Selecting a forex provider is always hard, there are such a lot of brokers at hand many of which are unregulated or simply market makers aiming to take advantage of your losses. I have been trading for about 6 years now and during my time as a fx trader I have traded with over fifteen different forex brokers all over the world, I thought that I'd compose this review comparing the two forex brokers that I am presently trading with.
Before I start out with my comparison I ought to point out that both forex brokers are poles apart for the reason that one is based in Estonia and the other in Australia and regulated by ASIC. It's worth pointing this out as investors receive significantly better protection in highly regulated jurisdictions such as Australia.
In this review I have attempted to compare the service, spreads and order latency between both forex brokers. Please remember that this appraisal is extemely subjective and based on my own personal experiences trading with both fx brokers, before deciding on any fx broker it is best to perform your own evaluation and select which forex brokers would be better matched to your fx trading style.
Here's my appraisal.
Service Testing service is obviously very subjective and dependent on a number of things including, the time of day and method of contact (chat, email, phone). To make this test fair I decided to contact the support teams of both brokers within an hour of each other on the same day. I discovered both companies to have rather good support response times, both support representatives were polite and professional, I did however find that the IC Markets support person gave me the impression to have more market and Metatrader 4 expertise. In summary both brokers have first-class support, however I must say IC Markets support team were substantially more helpful and insightful.
Spreads Again evaluating the spreads of 2 forex brokers really depends on the time of day in addition to market volatility. To examine the spreads of both brokers I decided to watch their spreads around London open as this is probably the most liquid time of day in the forex market. After thirty mins of checking it was extremely obvious to me that IC Markets does in fact have a lot better prices than Armada Markets, they're about 20% better across the key forex pairs. If you're not an active forex trader, spreads should not be a great concern, however if you are scalping the market you need the very best spreads obtainable. I certainly recommend IC Markets over Armada Markets if you are a frequent forex trader.
Order Latency Order latency is not essential if you're a set and forget fx trader running medium to long term techniques, however if you plan on scalping the market having quick order execution is very important. After putting on a couple of trades on both platforms at the same time it became immediately apparent that IC Markets True ECN account had much faster order execution. The order execution speeds at IC Markets averages 156 m/s as opposed to an average of 490 m/s with Armada Markets. With fast order execution speeds IC Markets is a better platform for scalpers.
Before I start out with my comparison I ought to point out that both forex brokers are poles apart for the reason that one is based in Estonia and the other in Australia and regulated by ASIC. It's worth pointing this out as investors receive significantly better protection in highly regulated jurisdictions such as Australia.
In this review I have attempted to compare the service, spreads and order latency between both forex brokers. Please remember that this appraisal is extemely subjective and based on my own personal experiences trading with both fx brokers, before deciding on any fx broker it is best to perform your own evaluation and select which forex brokers would be better matched to your fx trading style.
Here's my appraisal.
Service Testing service is obviously very subjective and dependent on a number of things including, the time of day and method of contact (chat, email, phone). To make this test fair I decided to contact the support teams of both brokers within an hour of each other on the same day. I discovered both companies to have rather good support response times, both support representatives were polite and professional, I did however find that the IC Markets support person gave me the impression to have more market and Metatrader 4 expertise. In summary both brokers have first-class support, however I must say IC Markets support team were substantially more helpful and insightful.
Spreads Again evaluating the spreads of 2 forex brokers really depends on the time of day in addition to market volatility. To examine the spreads of both brokers I decided to watch their spreads around London open as this is probably the most liquid time of day in the forex market. After thirty mins of checking it was extremely obvious to me that IC Markets does in fact have a lot better prices than Armada Markets, they're about 20% better across the key forex pairs. If you're not an active forex trader, spreads should not be a great concern, however if you are scalping the market you need the very best spreads obtainable. I certainly recommend IC Markets over Armada Markets if you are a frequent forex trader.
Order Latency Order latency is not essential if you're a set and forget fx trader running medium to long term techniques, however if you plan on scalping the market having quick order execution is very important. After putting on a couple of trades on both platforms at the same time it became immediately apparent that IC Markets True ECN account had much faster order execution. The order execution speeds at IC Markets averages 156 m/s as opposed to an average of 490 m/s with Armada Markets. With fast order execution speeds IC Markets is a better platform for scalpers.
About the Author:
Not surprisingly you ought to test both forex brokers out for yourself but I doubt that your findings would be a great deal different to mine. For service, prices and trade latency IC Markets and True ECN wins hands down and they're now my forex broker of choice.
