Introducing broker vs affiliates

The industry is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the National Futures Association (NFA).1 Anyone considering opening a forex account can research the available brokers through the NFA website or through Investopedia’s broker reviews.

The foreign exchange market is by necessity a global and 24-hour market. The clients of a forex broker include retail currency traders who use these platforms for speculation on the direction of currencies. Their clients also include large financial services firms that trade on behalf of investment banks and other customers. Any individual forex broker…

Opening a forex trading account these days is quite simple and can be done online. Before trading, the forex broker will require a customer to deposit money into the new account as collateral. Brokers also provide leverage to customers so they can trade larger amounts than they have on deposit. Depending on the country the trader is…

Most foreign exchange transactions are between pairs of the currencies of the 10 nations that make up the G10. The nations and their currencies include the U.S. dollar (USD), the Euro (EUR), the pound sterling (GBP), the Japanese yen (JPY), the Australian dollar (AUD), the New Zealand dollar (NZD), the Canadian dollar (CAD), and the…

An introducing broker, or IB, is a company or individual that introduces its clients to a forex or CFD broker. They provide their clients with trading education and support, as well as access to the financial markets. Bringing in new clients to trade with a broker may sound similar to affiliates but IBs provide further services…

Forex brokers are compensated two ways. The first is through the bid-ask spread of a currency pair. For example, when the Euro-U.S. Dollar pair is priced as 1.20010 bid and 1.20022 ask, the spread between these two prices is .00012, known as 1.2 pips. When a retail client opens a position at the ask price…