Raw spreads and fast execution: what traders need to know in 2026

ECN vs dealing desk: understanding what you're trading through

Most retail brokers fall into one of two categories: dealing desk or ECN. The distinction matters. A dealing desk broker acts as your counterparty. An ECN broker routes your order straight to banks and institutional LPs — your orders match with actual buy and sell interest.

In practice, the difference matters most in three places: how tight and stable your spreads are, fill speed, and order rejection rates. ECN brokers tends to offer raw spreads from 0.0 pips but charge a commission per lot. Market makers widen the spread instead. Both models work — it comes down to what you need.

If your strategy depends on tight entries and fast fills, ECN execution is generally the right choice. Tighter spreads makes up for paying commission on the major pairs.

Fast execution — separating broker hype from reality

Every broker's website mentions fill times. Figures like sub-50 milliseconds sound impressive, but what does it actually mean when you're actually placing trades? It depends entirely on what you're doing.

For someone executing a handful of trades per month, a 20-millisecond difference is irrelevant. But for scalpers working quick entries and exits, every millisecond of delay means money left on the table. Consistent execution at under 40ms with a no-requote policy gives you an actual advantage versus slower execution environments.

Some brokers have invested proprietary execution technology that eliminates dealing desk intervention. One example is Titan FX's Zero Point technology that routes orders directly to LPs without dealing desk intervention — the documented execution speed is under 37 milliseconds. You can read a detailed breakdown in this review of Titan FX.

Raw spread accounts vs standard: doing the maths

This ends up being a question that comes up constantly when choosing their trading account: do I pay commission plus tight spreads or zero commission but wider spreads? It depends on volume.

Take a typical example. The no-commission option might offer EUR/USD at around 1.2 pips. A commission-based account gives you the same pair at 0.0-0.3 pips but charges a commission of about $7 per lot round-turn. With the wider spread, the cost is baked into every trade. Once you're trading moderate volume, ECN pricing saves you money mathematically.

Many ECN brokers offer both side by side so you can see the difference for yourself. The key is to work it out using your real monthly lot count rather than going off marketing scenarios — they usually favour the higher-margin product.

Understanding 500:1 leverage without the moralising

High leverage polarises forex traders more than almost anything else. The major regulatory bodies have capped leverage to relatively low ratios for retail accounts. Platforms in places like Vanuatu or the Bahamas still provide up to 500:1.

Critics of high leverage is simple: it blows accounts. This is legitimate — the numbers support this, traders using maximum leverage do lose. The counterpoint is something important: professional retail traders never actually deploy the maximum ratio. What they do is use the option of high leverage to reduce the margin sitting as margin in any single trade — freeing up margin to deploy elsewhere.

Obviously it carries risk. Nobody disputes that. But blaming the leverage is like blaming the car for a speeding ticket. When a strategy requires reduced margin commitment, having 500:1 available frees up margin for other positions — most experienced traders use it that way.

Choosing a broker outside FCA and ASIC jurisdiction

Regulation in forex operates across different levels. Tier-1 is regulators like the FCA and ASIC. They cap leverage at 30:1, mandate investor compensation schemes, and generally restrict the trading conditions available to retail accounts. Tier-3 you've got jurisdictions like Vanuatu and Mauritius and Mauritius (FSA). Less oversight, but which translates to better trading conditions for the trader.

The trade-off is real and worth understanding: going with an offshore-regulated broker means 500:1 leverage, lower trading limitations, and usually review of titan fx cheaper trading costs. In return, you get less regulatory protection if there's a dispute. There's no compensation scheme paying out up to GBP85k.

Traders who accept this consciously and prefer execution quality and flexibility, offshore brokers are a valid choice. The key is looking at operating history, fund segregation, and reputation rather than only checking if they're regulated somewhere. An offshore broker with a long track record and no withdrawal issues under VFSC oversight may be more trustworthy in practice than a newly licensed broker that got its licence last year.

Broker selection for scalping: the non-negotiables

If you scalp is one area where broker choice makes or breaks your results. Targeting 1-5 pip moves and staying in trades open for very short periods. In that environment, seemingly minor gaps in execution speed become the difference between a winning and losing month.

Non-negotiables for scalpers isn't long: raw spreads at actual market rates, fills in the sub-50ms range, zero requotes, and the broker allowing scalping strategies. Some brokers say they support scalping but slow down fills if you trade too frequently. Check the fine print before funding your account.

ECN brokers that chase this type of trader will make it obvious. You'll see execution speed data somewhere prominent, and often include virtual private servers for EAs that need low latency. If the broker you're looking at is vague about fill times anywhere on their marketing, that tells you something.

Social trading in forex: practical expectations

The idea of copying other traders has grown over the past several years. The appeal is simple: find traders who are making money, copy their trades in your own account, benefit from their skill. In reality is messier than the marketing imply.

The main problem is time lag. When a signal provider enters a trade, your copy goes through with some lag — and in fast markets, the delay transforms a profitable trade into a losing one. The more narrow the average trade size in pips, the worse the impact of delay.

Despite this, a few implementations are worth exploring for people who don't want to monitor charts all day. What works is transparency around verified trading results over at least a year, rather than demo account performance. Metrics like Sharpe ratio and maximum drawdown tell you more than headline profit percentages.

Certain brokers have built proprietary copy trading alongside their main offering. This tends to reduce the execution lag compared to third-party copy services that sit on top of the trading platform. Research whether the social trading is native before trusting that the results can be replicated with the same precision.