Broker News

One of the most difficult aspects of Forex trading is the fact that there is no real course material used about to teach about the industry, as there are for many other aspects of business world such as accounting, banking and business economics. In fact, if you look at the courses offered by most business schools and universities throughout the world, you'd be hard-pressed to find a single course (let alone a set of courses) that focuses on trading the currency markets as a way to profit as an individual trader or as an advisor. Things may be changing, though, and FXCM, a leading global Forex broker, may be somewhat responsible.

Binary options trading as an industry formed around 2009, and since then, literally hundreds of brokers have been sprouting up worldwide. Thus far, none have been regulated, as no regulatory body in the EU or elsewhere throughout the world has committed to overseeing or providing guidelines for the activities of binary options brokers. In other words, although many binary options brokers do operate quite professionally, there has been nothing stopping unscrupulous companies from swindling unsuspecting traders. This is about to change, however, as CySec, the financial regulatory agency of Cyprus, has just announced its intention to begin regulating binary options brokers.

I recently had the opportunity to interview Ed Ponsi, a professional Forex trader who seems to be entirely immersed in the markets. In addition to publishing a book recently titled Selling America Short: The New World Order vs. The American Middle Class, Mr. Ponsi is also responsible for FXEducator, a Forex training course for new traders who are looking to gain a better perspective on trading the currency markets.

Although based and regulated only in Cyprus, Trading Point of Financial Services has been caught recruiting brokers from the United States, despite its lack of NFA regulation. Known for enticing traders with its unusually high Forex bonuses and promotions, Trading Point has been fined $140,000 by the CFTC and has been commanded to close all accounts of US citizens and to return their money.

Is the European experiment a failure? It's too soon to tell, but I believe that much of the doom and gloom crowd is simply misinformed about what's going on in the European Union. Of course, had I posed this question around three or four years ago, people would have laughed at me for my naiveté. What do you mean? They would have asked – the EU is a great success story and the euro zone is chugging along beautifully.

The European elections in Greece and France have had even the most dedicated technical traders glued to their screens, especially after the surprising victory of Francois Hollande over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in yesterday's first round of France's presidential race. The second round of French elections is just around the corner on May 6^th, followed by the German regional contests, the Greek parliamentary election and an Irish referendum at the end of the month. At issue in each country is not just what party politics will prove triumphant, but which candidate or party's view for the future will help mold the struggling economies throughout the region. Perhaps equally important is what the voters see for the future of the Eurozone – do they wish to remain cohesive, or to change the system so dramatically that the glorious region of old will be forever changed?

Operating on 570 servers of Forex brokerages, the MetaTrader 4 platform that is published by MetaQuotes is, hands-down, the most popular and widely-used Forex trading platform in the world. And, although the company regularly updates its software in what it hopes are the best interests of its traders, few upgrades are as significant as the release of the MetaTrader 4 platform for Android phones which took place this week. Two months after the release of its iPhone application, MetaQuotes is finally offering the same mobile Fore trading ability to its Android users, allowing traders worldwide to execute trades even while away from their desktops.

Slippage and requotes are among the two most frustrating things that a Forex trader faces, as they cut into a trader's profits, sometimes substantially. Simply put, requotes are circumstances in which a broker cannot place a trade for the requested price, and the broker then confirms with the trader whether he or she wishes to place the trade at a different price. Requotes occur mostly around the time of a big news announcement, or more frequently with brokers who have slower than ideal trade execution times.