A Guide to Forex Firms

Forex firms are one of the major participants on the FX market. Forex firms usually deal with major client assets such as pension funds and endowments. Forex firms will trade with international equity portfolios, buying foreign currency in order to secure increased profits for their clients. Forex firms will mainly trade with trading activities relating to investment funds, international corporations and money market funds.

There are two types of brokerage firms available to clients, whom wish to enter the speculative foreign exchange market. They are the retail foreign exchange brokers and market makers. Selecting the best FX currency exchange firms amongst thousands of other forex brokerages might seem like a daunting task. You will have a choice in selecting a Forex firm with small accounts or dealing with forex brokerage firms that deals only with large accounts.

Large account fx broker firms:

Customers dealing with a forex firm with accounts at one of the larger financial institutions will hold several benefits in their trading activities. Larger customers might be treated to direct lines to the larger Forex firm’s interbank traders – making quoting a lot simplified. You, as customer, will usually get direct access to the research team of the FX bank or FX firm. Furthermore, the larger FX trading banks and forex brokerage firms will provide you with technical analysis specialists and their research and trading style will serve as valuable training material. Larger Forex firms and investment banks may provide personal customer consultants to high net-worth customers, mutual funds and other potentially larger account holders.

Larger FX firms will allow you to easily change from brokerage – larger FX firms will complete for your account. Getting personalized attention and being closer to getting quotes straight from the interbank dealers will result in better rates and faster access to breakout price movements. These larger FX firms are built on many years of experience on the FX market and may provide customers with added benefits and peace of mind.

Here are some examples of larger forex brokerage firms: Goldman Sachs, Chase, Deutsche Bank, CIBC, HSBC, Barclays

Smaller account FX firm types:

Smaller account currency exchange firms have come a long way from a decade ago. In the past, smaller FX firms were absent, with FX firms not willing to speculate with smaller amounts and accounts. This has changed dramatically and today smaller FX firms are willing to open accounts for very small investment quantities.

Smaller FX firms have made mini foreign exchange accounts possible. Some of these smaller FX firms also cater to larger investors. These smaller FX firms mostly operate as market makers to their mini accounts while hedging takes place in the FX market.

Smaller investors must take additional services offered by smaller FX firms into account when selecting a firm. Added services may include real-time forex charting; fx news feed updates, and other helpful services.

Here are some examples of smaller forex brokerage firms: FXCM, GAIN Capital, Saxo Bank, GCI Financial, IG Foreign Exchange, Deal4Free