Top 6 Trading Platforms with the Best DOM (Depth of Market)

FXCM (Forex Capital Markets) is a brand name of a retail broker for trading on the financial market, especially the foreign exchange market. The broker was founded in 1999 and was originally headquartered in the United States. After a series of lawsuits from customers and case settlements by the US regulator (CFTC), FXCM moved from the US and became a UK-based broker, authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registration number 217689).

Trading with FXCM is supported by enhanced execution with the Liquidity providers' stream pricing through the FastMatch Electronic Communication Network.

FXCM works with several global banks, financial institutions, and other market makers as their Liquidity providers including Barclays Bank, Citadel Securities, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, FASTMATCH, XTX Markets Limited, UBS, Morgan Stanley, Commerzbank, and Jefferies Financial Services.

This, in turn, enables FXCM to present its clients with fast trade execution, competitive spreads, low negative slippage, no re-quotes, no stop/limit restrictions, and up to 89% of orders are executed at the requested price or better.

For the trading platform, FXCM is remarkably known for its proprietary product called Trading Station. The latest version of this platform's web display is claimed to be built in Mac Friendly HTML5. It features a range of trading appliances such as integrated news, economic calendar, FXCM's top trading tools, social trading functionalities through FXCM Cloud, customized trading analytics, automated strategies, and advanced charting for better analysis. For flexible traders who prefer trading on-the-go, FXCM has also provided Trading Station in mobile version, both for iOS and Android users.

However, the company's in-house platform is not the only option presented for clients. FXCM also gives the choice to use MetaTrader 4 for clients who are more familiar with MetaQuote's product. Also, ZuluTrade access is enabled for clients with keen interests in copy trading schemes that transcend across brokers.

Instead of classifying account types based on minimum deposits, FXCM chooses to offer trading accounts based on the instruments traded. For FX traders, this broker provides Active Trader and Institutional accounts.

Active Trader is the ultimate account type for retail traders with two-tier pricing. Tier 1 applies a minimum deposit of $25,000 with a $30 commission for 1 million volumes traded, while Tier 2 has no detail on deposit requirement but gives better fee conditions. Spreads in both tiers start from 0.2 pips.

Institutional account, also known as FXCM Pro, is marketed as a wholesale execution and liquidity solution for retail brokers, hedge funds, and emerging market banks. The account presents trading spreads from 0.1 pips and other competitive benefits like API solutions as well as prime brokerage services.

For non-FX traders, FXCM provides a CFD trading account with low spread costs from 0.37 pips (in XAU/USD) and a wide range of class assets from precious metals, soft commodities, and indices.

Last but not least, a collection of in-depth articles is provided to help traders' knowledge and insights on the forex market. Trading tools like FXCM Plus, Market Scanner, Trading Signals, and Technical Levels are also developed to support traders who open accounts in FXCM .

In conclusion, FXCM is an experienced retail broker with a lot of "ammunition" to help traders with its best version of execution, pricing, and tools. It is a well-regulated broker backed with a long history in the financial market, even though it has a dark history in the United States' brokerage industry.

Still, the relatively high standard on minimum deposit ($25,000) puts FXCM as a broker suitable for experienced traders with good money management. It is not recommended for new traders with limited capital.

Traders looking for brokers with accurate precision, OANDA can be an option. That is because OANDA is a broker that provides quotes with 5-digit accuracy and active price movements that follow market developments. Order execution speed is also faster in this broker.

It provides benefits for novice traders, as they can trade with smaller volumes using the calculation system based on currency value, unlike other brokers adopting the lot system.

Founded in 1996, OANDA was built by Dr. Michael Stumm who is a lecturer in Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, Canada, along with his colleague, Dr. Richard Olsen of The Olsen Ltd., which is one of the leading econometric research institutes. They have a head office in San Francisco, United States.

OANDA branch offices can be found everywhere. Some of these offices are located in the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, and Canada. With this number of offices spread, OANDA has increasingly attracted the attention of clients worldwide.

OANDA's company is registered under several well-known jurisdictions in financial trading. They are regulated by CFTC and NFA in the US, FCA in the UK, ASIC in Australia, and many others. Traders do not need to worry anymore about security when trading in OANDA. However, these advantages make trading rules at OANDA more stringent compared to other brokers.

For example, OANDA only allows maximum leverage of 1:20, because the rules in the US and Japan do not allow leverage above that. Besides, the registration procedure is more complex due to various additional requirements that are not submitted by other forex brokers. On top of that, hedging is not allowed in one trading account as the client must open an additional account to hedge.

Nevertheless, OANDA is known for being a leading broker with many advantages offered. OANDA faces increased market risk during periods of price volatility, such as economic and political news announcements. When market spreads increase or decrease, their pricing engine widens or narrows spreads accordingly. That way, traders can get the latest conditions from price movements in the market more quickly.

Prices move very fast in the market. Especially when news releases have a large impact on market volatility. This condition is often exploited by brokers to take advantage of clients with Requotes. However, traders do not need to worry about additional costs when trading with OANDA.

The company never withdraws Requotes so traders can get maximum profit. When traders are unavailable to monitor open positions, they can set take profit orders to lock in profits and Stop Loss orders to help protect against further losses.

As an experienced and well-known online forex broker, OANDA is committed to maintain an efficient trading environment that reduces latency and provid tools to help clients manage the degree of acceptable slippage.

With a fast & reliable trading platform by OANDA, clients' trades are executed in 0.012 seconds. This suits traders who choose brokers based on execution speed.

Because of this exceptional execution service, it is not surprising that OANDA won many awards, including the winner of the world's Best Retail FX Platform at the prestigious e-FX awards. The broker is also voted number 1 for Consistency of filling trades at quoted prices, Execution speed, and Reliability of platforms.

There is no minimum deposit or minimum balance required to open an OANDA account. Deposit and withdrawal can be done easily. OANDA provides a variety of payment method facilities, including Paypal, Wire Transfer, Credit Card, and Debit. Traders can adjust it to the region where they live.

OANDA provides more than 100 trading instruments, including 71 currency pairs, 16 indices, 8 commodities (Brent Crude Oil, Copper, Corn, Natural Gas, Soybeans, Sugar, etc.), 6 Bonds, and 23 Metals.

The fxTrade and MetaTrader platform are available at OANDA. These platforms can be used for Desktop and Mobile. Another plus is they have an OANDA Technical Analysis that exists in collaboration with a technical analysis provider called Autochartist.

With these platforms, clients can monitor price movements easier and automatically recognize patterns created on charts, as well as receive alerts when the awaited patterns appear. Access to this technology can be enjoyed free of charge.

In conclusion, OANDA is an ideal broker for traders in need of fast execution backed by many years of experience. The company is also a good alternative for those looking for a well-regulated broker with flexible trading and deposit conditions.

Interactive Brokers is a direct market access broker that provides execution, clearance, settlement, and prime brokerage for customers. Since it was found 41 years ago by Thomas Peterffy, the company has grown internally to become one of the premier securities firms with over $7 billion in equity capital.

First acknowledged as a popular broker for advanced traders, Interactive Brokers launched a second tier of service called IBKR Lite for more casual investors in 2019.

The IBKR Lite provides services on over 125 market destinations worldwide and gives direct access (online) trade execution and clearing services, both to institutional and professional traders for a wide variety of traded products including stocks, options, futures, forex, fixed income, and funds worldwide. Interactive Brokers Group and its affiliates execute over 859,000 trades per day.

Headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, Interactive Brokers has over 1,400 employees in the USA, Switzerland, Canada, Hong Kong, UK, Australia, Hungary, Russia, Japan, India, China, and Estonia companies. IBKR is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and is registered in the New York Stoch Exchange (NYSE).

Interactive Brokers offers a wide range of product-centered tools like the OptionTrader and Probability Lab for simplified single and complex multi-leg option trading; FXTrader for forex trading, Mutual Fund/ETF Replicator for helping traders find a lower cost on ETF alternatives, also fixed-income screeners for corporate and agency bonds. Overall, trading with Interactive Brokers would be provided with the most useful and updated tools to maximize trading and investing goals.

As a popular and regulated broker in the US, Interactive Brokers has won some awards. Recently, they were awarded by the Barrons as the 2019 Best Online Broker, which is categorized as the best broker for mobile, international, and frequent traders. Besides, they also won an award as Top Performing Broker by the Preqin Service Providers, and Best Overall Broker by Investopedia (Best for Low Costs, Best for International Trading, Best for Options Trading, Best for Day Trading, and Best for Penny Stocks). The awards are not only achieved during 2019. Since 2005, Interactive Brokers has won lots of awards regarding its best services for clients.

To optimize clients' trading speed and efficiency, Interactive Brokers provides some powerful suites of trading platforms. Below is the list:

• Client Portal
  A one-stop destination to check quotes and place trades, see account balances, Profit and Loss, as well as key performance metrics, funding, and reporting.
• Desktop TWS
  A flagship platform designed for active traders and investors who trade multiple products and require power and flexibility. Opening an account in Interactive Brokers and using this platform allows traders to utilize the most advanced algorithms and trading tools, as well as a library of tools and asset-based trading layouts for optimum customization.
• IBKR TWS for Mobile
  The IBKR TWS for Mobile is made for traders who want to easily trade and monitor their IBKR account on-the-go from either iOS or Android device (tablet or smartphone).
• IBoT
  IBoT is a robot for finding information and placing orders using clients' own words. IBot is available on TWS for Desktop, IBKR Mobile, and Client Portal.
• IBKR WebTrader
  IBKR WebTrader is made for traders and investors who prefer a simplified interface.
• IBKR APIs or IBKR Pro
  This trading platform is provided especially for traders and investors who want to write their trading software or automated trading programs; third-party software users.

Overall, Interactive Brokers has always been a great choice for those who want to find out a credible and regulated broker for trading. Offering lots of trading platforms, Interactive Brokers has committed to provide their best services for both novices and professionals, since it is suited to every clients' needs.

IG Markets is an online trading provider with decades of experience in the financial market. Founded in 1974, the world-leading company has gathered more than 178,000 clients worldwide with over 16,000 markets reached as of 2019. IG Markets is authorized and regulated by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC). It is also important to note that being established in 1974 makes IG Markets one of the forefront online CFD brokers. Their service has expanded to 15 countries across five continents.

Aside from famous for its reliable experience, IG Markets is also known for its truly broad range of trading instruments. In fact, the broker has long been regarded as one of the most accomplished companies in offering the most trading assets to clients. The wide choice of instruments includes forex pairs, 26 indices, over 12,000 shares, hard and soft commodities, cryptocurrencies, as well as other markets such as bonds, rates, and options.

Forex trading in IG Markets is provided in two ways: CFD and DMA (Direct). Here are the conditions for each type of trading:

Forex CFD

• Minimum spread: 0.6 pips
• Commission: None
• Platforms: Web, mobile apps, MT4, ProRealTime, L2 Dealer, terminals and APIs
• Trading size: Contracts
• Demo account: Yes

Forex DMA

• Minimum spread: No details
• Commission: from $10 per $1 million traded
• Platforms: Web, mobiles apps, L2 Dealer, terminals, and APIs
• Trading size: Lots
• Demo account: No

Both ways of trading are available for all clients. However, DMA does not enable trading in MetaTrader 4. Clients are also not allowed to trade in a demo account for virtual trading. It is essentially a type of trading reserved for experienced traders with high necessity for the best pricing in the market, as DMA offers market depth from a range of exchanges (including full market depth from the LSE).

Trading platforms in IG Markets are accessible via web, mobile app, and desktop. They are offered with 2 main varieties: Core Platforms and Specialist Platforms. The core platform is meant for all types of trading with the add-ons of DMA, ProRealTime access, and Forex Direct. Meanwhile, Specialist Platforms consist of L2 Dealer, ProRealTime, and MetaTrader 4.

The first two platforms charge fees that include minimum $2000 balance and monthly fees for shares data and level 2 prices (for L2 Dealer), as well as platform fees amounting to $40 per month and monthly fee for shares data (for ProRealTime).

IG Markets does not require a minimum balance to open an account. It also provides a swap-free account that frees clients for any interest, rollover, or swap charges on overnight positions. Yet, All costs and charges are built into the spread. This account suits well with long-term traders who need to keep their positions open for days or even weeks.

For beginners, IG Markets builds an IG Academy that gives interactive education and online trading courses. This way, clients can get a grip on the financial markets with the essentials of trading provided in infographics, video explainers, and end-of-course quizzes. Even better, the IG Academy is already integrated into its mobile app so clients can always learn about financial markets in much more efficient ways.

In conclusion, IG Markets is a client-friendly broker with more than 40 years of experience to back up its credibility. Their efforts and commitments to provide the best varieties of trading platforms are proven in the unique Core and Specialist Platforms.

Traders with little experience can apply to Forex CFD account in either Core Platforms or MetaTrader 4, while professionals can achieve the best experience in the financial market with IG Market's DMA trading and L2 Dealer or ProRealTime platforms.