Forex.com’s GTX Direct is an authentic electronic communication network (ECN) trading platform. Compared to standard brokers, your ECN brokerage can offer much tighter spreads as there is no ‘middleman’. Price quotations are gathered from numerous market participants, meaning ECN trading avoids wider spreads. An ECN is an automated system that publishes orders entered by market participants directly to third parties and individual traders.

Liquidity providers offer ECN trading services giving their clients direct access to the network and charging a commission as a premium. Let’s say you want to place a buy order, and the currency pair is EUR/USD, and the trade volume is 1 lot (100,000 currency units). Of course, you place a trading order, and the broker puts your order in the system, where it is immediately matched by the most profitable sell order in the system. In this case, to open your trade, a volume of 100,000 currency units is taken from the system, that is, this amount of liquidity is removed. Since you have reduced the liquidity in the system, you are charged a commission. The ECN broker connects its clients with these liquidity providers, thus providing the minimum spreads.

Trading Conditions

This type of trading environment offers a number of advantages over dealing desks which include, lower spreads, faster execution, greater transparency and lower commissions. Overall, Forex.com is the best MetaTrader 5 / MT5 forex broker in the US. Forex.com provides great rebates for high-volume traders in the US and tight, raw spreads through its ECN model. Forex.com is a well-established broker that is regulated in the US. Overall, Advanced Markets is the best MetaTrader 4 forex broker in the US. Advanced Markets provides excellent customer support alongside advanced trading tools and access to a wide range of markets.

• Price manipulation is not possible with ECN brokers as recent price history is made available.
• This specific technique of trading does not need the client to trade with the broker, but instead uses its network to place orders.
• Read our full reviews of the presented companies and start trading transparently with a reliable provider.
• Only some specific Electronic Communications Networks Forex brokers that are known as ndd brokers using the no dealing desk (ndd) technology can provide access to the native network.
• Normally, an ECN broker gets its earnings via the trading volume of its customers by charging a commission on every position offered.
• This means that you may anticipate costs, spreads, and commissions that are on par with or below the market average.

With its popularity and a trend of ECN trading there are many brokers stating its Broker ECN Forex status. However, the only true ECN Brokers are brokers with the confirmed regulatory status and strong legit obligations. Based on our tests there are only Learn about different type of brokers through SEC website. ECN is a non-dealing desk bridge with straight-through processing execution that enables execution in a direct connection between the parties via automated network. Where ECN Platform is Broker or Platform that performs its execution and operation via ECN. This feature is something that Forex dealers usually can’t afford to make compromises on.

Why you should consider trading with an ECN broker

They establish a digital connection between the parties involved in a trade and transmit the orders to the liquidity providers. You should consult experts if you are uncertain whether or not the broker operates as a non-dealing desk. Trading desk brokers (also known as market makers) execute deals on behalf of their customers.

Most countries protect a certain level of investment, such as up to GBP 75,000 in the UK. The chances of dishonest people introducing high-volume trades also grow. Some may also deceive others into thinking of them as ECN brokers when in reality, they are not. Price manipulation is not possible with ECN brokers as recent price history is made available. No trader enjoys a built-in advantage over other traders on ECN. In this conventional trading system, rather than purchasing 20 Apple shares from someone who offers 20 Apple shares, you would be buying 20 Apple shares from the company’s market maker.

Choose an ECN Broker and Begin Your Forex Trading Journey Today

Spreads may be tight, but transactional pricing may outweigh any perceived benefits. One of the attractions of ECN is that both buyers and sellers remain anonymous in the trade execution reports. Trading on ECNs is more like a live exchange that offers the best bid/ask rates from all currency quotes. Electronic communication network (ECN) fees are applied on a per-trade basis, usually fractions of a cent. ECNs charge a service fee for matching buyers and sellers who trade on their exchange and networks. Market markers set both the bid and the ask prices on their systems and display them publicly on their quote screens.

ECN brokers can provide tighter spreads to their clients because they aggregate competitive prices from several market players. It is essential to choose a reliable broker in this type of trading. I have already written how to distinguish between ECN and other Forex brokers. Traders choose brokers according to their trading style and purposes. I chose the LiteFinance broker eight years ago and have been working with it since then. As for the networks accounts, I like that LiteFinance charges a fixed commission, and I always know how much I will pay.

ECN: How does it work?

For instance, Forex Broker Turnkey, a solution from Soft-FX, includes the trading multiplier system, where each trading account on the platform can be assigned a special multiplier. The value of this multiplier identifies the order volume that goes to the external market. That said, emerging businesses that use the ECN model may not always experience sufficient liquidity inflows to support proper order execution.

Remember that it is likely to be far less expensive and more unbiased than utilizing a market maker since they profit from wider bid-ask spreads and unfair pricing. Acquiring leverage in the UK and Europe under ASIC, FCA, and ESMA rules, brokers can provide peak leverage of 30 to 1 on the main Forex pairs. However, this amount can increase for traders trading outside these areas. For instance, in regions like South Africa, regulated brokers can offer their customers leverage of 400 to 1 on all main Forex pairs.

ECN Brokers

Many forex brokers have stepped into this new system and are also known as STP brokers, which means straight-through processing. ECN brokers are the types that utilize the electronic communication network, that is where the name ECN foreign exchange (or Forex) market comes from. With such attractive options offered by ECN brokers, it can sometimes be tough to choose one of the best. It has also recently become a trend that several traditional brokers are offering the same accounts. When Forex brokers’ clients began accumulating experience en masse, a large number of successful traders appeared in the market. When the conflict between brokers and their clients entered a sharp phase, ECN accounts, which excluded the very reason for the conflict, started to gain popularity.