MIG Investments Review

MIG Investments, or MIG fx, is a Swiss forex broker, regulated by ARIF. It offers fair trading conditions in one of the most tightly regulated environments in the world. It should be noted however, that ARIF regulated companies are not required to disclose their company capitalization records, and are not required to segregate client funds from company operating capital. They are one of the few non-US brokers that allow US residents to open accounts though opening up a great option to wealthy American investors.

Besides spot forex, MIG Investments also gives traders access to gold (XAU/USD) and silver (XAG/USD) trading through its Metatrader 4 (MT4) platform. Since Metatrader 5 (MT5) is due out soon, I enquired about when MIG Investments was planning to make the switch, but got no real answer, so we'll just have to wait and see (FYI, I hear Alpari is going to be one of the first MT dealers to make the switch).

Anyway, my trading with MIG Investments has been going quite well. Since there is nothing dodgy about them, I figured I was safe opening a fairly large test account with them ($5,000). If I really wanted to try them out I didn't really have a choice anyway, since minimum account opening is $2,500 for Standard accounts, and it goes up from there to $100,000 for a Professional account and $500,000 for an institutional account.

All trades are cleared through UBS, so liquidity is ample, at least for a $5,000 account holder. Maximum trade sizes are 200 standard lots (20,000,000 units) which is further proof that liquidity shouldn't be a problem even for big accounts. Scalping is discouraged, as is the case with all market makers, but I did close a few profitable trades in very short order and did not receive any warnings and no funds have gone missing from my account, so they are not absolute nazis about it.

All in all, I think MIG Investments offers a very safe and fairly inexpensive (2 pip variable spreads on EUR/USD) entry into the forex market, but capitalization is key. Much like Swiss banks, their brokers also seem to have set the bar pretty high with regards to who they do business with - that $500 micro account you wanted? Sorry, your money is no good here. With a half-mil account, you get better spreads (1 pip on EUR/USD), direct access to their market research team (not sure how worth it that is) and they will even program you EAs for you (I don't see why they choose to take on that responsibility... but they do).

PROS:
Allow American account holders - combined with Swiss secrecy and high standards;
Decent spreads;
Deep liquidity and good execution;
MT4 platform;
Gold and Silver trading;
Swiss regulation (ARIF);
$1.5 rebate per 100,000 RT on Pro accounts;

CONS:
They won't talk to you if you're poor;
Limited number of tradeable instruments;
Accounts not segregated;
No scalping policy;

Quick Facts:
Headquarters in Neuchatel, Switzerland;
Metatrader 4 (MT4) platform;
2 pip variable spreads on EUR/USD (Standard & Pro accounts);
1 pip variable spreads on EUR/USD (Institutional accounts);
Liquidity provided by UBS;
Established in 2003;

To open a 90 day demo account, please visit MIG Investments SA. Thanks for stopping by.

HY Markets Review

I opened an account with HY Markets just over a month ago and have had a really good run trading with them. I would like to warn anyone who thinks of day-trading with these guys though - don't! Besides the no scalping policy, HY Markets has unusually high spreads, particularly for smaller accounts, so if you are in and out of trades often, your costs will add up very quickly. They offer 3 types of accounts:

• Mini - $50 min. deposit, 2,000 unit min. trade size, 7 pip variable spread on EUR/USD;
• Standard - $750 min. deposit, 10,000 unit min. trade size, 5 pip variable spread on EUR/USD;
• Premium - $2,500 min. deposit, 100,000 unit min. trade size, 3 pip variable spread on EUR/USD;

I had a Standard account, and was really feeling it every time I opened a trade. I had a strong run of trades which made it seem insignificant, but I know that if I had had a string of losses, those costs would have been unbearable. The Premium account, while offering slightly better spreads (although still higher than most brokers), has the disadvantage of standard lot deal sizes. There is no way someone with a $2,500 account could handle standard lots, so I find the combination to be somewhat predatory in nature - they push traders to upgrade their accounts by providing better spreads, but then screw them by making them over-leverage due to huge minimum deal sizes.

Still though, a trader has only himself to blame if he is taken in by such practices. An experienced trader would never allow himself to be taken advantage of like that. The fault ultimately lies with you if you agree to such trading conditions.

On the positive side, for those who are well capitalized and/or don't mind the high spreads (read, longer-term traders), HY Markets offers investors a solid package, mostly because of the vast array of tradeable instruments on tap. You can trade anything from silver to cocoa to IBM to EUR/USD on the HY Markets MT4 platform. The best thing about it is that because of the way HY Markets structures their CFDs, all the instruments can be traded long or short at any time.

HY Markets also provides the safety offered by an FSA (UK) regulated broker and the financial stability of a well capitalized business that has been in the finance world since 1977.

These facts alone can easily overcome the negatives, particularly for those who are not necessarily just looking to trade forex, but other instruments.

PROS:
Safety of FSA regulation (FSA #186171);
Long-term business commitment;
Well capitalized;
Client funds are segregated from company operating capital;
Staggering array of tradable instruments;
Ability to long and short any of the instruments available;
Stop losses guaranteed against slippage;
Swap-free accounts available to Islamic traders;
Deposits and withdrawals available by Visa and MasterCard;

CONS:
Ridiculously high forex spreads for Mini and Standard accounts;
Mediocre swap rates;
Inflexible deal sizing for Premium accounts;
No demo accounts available;

Quick Facts:
Henyep Investment (UK) Ltd. in business since 1977;
Offices in London, Dubai and Hong Kong;
Downloadable (MT4), Browser, and Mobile (Pocket PC) trading platforms available;
Deposits and withdrawals by Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Wire Transfer;
Maximum Leverage 200:1 on all account types;

If you would like to open an account, please visit HY Markets. Thanks for stopping by!

AvaFX Review

If you are looking for an offshore forex broker, I would recommend giving AvaFX a chance. AvaFX is a recent entrant into the forex arena, but has built a solid reputation among traders. Over the past few weeks, I found out first hand why that's the case. Although the company is not regulated by any government body, it is audited by Ernst & Young, which adds a layer of legitimacy to it. It is also owned and operated by a large instituion - Clal Finance Ltd., with over $17 billion under management. This is also where the liquidity comes from.

To be quite honest, I could find no serious flaws with any aspect of AvaFX. Maybe it's because of the nightmare I had with the last broker I reviewed, but I don't think so. Everything I tried seemed to work well - even extremely fast trading is accepted, which is fairly unusual for a market maker, particularly one that fixes their spreads. There were some execution problems as a result of the fixed spreads during fast market moves, but this is to be expected.

The fact that Islamic friendly no-swap accounts are available at no extra charge, and to the general public (no need to "prove" your religion) is a bonus to those seeking this type of account. There is also a wide range of instruments at your disposal, from a few exotic spot currency pairs to quite a few commonly traded CFDs. A wide variety of deposit and withdrawal methods are available, and no administrative fees apply to any transactions (although there is a $500 minimum wire transfer withdrawal limit). All transaction methods are listed in "Quick Facts" below.

Depending on your trading preferences, you can choose between 3 platforms:

1. Ava Trader - a downloadable trading platform, which is the most stable;
2. AvaJava - a Java platform which runs in your browser and is Mac compatible;
3. AvaMobile - an i-Mode or WAP application that can run on any internet capable mobile phone;

PROS:
Stable, functional, versatile platform;
Fixed Spreads;
Loads of tradable instruments, including many common CFDs;
Swap-free "Islamic" accounts avalable with no extra charges;
Offshore location;
Financially stable ownership;
Excellent customer support;
Large bonus for first deposits (up to $1,200 in free cash);

CONS:
Unregulated broker;
Mediocre liquidity and execution;
In business only since 2006;

Quick Facts:
Offices in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and Cyprus;
Deposits/withdrawals by Diners Club, MasterCard, Visa, Moneybookers, NETeller, PayPal, WebMoney and Wire Transfer - all with no fees;
Maximum Leverage 200:1;
Minimum trade size 5,000 units (0.5 mini lot);
Fixed spreads, EUR/USD spread 3 pips (0.0003);
AvaFX customer support available in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish;

If you would like to open an account at AvaFX, please click here. Thanks for stopping by!

ForexGen Review | ForexGen SCAM WARNING!

OK so I tried to find myself another decent swap-free broker and I came across a "company" called ForexGen. This is the reason I haven't been posting a lot lately - this scam has completely taken up my time.

From day one I could tell there was something fishy about this broker - from stolen copy on their website, to an agreement that makes very little sense etc... They are based in Norway, which I thought was a pretty safe bet, since the Scandinavian countries are known for their tough stance on crime. I thought wrong. Luckily my hunches stayed in the back of my head and I kept my account very small. This is what happened:

I opened an account and deposited some money. They took $10 out as a "deposit fee" (who does that?). OK, fine. Then I started trading. Opened a position on EUR/USD and set my exit orders as per my trading strategy, just like a good little trader ought to. The next day, the market came close to hitting my stop loss, but didn't. About 48 hours after that, my take profit target was hit, and I was a happy trader. But wait - my position didn't close. I checked my orders and they were all right. I checked the current price and it was more than 20 pips beyond my take profit order. OK, I said to myself, why not take the extra 20 pips this broker just handed to me, and close the position manually right now. No such luck. Their MT4 platform kept returning "Off quotes" and similar messages when I tried to close the position.

Then I had a brilliant idea. I figured there was something wrong with their order execution system, so I tried to "hedge" my position by opening an equal and opposite trade, in order to lock in my profits and become market neutral. Execution was terrible, but the market kept moving in my direction so when I finally got my hedge in (about 15 minutes and another 20 pips later) I breathed a sigh of relief. I could now let the broker figure out what went wrong, and everything would be just fine.

WRONG. When I tried to log in the next morning, my account had been shut down. Now I started getting a really bad feeling about this whole situation. I tried contacting the broker with no success - their customer support staff are useless. I requested withdrawals, pleaded, cried and threatened, to no avail.

To make a long story short, I ended up receiving my original deposit back several weeks after the events described above had taken place, and even that only after reporting the company to local authorities. My profits had disappeared. The authorities had already been informed of this operation and were "investigating" it when I had contacted them. Yet somehow, this operation is still in existence today.

I hereby WARN anyone considering opening an account with ForexGen - I urge you to reconsider. This is not just a badly run business - it is a deliberate scam, and the authorities in Norway are simply too inept or too corrupt to deal with it in any meaningful way.

Alpari Review

I would like to note first that the Alpari I'm talking about here is a separate company from Alpari UK and Alpari US, although the strings are pulled by the same Russian puppet masters. Alpari is run by Russians as a Seychelles company until recently (now a New Zealand company). I somehow seem to always find myself faced with a possibly dodgy situation to trade in. Maybe it's just that trading itself has lost its excitement, so I am looking for another thrill... But to be quite honest, I have had a much better experience trading with Alpari than with brokers found in much more "reputable" places. I will talk more about that in my next post, as there is a broker I have gotten myself into quite a dispute with. I have to give them a chance to unbreak my account before spewing vitriol about them, but stay tuned, it's coming.

Anyway, this post is about Alpari, and Alpari is well known among the hardcore retail forex traders as being very fair when dealing with trading disputes or ambiguities. Alpari is also well known among the same group of traders as having the best quality free historical charts data available. As a result, most people doing backtests on their MT4 Expert Advisors use Alpari data, unless they can bankroll some paid data, which is rare in the case of retail traders.

I have had personal experience with Alpari now, and can confirm that most of this reputation comes for a reason. There have been no disputes yet, so I can't report on that right now, but I have had all my orders respected to the pip so far. Combined with low spreads and a wide range of instruments to trade, Alpari is as competitive as any other MT4 broker out there. If you like MT4, then there is no reason not to give Alpari a try. Good reputation, low spreads, tons of instruments to trade, and a well-known, reliable trading platform are what you can expect from this broker.

PROS:
Stellar reputation for resolving disputes in a fair and logical manner;
MT4 platform ease of use and reliability, as well as automated trading heaven;
Lots of tradable instruments (see Quick Facts below);
Low spreads (from 1.8 pips on EUR/USD);
Been around since 1998;

CONS:
Unregulated, capitalization unknown;
MT4 platform lack of features;
Dodgy legal setup;

Quick Facts;
Tradable instruments: 51 spot currency pairs, CFDs on various US stocks, CFDs on index shares, CFDs on futures on stock indexes, CFDs on commodities and precious metals, etc.;
Headquarters in New Zealand and Moscow, Russia;
Target spread on EUR/USD is 1.8 pips (0.00018);
Established 1998;
Metatrader 4 (MT4) platform;

If you would like to open an account at Alpari, please visit their website.

New Reviews Coming Soon

I've been away for a little while, but have been actively trading and testing out a few new brokers. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm in the process of reviewing several different brokers, including ForexGen, Alpari, and a few others. My live accounts are in place, but it takes a little while to get a good sense for each broker, particularly when it comes to processing withdrawals. I also like to test each broker over a number of different trades and in different market conditions, which also makes my reviews a lot more accurate for my readers.



Please check back in a few days or better yet, subscribe to my Atom feed.

FXCM Review

FXCM was one of the first brokers I ever opened an account with. At the time I didn't have much to compare it to, but it seemed like a decent package. Everything worked, and it was easy to learn the ropes and it was easy on the eyes. It was not until much later that I learned just how powerful FXCM's Trading Station really is, at least in comparison to a lot of the other platforms out there. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that everything about FXCM is peachy - it isn't - but the platform itself really is one of the best out there. It has everything a professional trader would desire, such as great charting, one-click trading, many different order types and execution preferences. It has all the flexibility a trader could desire, and not much in the way of complexity. It is very easy to use, and has a distinctively short learning curve.

When it comes to actual trading conditions and customer support, FXCM does fairly well, too. I understand that when I am doing business with a big company such as this, I have to expect a certain amount "canned response" type stuff from their front line support guys. That is always the disadvantage of dealing with a big company - they simply don't care about you - there are a million other clients to think about, each being equally unimportant. FXCM was not much different, but they do get things done when you press them.

I had an experience, early on in my forex trading career, before I knew much about trading. It went something like this:

I had opened a trade on USD/CAD and was looking for a short score of like 20 pips. I didn't know how far I would let the trade go against me before deciding to turn tail and taking the loss, I hadn't thought it through that far. I figured I would know when to get out, and anyway, the trade was definitely going my way. As it turned out, the trade didn't go my way. In fact, nothing went my way. Soon after a strong burst against my position, my internet connection passed out. I almost did too... What was I supposed to do? I couldn't even see my baby!

So I called up FXCM phone dealing and they closed out my trade very quickly and efficiently. There was no long procedure or waiting on hold, or anything of the sort. I was connected right away and they understood exactly what I wanted to do and did it without any problems. I was quite impressed. Although I was a novice trader (to put it mildly) I knew a quality product when I saw one. To this day I still use my FXCM account for certain types of trades.

PROS:
Excellent trading platform functionality, ease of use, and reliability;
Good execution;
Good customer support and phone dealing;
Regulated and well-capitalized broker;

CONS:
No guaranteed order fills - you get what the market gives you;
Lack of tradeable currencies - no exotics, oil or gold;
Large, faceless company that doesn't care about you;

Quick Facts:
Offices in New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo;
Accepts deposits by ACH (US), Visa, MasterCard, Wire Transfer, Check;
Maximum Leverage of 200:1 on all retail accounts;
Server-side trailing stops, OCO and if/then orders available;
Scalping OK;
Account can be held in any of the following currencies AUD, CAD, EUR, GBP, JPY, NZD, USD;

If you would like to know more, please check out this FXCM Review as well.