Brokers, your gateway (choose wisely)

7 min 35 XP

What a broker actually is

You cannot call a bank and ask to trade $10,000 of EUR/USD. A broker is your gateway: it aggregates prices from liquidity providers, lends you leverage, holds your deposit as margin, and executes your orders. It earns from the spread and/or a commission. So far, fair. The subtlety is *what the broker does with your order next*.

A-book passes your risk to the market; B-book keeps it in-house

A-book (STP/ECN)

Your order is passed to real liquidity providers.
Broker earns the spread/commission, neutral about whether you win.
Incentives aligned with you.

B-book (dealing desk)

The broker takes the other side of your trade internally.
Your loss is literally its revenue.
Legal and common, but the conflict of interest is real.

The checklist that protects you

Regulation first, a serious license (FCA, ASIC, CySEC, NFA…) means segregated client funds and an authority to complain to.
Real costs, compare spread + commission on the pairs YOU trade, at the hours you trade.
Execution quality, fast fills, minimal requotes, honest slippage both ways.
Withdrawals, the true test of any broker. Deposit small, withdraw early, verify.
Demo account, you will build your method on demo before risking a cent (Level 3 rule).

Red flags, walk away

Guaranteed-profit promises · pressure from a personal "account manager" to deposit more · bonuses that lock your withdrawals · no verifiable license · prices that diverge wildly from the rest of the market. Any one of these means: leave.

Praxis.

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Level 1: Foundations

Module 2: The Markets · Lesson 10/40