Here is the list of the Forex trading brokers with the favorable trading conditions and a decent reputation among the currency market participants. If you prefer flexible Forex trading conditions with little bureaucratic procedures, then these brokers are recommended for you:


FXOpen — one of the most popular MetaTrader Forex brokers with an easy entry limit and a really fast execution (they constantly invest into new trading servers):

• Welcome bonus system
• $1 to start trading
• WebMoney, LibertyReserve, CashU, E-Bullion and other payment options
• Traders’ contests with real bonuses
• 1-2 pips spreads on majors

InstaForex — known for their aggressive bonus and competition promotions, this broker offers extremely flexible leverage and has a very dedicated support:

• MetaTrader trading platform
• Flexible leverage — from 1:1 to 1:1000
• WebMoney, Moneybookers, e-Bullion and other payment methods
• Starter’s bonus — from $30
• Open account with only $1

FXcast — Forex broker that is famous for its multi-national and multi-lingual team with a support available in almost any language spoken:

• MT4 trading platform
• Leverage up to 1:400
• No slippage during high volatility periods
• Start trading with $10
• WebMoney, c-gold, LibertyReserve, StrictPay and many other e-currencies

Forex4you — ultimate decision for small-scale traders. With Forex4you you can trade even with cents:

• Deposit with WebMoney, LibertyReserve and other ways
• Ultra-micro lots — 0.0001 of a standard lot
• MetaTrader platform for trading
• Get paid an interest on your account balance

With most Forex brokers when you leave a currency pair position open over the night you’ll get a swap or an interest payment for it. It can be positive (you actually gain money) or negative (you lose money). That payment is usually very small and the majority of the beginning traders just don’t pay any attention to it, since their direct profit or loss from the trading is much greater than this rollover interest. But why do the brokers pay and take this overnight interest payment or swap? And why do some brokers promote interest-free accounts?

The origin of the overnight interest is the fact that in the retail Forex market the physical delivery of the currencies is absent. If you buy €100,000 with your leveraged $1,000 the broker won’t transfer those €100,000 to your bank account. But you’ve paid $100,000 for those euros, even if you borrowed them from your broker. So, if the Forex broker doesn’t deliver the currency to you they technically borrow it from you. In the abovementioned example you borrow $100,000 from the broker and the broker borrows €100,000 from you. And where you have the debt and the loan, there you have the interest rates. The interest rates for the overnight interbank lending (and that’s what you are doing when trading Forex on leverage) are set by the central banks. For example, the rate that you pay for borrowing the dollars from your broker is set by the Federal Reserve System, while the interest rate that the broker pays to you for borrowing the euros from you is set by the European Central Bank. The difference between those two rates is the final overnight interest or swap rate.

Let’s look at this rate calculation. You buy a standard lot (100,000 units) of EUR/USD with your account being in the U.S. dollars with the leverage of 1:100. The current Fed rate is 0.25% and the current ECB rate is 1.5%:

1. You use $1,000 as the margin.
2. You borrow $100,000 from your Forex broker.
3. You buy €100,000 with the borrowed money.
4. You lend €100,000 to your broker (because it won’t deliver the currency to you, anyway).
5. You need to pay 0.25% yearly or 0.00068% daily for your borrowed $100,000.
6. Your Forex broker needs to pay 1.5% yearly or 0.00411% daily for its €100,000 borrowed from you.
7. In the end, the broker needs to pay the difference between €4.11 and $0.68 for each day that your position is open. That’s your positive swap or overnight interest.

What would happen if you didn’t buy that standard lot of EUR/USD but went short on it instead? You’d have to pay that difference to your broker.

The problem is that in reality brokers don’t pay or take the exact amounts for the overnight interest. They minimize the swap if they pay it out and maximize if you do. That way they try to avoid the risks. But that’s certainly not very fair.

Why do some of the brokers claim that they don’t pay or take overnight interest? Because the interest is viewed inappropriate by one of the most popular religions in the world — Islam. Some Forex brokers offer interest-free accounts by request and charge a fixed commission per trade to compensate their interest-based losses. Some brokers provide only interest-free accounts and usually don’t charge any commissions in that case.

How can you gain advantage from the overnight interest? First, you can use it for carry trade. When you feel that the currency pair with the big positive interest rate difference is going to remain stable or move in your favor for a long period of time you can use the broker’s leverage to receive some ridiculously high interest rate from the swaps only. Another way is to open an account with two brokers — one that offers no-interest policy and another — with the common Forex broker. This way you can hedge your positive interest rate difference position with the no-interest rate position on another broker. In this case you won’t be bothered by the market movement but at the same time you will gain advantage from the positive overnight interest. Of course, such practice is usually considered illegal by the brokers with no swaps, so, I wouldn’t recommend using it.

Many beginning Forex traders wonder how the Forex brokers earn their money on the common traders, if they are not casinos. Understanding the basic principles of the brokers’ economics will help traders to distinguish real Forex brokers from the «bucket shop» scams and the ethical companies from the unethical. Here is the list of the most common ways for the Forex broker to earn money:

• Currency pair spreads. The largest source of income for the Forex brokers, spread is the difference between the Bid and Ask rates. Broker can execute your orders without a spread or with a minimal spread, earning the money that you lose for the spread.
• Leveraged spreads. Spreads alone would be too small to be a significant earning source for the brokers. So, brokers offer high leverage. Of course it’s a great tool for multiplying your profit (and also losses), but the spreads are also leveraged. With 1:100 leverage, broker earns 100 times more on spreads than it would without the leverage.
• Overnight swap spreads. Brokers pay the overnight swaps to the trader if the difference between the currency’s interest rates is positive in the trader’s position and get paid from the trader’s account if that difference is negative. But those payments are not symmetrical and they are changed so that the Forex broker would always get the advantage. When someone is selling 1 lot of EUR/USD and another trader is buying the same amount of that currency pair, the latter is earning money on overnight swaps, but the first one is losing the amount that is enough to compensate the second one’s earnings and to «feed» the broker.
• Payment processing commission. On-line Forex brokers don’t charge commission per trade (except Islamic accounts) and often advertise that as a feature. But some brokers charge payment processing fees — they are deducted only when you deposit or withdraw money and usually are quite small and fixed in currency units, not percentage points. Of course, such commissions are too small to be a part of the broker’s profit, but they are enough to compensate at least a part of the broker’s expenses.
• Trading against the trader. The most despised and unethical way the Forex broker can make money is to trade against its customers. And that’s the most profitable way too. Avoid the brokers that earn when you lose. If the spreads are too low, the leverage is insignificant, the overnight swaps are fair and there are no commissions (for payment processing and trading) then the broker is certainly trading against you to make money.

Choosing a Forex broker is an important step to a success in the Forex trading. Whether you are a beginning trader looking for your first broker or an experienced trader seeking to switch brokers, you'll have to be careful in this selection. With the current abundance of the on-line Forex brokers offering dozens of services, bonuses and high quality execution, one need to look for the exact features that would fit his trading style, capital requirements and level of legal regulation. Here's the short list of things for which to look when you choose your Forex broker:

1. Terms of Service. The first thing at which trader needs to look before joining a broker is its Terms of Service. They should be free from anything that would put trader's money in danger and should give him freedom to manage his account without any serious obstacles. Don't forget to check ToS to know if the broker forbids your trading style - e.g. scalping, news trading, etc.
2. Trading platform. Trading via a Forex broker with some lousy platform is a real pain for any trader. Check if the broker's platform is good enough (through the demo trading) before registering a real account. MetaTrader 4 platform is offered by many Forex brokers and it's one of the best of the available platforms for the on-line trading.
3. Regulation. If the broker claims to be from U.S. or U.K. or any other country with high level of Forex brokerage regulation then check the local authorities to see if they are really regulated. Checking offshore companies is almost useless and trading with the offshore broker has its own advantages and disadvantages as well.
4. Spread. Spread will be your main payment to the broker for using its services. Don't overpay for anything - try to find a broker which offers low spreads. For example, trading with a Forex broker with 7 pips spread on EUR/USD currency pair is really stupid, while the average spread for this pair on other brokers is 2 pips. If you find a broker that offers spreads below average, don't forget to read its ToS to see if there are any hidden commissions in it.
5. Payment methods. Most of the traders deposit and withdraw their trading funds via wire transfer. But there are plenty of other methods of payment that can be used to trade Forex; PayPal and WebMoney are among them. If you prefer electronic payment systems choose a Forex broker that accepts them.
6. Minimum deposit. Trading with small amounts of money won't make you rich, but it's a good way to check your broker's real account handling before trading big, so the minimum deposit amount for the Forex broker shouldn't be too high. Some of them accept deposits only from $10,000 and higher - that's not a very good practice, since many traders would prefer trading with just hundreds of dollars before depositing such amounts.
7. Additional services. Almost every broker offers additional services nowadays. Personally I prefer brokers that allow extra instruments for trading except Forex pairs - like metals, indexes or some CFD. For example, if you trade not very often and prefer long-term trading you'd seek a broker that pays interest on your free margin and offers good interest rate difference payments for your open positions.

Of course, this list is far from full, as there are many other parameters for which to judge the broker and they vary from trader to trader. But you can use this list as a checklist next time you are going to choose your new broker or register with an old one with which you've been trading on demo account for years.

Today I want to introduce you to a system that is based on a software forex signal system.

Over the last few months I have keep an eye onthis system to see how it goes and so far, the feedbacklooks positive. A trader that I know is testing the system and last month made +280 pips with the system and he is very happy with it.

The software has been updated and is better thanever before. Software got a lot of enhancements in interface and more accurate algorithm based on neurosystems. Now you can load the data easily from Metatraderwithout need for manual input.

The software is simple, easy to use, no trading experience required, good for a newbie trader that wants to trade the markets ...
Anyway, that is all for this week ... happy trading.

Freedom Rocks trading platform review:Freedom rocks ROCKS!

Hey, here is a review of freedom rocks platform. It has as many critics as its supporters.

Yeah.. so lets get started with the review!

Yes, it does have an MLM aspect to it IF you want to share the product with others. It is a refreshing twist to finally have a product one can use and make money WITHOUT telling another soul, if they want to. So for me, whether or not you like or not, or are indiferent to MLM/NWM really doesn't have any bearing on what the product is and what it can do in helping me/others diversify their investments by entering the FOREX market. So, I say to those who hate MLM, ..JUST GET OVER IT !!!

I've been curious about the FOREX market for quite a few years now, but whenever I took a look at learning it, I was always leary of the systems out there that cost so much and have you try to outguess the market by reading charts, etc. Plus, those late night hours really didn't seem worth it.

So, last fall (about Sept 06) when someone I know emailed me about FreedomRocks, I became curious, but put it on the 'back burner' for a month or so. Then, after watching the movie and listening to a couple of calls (one with the owner and designer of the product), I decided to use the FREE trial to see if it was as easy as it was made out to be. So, i decided to make a little plunge in the freedom rocks platform.

Also, the owners were quite conservative and answered to questions straight forwardly. No tall claims or hype thats not worth with freedom rocks.

So, I invested some time in the demo on the FREE trial beginning about the end of Nov, '06. I was lucky enough to extend my trial through December. I was very much impressed with the ease of their system, and the returns in Dec were pity decent.

So, onthe 1st of January I decided to pay the monthly fee of $100 to use the software, and kept demo trading. At one particular point of time I had around a dozen demos opened with 3 brokers using various strategies to see how things would play out.

Since some of my demos had quite high margins (against the advice of FreedomRocks I must add) I did have 3 of the dozen that margined out by the end of January. Still, all the demos that were left and did have the margins low as well as better currencies chosen, did very well indeed.

So, on Feb 28 I took the actual plunge and opened a live account. For the next 10 days or so I watched as my account dipped to a 50% 'paper loss'. It was kind of 'interesting', I will say, but I just kept on doing what the system is set-up to do and waited for things to work out.

What I learned through that period was a confidence in this system that it DOES work as it claims AS LONG as you follow the system to wach single and don't try to 'change/adjust' anything. Even though this downturn in early March was global and massive, my account DID NOT come close to being margined out.

I also took note of Freedom rocks suggestion to take out profits periodically when the account is up until you have your inital investment back in your pocket, and that's what I have done. It took me about four months to get my initial investment back and now I am trading essentially on 'house funds'.

Todate, even though I am down in paper losses of nearly 30% , I know that I am earning interest daily and always buying low and selling high, so I can't loose (unless I get a margin call, which I've taken care of by following the system and what I've heard on the company calls).

For those whose experience has been negative with freedom rocks and there are quite a few of these people it might be a good idea to ask yourself a few questions, assuming you can be really truthful with the answers you give. I say this because I see things being said that are not what I've been hearing from the company for nearly 9 months now.

An interesting list of questions to answer for those who traded and lost with freedomrocks

So, did you follow the system verbatum? Did you listen to the corp calls where Mark answers anyones quesions about anything to do with the system and the market? Did you go through the excellent webinar trainings and follow everything laid out there and in print to set-up your trades? Did you demo trade long enough to really be comfortable and confident with this system BEFORE you choose to open a live account?



I'll end this 'reviewl' by asking you a couple more questions: How much dollars have you lost with other FOREX programs 'promising' to teach you how to profit in this risky but exciting market? What are you going to do now that you've cancelled one of the fewbut simple to learn and use systems for trading in the FOREX and for hopefully profiting in the FOREX.....OR, have you now totally given up on ever profiting from the FOREX?

Wishing you all the very best in trading or in whatever you choose to do for your investments.



You might also like read the review of Easy Forex trading platform here

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