Which brokers do you like?

In choosing brokers my rules are:

1. Must be UK, US, Australia regulated. 

2. Never Cyprus (unless rule 3)

3. I must have met the CEO, the staff, been to the offices, spent several hours and meetings to them, been introduced by a respected 3rd party eg Bloomberg, know their customer service staff, used them myself, monitored their spreads and behaviour myself with actual trading. 

I am brand ambassador for www.alpeshpatel.com/24 (see rule 3 above)

My favourite brokers also include www.alpeshpatel.com/fxcm and www.alpeshpatel.com/etx and http://inter.tradermind.com

You can use them regardless of which country in the world you are from. 

Use them for 'spot' or spreadbetting trading or CFD trading.

Intertrader are now in Guernsey/Gibraltar – is that bad? I know the CEO of Intertrader and they are owned by a major listed US company, so I trust them

With whichever broker you choose be aware the spread between buy and sell prices can vary and also time. See the images below on results we found. (spread widen to protect the broker when the sessions in NY, London and Tokyo kick off)

How do brokers make money?

Just like a supermarket. They buy wholesale (institutional) and sell retail.For instance in the below you can see Oanda charges the most.