Jump to content

Welcome to the new Traders Laboratory! Please bear with us as we finish the migration over the next few days. If you find any issues, want to leave feedback, get in touch with us, or offer suggestions please post to the Support forum here.

  • Welcome Guests

    Welcome. You are currently viewing the forum as a guest which does not give you access to all the great features at Traders Laboratory such as interacting with members, access to all forums, downloading attachments, and eligibility to win free giveaways. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free. Create a FREE Traders Laboratory account here.

MINTED

ECN or Market Maker Broker

Recommended Posts

I intend to Scalp (as a test bed), but have read that many companies frown on this method, while others don't mind?

 

Is anyone using a ECN?

If so...which one and why?

 

I will using MT4?

Is that the correct one?

 

Alternatives ?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Have a search here for 'bookies' and 'bucket shop'. Nothing wrong with using a bookie if you understand the differences. They are not great for 'scalping'. as they set the price and are often the counter party to your bets, they will get mightily miffed if you exploit minor pricing discrepancies and have an array of tools to prevent that. Those counter measure are likely to put paid to any 'scalping' efforts.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Market Makers

 

Most brokers are market makers, which means they set the bid and ask prices on their systems and display their quotes on their trading platforms. Basically, they are connected to the interbank system to get the quotes they will use, but make up their own prices for their customers. Because they let you trade “commission free”, they build in their profit into the spread, by changing their interbank quotes and padding them for their customers. Since they offer you such great leverage, and you only need to come up with a small margin to trade a much larger amount of money, they assume all the risk. But at the same time, to offset their risk, they take the opposite position to your trade. So if you sell, they buy, and vice versa.

 

The rates that market makers set for you are based on their own best interests. They widen the spread that they quote you and pocket the difference from what they pay when placing your trades. Usually, the spreads are pretty reasonable and they make very little profit because of the competition between brokers. In order to boost their profits even more, many of them will hedge your order by passing it on to somebody else, or, they will open opposite positions and trade against you. This can lead to shady dealings like stop loss hunting, where they will see where the majority of stop loss orders from their customers are at, then spike the quotes to stop out traders and profit off their loss.

 

Pros:

 

* The trading platform usually comes with free charting software and news feeds.

* Some of them have more user-friendly trading platforms.

* Currency price movements can be less volatile compared to currency prices quoted on ECNs, although this can be a disadvantage to scalpers.

 

Cons:

 

* Because they may trade against you, market makers can present a clear conflict of interest in order execution.

* They may display worse bid/ask prices than what you could get from another market maker or ECN.

* It is possible for market makers to manipulate currency prices to run their customers’ stops or not let customers’ trades reach profit objectives. Market makers may also move their currency quotes 10-15 pips away from other market rates.

* A huge amount of slippage can occur when news is released. Market makers’ quote display and order placing systems may also “freeze” during times of high market volatility.

* Many market makers frown on scalping practices and have a tendency to put scalpers on “manual execution”, which means their orders may not get filled at the prices they want.

 

Electronic Communication Networks or ECNs

 

ECNs are brokers that pass prices from multiple market participants directly to you, and disply the best bid/ask quotes on their trading platforms based on these prices. Basically they give you the wholesale price. ECNs also serve as counterparties to Forex trading, but they profit on a settlement basis rather than pricing. Therefore you pay an actual commission, instead of an inflated spread. You will still have to pay a spread, but ECN spreads vary depending on the pair’s trading activities. You can sometimes get no ECN spread at all, and occassionally a reverse spread, particularly in very liquid currency pairs such as the majors.

 

ECNs make money by charging customers a fixed commission for each transaction, therefore they do not make or set market prices or their own bid/ask quotes. They provide the best quotes on the interbank system and charge you a commission for trading. What this means is that the risk of price manipulation by the ECN is reduced or eliminated for retail Forex traders. They profit whether you win or lose, and don’t take positions against you, so there is no need to be shady.

 

Pros:

 

* You can usually get better bid/ask prices because they are derived from several interbank sources.

* It is possible to trade on prices that have very little or no spread at certain times.

* Genuine ECN brokers will not trade against you as they will pass on your orders to a bank or another customer on the opposite side of the transaction.

* Prices may be more volatile, which will be better for scalping purposes.

* Since you are able to offer a price between the bid and ask, you can take on the role as a market maker to other traders on the ECN.

 

Cons:

 

* Many of them do not offer integrated charting and news feeds.

* Their trading platforms tend to be less user-friendly.

* Because of variable spreads between the bid and the ask prices, it may be more difficult to calculate stop-loss and breakeven points in pips in advance.

* Traders have to pay commissions for each transaction.

 

Seems to me, that because the spread that Market makers take, and possibly working against you, that ECN looks a better option?? Am I right here? Can anyone recommend a good ECN broker?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Minted,

 

have you thought about scalping a futures contract instead?

 

The 6E (EUR-USD) for example.

 

Futures markets are regulated and the 6E is scalpable.

 

 

Hal

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
  thalestrader said:
?????????????????????

 

In my view:

 

Scalp: 5 to 10 ticks. (Maybe even less.)

 

-----

 

Further question: How large in $ should be your test bets?

 

The amount might be very different for different people.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
  HAL9000 said:
In my view:

 

Scalp: 5 to 10 ticks. (Maybe even less.)

 

-----

 

Further question: How large in $ should be your test bets?

 

The amount might be very different for different people.

 

Thanks Hal,

 

I was just pointing out to the OP that it is rude to come asking folks for help, and then ignore them when they request additional information.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thales..........no intention on my part to be RUDE. I think others on here were worse. I didnt reply, as I get the impression no one wants to help.

 

"Define scalp" ?

 

If you want the dictionary answer......I want to trade short term, anything from M1 to H1...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
  MINTED said:
"Define scalp" ?

 

If you want the dictionary answer......I want to trade short term, anything from M1 to H1...

 

Not for nothing, but I still have no idea what it is you are trying to accomplish.

 

Good luck, though.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
  thalestrader said:
Hi there,

 

Define scalp.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

scalp is one trading strategies which targeting for small amount pips. from 5-10, it's a simply fast exit strategies, mostly used on market volatility.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Topics

  • Posts

    • Thx for reminding us... I don't bang that drum often enough anymore Another part for consideration is who that money initially went to...
    • TDUP ThredUp stock, watch for a top of range breakout above 2.94 at https://stockconsultant.com/?TDUP
    • How long does it take to receive HFM's withdrawal via Skrill? less than 24H?
    • My wife Robin just wanted some groceries.   Simple enough.   She parked the car for fifteen minutes, and returned to find a huge scratch on the side.   Someone keyed her car.   To be clear, this isn’t just any car.   It’s a Cybertruck—Elon Musk's stainless-steel spaceship on wheels. She bought it back in 2021, before Musk became everyone's favorite villain or savior.   Someone saw it parked in a grocery lot and felt compelled to carve their hatred directly into the metal.   That's what happens when you stand out.   Nobody keys a beige minivan.   When you're polarizing, you're impossible to ignore. But the irony is: the more attention something has, the harder it is to find the truth about it.   What’s Elon Musk really thinking? What are his plans? What will happen with DOGE? Is he deserving of all of this adoration and hate? Hard to say.   Ideas work the same way.   Take tariffs, for example.   Tariffs have become the Cybertrucks of economic policy. People either love them or hate them. Even if they don’t understand what they are and how they work. (Most don’t.)   That’s why, in my latest podcast (link below), I wanted to explore the “in-between” truth about tariffs.   And like Cybertrucks, I guess my thoughts on tariffs are polarizing.   Greg Gutfield mentioned me on Fox News. Harvard professors hate me now. (I wonder if they also key Cybertrucks?)   But before I show you what I think about tariffs… I have to mention something.   We’re Headed to Austin, Texas This weekend, my team and I are headed to Austin. By now, you should probably know why.   Yes, SXSW is happening. But my team and I are doing something I think is even better.   We’re putting on a FREE event on “Tech’s Turning Point.”   AI, quantum, biotech, crypto, and more—it’s all on the table.   Just now, we posted a special webpage with the agenda.   Click here to check it out and add it to your calendar.   The Truth About Tariffs People love to panic about tariffs causing inflation.   They wave around the ghost of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff from the Great Depression like it’s Exhibit A proving tariffs equal economic collapse.   But let me pop this myth:   Tariffs don’t cause inflation. And no, I'm not crazy (despite what angry professors from Harvard or Stanford might tweet at me).   Here's the deal.   Inflation isn’t when just a couple of things become pricier. It’s when your entire shopping basket—eggs, shirts, Netflix subscriptions, bananas, everything—starts costing more because your money’s worth less.   Inflation means your dollars aren’t stretching as far as they used to.   Take the 1800s.   For nearly a century, 97% of America’s revenue came from tariffs. Income tax? Didn’t exist. And guess what inflation was? Basically zero. Maybe 1% a year.   The economy was booming, and tariffs funded nearly everything. So, why do people suddenly think tariffs cause inflation today?   Tariffs are taxes on imports, yes, but prices are set by supply and demand—not tariffs.   Let me give you a simple example.   Imagine fancy potato chips from Canada cost $10, and a 20% tariff pushes that to $12. Everyone panics—prices rose! Inflation!   Nope.   If I only have $100 to spend and the price of my favorite chips goes up, I either stop buying chips or I buy, say, fewer newspapers.   If everyone stops buying newspapers because they’re overspending on chips, newspapers lower their prices or go out of business.   Overall spending stays the same, and inflation doesn’t budge.   Three quick scenarios:   We buy pricier chips, but fewer other things: Inflation unchanged. Manufacturers shift to the U.S. to avoid tariffs: Inflation unchanged (and more jobs here). We stop buying fancy chips: Prices drop again. Inflation? Still unchanged. The only thing that actually causes inflation is printing money.   Between 2020 and 2022 alone, 40% of all money ever created in history appeared overnight.   That’s why inflation shot up afterward—not because of tariffs.   Back to tariffs today.   Still No Inflation Unlike the infamous Smoot-Hawley blanket tariff (imagine Oprah handing out tariffs: "You get a tariff, and you get a tariff!"), today's tariffs are strategic.   Trump slapped tariffs on chips from Taiwan because we shouldn’t rely on a single foreign supplier for vital tech components—especially if that supplier might get invaded.   Now Taiwan Semiconductor is investing $100 billion in American manufacturing.   Strategic win, no inflation.   Then there’s Canada and Mexico—our friendly neighbors with weirdly huge tariffs on things like milk and butter (299% tariff on butter—really, Canada?).   Trump’s not blanketing everything with tariffs; he’s pressuring trade partners to lower theirs.   If they do, everybody wins. If they don’t, well, then we have a strategic trade chess game—but still no inflation.   In short, tariffs are about strategy, security, and fairness—not inflation.   Yes, blanket tariffs from the Great Depression era were dumb. Obviously. Today's targeted tariffs? Smart.   Listen to the whole podcast to hear why I think this.   And by the way, if you see a Cybertruck, don’t key it. Robin doesn’t care about your politics; she just likes her weird truck.   Maybe read a good book, relax, and leave cars alone.   (And yes, nobody keys Volkswagens, even though they were basically created by Hitler. Strange world we live in.) Source: https://altucherconfidential.com/posts/the-truth-about-tariffs-busting-the-inflation-myth    Profits from free accurate cryptos signals: https://www.predictmag.com/       
    • No, not if you are comparing apples to apples. What we call “poor” is obviously a pretty high bar but if you’re talking about like a total homeless shambling skexie in like San Fran then, no. The U.S.A. in not particularly kind to you. It is not an abuse so much as it is a sad relatively minor consequence of our optimism and industriousness.   What you consider rich changes with circumstances obviously. If you are genuinely poor in the U.S.A., you experience a quirky hodgepodge of unhelpful and/or abstract extreme lavishnesses while also being alienated from your social support network. It’s about the same as being a refugee. For a fraction of the ‘kindness’ available to you in non bio-available form, you could have simply stayed closer to your people and been MUCH better off.   It’s just a quirk of how we run the place and our values; we are more worried about interfering with people’s liberty and natural inclination to do for themselves than we are about no bums left behind. It is a slightly hurtful position and we know it; we are just scared to death of socialism cancer and we’re willing to put our money where our mouth is.   So, if you’re a bum; you got 5G, the ER will spend like $1,000,000 on you over a hangnail but then kick you out as soon as you’re “stabilized”, the logistics are surpremely efficient, you have total unchecked freedom of speech, real-estate, motels, and jobs are all natural healthy markets in perfect competition, you got compulsory three ‘R’’s, your military owns the sky, sea, space, night, information-space, and has the best hairdos, you can fill out paper and get all the stuff up to and including a Ph.D. Pretty much everything a very generous, eager, flawless go-getter with five minutes to spare would think you might need.   It’s worse. Our whole society is competitive and we do NOT value or make any kumbaya exception. The last kumbaya types we had werr the Shakers and they literally went extinct. Pueblo peoples are still around but they kind of don’t count since they were here before us. So basically, if you’re poor in the U.S.A., you are automatically a loser and a deadbeat too. You will be treated as such by anybody not specifically either paid to deal with you or shysters selling bejesus, Amway, and drugs. Plus, it ain’t safe out there. Not everybody uses muhfreedoms to lift their truck, people be thugging and bums are very vulnerable here. The history of a large mobile workforce means nobody has a village to go home to. Source: https://askdaddy.quora.com/Are-the-poor-people-in-the-United-States-the-richest-poor-people-in-the-world-6   Profits from free accurate cryptos signals: https://www.predictmag.com/ 
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.