Choice of personal broker or dealing center is one of the most important keystones of successful Forex investments. A brokerage company will maintain your trading account, receive your deposits and execute your exchange orders. Experienced traders and Foreign Exchange market analysts recommend to pay special attention to a following checklist, concerning efficient cooperation with the broker. It may help you to avoid future problems and cut unsuitable options.
- What are the initial deposit requirements?
- Does the brokerage company have a good reputation? Is it known to professional market participants?
- What are the working hours and business days?
- What are the commissions and charges?
- What are the currency pairs quotation spreads?
- Are there any additional trading restriction?
- Does the technical support and customer care officers react properly to your requests?
- Are they easily accessible?
- What additional services are offered by the broker?
- Is the trading platform convenient? Does it fit your personal preferences?
- What are the conditions of funds deposit and withdrawal?
- What payment methods (wire transfer, credit cards, e-currency) are supported?
It’s very important to collect as much information on brokerage company as possible and assure that it is transparent, high-graded and suits your personal requirements. Of cause you should consider only brokers with spotless reputation. It may be useful to look through special web forums where you could find feedback from other traders regarding your broker services. Check the reviews and comments mentioning the broker’s name. Do not ignore this information source but use it only as supplementary basis for decision making.
Another piece of advice of experienced professionals: prefer brokers which working hours start at Monday night and finish at Friday midnight. Longer breaks may cause risks for positions, left open for weekend, due to potential price changes and re-quotes, also called gaps.
You should directly discuss with your broker all details of how the account will be managed, including margin and leverage, lot size etc. You must feel yourself comfortable, confident and understand relative vocabulary.
If you are going to sign a contract with the broker please be sure that you fully understand all its terms and conditions. Clarify unclear moments prior signing and check if there are any additional obligations with the regards to trading practice. The most common trick is hidden requirement of minimum number of transactions within certain time period (week or month).
Try out the trading platform and make sure that chosen broker provide necessary analytical toolkit. The platform must have installed all standard technical analyses indicators and financial indexes; also it should support wide range of trading orders. Optional services, such as additional analytic software, newsfeed, market surveys or even direct investment recommendations and provision of trading signals, may be quite useful, particularly for a novice trader.
Respectful brokers offer 24 hour technical and dealing support through various communication channels. Make sure that it’s provided not only through Web Chat, but also through telephone and e-mail. In most cases technical support is active in working hours but nowadays it’s common to have 24 hours access. Remember that there isn’t universal and flawless way to choose a broker and to avoid problems with it.
This is individual decision which depends on personal requirements and preferences. A tracing of perfect brokerage company, preliminary selection of available information sources are sole responsibility of a trader. The made choices influence a lot results of your Forex investments so spent efforts will necessarily be justified. Make a research on market offers, gather available information, negotiate final terms and choose your broker wisely.