ECN vs dealing desk: understanding what you're trading through
The majority of forex brokers fall into two broad camps: dealing desk or ECN. The difference is more than semantics. A dealing desk broker acts as the one taking the opposite position. An ECN broker routes your order straight to the interbank market — you get fills from real market depth.
In practice, the difference becomes clear in a few ways: spread consistency, how fast your orders go through, and requotes. ECN brokers generally offer raw spreads from 0.0 pips but add a commission per lot. Market makers mark up the spread instead. Neither model is inherently bad — it comes down to what you need.
For scalpers and day traders, ECN execution is generally the right choice. Getting true more reading market spreads compensates for paying commission on most pairs.
Why execution speed is more than a marketing number
Every broker's website mentions how fast they execute orders. Numbers like "lightning-fast execution" sound impressive, but what does it actually mean in practice? More than you'd think.
For someone making longer-term positions, a 20-millisecond difference won't move the needle. If you're scalping 1-2 pip moves targeting tight ranges, slow fills can equal slippage. A broker averaging in the 30-40ms range with no requotes offers measurably better fills over one that averages 200ms.
Certain platforms built proprietary execution technology to address this. Titan FX, for example, built their Zero Point technology designed to route orders immediately to LPs without dealing desk intervention — they report averages of under 37 milliseconds. You can read a detailed breakdown in this review of Titan FX.
Blade vs standard accounts: where the breakeven actually is
This is something nearly every trader asks when setting up a broker account: is it better to have the raw spread with commission or zero commission but wider spreads? The answer comes down to volume.
Let's run the numbers. The no-commission option might show EUR/USD at 1.0-1.5 pips. The ECN option gives you 0.1-0.3 pips but adds around $3.50-4.00 per standard lot round trip. For the standard account, you're paying through the spread on each position. Once you're trading more than a few lots a week, ECN pricing works out cheaper.
A lot of platforms offer both as options so you can see the difference for yourself. What matters is to calculate based on your actual trading volume rather than trusting the broker's examples — broker examples tend to favour the higher-margin product.
500:1 leverage: the argument traders keep having
Leverage polarises retail traders more than almost anything else. Tier-1 regulators like ASIC and FCA limit retail leverage at 30:1 or 50:1 depending on the asset class. Platforms in places like Vanuatu or the Bahamas continue to offer ratios of 500:1 and above.
The standard argument against is that it blows accounts. That's true — statistically, most retail traders lose money. What this ignores nuance: experienced traders never actually deploy the maximum ratio. They use having access to high leverage to minimise the money sitting as margin in open trades — which frees capital to deploy elsewhere.
Obviously it carries risk. That part is true. But that's a risk management problem, not a leverage problem. When a strategy requires lower margin requirements, the option of higher leverage frees up margin for other positions — which is the whole point for anyone who knows what they're doing.
Choosing a broker outside FCA and ASIC jurisdiction
Broker regulation in forex operates across different levels. Tier-1 is regulators like the FCA and ASIC. You get 30:1 leverage limits, enforce client fund segregation, and generally restrict the trading conditions available to retail accounts. Tier-3 you've got places like Vanuatu (VFSC) and similar offshore regulators. Fewer requirements, but that also means more flexibility in what they can offer.
The trade-off is real and worth understanding: going with an offshore-regulated broker offers higher leverage, fewer account restrictions, and often more competitive pricing. The flip side is, you sacrifice some investor protection if the broker fails. No investor guarantee fund like the FCA's FSCS.
For traders who understand this trade-off and pick execution quality and flexibility, regulated offshore brokers are a valid choice. The important thing is looking at operating history, fund segregation, and reputation rather than just checking if they're regulated somewhere. A broker with a decade of operating history under VFSC oversight may be a safer bet in practice than a newly licensed broker that got its licence last year.
Scalping execution: separating good brokers from usable ones
If you scalp is where broker choice matters most. You're working tiny price movements and holding positions for seconds to minutes. In that environment, seemingly minor gaps in spread become the difference between a winning and losing month.
Non-negotiables for scalpers isn't long: 0.0 pip raw pricing at actual market rates, execution under 50 milliseconds, guaranteed no requotes, and no restrictions on scalping and high-frequency trading. Certain platforms technically allow scalping but throttle orders when they detect scalping patterns. Look at the execution policy before committing capital.
Platforms built for scalping usually say so loudly. They'll publish execution speed data somewhere prominent, and usually offer VPS hosting for automated strategies. If the broker you're looking at doesn't mention fill times anywhere on the website, that's probably not a good sign for scalpers.
Social trading in forex: practical expectations
Copy trading has grown over the past few years. The appeal is obvious: find someone with a good track record, replicate their positions automatically, benefit from their skill. How it actually works is messier than the marketing suggest.
What most people miss is execution delay. When a signal provider enters a trade, your mirrored order goes through after a delay — when prices are moving quickly, that lag transforms a good fill into a bad one. The smaller the strategy's edge, the worse the lag hurts.
Having said that, some copy trading setups deliver value for those who can't trade actively. The key is finding access to real trading results over no less than several months of live trading, rather than demo account performance. Risk-adjusted metrics matter more than raw return figures.
Some brokers have built proprietary copy trading alongside their main offering. Integration helps lower the execution lag compared to standalone signal platforms that sit on top of MT4 or MT5. Check how the copy system integrates before expecting the lead trader's performance will translate to your account.