Yesterday I was in Brisbane presenting to a bunch of traders from around Australia, some of whom were my former pupils a number of years ago and are now trading to make money in a full time capacity. On the list of the key topics that I covered in my round table was interbank liquidity and price creation, naturally a number of the more experienced fx traders in the audience understood what I was talking about but it was startling to see that allot of traders still don’t understand just how currencies are priced. So as to fill in the gaps I’ve written this brief overview.
As many people that have traded forex previously know, forex isn’t traded on an exchange but rather it is traded on an over-the-counter (OTC) basis. Trading over-the-counter is a brand new concept for those who have traded shares in the past as no two fx brokers are going to be exactly alike, this is very different to share brokers who will always show you the same prices. One of the other key differences is that because there is no central exchange when trading forex over-the-counter there is no physical exchange of any foreign currency but instead you are dealing directly with the forex provider, this means that when you open a position with your forex broker you can only close it with that forex provider unlike trading stocks where you are able to sell your shares through any stockbroker.
Now you comprehend the notion that fx trading is conducted on an over-the-counter basis I’ll commence by explaining the basics of price creation. As a result of the Over-the-counter nature of foreign exchange most transactions arise between banks and brokers as such they aren’t reported on a central exchange, it is for this reason that price formation in the world of forex is more difficult, though like shares and all markets there are a few main players in the forex trading world that make prices move, these are the investment banks. Banks generate prices in the course of their transactions with each other and in many cases they’ll quote prices through a system called EBS which enables one bank to see the prices quoted by a different bank. EBS however isn’t utilized by all investment banks, what this means is that there are other investment banks dealing on prices quoted outside of EBS, essentially their very own market.
So what will this all mean to you? Well this means allot if you’re dealing with a market maker or STP forex provider who will basically offer you a price they get from one investment bank or otherwise a price they get themselves which is just dependent on the price they obtain from the bank that they deal with this means you might not always be getting a fair price. The good news is that there’s now an alternative, there are some brokers that will show you an aggregated price feed from a variety of banks as well as allow you to take part in the pricing formation, this means that you’ll be able to place your own bids and offers amongst those presented by some of the world’s leading banks. Fx brokers offering this type of facility are often called ECN forex brokers.
ECN brokers are hard to come by and operate in an extremely different way to traditional forex brokers. Apart from the enhanced pricing obtainable by ECN providers they’ll always charge commission, for many traders this is unheard of however to the shrewd forex trader this is actually a better way to trade. One of many main benefits to paying a commission over a spread is the fact that you actually know just how much you’re paying your forex broker, their commission is not hidden within the spread. Paying a commission also means greater opportunity, since you’re paying the natural market price you are capable of getting choice or even inverted spreads something you would never witness using a traditional forex broker.
Before you all send me a million emails wanting to know which broker I deal with I might as well save some space in my gmail account and let you know right now. Before I let the cat out of the bag I do want to make it very clear that if you look hard enough you will be able to uncover a couple of ECN brokers, just be sure to do your groundwork before you opening a real trading account as there are many brokers available that claim to be ECN fx brokers but are in reality market markers. I have trialled just about all of the ECN brokers and so-called ECN brokers and found that there is only one true ECN forex provider and this is also the broker that I personally trade with, it’s Australian based broker IC Markets. IC Markets have the best execution by a long shot and their pricing is one of the most precise that I have ever witnessed. As many of you already know I don’t promote any particular broker, I just trade with the forex broker that I believe has the most competitive product and most transparent pricing and that forex provider is IC Markets.