Types of Broker

Like true ECN brokers, STP brokers don’t have a dealing desk, but they employ some of the practices of Market Maker brokers in order to provide more flexible trading conditions to their clientele and bypass some of the limitations of trading exclusively within the interbank market. Most of the time, this type of broker displays…

The No Dealing Desk or NDD type of forex broker lacks a dealing desk, as the name implies. Nevertheless, it instead offers the best composite quotes obtained from the multiple forex quote providers that give the NDD broker its liquidity in the forex market. Typically, each of these providers will post their best markets with…

Because an ECN passes all its trades along to the institutions it receives pricing from there is little chance of price manipulation taking place. It is also possible to get excellent spreads from the ECN broker during periods of great liquidity. In some cases, you could get zero spreads on the most liquid pairs like…

The STP broker has many of the same benefits as the ECN broker. They will typically offer very competitive spreads since they are getting pricing directly from the interbank market. They also offer almost no chance of price manipulation because they never take the other side of their client’s trades. STP brokers are also the…

The Electronic Communications Network (ECN) brokers also pass the orders of their clients to the interbank market but do not necessarily channel them to the liquidity providers. They sometimes transmit orders to other players at the interbank FX market who can take up these offers, such as prime brokers. All ECN brokers are STP (Straight-through processing)…

Straight-Through Processing (STP) brokerage firms are also known as Direct Market Access (DMA) brokers. These brokers give their traders direct access to the interbank FX market, where pricing and execution is done by the big banks acting as the liquidity providers. Their product offering is tailored mostly to professional traders who have the experience and liquidity to match…

Most retail traders in the forex market will be working with the class of brokers that are known as dealing desk brokers or market makers. These types of brokers are named market makers because they “make the market” for the retail traders. Trading Forex at the interbank market requires a lot of liquidity. Retail Traders…