We don’t impose any trading restriction and actually we welcome any trading style. We offer multiple trading Feeds to satisfy the needs of some of the most sophisticates traders. However, among other factors, please keep in mind that volatility and news events may cause spreads to widen suddenly which may increase the chances of slippage and/or getting filled at a price worse than desired.

We’re not a Dealing Desk and, because of the regulation governing our current registration status, we don’t operate a Dealing Desk. Instead, our PathFinder Trader™ features unbridged access to multiple ECNs via a direct multi-API connectivity, and ECN aggregation with our proprietary ECN2 Technology.

You can check the average execution speed down to the millisecond for market orders executed through selected Data Feeds by visiting our Statistics page.

In the ECN model, liquidity is posted and prices are quoted by banks, hedge funds, brokers, other financial institutions or other ECNs, which are acting as liquidity providers for the circuit. On selected ECNs (currently LMAx and CNXa) traders are also enabled to act as liquidity makers. So you, or other traders like you, may be creating additional liquidity by placing limit orders. This means that while in a regular ECN the counterpart of your trades is always a liquidity provider, in the LMAx and CNXa Data Feeds, in addition to the regular liquidity providers, your trade may be hit by other traders. The clearing counterpart of your trades is always your broker (as it maintains the prime relationship with the liquidity providers), while PathFinder Trader™, through its direct ECN connectivity via API, provides live, executable streaming prices from the liquidity providers. Consequently, the Scalperbook window (where the depth of market is displayed) shows the liquidity providers competeting for the bid and ask prices.

Yes, of course you can place orders within the spread, and there isn't either any minimum distance limitation for stops loss and profit target orders. You can place orders anywhere in the market according to the appropriate order type. Generally your order will be placed in the book until a liquidity provider will fill it, while on selected feeds (currently CNXa and LMAx) your trade might be filled by either a liquidity provider or by another trader like you.

In the ECN environment, Makers are generally the liquidity providers, because they provide or make liquidity for the ECN. On the other hand, Takers are instead the clients whom, by placing their trades, take the liquidity from the ECN. Please note that on selected ECNs we allow traders to act both as makers and takers.

In a normal trading environment, a retail trader will be always acting as a liquidity taker. This means that the counterpart of your trades will always be a liquidity provider or maker, thus you’re a liquidity taker. On selected ECNs (currently CNXa and LMAx) instead you may also be acting also as liquidity maker, so when place certain limit orders these will be visible to all market participants, thus the counterpart of your trades might be either a liquidity provider or another trader. In such case you may also be acting also as a price maker.

Yes, Fractional Pip pricing is available on all ECNs we provide access to.

Trading on ECNs generally provides increased transparency, as there is no dealing desk fabricating the prices. Consequently, slippage, spreads or other execution outcomes, like split fills, partial fills, etc., cannot be predicted as they depend on real time market conditions. By trading in a competitive bid/ask environment with multiple liquidity providers, it's possible that during economic news releases, or other instances of greater volatility, liquidity providers (and traders) may decide to pull off their orders from the market. Therefore, on ECNs because prices are not quoted by a single dealer, but they are the natural result of the competitive bid/ask orders placed by the liquidity provider partecipants, your order will be filled at the first available price, which may also be several pips away from your desired price (normally a worse price) during such market conditions.

Stop orders fill prices are not guaranteed. A stop order by nature is a kind of order that when triggered by the price it turns into a market order and filled at the first available price. While stops orders in most cases are held at the ECN trading servers (unless not supported by the API and therefore held locally on your machine until triggered), during high volatility or low liquidity your fill price may differ sensibly from the original stop price.

PathFinder Trader™ uses a direct FIX API connection to the trading servers, thus eliminating further layers of latency. Quotes are broadcasted to the platform directly by the ECN server and orders are sent directly to the ECN server.

Forex ECN stands for Electronic Communication Network. Here multiple liquidity providers such as banks, hedgefunds, brokers, other financial institutions or other ECNs post bid and ask prices and quantities real time, therefore depending on the market conditions spreads and liquidity will vary. In an ECN, orders are sent directly to the circuit and usually they are not processed by a dealing desk.

Partial and split fills are determined by market liquidity. If the best bid, or best ask, price is showing a volume size lower than your order quantity, chances are that your order will be partially filled, or it will result in a split fill. For certain limit orders you may be able to cancel the balance of a partially filled order. In split fills your order is processed in multiple instances according to market conditions; each time the order is not entirely filled, the remainder will be processed at the next available price until volume is completed. Order details, including quantity filled and price, are available in the trading history of PathFinder Trader™.

When you trade on an ECN you’re generally not subject to the trading restrictions often imposed by other retail FX brokers. In fact, there is no particular trading style limitation with FastBrokers' PathFinder Trader™. We welcome news, scalpers, and high volume traders. If you wish you may discuss your particular needs with one of our licensed brokers.

Because our platform offers a direct FIX API connection to popular Forex ECNs (and we don't use any middleware or bridged connection), the location of the execution servers will depend on the technology behind each Data Feed. So, for example for all CNX type Data Feed the ECN technology used is Currenex and its transaction servers are located at Equinix NY4, the popular financial data center in New Jersey.

Yes, you will see the depth of market (or Level 2) for each ECN we provide access to. You will be able to see the various bids and ask levels update in real-time along with the quantity available (in standard lots 100,000 BCU) posted by the liquidity providers.