can get cheaper commission with most of them (find an introducing agent or whatever they are called). I recommend lmax for spot, they put your orders into the exchange, so you can be a liquidity provider, not just hit the orders of the main LP's, there are others, but haven't used them (maybe mb trading, dukascopy? not sure though).

Been a long time since i used one, so don't take this as gospel, but some bucketshops are fine too (igmarkets i think usually has a .8 spread on EUR/USD during euro session?), considering $7 commission is effectively .7 of a pip, a spread of .2 pips on these 'ecn's' will be more expensive than bucketshops like this. If you can find a bucketshop with a fixed spread of 1 pip, it will work out cheaper than these ecn's.

No aussie or NZ broker i know of let you participate in a real market, also they all seem to have MT4 which is fine to start with, but once you use a real platform and realise that execution speed and slippage of MT4 is a joke you will never go back.

Oh, lots of the brokers you mention also make you put your stop or limit order a minimum distance from the market, this is not true in a real market either

havaiana said:

They are fine to start with if you have a small account and if you don't trade with limit orders. You can get cheaper commission with most of them (find an introducing agent or whatever they are called). I recommend lmax for spot, they put your orders into the exchange, so you can be a liquidity provider, not just hit the orders of the main LP's, there are others, but haven't used them (maybe mb trading, dukascopy? not sure though).

Been a long time since i used one, so don't take this as gospel, but some bucketshops are fine too (igmarkets i think usually has a .8 spread on EUR/USD during euro session?), considering $7 commission is effectively .7 of a pip, a spread of .2 pips on these 'ecn's' will be more expensive than bucketshops like this. If you can find a bucketshop with a fixed spread of 1 pip, it will work out cheaper than these ecn's.

No aussie or NZ broker i know of let you participate in a real market, also they all seem to have MT4 which is fine to start with, but once you use a real platform and realise that execution speed and slippage of MT4 is a joke you will never go back.

Oh, lots of the brokers you mention also make you put your stop or limit order a minimum distance from the market, this is not true in a real market either

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I'm learning new things everydayThanks for your informative reply. With IC Markets I can get $5.00 commission and they have spread of 0.2. One of the better ones out there and another one that I am aware of is Thinkforex that has decent spreads too. IC Markets has the cTrader platform which is better than Mt4. Maybe a bucket shop like IG Markets might be a good option too.

Do you not trade forex anymore or are you trading something else? I have heard LMAX are very good. Something to consider too.

moyes said:

I'm learning new things everydayThanks for your informative reply. With IC Markets I can get $5.00 commission and they have spread of 0.2. One of the better ones out there and another one that I am aware of is Thinkforex that has decent spreads too. IC Markets has the cTrader platform which is better than Mt4. Maybe a bucket shop like IG Markets might be a good option too.

Do you not trade forex anymore or are you trading something else? I have heard LMAX are very good. Something to consider too.

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We use ICMarkets (Australia), LMAX (London) and FinFX (Finland). I would recommend any (or all) three.

TulipFX said:

We use ICMarkets (Australia), LMAX (London) and FinFX (Finland). I would recommend any (or all) three.

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Thanks for that. I have heard very good things about IC and LMAX. Are you an IB for these brokers? What about the other big one in Australia, Axitrader? Would you recommend them?

moyes said:

Thanks for that. I have heard very good things about IC and LMAX. Are you an IB for these brokers? What about the other big one in Australia, Axitrader? Would you recommend them?

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I know of others who trade with Axitrader and seem to be quite happy with them, but no personal experiences. We keep our dealings with a few brokers and develop good relationships with them.

We aren't an introducer to LMAX, only use their managed funds platform for some larger UK & European accounts who had requested that particular broker. You are right LMAX do have a sound reputation.

With ICM we technically are an introducer, but rather than take the commission from the broker, we have arranged with ICM to have it instead returned to the trader in the form of a commission reduction. Our business isn't broker introduction, but the opportunity was there to help traders with better conditions, so we took it. If you're interested in setting up with ICM PM us.