As you've learned in the previous post of this series, brokers can literally make or break your Forex endeavors. Thus, it is imperative that you know how to choose the right one.
In case you've missed this: Forex Series: Why You Should Choose The Right Brokers
Here are the traits of a good broker:
Shows transparency to its clients
There is serious money to be gained in Forex, and because of that, scammers and fraudsters flock within the area too. That’s the reason why seeing a high level of transparency in the broker you want to negotiate with is a very crucial factor. Are the fees reasonable enough? Are the percentages that they will take from your investments justifiable? These are questions that you need to have immediate answers to.
Because brokers will facilitate a highly critical process of holding your money and circulating them within the Forex market for a certain duration, they need to attain portions of your finances as well. The payment that they will get is actually called “spreads” – which are actually very small portions of your earnings.
Technically, the percentage of what they will take from you is just very small that you wouldn’t almost notice it at all. But of course, it could also vary from one broker to another. Now, to truly identify if a broker is worth doing business with, you have to check thoroughly if it shows enough transparency to you as well as to other clients. In order to greatly succeed within the trading game, you have to make sure that the rules are clear, and that you are not victimized with technicalities that you don’t truly understand.
Good businesses are those that don’t deceive their clients and patrons. You have to view your dealings with your broker as a form of social relationship. You can’t do business with someone you have a hard time trusting. Make sure that your broker is honest enough with its ways so that there will be no regrets as you progress on your trading efforts.
Has earned good reviews
One of the best ways to determine the goodness or badness of your prospective broker is by simply Googling it. If a broker has been scamming people in the past, or if it’s not good enough in delivering its promises to its clients, chances are bad reviews about it are circulating on the internet already.
Scammed people will always be the most brutal in ranting about their heartaches against those who deceived them. So if you suspect that a broker has some shady practices and wicked ulterior motives at their disposal, you can just use Google to search for key phrases that can display bad reviews about a certain broker.
To make it even simpler for you, you can just go to sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Comparably. They are among the best sites to look into. If an online money-making platform has already scammed a lot of people already, they will surely be listed on those sites as ones that you have to avoid.
Another effective method is by joining social media groups that focus on Forex and online trading. By becoming a member of those groups or pages, you will have immediate information about the newest brokers and online platforms that you can highly trust. Consequently, you will also be notified of the worst brokers that you must distance yourself from.
The administrators of those pages are experts themselves, and they are those who constantly conduct research on the best and the worst that trading has to offer. Participate in them, ask questions, and interact with other members. Such small tasks can really help you learn and improve.
The best Forex brokers will be greatly loved by the most hardworking traders. That’s why looking for the best-reviewed online portals can be beneficial as you look for the best broker that can cater to your needs.
Has a highly visible online presence
Since currency trading is mostly done on the internet today, it would be impossible for a prominent broker to have no online presence. But having a good website is not enough, having one that can be easily found and accessed must also be treated with equal importance.
In addition to a broker’s website, having some social media pages is also a huge plus. Since most people spend a lot of their time in their social media accounts more than any other site, a wise businessman will surely expand his reach within the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Since successful businesses often rely on the element of mass appeal to expand their renown, you may also base your judgment on how many followers a broker’s page has accumulated relative to the age of its site or social media page. If people are liking its posts in abundance in just a very short span of time, then it is a sign that the broker is one of the best in the game.
The best online information is not too hard to find these days, so it should follow that the best brokers are easy to locate. Just use the likes of Google and Facebook and their searching algorithms will surely point you in the right direction.
Can provide comprehensive trading demos
Here’s another thing that you need to know: being a good broker is not only about handling your money and facilitating your trading acts – it is also being able to teach you the skills you have to attain. Thus, a good Forex broker must be one who can show you some trading demos that you can watch and learn from.
Some online brokers post videos on their own site, while some create YouTube channels where they upload trading demos regularly that their followers can watch repeatedly. Some of them also conduct live demo sessions in which you can clearly see if their claims for greatness are really as good as they say.
If you are quite educated with Forex trading already, watching a live demo will be much more beneficial since it is actually an activity in which an outcome could be very unpredictable. Thus, you can have a firsthand judgment of the people that run your chosen brokerage facility.
But if you are still a novice trader, watching tutorial videos in which the procedures are explained in detail from a beginner’s perspective will be the best option for you. So in choosing the right broker, you have to check if the one you choose has lots of trading demos that can give you the guidance you need.
Can offer wide market options
Currently, there are 180 currencies that circulate within the Forex market. This means that there are lots of market opportunities that you can take advantage of in your daily trading endeavors. In regards to this, it would be good to see if the broker you are about to choose has a wide range of currencies that it caters to.
Although the most popular currency pairing is the US Dollar and Euro (USD/EUR), there are other pairings as well that could become unpredictably profitable if you will just be observant enough with the flow of money from a global perspective.
Being famous means being in high competition, that’s why it would be helpful at times if you look beyond the USD/EUR pairing and observe other currencies as well. So in choosing your broker, you have to also pay attention to its capability of handling other currencies as well.
Some brokers are so wide in their offers that they provide trading options that are already outside of Forex. For instance, Etoro, one of the most popular online trading portals today also caters to options for trading in cryptocurrency and the stock market.
If you want to maximize your earning potential, you might want to consider other trading avenues as well that go beyond what Forex can offer. Although from an expert opinion, choosing a platform that strictly focuses on Forex alone would be the best decision you’ll make if you are still new to the field of online trading.
Has excellent customer support
In any kind of business, customer care is one of the most crucial elements. Without it, no business would ever progress, let alone live long enough for an extended duration. As such, it is also very important for you to check if your chosen broker has excellent customer support.
Do they have a hotline that you can easily have access to? Do they have live chat support? Do they answer quickly the inquiries of their clients? These are crucial points to ponder. If the website of your chosen broker takes a lot of time to load and doesn’t respond immediately to your questions, then they shouldn’t be considered as a good choice for you or the other aspiring traders.
Another major aspect of this is the ethics and behavior of their technical support personnel. Are they friendly enough? Do they answer in a professional tone? Are they good enough in choosing the right words in explaining to you the answers to your problems?
If the answers to these questions are no, then you should quickly ditch that broker and look for another – there are dozens of others who are more worthy of your time and investment! Remember, Forex trading is like being in a relationship that you need to last long. Choose your partner well or in this case, choose your trading broker very carefully.
In everything we do, one must be careful. Lots of scammers out there.