I have tried numerous forex brokers, signal systems, educational programs, expert advisors and VPS's in my quest to become a full time and profitable forex trader. I offer insights into each of these below. I need to disclose that I am affiliate of many of these sites, if you are going to use one of the recommended providers, please use the affiliate link and help support this website. I give you my guarantee that I have personally used each of these forex related products and services. Most of the items that I recommend I continue to use and subscribe to today.
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Pepperstone are currently one of my preferred brokers and I'm . They use the MT4 platform and are a genuine STP (straight through processing) broker. The spreads are tight and they offer the option of raw spread account (Razor) that charges a commission rather than taking their profit through an increased spread.
Customer service is ok, they are generally helpful, however it can occasionally take a day or two for them to act on a request. I generally follow up emails with the live chat function to make sure they've received the request. They're server is based in New York, which means you'll want a NY based VPS if you're running a scalper EA like Million Dollar Pips. They offer instant execution on all orders (as opposed to market execution).
Synergy FX are also one of my prefered forex brokers and I have a couple of live accounts with them. They use the MT4 platform and offer true STP (Straight through processing). The true advantage these guys have over other forex brokers that I trade with is their trade execution speed. They have invested heavily in their infrastructure, and as a result can fill your orders faster than any other broker I've dealt with. I use them on my VPS with with BeeksFX and the latency is amazing at only 1ms (that means it takes 0.01 seconds for the order to be communicated between the broker and your VPS). This is really important when trading a scalper EA like Million Dollar Pips.
hey operate in a very similar fashion to Pepperstone with live chat options and responsive customer service. The spreads are tight and they also offer an ECN account (very similar to razor account at Pepperstone in that they offer raw spreads with commission on top). Their have servers located in London with backups in New York and secondary backups Switzerland. The only downside is that they don't offer rebates and their spreads are around 0.1 pip wider than Pepperstone. Synergy FX offer market execution orders (as opposed to instant execution).
I've been using Vantage FX to trade my live forex accounts for a short period of time. What attracted me to their services was the 10% deposit bonus and the included VPS. The customer service is good, the account manager regularly calls me to inform me that my account has been funded, or to confirm changes to my account. If I make a request, it's generally completed within a couple of hours without the need for me to follow up.
The VPS their provide is absolutely rubbish. It's linux based and only allows you to opperate a single MT4 account. I found it confusing to upload EA's and it sometimes resets or freezes without warning. I had to get rid of the VPS due to the frustration it was causing me. When I explained how much trouble I was having I was suprised how unhelpful they tech guy was. He basically said "It's a white label VPS, we don't have any control of it. If you don't want it then don't use it"
The spreads are good, but not great. They also don't subscribe to a rebate provider.
FXCM are fantastic for beginners starting out in forex trading. They have a custom designed platform (Trading Station II) and a charting package (Marketscope) that makes manual trading a breeze and it's easy to work our without the need to go through a detailed manual. They have the best education that I have found offered from a broker and it's offered free to live account holders. There are daily webinars, and a huge library of historic educational content. The customer service is excellent, they can be reached 24/7 by phone and live chat. They also have a signal service (free to live account holders) but didn't find it to be particularly profitable and a bit late on most big moves.
Unfortunately they're spreads are some of the highest in the market unless you sign up to a Active Trader Account, which is similar to the Razor Account offered at Pepperstone, however you'll need $50k in your account if you want to take advantage of it with FXCM. The Active Trader Account also offers the benefit of market depth, however the market moves so quickly I found it difficult to trade effectively and gave up on it after a couple of weeks.
I recommend FXCM if you're starting out, but once you become more experienced you'll probably prefer one of the MT4 providers with tighter spreads.

Steer clear of these guys. It's little known, but they are actually market makers. That means they set the pricing and when you lose on a trade, they win. You'll find that if you are continually making money with them they'll stop filling your orders correctly, which results the trader becoming frustrated and shifting brokers. It's their polite way of saying "piss off and stop taking our money". I only discovered this after a conversation with a friend of mine that owns their own small brokerage house.
The profitability of this broker relies on their members losing money.
CMC Markests are more of a CFD broker than a forex broker. Their custom designed charting package looks good and works on all mobile devices, however it's not much good for intraday trading. I'd only use these guys for CFD's and perhaps carry trades. Customer service is good and spreads are reasonable. I think they're the largest of the retail CFD brokers.