Choosing a reliable broker is an important step in the career of a successful trader. It is the broker, being the intermediary between you and the market, who will execute all your orders and provide a trading arena. Funds intended for trading and earned profit will also be stored at the broker, on your trading account. And on the broker's good faith will depend on how easy it will be to withdraw them.
In this article, we will consider the basic criteria for choosing a reliable broker. Let's specify which of them are the most important and which ones do not affect reliability and are just an extra bonus.
Reliability And Security
As mentioned above, your trading funds will be deposited with a broker. And there is no point in starting to work with a company if there is no assurance of a trouble-free withdrawal of your earned profit later on. It would be a shame if problems occur suddenly when trying to withdraw profit. These range from minor ones, such as long request processing time, to serious ones, such as cancellation of profitable orders or account freezing. So let's evaluate a broker for reliability and safety first of all, and the following criteria will help us with this:
- The duration of the broker's stable work - the older the broker is, the more reliable it is. The long-term of rendering services at the market, allows the broker to accumulate enough experience and strengthen positions in the market. It has a lot of clients and an impressive turnover of funds. All this will undoubtedly help to keep the stable work in case of crisis or any other headwinds.
- The broker's reputation - reviews and various ratings will also help to assess the company. But you should not blindly believe every review, there are a lot of reviews on the Internet that are written or ordered by competitors. Where to look for more or less true reviews? Look for them on sites where at least some way to check that the author of the review is really a client.
- The presence of a license is a prerequisite. Obtaining the license from the special regulator obliges the broker to adhere to certain financial standards. And some licenses also require the insurance of clients' funds. For example, most regulators oblige to insure client accounts, take all transactions to the interbank market and keep the funds on segregated accounts.
- Liability insurance is one of the most important criteria. Before opening an account it is necessary to clarify whether client funds are insured. What guarantees a broker in the case of bankruptcy, whether the client's money will be returned in full.
- Legal settlement of disputes. The contract for brokerage services must contain a detailed description of all rights and obligations of a broker and a client, as well as the dispute resolution methods.
AdroFx was established in 2018 and has been constantly improving and gaining popularity among traders worldwide. The company is regulated by VFSC which guarantees the security of clients` funds and compliance with international banking requirements and laws.
Trading Conditions
Having selected the brokers according to their reliability, we move on to the next step, we carefully study the trading conditions. Usually, brokers offer several types of accounts with different trading conditions. The main things you should pay attention to:
- The size of the minimum deposit. Today basically all brokers give an opportunity to open accounts having only $10. But depending on the account type the minimum deposit can be increased up to $500 and more.
- The size of the minimum lot. Lot is a volume of position and for observance of money management, it is very important to have the lot size adequate to the deposit and higher than the minimum lot size. It is especially important for strategies using the Martingale method because the starting lot size depends on how much the lot size will grow in the end. Usually, the minimum lot is 0.01 - and that is enough.
- The size of the spread and commission. Spread is the difference between the buying and selling price, this is the broker's fee for the services provided. Also a broker, in addition to the spread, may charge another commission. Or just take commission instead of spread. It's simple - choose a broker with lower spreads and commissions.
- The level of leverage. Leverage is the borrowed funds provided by the broker for your trading. You can greatly increase the volume of your positions by applying leverage. Optimal is considered to be 1:100 and 1:200 and this size is usually available at all brokers.
AdroFx clients can set leverage on their own, choosing one of the offered options when opening an account: 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500.
Additional restrictions. Some brokers do not allow trading with Expert Advisors. This should be taken into account if you plan to use a trading robot in trading. There are also restrictions on the number of trades per day and their total volume. There are brokers who do not like scalpers and specify the minimum trade duration to combat them. If the position is closed faster, the broker will cancel this trade.
AdroFx has no restrictions on strategies or automated trading, so you can use any approach and trade any assets with any volume and keep the position as long as you need.
Deposits And Withdrawals
A broker should have several ways of funds depositing and withdrawing. The more varieties the better. Assess how profitable each type will be for you. Some brokers cover deposit fees and that's a nice bonus. Keep in mind that most brokers will only allow withdrawals in the same way you deposited your funds. Do not deposit a large amount at once, make a small deposit for a test. Try it for a while and after a short time make a withdrawal request. If at any stage there will be problems – go to another broker.
Customer Service
Support service should be available around the clock. Communication should be carried out both via the feedback form and by phone. The rapid solution to the problem is the main task of the support service and they have to fulfill it. They should also give clear and complete explanations of the issues of interest.
Trading Platforms
The trading platform is the main trader's tool. It takes part in all stages of the trader's work beginning with market analysis and finishing with opening and closing orders. Every serious broker offers several types of platforms. When choosing a broker, check whether there is a terminal in the list, which is convenient for you and which will have all necessary functions and instruments. Pay attention that AdroFx has two trading platforms: MetaTrader 4 and Allpips. Both terminals are known for their fast order execution and a wide range of charting tools and built-in indicators. The latter allows using copy trading service and crypto accounts.
Additional Services
This point is optional and whether to consider it or not depends only on your needs.
- Analytics – all reliable brokers necessarily provide their clients with various analytics. Technical analysis of the markets, and data on trends. They give trading recommendations. But before you start taking analyses and recommendations, you should check whether the authors are professionals and what kind of reputation their analytics have among traders.
- Training – if you are a beginner and you do not want to learn everything by yourself, then training from a broker will be handy. Brokers are interested in your successful trading and long-term cooperation. For this purpose, they provide different educational materials, e.g. e-books, articles, and videos.
- Copy trading – this service will be of great help to beginners and professionals. First ones will be able to copy trades of more experienced traders and make money while learning; the latter can get more money for letting others copy their trades.
Bonus And Promotions
As well as additional services are not the main indicator of the reliability of the forex broker.
The logic is pretty simple – brokers are interested in increasing your deposit by means of adding bonus funds. And for this reason, this bonus is constant and reaches 100%. But you should not rejoice, believing that this is free money. It is necessary to carefully examine the conditions under which the bonuses become yours. Sometimes these conditions are simply not applicable - and this bonus hangs on the account like a dead load, interfering with money management.
- Rebates – brokers are also interested in your active trading and based on the trading volume they may credit rebates (return of a part of the spread). There are no further conditions. You will be credited with rebates once the monthly turnover is reached and you can withdraw them immediately.
- Interest on available funds – some brokers, like banks, credit interest on available funds every month. The amount of interest depends on your trading activity and can be as much as ten percent or more.
Conclusion
Choosing a broker is not an easy task, but it is half of your future success. After all, any skills and knowledge you have will be of no use if you cannot withdraw your hard-earned profit from an unscrupulous company. That's why it's better to spend time once and do your due diligence but to choose a reliable and honest broker, who acts in the interests of its clients.
