ECN Forex Brokers

(No Dealing Desk + STP + ECN)

*To be able to compare commission rates, we list them all as "Commission per round turn (100K)",

But there are different ways of listing commission rates:

Example: $6.00 per round turn lot (100k) = $3.00 per side (100k) or $3.00 per 100K USD traded = $30.00 per million USD traded or $60.00 per million USD traded round turn = 0.006% of the trade

ECN broker	ECN available on accounts:	Minimum deposit	Commission per round turn (100k)
1lotstp	ECN accounts	$1500	$4.00
1pipfix	ECN accounts	$1500	$4.00
3TG Brokers	ECN accounts	$500	$14.00
4runnerforex	ECN accounts	$2500	$4.00
4XDG	ECN accounts	$5000	$10.00
4XP	ECN accounts	$100	$4.50 - $7.00
ADM Derivatives	All accounts	$2000	$3.40 - Currenex $4.50 - Currenex Viking
ADS Securities	All accounts	$25 000	$0.00 - $40.00
Admiral Markets	Admiral.Pro accounts	$1000	$4.00
AFB FX	ECN accounts	$3000	$10.00
AFX Capital	AFX Fast accounts	$10 000	$2.50
AGM Forex	ECN accounts	$500	$5.00
Ajax Financial	All accounts	$500	$6.00 - $16.00
Alpari UK	Alpari Direct Pro accounts	$20 000	$5.00
Alpari US	Alpari Direct Pro accounts	$10 000	$5.00
ATC brokers	All accounts	$5000	$8.00
ATG Marketplex	All accounts	$3000	$2.00 - $7.00
AxiTrader	"ECN Style Forex" accounts	$1000	$7.00
AzenFX	ECN accounts	$200	0.8 pips per lot
Baxter-FX	All accounts	$50 000	< $2.00
BestecNFX	Meta ECN & Power ECN accounts	$500	$6.00
BMFN - Boston Merchant Financial	ECN accounts	$2000	$2.50
BNFX	ECN accounts	$1000	$5.00 - $5.60
Brokers Star	ECN accounts	$100	$8.00
CFH Markets	ECN accounts	$50,000	$0.5
CIM Bank	FX Active Trader (Level II)	$25 000	$7.00 - $10.00
CitiFX Pro	Premium accounts	$50 000	$7.00
Deltastock	Level 2 accounts	$100	$6.00 - $10.00
Direct FX	Liquidity direct	$5000	$1.00 - $10.00
DF Markets	Level 2 accounts	$1	$6.00 - $10.00
Divisa Capital	All accounts	$2500	$6.00
Dukascopy Bank SA	All accounts	$100	$1.00 - $9.60
ECN Alpha	All accounts	$500	$4.00
EXNESS	ECN accounts	$1000	$5.00
FairQuote Securities	All accounts	$2000	$12.00
FastBrokers	Integral & Currenex platform accounts	$2500	$9.80
FIBO Group	ECN accounts	$500	$6.00
FIBO Group Holdings	MT5 NDD accounts	$500	$20.00
Fidelis	ECN accounts	$200	$6.00
FinFX	ECN & ECN Pro accounts	$1000	$6.00 - $7.00
FinOdds	All accounts	$25	$5.00
Finotec	ECN accounts	£2000	$3.00 - $5.00
Forex Broker Inc	ECN accounts	$5	?
Forex-Metal	FX Edge accounts	$1000	$4.00
FOREXYARD	Institutional accounts	$25 000	$8.00
FP Markets	Pro Trader Account	$	$7.00
FX Choice	ECN accounts	$1000	$6.00
FX Systems	ECN accounts	$25 000	$4.00
FXcast	ECN accounts	$1000	$12.00 - $17.00
FXCBS	All accounts	$500	$8.00
FXCC	ECN accounts	$100	$8.00
FXCENTRAL	All accounts	$500	$8.00
FXCM	FXCM Active Trader	$25 000	$7.00 - $10.00
FXDD	PowerTrader & Viking Trader	$25 000	$4.00
FXDME	FOREXTrader	$250	$5.00
FXM Financial Group	ECN account	$1000	?
FXOpen	FXOpen Level II	$1000	$3.60 - $5.00
FXOptimax	Pro VIP Account	$5000	$7.00
FXPRIMUS	ECN Premier accounts	$100	$10.00
FxPro	cTrader accounts	$1000	$12.00
FXSalt	All accounts	$100	0.8 pips
FXVV	All accounts	$10	$0.00
GAIN Capital	GAIN GTX platform	$100 000	$5.00
GAINSY	ECN accounts	$100 000	$2.00
Galleass	ECN accounts	$1000	$5.00 - $7.00
GCI Financial	ECN account	$500	$0.00
Gallant Capital Markets	Pro account	$50 000	$0.50
GDMFX	ECN account (Blade, Elite, Prime)	$1000	$6.00 - $7.00
Gedamo Investments	Gedamo Trader ECN Currenex	$15 000	$5.00
Goldboro	All accounts	$50	$6.00 - $9.00
Grand Capital	ECN accounts	$1000	$5.00
GreenFX Traders	ECN accounts	$5000	$3.00
Hantec Markets	ECN accounts	$50 000	$5.00 - $6.00
HotForex	Currenex accounts	$500	$10.00
Hotspot FX	Institutional accounts	$1 000 000	?
IC Markets	ECN account	$10 000	$7.00
IG Markets (UK)	Level 2 Dealer platform	$50 000	$6.00
IKON Global Markets	Ikon Viking (institutional)	$1500	$2.00
IKON Markets	ECN accounts	$100	$2.00
Interactive Brokers	All accounts	$10 000	?
Investorseurope	Currenex accounts	$2000	?
JFX	ECN accounts	$100	$10.00
LCG FX	All accounts	$20 000	$3.00
London Capital Group (LCG)	All accounts	$25 000	?
Loyal Forex	Forex Pro ECN accounts	$1500	$4.00
MasterForex	Currenex platform accounts	$1000	$4.80
MAYZUS	Currenex accounts	$10 000	$10.00
MB Trading	All accounts	$400	$5.90 or $0.00 (EXN plan)
MFC Investment	ECN accounts	$1000	$7.00
MFFX	cTrader accounts	$1000	$6.00
MRC Markets	ECN, ECN+ accounts	$1000	$5.00 - $7.00
MyTrade Markets	Market Pro accounts	$250	$6.00
NordFX	MT4-ECN accounts, Integral (from $20 000)	$1000	$5.00 - $7.00
One Financial Markets	One DMA FX accounts	$10 000	$3.40
Pacific Financial Derivatives (PFD)	PFD Trader (MT4)	$1	$0.00
Pepperstone	Razor accounts	$200	$7.00 (AUD)
Persepolis Capital Management	All accounts	$10 000	?
Real-Forex	VIP accounts	$10 000	$6.00
Renesource Capital	FX PRO accounts	$1000	$2.50 - $5.00
RFXT - Royal Forex Trading	R-ECN accounts	$10 000	$2.00 - $5.00
RoboForex	Pro ECN accounts	$1000	$6.00
SkyFX	ECN accounts	$500	$3.50
SmartTradeFX	MT4 ECN accounts	$25	$0.00 - $10.00
Solidity Brokers	ECN accounts	$2000	$20.00
SpediaFX	All accounts	$750	$4.00 - $14.00
Sunbird	MT4, G-Pro and Currenex accounts	$10 000 - $50 000	$8.00 - $10.00
Swiss International	Institutional accounts	$7500	?
Synergy FX	ECN accounts	$1000	$3.50
ThinkForex	MT4 Pro accounts	$5000	$12.00
TradeFort	Pro accounts	$500	$3.00 - $18.00
Tradenext	iTrader Pro accounts	$10 000	$5.00
Trader's Way	ECN accounts	$100	$2.50 - $4.00
TradingForex.com	All accounts	$200	$5.00
Tradeview	Currenex accounts	$100	$1.20
Universal FX	All accounts	$500	$1.00 - $6.00
vCap FX	All accounts	$25 000	$3.50
vPE Bank	vPE FX Pro accounts	$5000	$10.00
WFX Markets	MultiBank accounts	$100	$6.00
XenonFx	ECN accounts	$50 000	$5.00
YouTradeFX	ECN accounts	$1000	?

Other brokers: MT4 ECN, STP, DMA/STP:

MT4 ECN Forex brokers
STP Forex brokers
DMA/STP Forex brokers

Do you know another NDD/STP/ECN Forex broker? Please suggest by adding a comment below.

DD — Dealing Desk — Forex brokers that operate (route orders) through the Dealing Desk and quote fixed spreads. A dealing desk broker makes money via spreads and by trading against its clients. A Dealing Desk Forex broker is called a Market Maker - they literally "make the market" for traders: when traders want to sell, they buy from them, when traders want to buy, they sell to them, e.g. they will always take the opposite side of the trade and in this way "create the market". A trader doesn't see the real market quotes, which allows Dealing Desk brokers (Market Makers) manipulate with their quotes where they need to in order to fill clients orders.

NDD — No Dealing Desk — NDD Forex brokers provide access to the interbank market without passing orders trough the dealing desk. With true No Dealing Desk brokers there are no re-quotes on orders and no additional pausing during order confirmation. This, in particular, allows trading during news times with no restrictions on trading.
An NDD broker can either charge commission for trading or choose to increase the spread and make Forex trading commission free.
No Dealing Desk brokers are either STP or ECN+STP.

STP — Straight Through Processing — STP Forex brokers send orders directly from clients to the liquidity providers - banks or other brokers. Sometimes STP brokers have just one liquidity provider, other times several. The more there are liquidity providers and therefore liquidity in the system, the better the fills for the clients.
The fact that traders have access to the real-time market quotes and can execute trades immediately without dealer intervention is what makes the platform STP.

ECN — Electronic Communications Network — ECN Forex brokers additionally allow clients' orders to interact with other clients' orders. ECN Forex broker provides a marketplace where all its participants (banks, market makers and individual traders) trade against each other by sending competing bids and offers into the system. Participants interact inside the system and get the best offers for their trades available at that time. All trading orders are matched between counter parties in real time. A small trading fee - commission - is always applied.
Sometimes STP brokers are discussed as if they were ECN brokers. To be a true ECN, a broker must display the Depth of the Market (DOM) in a data window, let clients show their own order size in the system and allow other clients to hit those orders. With ECN broker traders can see where the liquidity is and execute trades.

Broker types and revenues: fixed vs variable spreads vs commission

ECN Forex brokers always have variable spreads. Only ECN brokers charge commission for trading Forex. Commission is the only revenue/profit an ECN broker receives. ECN brokers are not making money on bid/ask (spread) difference.

An STP Forex broker is compensated through the spread (spread markups - to be explained in details below).

STP brokers have a choice of offering variable or fixed spreads. STP brokers route all trading orders to the liquidity providers - banks. These brokers, as intermediaries between their clients and banks, receive prices (spreads) posted by the banks on the Interbank market. Most banks, in fact, offer fixed spreads and are market makers.
An STP broker therefore has 2 options:
1. Let spreads be fixed.
2. Leave the spread at 0 and let the system take the best bid and ask from the number of banks (the more the better) and in this way provide variable spreads.
How an STP broker earns its money? Since STP brokers (as well as ECN) don't trade against their clients, they add own small markups to the spread quote. This is done by adding a pip (or half a pip, or any other amount) to the best bid and subtracting a pip at the best ask of its liquidity provider. All client orders are directly routed to the liquidity providers at original spread quoted by those providers while an STP broker earns its money from own markups.

Many STP brokers run a hybrid STP model: DD + NDD
Every STP broker signs a business contract with its liquidity providers (prime brokers), where the contract terms regulate the minimum transactions level which will be accepted by the liquidity provider. This means that all small orders placed by traders (usually those which are below 0.1 lot) cannot be sent to the liquidity providers, because they won't be accepted; and therefore such orders should be handled by the STP broker, who in this case becomes a counter-party for your transaction (Dealing desk model). If you trade with "Cents account" or a "Mini account", your STP broker is most likely always is a counter-party of your trades.
For all larger orders (as a rule, above 0.1 lot), the STP broker uses its real STP technology bridge & sends orders to its liquidity provides. With each transaction, the broker receives a portion of the spread.

Forex market maker - a broker with a dealing desk earns money on bid/ask difference as well as when a client loses a trade, since market makers are trading against their clients by hedging - entering in an opposite trade.

Conclusion:

ECN brokers are the purest breed among all Forex dealers. They don't profit on spread difference. Their only profit comes from commission. ECN brokers are interested in their clients to be winning, otherwise there will be no commission to earn.

STP brokers make money on spreads, thus even though they do not have a physical dealing desk to monitor and counter-trade client orders (unless its a hybrid STP model), they are still able to set their own price - the spread markup - for routing trading orders to liquidity providers and providing their clients with advanced trading services, lower account deposits, faster execution and anonymous trading environment with no dealing desk. STP brokers are also interested to see their clients trading profitable, so that a broker can continue earning on spreads.

Market makers make money on spreads and by hedging against their clients. However, if a client becomes "too" profitable, it can directly "upset" the broker. While this may be tolerated and professionally managed by a larger reputable market maker, with a smaller dealer such client will be soon asked to leave.

Benefits of trading with No Dealing Desk brokers

Among the main reason why traders look for NDD brokers is transparency, better and faster fills and anonymity.

Transparency means that a trader enters a true market instead of the market being artificially created for him.
Better fills are a result of the direct and competitive market bids and offers.

Anonymity means that there is no Dealing Desk watching who has come to the market and is asking for an order to be filled, instead client orders are executed automatically, immediately through the market network and totally anonymously.

On the opposite side is a Dealing Desk broker, who is able to profile their clients. In the worst case scenario, such broker can split clients into groups and put less successful ones on auto-execution and trade against them because on average they will lose, while clients that show signs of successful trading will be put on "slow-down" mode and can be provided with frequent re-quotes, slippage and/or slower execution especially during fast moving markets while a broker tries to offset own risks. The transparency of a Dealing Desk broker depends on the rules inside the company.

Forex Brokers aren't bad on general, whether a Dealing or Non-Dealing Desk, they aren't there to be against any particular trader. They look to make business, not just work for traders in terms of cooperation in the market environment. Many large Forex brokers who have lots of clients tend to try to help their clients become profitable as much as they can, but once a trading order is placed, its everyone for themselves.

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