What type of account to choose for forex trading. Forex trading accounts - which one to choose

When choosing a Forex account type, you should know that this is no less important decision than choosing a dealing center. The efficiency of work in the market depends on the type of account, because each of them provides individual conditions for trading. And not all of these conditions are suitable for the trading tactics used by the trader or other tasks he solves.

Forex practice account types

First of all, training accounts include Forex demo account type. It is also called a demo account or virtual account. It is from such an account, as a rule, that almost all traders in the international currency market begin to work. Everything here is real, just like on a real account, the only difference is virtual funds. Trading on such an account, the trader receives the necessary experience with a zero degree of risk.

The training type can also include cent account. They switch to it over time, having gained some experience. The size of the deposit of cent accounts is 1-10 dollars, which are credited in cents, and all operations are also carried out in cents. The minimum volume is 0.01 lot. Using these types of Forex accounts, a trader gets used to working with real money, gains the skill of psychological stability and learns not to react to losses sharply and excessively emotionally. At the same time, a cent account is able to bring real profit. The maximum volume on such accounts is 100 units. If the price moves by 1 point when opening a deal with the maximum volume, then this will amount to $10. Therefore, a profit of 100 points will allow you to earn $1,000.

Most Popular Forex Account Types

One of the most common among traders is the standard account Standart, it is also called the classic Classic.

It attracts with a fixed spread size, which simplifies the calculation of possible profit. The minimum trading volume is 0.01 lots. Therefore, a 1 pip price move results in a $0.1 profit or loss. It is convenient to trade on such an account on time intervals from H1 hour to D1 day. Stop loss and take profit can be placed both at the opening of the order and after. The negative point of such an account is that during the active work of the market, some brokers experience freezes and slippages.

Traders who use the scalping strategy, as well as those who like to open many transactions during the day, prefer to work on ECN accounts. On such an account, the spread is constantly changing, but it is lower than on a standard one. In addition to the spread, traders have to pay a commission for opening trades. Another feature is the fast and timely execution of orders, unlike standard accounts. The disadvantages include the impossibility of setting a stop loss and take profit when opening a deal.

Another type of account is swapless. Working on such an account, the trader does not pay a swap - a commission for transferring a transaction to the next day. Such accounts are preferred by professionals who trade on large timeframes and keep their trades open for several days, and sometimes even weeks. Trading on swap-free accounts during the day, making many transactions, is pointless - for each open order, the broker charges a commission, thereby compensating for the absence of a swap.

Forex investment account types

On Forex, the types of accounts related to investment are of two types:

• investment PAMM accounts;
• managed PAMM accounts.

In fact, this is the same type of account, only in the first case, a market participant who does not want to trade independently invests in a PAMM account. The trader working on this account, making a profit, divides it in proportion to the invested funds, leaving himself a certain percentage. In the second case, a trader, not having a sufficiently large capital, becomes a manager of other people's funds (investments) trusted to him. Keeping a certain percentage, he distributes the rest of the profit among investors.

Depending on your current goals and experience in the international currency market, you can choose an account that best suits your individual requirements.

Work on the international currency market inevitably begins with the fact that the future trader has to open a Forex trading account with the selected DC. However, it is not always so easy for beginners, as the brokers themselves say, because often up to 5-8 options can be offered to choose from. Yes, in some cases the choice is limited due to the amount of the deposit, but who said that it would be more correct to choose an account only on this basis and, in general, what should you pay attention to?

In order not to understand these issues and consciously approach the choice, clearly understanding what exactly should be issued and where to transfer money, you should study what Forex trading accounts currently have. It should be noted that some earning strategies will be completely ineffective if you choose the wrong type of account in the foreign exchange market, so it is not recommended to ignore these points.

Demo account

Now it is almost impossible to find a broker who would not offer to register a demo account. As its name implies, this type of account was created to get acquainted with Forex and work on it is carried out not with real, but with virtual funds. To register this variety, you do not need to specify real data or invest your money, you just need to download the trading terminal of the broker you like and select a demo at the entrance, gaining access to trading almost instantly.

Accurate quotes are sent to the training account in real time, the terminal has no restrictions on functionality, therefore, without a doubt, you should start learning Forex and test your favorite strategies right here. The only thing that a demo cannot give is a sense of the reality of what is happening and the attitude towards virtual money will always be calm, while when switching to a real Forex account, emotions will actively interfere in trading.

classic account

Only a demo account can be a training account, all other types are real. The first of them is to highlight the Classic (Classic) account, which is also available in almost every broker. Sometimes it is also called “intra-kitchen”, and at a broker it may still sound like Standard. The name is a little offensive, but nevertheless conveys the essence well. As a rule, to open such a Forex trading account, you will need a minimum amount of money - within the range of 1-50 USD. Collecting such an amount is not at all a problem, so usually beginners get acquainted with the real work in the foreign exchange market with the help of Classic.

Now a little about the mechanism of functioning. Trading operations on a classic account that a trader makes are not displayed on the real interbank market! That is, the counterparty in each transaction is other clients of the broker or the DC itself. Accordingly, with this type of account, there is almost always a conflict of interest between the broker and the trader, and, in addition, during periods of high volatility, the request to open a transaction may be rejected by the message “No price” or “Invalid prices”. This phenomenon is called a requote, and it appears due to the fact that the broker, to whom the trader sent an order to execute the price, for technical reasons, may no longer have such prices at the time of approval of the request, since quotes during a period of high volatility in Forex may change for a large number of points in a fraction of a second.

But the classic account also has positive aspects. It usually has a high level of leverage, the largest number of instruments available for trading with clear and fixed, but not small, spreads that do not depend on market conditions. Due to its features, the Classic account is suitable for beginners who are aimed at a leisurely medium-term and long-term trading policy and do not have large deposits. However, you should not use scalping or news trading strategies on it, as they will simply be ineffective.

STP and ECN

With STP and ECN, all trading operations of a trader are already brought to the real market. Accordingly, in the field "Type of execution" is written Market Execution, that is, trading on the market. For comparison, the Classic account in this field would have the postscript Instant Execution - internal execution. The advantage of working on such accounts is the absence of a conflict of interest between the broker and the trader, as it becomes profitable for the company to make its clients earn. But at the same time, a trader will need a good starting capital to enter Forex, opening an account with most DCs occurs with a deposit of 500 USD and more, although many immediately set the minimum bar of 1000 USD. Nevertheless, with the current competition, there are already more loyal conditions.

In addition, when working with the best Forex liquidity providers, a broker usually manages to provide very low spreads to their clients. For example, for popular pairs such as EUR/USD, the spread can be 0.1-0.2 pips, while for the Classic account it will be 2 pips. Also, with a market execution, the possibility of requotes is excluded, although a trader can never be sure what exactly his order will be executed on. For example, during a US news release, a currency speculator buys USD/JPY at 120.00. But, while the order will overcome the path to the broker, and from it to the liquidity provider that executes it, some time will pass, during which the quotes will pass a certain number of points and, as a result, the order may be executed not at all at 120.00, but with a deviation of 10 , 20 or even more points.

However, these types of accounts eliminate the possibility of requotes and are great for trading using absolutely any strategy, the main thing is to exercise reasonable caution when the market is highly volatile.

Difference between STP and ECN

Many do not understand the difference between ECN and STP, because the execution scheme is almost the same, but you need to choose one Forex trading account and you should understand the border between these varieties. With STP, the liquidity provider closes the deal, that is, if the trader wants to sell euros against the dollar, then some large bank acts as a second party and buys euros from the client at the offered price for US dollars.

In the case of ECN, each trader is a liquidity provider in his own right, and the system brings together a huge number of participants almost instantly, executing their orders at the best prices. This is very convenient, if, for example, one client of a Forex broker sells some currency pair, and another wants to buy it, then the order, instead of being sent to the liquidity provider, is immediately executed between two counterparties. This is very convenient, fast and often very useful as both traders get a good price.

Which Forex account to choose is a question that arises for a new client immediately after choosing a brokerage company. The efficiency of a trader's work largely depends on the decision on which type of account to trade on, since the trading conditions on the accounts offered by the broker can vary significantly.

• demo account - provides an opportunity to trade in a training mode to get acquainted with the functionality of the trading terminal and gain all the skills necessary for a trader. The main advantage of demo accounts is that there is no need to deposit your own funds. Thus, the process of learning to trade online is not expensive. In the future, even when opening other types of accounts, traders often return to the demo to test new trading strategies, tactics and automated assistants.
• cent account - ideal for making the first transactions using real money, allows you to make small amounts as an initial deposit and make transactions of a minimum volume. This type of accounts got its name due to the display of the balance in cents. Working on such accounts changes the psychology of a trader, as he learns to manage his own money and at the same time sees the balance display in the form that it will look like when trading on standard conditions.
• the standard (or classic dollar) account is the most popular way to work, which is suitable for various timeframes and trading strategies. There are classic accounts with fixed or floating spreads.
• An ECN account is designed for short-term intraday trading, as it provides a low floating spread, which changes in accordance with the rise or fall of the price of the selected trading instrument.
• swap-free - type of accounts (cent, standard or ECN) on which no commission is charged for transferring open positions to the next trading day. The presence of such an advantage is relevant for those broker clients who, in accordance with the rules of their trading strategy, prefer to keep positions open for several days or weeks.

After a thorough comparison of conditions on different types of accounts, you can independently determine which Forex account is better for your tactics.

Each new trader, before registering on the international currency market, asks a logical question which Forex account to choose for work. Many brokers provide the opportunity to study the necessary information and select certain aspects of cooperation, including the trader's future trading account. It is difficult to say which one is better, because each of them has its own specific purpose.

Which Forex account to choose?

On the international financial platform, a trading account can be opened by any person, both an individual and a legal entity. It is difficult to say which account is better in Forex. For each of them, there are several options for trading accounts that are suitable for the requirements of a trader, a broker and the direction of a particular person. A properly selected personal account on the broker's website will ensure a high percentage of a successful career in online trading.

1. Demo account for beginners. The demo version of the wallet on the Forex market was created specifically for novice traders who have just decided to register on the website of a brokerage company. There is no real money on it - they are virtual. This was done specifically so that an inexperienced person, who first encountered the tricky and risky world of the foreign exchange market, could undergo training and gain the necessary experience for professional trading. During the training, a trader will be able to find and understand his effective trading strategy, learn to recognize the charts of market terminals, monitor changes in quotes of currency pairs and predict them in advance. A demo version of a Forex account can give a lot of useful and instructive things. The only limitation in this type of trading on the market is the inability to earn real capital. Since the wallet has a virtual balance, the income is corresponding.
2. Cent account for entry level. Forex trading cent account has its advantages for getting started. His balance is a certain minimum in US cents, which minimizes a huge crash and the loss of a large amount of money. The cents in the account are real, the work can bring a positive income, but not very much. This type of wallet is advised to be opened after training on the demo version. If a trader is not yet fully confident in his abilities and the effectiveness of the strategy, it is better for him to start small, using a cent trading account.
3. Standard account for most traders. The classic and most common account with a broker has different conditions and starting capital. On average, leverage is at least $2,000. It all depends on the experience of the trader and the rules of the brokerage agency itself. Such a trading account allows you to freely work in different directions on the Forex market, replenish your account at any time through your personal account on the broker's website, and also withdraw earned money in the same way.
4. The account is Islamic for people of a particular faith. The international Forex market respects different faiths, therefore, especially for the people of Islam, he created a special trading account with certain restrictions and advantages. The main difference between this wallet and the standard one is the absence of a daily write-off of a sum of money for transferring an unfinished transaction. They have a similar procedure carried out once a week in the form of a write-off of interest.
5. Pamm accounts for those who want to invest. Any investor in the Forex financial market can open such an account for himself in order to replenish it for the work of other traders. In this case, the investor receives a certain percentage for using personal funds, while doing nothing on his own. Pamm wallet is suitable for large entrepreneurs and other financial units who want to invest in the development of the international Forex currency market.
6. Non Dealing Desk - an account without a broker. For those who do not want to deal with brokerage companies, Non Dealing Desk - NDD in abbreviation is suitable. The minimum down payment to such an account is about $500. The influence of a broker on a trader who trades using the NDD method is minimal, it can even be regulated at the request of the trader himself. Non Dealing Desk is not yet as popular on the market as standard work with brokerage firms, but over time it is predicted to have good development prospects. Which Forex accounts are better, brokerage or given, is up to everyone to decide.
7. Dealing Desk - trading against a broker. Dealing Desk is a separate internal platform on the Forex currency market that allows you to get training in the issue of trading currency pairs. Clients of a certain dealing company trade with their broker - market maker, opposing him, not even knowing the quotes. Inexperienced beginners can usefully spend some time trading on the Dealing Desk site, preparing themselves mentally for the real Forex market and trading on it.

What are the best Forex accounts?

It is almost impossible to give a definite answer to such a question. Each trader at some point in his career can change one account for another. Of course, it is best to start from the bottom in order to gain experience and not lose a lot of money initially. And then, gradually, subject to the successful development of activities, it is worth increasing capital and changing a trading account with advanced features. Success in the Forex market will tell you which account to choose.

Agree, the question is really important. After all, the theater begins with a hanger, and opening a Forex account - with the choice of currency. Therefore, it is worth deciding from the very beginning which currency you, as a novice trader, are ready to give preference to. If you are a trader with experience and experience in trading on a particular currency, then it is not at all excluded that you have already thought more than once, but should you change the dollar for a ruble, for example? This is especially true now, in the wake of the rise of patriotism in our country. Although, after visiting various forums and talking with the audience present there, I realized that this question pops up from time to time for very, very many traders in the Forex market.

Benefits of dollar deposits

It is no secret that the Forex currency account is mainly opened in dollars. Only here is the question - why? Let's figure it out:

The US dollar is currently the most highly quoted currency in the Forex market and dominates many of the most attractive currency pairs for transactions. As you understand, this fact is difficult to ignore, because, thanks to it, it is much easier to calculate the future results of the operation. Yes, we continue to predict and calculate the risks ourselves, no matter whether we use automatic assistants or not. This means that even such a nuance as the equality of 1 dollar = 0.1 lot gives a considerable advantage to a currency account in dollars.

If the account currency is not USD, you will need to independently convert it into the quoted currency to complete any transaction. This means that it will be necessary to pay for the purchase of the quote currency with the funds available on the account, and only after that - the base one. It is clear that all these techniques take up a lot of precious trading time and, of course, threaten with additional costs.

Of course, this list is rather abstract and does not include many small points that can both simplify and greatly complicate the everyday life of a forex trader. Interaction with your currency account should be as simple as possible, facilitated and set up to facilitate comfortable trading for both a Forex novice and a master. Focusing on his own plan, a trader, having chosen any currency pair for himself, must also choose the appropriate monetary unit for his account - the most quoted for the selected pair.

Difficulties for deposits in rubles

Why the dollar is convenient in the work of a trader, I think, is already clear. But why is it so difficult to trade with a Forex ruble account at your disposal?

Firstly, the programmers of the trading software do not take the ruble into account at all. Most indicators, advisors and other trader's assistants do not include the ruble. Instead, all settings are created for a dollar deposit. Regrettably, but only if you have known skills in the field of programming and a special code, it is possible to rebuild the work of the software for the Russian ruble. It turns out that even in such trifles, a trader cannot get rid of the dollar, except by calling on a software specialist to “conjure”.

Secondly, the Russian trader's perception of the ruble and the dollar is significantly different. For example, the willingness to part with two thousand rubles is much lower than with forty dollars. There's nothing to be done about it, it's a given: living in Russia, every citizen willy-nilly gets used to orienting himself in prices mainly in ruble terms. Therefore, even opening a deal for $100 is much easier for us than for four thousand rubles. It seems that the risk looks different.

Thirdly, the stability of the ruble, especially in recent times, is under severe pressure. The rate fell by about 40% compared to the beginning of 2015. The fears of the players who do not want to suffer losses even here are very understandable. In addition, inflation, which shakes our long-suffering currency every year. Therefore, until the ruble exchange rate inspires a significant share of confidence in solid investors, it makes little sense to make it the currency of your Forex trading account.

And now I would like to add a small spoonful of honey to this barrel of tar: not everything is so bad with ruble accounts. For example, there are fewer problems associated with conversion, while they are present with any other foreign currency. In addition, part of the calculations is quite simple with some indicators of leverage and lot.

Ultimately, it all depends on the trading strategy chosen by the trader. If it takes into account the limit on the amount of a certain currency, then it becomes much easier for you to make a choice. If you are not ready to lose more than four thousand in one operation - open a ruble deposit. And let Forex currency accounts with dollar balances prevail for now: do not artificially limit yourself to this green piece of paper, look wider and use all the opportunities available on the foreign exchange market.

Before a person who decides to start making money on the Forex market, in addition to necessity, the question arises of whether what type of account to choose for forex trading? Moreover, this decision is no less responsible, since the effectiveness of trading also depends on it to some extent. There are several types of Forex accounts that differ in terms of trading on them. And not every type of account is suitable for a particular task that market participants can set for themselves.

To begin with, let's list what types of Forex accounts are most common in most companies providing brokerage services in the financial markets? So, this is:

• - demo accounts;
• - cent accounts;
• - standard or classic accounts;
• - ECN accounts (both cent and classic);
• - swap-free accounts;
• - investment PAMM-accounts;
• - managed PAMM accounts.

1) Demo accounts. The very first type with which every novice trader should start his first steps on Forex is a demo account. In sufficient detail about the advantages of a demo account and its creation is described in the article. As part of this review, it can only be emphasized that by trading in demo mode, a trader has the opportunity to gain the necessary skills for further full-fledged work in the foreign exchange market, while not risking his own money, since trading in training mode is carried out using virtual money.

2) Cent accounts. Having obtained the necessary trading skills, you can switch to real accounts, and again, it is better not to rush to invest large amounts, but start with cent accounts. The size of the minimum deposit varies from person to person, but, as a rule, it ranges from 1 to 10 dollars, which in cent equivalent will be credited to the deposit as 100 or 1000 cents, respectively. All trading operations will be carried out in cents, taking into account the characteristics of a particular cent account. It turns out that, as such, it is not worth waiting for profit from trading, since the deposit is small. In this case, trading in cents is also regarded as educational, except that it changes, which otherwise refers to profit and loss, which are already measured in real money.

Despite the fact that cent accounts are considered rather as educational ones, professional trading can be carried out on them, especially if long-term Forex strategies are used, and the cent account is swap-free. On such accounts, the maximum allowable volume of one lot is 100 units, which, if the price changes by 1 pip, in money will be $10. These numbers are easy to check in . We made a profit of 100 points - earned a thousand dollars. Therefore, you should pay attention to such accounts - there are no commissions for opening deals and swaps, so there are no extra expenses for them.

3) standard accounts. Forex accounts of the Standart type, aka Classic, are the most common among market participants with experience. Their feature is, at which it is convenient to calculate the final goals. With the minimum possible lot size of 0.01, one point of profit (loss) will be $0.1. This is the most successful account for trading on time frames from H1 to D1 and for . It should not be used by scalpers, since delays in order execution during an active market are a common thing for standard accounts. Take profit and stop loss levels can be set both during and after the opening of the transaction.

4) ECN accounts. For scalpers, as well as for those traders who trade intraday, opening frequent, but not long transactions, the ECN Forex account type is suitable. The spread on it is floating, but lower compared to the Standard and Classic accounts. And it depends on the principle by which ECN accounts operate. And the principle is as follows: the seller sets the price at which he would like to sell the currency. Similarly, the buyer sets his own price at which he is ready to buy. All orders fall into the so-called glass of orders, where, if the interests of both parties coincide, a buy-sell transaction will be carried out. It turns out that prices are not formed by a broker, but depend on the offers of market participants. The prices offered by both parties may differ by the amount of the spread. As prices change, so does the size of the spread. It may also be zero. But at the same time, the trader pays a commission to the broker for each transaction. Despite the presence of commissions, the transaction costs for standard and ECN accounts are almost the same. Order execution for ECN accounts is better, however, in an active market. It should also be noted that take profit and stop loss levels can only be set after the order is executed.

Cent, standard and ECN accounts can be . If the account description contains the note Swap-free account, it means that there are no swaps on it, that is, a commission for transferring a position to the next trading day. This condition will be of interest to those traders who keep trades open for several weeks or months. If the transactions are short-term, then there is no point in opening standard and ECN swap-free accounts, since the broker charges an additional commission for opening transactions, compensating for the absence of a swap. And taking into account the fact that the size of the swap is not large, the total amount of additional commissions for frequent transactions can be much higher. But opening cent swap-free accounts, where there is no fee for opening a position, as mentioned earlier, is worth it - in the event of a protracted transaction, there will be no unnecessary losses. An example of such accounts can be swapless cent accounts with a Forex broker.

6) Investment PAMM accounts. In the event that a Forex market participant for some reason does not want to trade on his own, he can invest his money in PAMM investment accounts. These accounts are discussed in more detail in a free tutorial.

7) Managed PAMM accounts. Perhaps someday you will become an experienced trader and want to multiply your earnings in the Forex market. This is where managed PAMM accounts come to your rescue. The meaning is this - investors invest their funds in your managed account, and you trade on it, taking part of the profit from trading with investors' money. If you are interested in this topic - free will help you understand it in more detail.

Description of account types of the most popular brokers:

If you have studied the information presented on this page and still do not understand what type of account you need to open, feel free to open a demo account and begin to comprehend all the intricacies and subtleties of the Forex market on it. And gradually, as you gain experience, it will become absolutely clear to you which type of account you will need to open for each specific situation!