Using ECN Forex to benefit your trading

Trading with an ECN can be one of the smartest moves you make as a trader. We take a look at the pros and cons, and even how to address one of the biggest drawbacks: connecting MT4 to your ECN.

 When you start trading, choosing the right broker is extremely important. Unregulated brokers may block trades from you, not allowing you to access real market price, re-quote the price or add spread on your trading platform. This puts you, as a trader, in very fragile situation. Having an account with a bad broker could easily blow your account. Therefore, it’s important that you carefully choose which kind of broker you use and under whose regulation they operate.

In general, it is a good idea to have an account with an ECN broker. Nowadays ECN forex solution has become a term that every broker claims to operate under. But why exactly is ECN forex important to traders and what is the difference between ECN trading and other types of brokerage?

What is ECN Forex?

An Electronic Communication Network (ECN) is an order routing technology that directs the clients’ trades directly to the interbank market. The money that they earn is different from that of a money maker. The ECN provider gets a commission per round-turn lot traded. Most ECN brokers have minimum deposits greater than $1000, although you may find those with lower minimum deposit requirements. Because of the ECN ‘s interbank nature, traders are usually required to trade much larger lots and the minimum deposit requirements range from $50,000 to $100,000.

MetaTrader 4 Bridge to ECN

Although forex traders benefit a lot from ECN trading, there is still one disadvantage to trading with ECN brokers: most ECN brokers do not offer the most popular trading platform in the world, MetaTreader 4. This makes it difficult for traders, especially chartists, to do proper technical analysis.

There are some solutions to this problem. A trader can elect to use a MetaTrader 4 bridge. By using a bridge solution, you can connect your forex account between your broker’s platform and MetaTrader 4. This is an solution that we at Fair Trading Technology have worked hard on in developing our T3 Integration Bridge, the world’s first multi-way trading bridge, allowing trading not just with MetaTrader, but JForex and our mobile trading platform as well.

Running EAs on the Integration Bridge

Running your EAs through the Integration Bridge, it not only allows fully transparent EA trading to the SWFX Marketplace, the biggest ECN network in the world, but also allows trading EAs with a fully featured MT4 client, without any manipulation, re-quote or mark-ups.