This is a guest post by: Bojan Zlatkovic of www.choose-forex.com.
Although the number of forex brokers has grown in the last few years, it‘s not easy to find the right one for your business. Every successful trader knows that brokers are not the same and that one has to be very cautious if he wants to perform a profitable and safe trade. So how to choose a reliable broker? Or how to choose a new one, if you‘re no longer satisfied with the last one? Our tips will help you overcome uncertainty and confusion and help you develop a comfortable state of mind that comes with finding a perfect broker for your business. The broker who won‘t make advantage of your investment. So here are some serious points to consider.
Accessibility
The first thing you have to check out is to assure if your forex broker is accessible. It‘s a well-known fact that forex is traded 24h a day. Your potential broker must be constantly available and provide you with uninterrupted customer service. Do the testing of a customer support team by trying to contact them through all available channels. Keep in mind that a bad customer support costs a business lots of money! If you don‘t get a response in a short period, you should avoid that broker. The quick response is especially important for the live chat service. If you encounter, for example, some technical issues, you‘ll need an almost immediate response to resolve the problem. Avoid spending sleepless nights worrying about your actions or funds‘ safety.
Foundation
As we already said, the number of forex brokers is constantly growing, and that‘s why you have to pay a serious attention to a foundation of the brokerage before you sign any contract. Every trader has to know that, in most cases, forex brokers are associated with large banks or lending institutions. This is the explanation why forex brokers offer high leverage to traders, but any serious trader must check out the background and the source of that money before deciding to perform the trade.
Legitimacy
Legitimacy is one of the most important factors to check out before contract signing with your forex broker. A reliable broker will keep your funds secure and maintain fair dealing practices. If you want to do business with that kind of broker, you have to choose a registered broker with a clean and transparent regulatory record, in order to avoid the possible headaches. Regulatory standards may vary depending on different regulatory regimes. However, legitimate brokers will indicate which regulatory body controls their operations on forex brokers website.
• US Regulation – Forex trading in the USA is controlled by Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA). These 2 agencies undertake legal actions against the suspicious brokers that are not properly registered.
• EU Regulation – In the EU, brokers who are properly regulated and licensed can serve traders in other EU countries. Although each European country has an individual regulatory body, brokers gravitate to countries with broker friendly regulations – for example, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
Regulations of other markets – other significant regulative bodies are Japanese Financial Services Authority (JFSA), Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) etc.
Demo account
Demo account should be first on importance list of every serious trader. It is one of the best ways of testing a potential broker and his trading platform. If you think that you have chosen the right broker for your business, start trading with a demo account and test its offers online, since it‘s costs free. In addition, it‘s a great test of your predictions and strategy plans. These accounts are necessary for your own improvement and you don‘t riski anything on the forex market. However, make sure that you test your results in demo trading with demo account within the period of real trading. By doing so, you‘ll increase your chances of success in real trading.
Resources
Reliable forex brokers offer a wide range of different services. But before using any forex broker’s trading platform, a smart trader must do all the necessary check outs and evaluations. The platform of a serious forex broker must include real-time charts, technical analysis and other useful tools. Also, it should indicate the relevant market data and it‘s desirable to have a support for trading systems. Every trader should be able to get the most of his potential forex broker.
Deposit and Withdrawal
Every good and legitimate broker should provide their clients with easy deposits and withdrawals. You should keep in mind that brokers are there for you, and their role is to facilitate trading, not make it hard. You should not have a hard time in getting the profits you have earned. Beware of those brokers who don‘t have restrictions on the limit of funds for deposits and withdrawals. This means that these brokers are not properly regulated and you should, by all means, avoid them.
Transparency
A legitimate and reliable broker makes all his actions and procedures transparent. He eagerly reveals his metrics and operations (clear and coherent) and he simply does not behave as he hides something. The trading volumes and executions statistics should be an ID of a broker. Furthermore, they should give you a good insight into a broker’s business and help you decide to choose his services and open an account with him. Avoid platforms that show no or little transparency, because verifying your transactions will be virtually impossible!
Conclusion
You must have confidence if you want to be a successful forex trader. In order to gain it, you must have just enough time to work on market analysis and develop forex strategies. This means that you must find a reliable broker. Do a thorough investigation of a potential broker, cause only a stable and reliable brokerage can bring you good profits and low risks. Finding a perfect broker may be a difficult task, but this list of features will certainly help you in making your final decision. There are thousands of brokers out there but our tips will bring you once step closer to the ultimate forex trading experience.
You can check out his website at Choose-Forex.com for more information.