These days the electronic communication network (ECN) is especially popular among Forex traders. The ECN allows market participants to trade without the direct involvement of a third party, i.e. the network matches contra-side orders the way it is done in stock markets. Thanks to the ECN, a trader gets access to aggregate market liquidity provided by major liquidity suppliers. Therefore, ECN traders can trade big trading lots while their orders are executed instantly and automatically. An ECN trader pays small commissions for the right to use the ECN service and is charged with spreads.
The good news is that not so long ago the ECN service became available not only to big-scale traders (like banks and other financial institutions) but to individual traders with moderate trading capital as well. Even a trader with $1000 available for trading now has an opportunity to become a client of an ECN broker. It is priceless for scalpers and those traders who use trading robots.
As we have just mentioned, ECN brokers charge their clients with spreads. A natural question arises: Which ECN brokers offer the lowest spreads in the industry?
According to Eugene Olkhovsky, ’s leading expert in financial markets from Canada, these days there are several reliable ECN brokers with moderate spreads:
As we can see, FXOpen offers some of the lowest spreads in the industry. FXOpen revolutionized Forex trading by allowing ECN traders to use MetaTrader 4. FXOpen is number 13 in ’s rating of Forex brokers .
What lies behind FXOpen’s low spreads?
ECN-Based MetaTrader 4: Dreams Come True
ECN trading via MetaTrader 4 seems to have revolutionized the Forex trading industry, thus giving an opportunity for true cooperation between the broker and the client. With ECN brokers, this is a win-win situation. An ECN broker guarantees fair trading conditions but charges its clients with moderate commissions for that. That is why an ECN broker is interested in long-term cooperation with successful traders.
Interview
To clarify the situation, Market Leader interviewed a representative of FXOpen. Here is a part of this interview:
FXOpen: We offer some of the world’s best ECN trading conditions for MT4 traders. This is a major achievement because most individual Forex traders use MT4 as their major trading platform. Along with low deposit requirements, our offers look fairly attractive to scalpers and trading robot users…
Market Leader: Indeed, your offers do look fairly interesting. Can you please tell us about peculiarities of your trading services?
FXOpen: Our unique ECN-based MT4 trading service has several major advantages:
1. Super-fast execution (several milliseconds).
2. No re-quotes
3. Very low spread
Market Leader: By the way, how did you manage to lower your spreads so much?
FXOpen: It became possible thanks to our unique aggregating software, which is capable of spotting and offering our clients the best prices available in the ECN. In other words, the aggregator has a variety of liquidity suppliers to choose from. It scans the list for the best price and offers it to the client in milliseconds. It is superfast, isn’t it? By the way, the commission is as low as $36-50 per million for individual traders (it is even lower for institutionary traders). This is one of the best offers among ECN-brokers who allow trading via MT4.
Market Leader: What other peculiarities of ECN-based MT4 trading can you name?
FXOpen: To our mind, the most significant advantage is that a trader has an opportunity to trade directly with other market participants, i.e. they get access to interbank liquidity. It suggests transparency and fair trading conditions. A trader can be a consumer and a liquidity supplier.
A trader sees the best BID and ASK (Offer) prices instantly after they come from other clients and liquidity suppliers. Therefore, FXOpen cannot manipulate the prices, thus providing them AS IS.
The benefits are obvious!
The bottom line: Indeed, FXOpen is one of the world’s very few ECN Forex brokers that allow MT4 trading. With FXOpen, now all MT4 traders can get access to interbank liquidity, thus getting high-quality service and fast execution of orders. Now they can fully trust their broker!
