Lesson 42 – Brokers, A Guide for Forex Traders
Finally, after all we have learned in the course so far, we actually now need to choose a brokerage to have our account with.
You can probably guess that finding the best brokerage can be quite difficult since there are so many and it’s hard to tell the difference between them.
Which brokerage is best for you will also depend on what you’re looking for.
We’ve actually researched and collected a definitive list of some of the best brokerages with a key overview of what they offer on our broker comparison page.
But here are some of the key things for you to look out for when choosing a brokerage for you.
- Search functions
- Good access to research tools and news data (to help you better choose your investments)
- Low or no commissions (nowadays you should really only be going for commission-free platforms unless they offer something really good that is specific to what you want)
- Price alerts and notification systems
- Good selection of and access to multiple different currencies, commodities, stock listings, and indexes
- Good portfolio analysis and reporting
- Costs involved in international trading (e.g if you are a European trader/investor buying shares from a US exchange
- Functionality on mobile and multiple devices
- The simplicity of the platform if you’re new to trading/investing
In addition to the things mentioned above, for those who don’t want to necessarily want to go through the effort of making trades themselves, look out for if the brokerage offers “copy trading” functionality where your account automatically copies the trades initiated by more experienced traders that you can choose from.
But anyways, as long as you keep an eye out for the things above and rank what matters to you, whether it be access to research or the cheapest platform to provide you trading functionality, you should have an easier time deciding.
Make sure you’re also aware if the brokerage only operates with their own software or if they’re integrated with other platforms like MT4/MT5 or cTrader.
Again, make sure to check out our comparison page to have a nice overview of some of our recommended brokerages.
That’s it for this lesson. Our next lesson will be our last graduating lesson on some final words to conclude this course. See you there!