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Related terms
The offer of a price where traders can buy the base of a currency pair. This price is higher than current market price and the opposite of the bid price. If the price is 1.25040/45, the ask is the “45” part, which is the price the market will sell to you at (1.25045). You can buy the base currency for 1.24045.
The price where traders can sell the base of a currency pair. It is the opposite of the ask price. It is the price where the market is prepared to buy the currency pair from you at. If you’re looking to sell a pair that shows 1.2040/45, the market is prepared to buy the currency pair from you at 1.2040; which subsequently is the price you’re selling at.
A middleman whose job is to execute buys and sells in the market for their clients (traders).They receive a commission/fee for matching buyers and sellers against each other.
Essentially a market maker broker. This type of brokerage will take the opposite side of the clients trade if they can’t find an opposite trader to match the initial client. Many traders feel like these types of firms can be a conflict of interest if the firm can’t match a seller with a buyer, because in a market that the broker specifically creates, it seems unlikely that the broker will just willingly lose money every trade in hopes that the client wins.
A computerized system that allows a trader to trade with liquidity providers with the best bid/ask price while giving them direct access to other participants. Complete opposite of a market maker broker. These brokers have no conflict of interest as they will never take the opposite sides of your trades.
The exchange rates given to large international banks.
A broker who creates the market for their clients. They will take the opposite side of your trade if they can’t find someone to match on the opposite side of your trade. See Dealing Desk.
The amount of pips between the bid/ask price. Multiply the spread by your lot size to see what your overall drawdown will be when you enter a trade.
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BeginnerEarly Stages for Beginners8 Topics
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Forex Terminology11 Topics
- Major and Minor Currency Pairs
- Basic Forex Terminology
- Pips & Ticks
- The Broker & The Spread
- What is a Lot?
- Stop Loss & Take Profit
- Margin & Leverage
- Retracement & Reversal
- When Can I Trade Forex? Sessions - Market Open and Close
- 3 Types of Analysis (Technical, Fundamental, Sentiment)
- 3 Ways a Market Can Go (Up, Down, Sideways)
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Margin & Leverage2 Topics
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Personal Psychology Questions2 Topics
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Psychology for Beginners7 Topics
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IntermediateIdentifying Scams2 Topics
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Brokers for Beginners5 Topics
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Technical Analysis13 Topics
- Types of Charts
- Understanding Japanese Candlesticks
- Candlestick Patterns For Beginners
- Single, Double & Triple Candlestick Patterns
- Support and Resistance
- Confluences w/ Candlesticks & Support & Resistance
- Trendlines
- Counter Trend Trading/ Counter Trend Lines
- Fibonacci
- Moving Average
- Top-Down Analysis
- Fakeouts
- Consolidation Trading (Breakout, Retest, Continuation)
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Market Structure5 Topics
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CompletionRisk Management for Beginners8 Topics
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Fundamental Analysis9 Topics
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AdvancedUsing Indicators6 Topics
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Technical Analysis (Part 2)8 Topics
MARKET MAKER vs. ECN
*ECN - Electronic Communications Network*
A dealing desk broker, otherwise known as a market-maker, is a brokerage who essentially “makes the market” in representation of the real market. You’re not trading the real market. You’re trading the market your broker provides for you.
You should know that the rates the market maker gives you are not made up out of nowhere. More often than not, they’re actually close to what the real market has. It’s just not the real interbank market that large institutions are trading through.
When it comes to dealing desk brokers, they make money from the spread off of each trade. Remember, trading is a zero-sum game. Meaning if you win, someone has to lose. If you lose, someone else won.
NOTE: Some people also call trading a negative-sum game because even if you open a trade and close it one second later, you lost some money. Whether it be a penny, 10 cents, or $1, you instantly lose money from the spread off of each trade, so most people look at trading as either you win or you lose.
So with market makers, they place your trade with someone on the opposite end. This means if you’re buying EUR/USD, they’re going to match you up with someone who is selling EUR/USD; that way, they can make money off the spread, and if you win you win, if you lose, you lose.
However, the issue most people have with market makers is that if they CAN’T find someone to match you up with, they ultimately have to take the opposite side of your trade. So if you’re buying EUR/USD, then in order to execute your trade as you requested, they have to SELL EUR/USD…. against you….. on a market THEY created… yeah, HUGE conflict of interest.
A lot of reasons I’ve seen people refrain from using market maker brokers is because you never know if you lost just because you had the wrong bias, or because your broker knows exactly where your stop loss is placed. This can potentially forcefully move the market against you and stop you out before price continues in its overall true direction.
One of the pros of using a market maker is most times, the spread is fixed. Regardless if the market is changing or not, the spread of a pair will remain the same. That way, you know the spread (price you pay to enter a trade/difference between the bid & ask price) always in the back of your mind.
What you should know is that not all market makers are in it just to see their clients lose. Actually, most don’t want to see that. If all of their clients lose and they make all the money, they may make a few million, but they’ll go out of business the next year due to terrible reviews about the broker and their clients closing their accounts. Due to the competitiveness of other market maker brokers, regulated market makers aren’t allowed to forcefully stop you out. Well, they can, but they’ll be in trouble if they get caught. For example: A huge broker most Forex traders know about, FXCM, was banned by the CFTC from operating in the United States due to taking positions directly against clients and using their own market making broker to their advantage. Unregulated brokers can do that with no repercussions, but regulated brokers cannot. (We’ll talk more about regulated brokers vs. unregulated next).
An ECN or non-dealing desk broker is a broker who does NOT create a market for their clients. The trades of their clients actually get routed to the best price possible offered by a liquidity provider (banks, large institutions, etc). Thus, there is NO conflict of interest in your trading. They do NOT take the opposite side of your trades. They simply send your trade to a liquidity provider and take a small commission from each trade.
What this means is, there is a list of all the best bid & ask prices from several different liquidity providers. Your ECN broker is just trying to see which bid & ask price is the best to get you in with your trade with the lowest possible spread.
Your broker makes money on the spread and sometimes even charges a small commission, but they have NO interest on if you win or lose. They are simply providing you access to the interbank market. Regulated ECN brokers are not manipulating prices for retail traders.
ECN brokers offer a variable spread. Meaning one day, EUR/USD’s spread can be a 6, and the next day, it can be 13, depending on what’s going on with the Euro & the US Dollar, if there’s a fundamental announcement (news) coming out, if its less volatile because the market just opened up or is closing, and etc.
One of the cons to using an ECN broker is that some of the fees are genuinely higher/more expensive than brokers who don’t use an Electronic Communications Network.
At the end of the day, choose whatever broker fits best for you. You may want a broker that offers a fixed spread, and if it’s regulated, market makers’ number 1 priority before taking the opposite side of your trade is to find another trader who has the opposite side of your trade, if it isn’t a conflict of interest.
You also may want a broker that doesn’t provide any type of conflict of interest when it comes to taking the opposite side of your trades. If you don’t mind the variable spreads and want direct access to the interbank market, then an ECN broker is the one for you.
After figuring out if you want to trade with a dealing desk broker or a no-dealing desk, the next thing you need to figure out is if you’re going to use a regulated broker or an unregulated broker!