Raw spreads and fast execution: what traders need to know in 2026

ECN vs dealing desk: understanding what you're trading through

Most retail brokers fall into two broad camps: those that take the other side of your trade and those that pass it through. The difference is more than semantics. A dealing desk broker is essentially the other side of your trade. A true ECN setup routes your order through to the interbank market — you're trading against real market depth.

For most retail traders, the difference shows up in a few ways: spread consistency, execution speed, and requotes. Genuine ECN execution tends to give you tighter spreads but add a commission per lot. Dealing desk brokers widen the spread instead. Neither model is inherently bad — it comes down to what you need.

If you scalp or trade high frequency, ECN is almost always the right choice. Tighter spreads more than offsets the per-lot fee on most pairs.

Execution speed: what 37 milliseconds actually means for your trades

Brokers love quoting how fast they execute orders. Numbers like "lightning-fast execution" look good in marketing, but does it make a measurable difference in practice? Quite a lot, depending on your strategy.

A trader who making a handful of trades per month, the gap between 40ms and 80ms execution won't move the needle. For high-frequency strategies targeting quick entries and exits, slow fills can equal slippage. If your broker fills at 35-40 milliseconds with no requotes gives you noticeably better entries versus slower execution environments.

A few brokers have invested proprietary execution technology to address this. Titan FX developed a Zero Point execution system that routes orders straight to LPs without dealing desk intervention — the documented execution speed is under 37 milliseconds. You can read a detailed breakdown in this Titan FX broker review.

Commission-based vs spread-only accounts — which costs less?

This is something nearly every trader asks when setting up a broker account: should I choose the raw spread with commission or zero commission but wider spreads? It comes down to how much you trade.

Let's run the numbers. The no-commission option might offer EUR/USD at around 1.2 pips. A commission-based account shows the same pair at 0.0-0.3 pips but charges around $3.50-4.00 per standard lot round trip. With the wider spread, the broker takes their cut via every trade. If you're doing 3-4+ lots per month, the commission model is almost always cheaper.

Many ECN brokers offer both as options so you can pick what suits your volume. Make sure you work it out using your real monthly lot count rather than trusting marketing scenarios — those often favour whichever account the broker wants to push.

500:1 leverage: the argument traders keep having

High leverage polarises retail traders more than any other topic. Regulators limit leverage to relatively low ratios for retail accounts. Brokers regulated outside tier-1 jurisdictions still provide 500:1 or higher.

Critics of high leverage is that retail traders can't handle it. This is legitimate — the data shows, most retail traders do lose. What this ignores nuance: professional retail traders rarely trade at 500:1 on every trade. They use having access to high leverage to minimise the money locked up in open trades — freeing up funds to deploy elsewhere.

Yes, 500:1 can blow an account. No argument there. But that's a risk management problem, not a leverage problem. If what you trade benefits from less capital per position, access to 500:1 frees up margin for other positions — most experienced traders use other info it that way.

Choosing a broker outside FCA and ASIC jurisdiction

Broker regulation in forex operates across different levels. The strictest tier is regulators like the FCA and ASIC. They cap leverage at 30:1, enforce client fund segregation, and limit the trading conditions available to retail accounts. Further down you've got places like Vanuatu (VFSC) and Mauritius FSA. Lighter rules, but the flip side is higher leverage and fewer restrictions.

The compromise is real and worth understanding: tier-3 regulation means more aggressive trading conditions, lower account restrictions, and typically cheaper trading costs. But, you sacrifice some regulatory protection if there's a dispute. You don't get a compensation scheme paying out up to GBP85k.

If you're comfortable with the risk and pick execution quality and flexibility, regulated offshore brokers work well. What matters is checking the broker's track record rather than simply trusting a licence badge on a website. An offshore broker with a long track record and no withdrawal issues under an offshore licence can be more trustworthy in practice than a freshly regulated FCA-regulated startup.

Broker selection for scalping: the non-negotiables

For scalping strategies is the style where broker choice matters most. Targeting 1-5 pip moves and holding positions for seconds to minutes. With those margins, even small differences in fill quality become profit or loss.

The checklist comes down to a few things: true ECN spreads with no markup, fills in the sub-50ms range, guaranteed no requotes, and the broker allowing scalping strategies. A few brokers claim to allow scalping but slow down fills if you trade too frequently. Read the terms before funding your account.

ECN brokers that chase this type of trader tend to make it obvious. Look for their speed stats disclosed publicly, and they'll typically include virtual private servers for automated strategies. If a broker is vague about fill times anywhere on their marketing, take it as a signal.

Social trading in forex: practical expectations

The idea of copying other traders has grown over the past several years. The pitch is straightforward: find traders who are making money, mirror their activity automatically, benefit from their skill. In reality is messier than the platform promos make it sound.

The biggest issue is time lag. When a signal provider enters a trade, your mirrored order executes with some lag — and in fast markets, that lag transforms a winning entry into a bad one. The tighter the profit margins, the worse this problem becomes.

That said, a few social trading platforms work well enough for people who can't develop their own strategies. Look for transparency around audited trading results over no less than several months of live trading, instead of demo account performance. Metrics like Sharpe ratio and maximum drawdown matter more than the total return number.

Certain brokers build their own social trading within their standard execution. This can minimise the execution lag compared to external copy trading providers that sit on top of the trading platform. Research how the copy system integrates before expecting historical returns will translate in your experience.