Market analysis
EUR/USD: what it is like and when it works best
The tightest spread, a moderate range and more written about it than anything else - and its best hours fall…
Blog
Broker guides, fee-schedule comparisons, market analysis and everything that helps you pay less per trade.
Fundamentals
Do brokers hunt your stop loss?
Your broker can see your stop loss — that is true of every broker. Whether it has a reason to…
Fundamentals
Balance, Equity and Free Margin: what each one means
Balance stands still for as long as you hold a position, so an account deep in loss still shows the…
Fundamentals
Reading RSI properly, and three common mistakes
RSI above 70 means price is rising strongly, not that a fall is due. Three mistakes, and how to use…
Regulation & markets
Editorial standards: where our figures come from and how we correct errors
Sources, verification, what happens when we get something wrong, and Backcom VN's conflict of interest stated plainly - including a…
Trading costs
Forex trading costs: the complete guide, charge by charge
Spread, commission, swap, slippage, conversion - every component of cost, in the order it arises over the life of a…
Regulation & markets
Choosing a forex broker: the complete guide in five steps
Licence, net cost, account type, a head-to-head, then fund it. Five checks in the order they should be done, each…
Regulation & markets
Transferring your account to a new IB: the process and the catches
A five-step process and four things to check first. Spread, leverage and trading conditions stay exactly as they were —…
Fundamentals
Bid and Ask: the price you actually trade at
You buy at the Ask and are marked to the Bid, so a new position is down by the spread…
Trading costs
Does a rebate make your spread worse?
A rebate sits in the IB commission layer, entirely separate from execution. How to verify your spread in ten minutes,…
Trading costs
What a forex rebate is, and how it works
A forex rebate returns part of the IB commission based on traded volume, not on profit or loss. It reduces…
Trading costs
Deposit and withdrawal costs, and how to cut them
The exchange spread on converting local currency to dollars is typically 0.5-1.5% each way - far more than the fees…
Regulation & markets
FCA, ASIC, CySEC: which regulator is strictest
Clients outside the major jurisdictions are nearly always on an offshore entity, so the licence displayed on the home page…
Trading costs
Which broker has the lowest spread? The question is always missing half the sum
The tightest spread usually comes with the highest commission. A ranking that compares only spreads compares half the calculation -…
Risk management
What traders actually earn: read the published figures, not the screenshots
This question is usually answered with a screenshot of a profit. There is a far more reliable source: the loss-rate…
Risk management
Risk-reward ratio, and why win rate alone tells you nothing
At 1:3 you break even winning 25% of the time; at 3:1 you need 75%. Why a 70% win rate…
Trading costs
Funding a forex account from a Vietnamese bank: channels, timing and cost
Local transfer, e-wallet or international card - three channels with very different timings and costs. The most expensive item is…
Fundamentals
How to read a currency pair symbol and its quote
EUR/USD at 1.0850 means one euro buys 1.0850 dollars. How to read pips, points and platform symbol suffixes, plus the…
Trading costs
How forex commission is actually calculated
$3 per side and $6 round turn are the same charge. The formula for total cost per lot, and why…
Risk management
How to place a stop loss properly
The stop belongs to the chart, not to your wallet. Four sound methods, and why a short position's stop fills…
Fundamentals
Majors, crosses and exotics: how the groups differ
Majors have the tightest spreads, crosses are 1.5-3 times wider, exotics can reach 80 pips. And why three different trades…
Fundamentals
The recurring macro calendar, in UTC
The events that move currency markets repeat on a fixed schedule. Set the reminders once and use them all year,…
Trading costs
Which broker pays the highest rebate — and why not to choose on it
The top rebate by instrument across four brokers. When one broker pays more on everything, the reason is usually that…
Regulation & markets
Which forex broker is trustworthy? The question to ask instead
Licences across eight brokers, plus what the table does not say: international clients are nearly always on an offshore entity,…
Trading costs
XM or HFM: the two with the lowest entry thresholds
XM pays more on every product but HFM starts from a tighter spread. And HFM publishes rebate figures for only…
Trading costs
Exness or Vantage: licences, entry thresholds and net cost
Vantage opens an ECN account at $50 where Exness asks $1,000. Both pay the rebate daily, straight into the trading…
Trading costs
Exness or XM: the figures side by side, not a ranking
XM pays more on all six products, in places three times as much. But the starting spread is 1.6 pips…
Fundamentals
Which broker has the lowest minimum deposit - and why it barely matters
HFM from $0, XM from $5, Exness from $10, Vantage from $50. But the deposit threshold does not reduce risk…
Trading costs
Vantage: Standard STP or RAW ECN, which is really cheaper
RAW ECN starts from 0.0 pips but pays $1.60/lot; Standard pays $6.12 on EUR/USD. The net-cost calculation comes out the…
Trading costs
Which HFM account to choose - and one inconsistency in the published data
HFM has three account types with a $0 minimum. But the summary quotes up to $18/lot while the account-type table…
Trading costs
XM pays the rebate into My Wallet: what changes and what to watch
XM is one of the few large brokers that pays into a separate wallet rather than the trading account. One…
Trading costs
Which Exness account to choose: the five types side by side
The rebate across Exness's five account types varies almost fivefold, from $3 to $14.40 a lot. But the high rebate…
Regulation & markets
Is Exness trustworthy? Three licences and what to check
Exness publishes CySEC, FCA and Seychelles FSA licences. But the right question is not whether the broker is trustworthy -…
Trading costs
Is a 100% rebate real? Taking the claim apart
The claim can be technically true and still completely misleading, depending on what follows the word "of". Four questions that…
Regulation & markets
Where to look up a broker's licence: a regulator directory
Eight regulators with where to search each, and a four-step verification. The last step — matching the permitted scope of…
Trading costs
Seven common misconceptions about trading rebates
A rebate is a simple mechanism surrounded by confusion, most of it created by how the industry advertises it. The…
Risk management
A trading plan and journal template you can use today
Two templates to copy into a spreadsheet: a one-page plan and a column-based journal. Plus how to read the journal…
Fundamentals
MT4 versus MT5: the differences and which to choose
An EA written for MT4 will not run on MT5 or vice versa - usually the deciding factor. Plus netting…
Market analysis
XAU/USD gold rebates: four brokers by account type
Gold rebates differ by almost a factor of two between brokers on the same account tier. But for anyone holding…
Trading costs
When rebates arrive and where: eight brokers compared
Most forex brokers pay daily, but the destination differs: the trading account, the broker's own wallet, or an intermediary wallet.…
Regulation & markets
Licences at eight brokers: the full comparison
Every licence the eight brokers publish, with numbers so you can verify them yourself. The key point: the FCA licence…
Trading costs
Forex broker rebates compared, instrument by instrument
Four brokers' rebate rates side by side on the same instruments in the same unit, USD per lot. Gold ranges…
Market analysis
Trading gold (XAU/USD): the complete guide
One lot of gold is 100 ounces, so a $1 move in price is $100 to the account. The sizing…
Fundamentals
Basic candlestick patterns and how to use them properly
Location decides what a pattern is worth: a hammer at a tested support zone is a signal; the same candle…
Risk management
Money management: the 1% rule and how to apply it
A 50% loss needs a 100% gain to get back. The 1% rule, three limits to set at once, and…
Trading costs
What the spread is, and how to read it on the platform
Platforms show the spread in points, not pips: a spread of 12 on EUR/USD is 1.2 pips, roughly $12 per…
Trading costs
Overnight financing (swap), and why Wednesday is charged three times
Swap comes from the interest-rate difference between the two currencies, plus the broker's own markup. Wednesday night is tripled by…
Risk management
Margin call and stop out: the two levels that decide whether the account survives
Margin level is equity divided by used margin. Margin call usually sits at 100% and stop out at 50% —…
Fundamentals
Lots, pips and pip value: three calculations you cannot get wrong
One lot of a currency pair is 100,000 units; one lot of gold is 100 ounces. How to work out…
Regulation & markets
Checking a broker's licence: five steps, ten minutes
Look the licence number up on the regulator's own register, not the broker's site, and match the legal entity against…