Almost 90% of the investors in currency markets are short term speculators. Most of the investors want quick capital gains by starting forex day trading as a speculating venture. If you have made the positive decision to start currency trading, your first step should be choosing the right forex broker. The right choice of a broker will greatly influence the success of your whole enterprise.

Forex trading is hot right now. It is being called the Recession Proof Business of 21st Century. The market is overcrowded with companies and banks offering online forex brokerage services. Internet has opened the forex markets to individual retail traders and small investors. It will not be easy for you to make the right choice of a forex broker. You need a certain set of criteria. These criteria will mostly depend on your preferences, interests and means as an individual trader and will depend on your trading tactics and strategies.

What is the best method to choose the right forex broker? Compose a list of questions to ask the forex broker before making a final decision. The following are some of the suggested questions. You should ask the forex broker these questions before making a final decision.

What is the amount of the interday and overnight margin required by the forex broker? What is the corresponding leverage offered? Many online forex brokers offer margin between 1 to 5%. They provide leverage ranging from 20:1 to 200:1. Margin is the amount the broker sets aside as guarantee against your trading losses. Higher margin requirement means lower investment efficiency for you.

However, lower margin means that most of the time the forex broker will be against you as a trader and will do everything possible to prevent you from winning. It will become difficult for you to work under such conditions. You will face many trading problems with such a broker.

What is the minimum contract size offered? Now days, the standard contract size is a $100,000 lot. This contract size is quite affordable. This contract size also allows small individual investors to participate in currency speculation. It allows for reasonably effective money management with limited capital.

What are the requirements of minimum deposit demanded by the broker? It is common that many new traders dont have sufficient funds to open an account. The investment and financial means of trader differ. I think $10,000 is the required minimum amount corresponding to the forex market conditions. In my opinion, the optimal minimum amount is $10,000 with 2% margin requirement.

What are the terms of setting and executing stop and limit orders? The ideal condition should be the execution of the stop and limit orders at the fixed price regardless of the market conditions, its speed and its direction. Some forex brokers provide this type of execution. Other brokers reserve the right to fulfill an order with slippage.

The value of slippage depends on the current state of the market and can fluctuate from a few pips to tens of pips. The slippage creates favorable conditions for the abuse of the trader by the broker. Although it is practically impossible to arbitrate the price received from the broker during the transaction.

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