There are literally thousands of forex brokers to choose from, each offering their own advantages, conditions, and disadvantages. If you’ve ever opened a trading account before, the process might remind you of comparing car insurance rates. At least, we hope you would put this kind of effort into choosing a forex broker, otherwise, you could end up paying way too much in fees and dealing with a million other problems. You need to put a lot of thought and research into a broker before opening an account so that you wind up with more of your money at the end of the day.
Let’s assume that you’re currently looking for a forex broker. A quick internet search will reveal an unlimited source of options. Perhaps you’re looking at a few big-name brokers alongside some lesser-known options you’ve heard about. The best thing to do is to narrow things down to a list of the very best options to compare in more detail – but how do you quickly decide which brokers you should skip from the start, and which options are worth more of your time?
You can simply glance at their website to answer this question. Within 30 seconds or less, a quick glance at the website can tell you whether a broker is worth more of your time. This might seem too simple, but allow us to provide some facts:
- A well-designed, navigable website is a good sign that a broker is worth looking at. If things are jumbled, messy, and confusing, then you should probably move on.
- You can check the bottom of the broker’s website to look for a LiveChat option. If it’s there, then you know that the broker likely offers instant customer support, which will make it easier to get in touch with someone if you have a problem. Otherwise, customer support could be more difficult to reach in an emergency.
- Check out the navigation tabs at the top of the website. Are there pages dedicated to account types, fees, funding methods, and so on? The more information, the better. You don’t want to waste time considering a broker that doesn’t lay everything out front.
- If you wanted to fund your account, how could you do it? Brokers should be transparent about their funding methods and fees – if this is missing from the website, then it isn’t a good sign. The best indication of transparency here is when the broker has an entire page of their website dedicated to funding information.
- You can also skim over some of the text on the site to check for correct spelling and punctuation. Sentences that don’t make sense or poor spelling in multiple areas of the website are bad signs but do keep language barriers in mind if you have to translate the page.
- If you scroll to the bottom of the site’s homepage, you should be able to spot information about the broker’s regulation. If a regulated broker is a must on your list, this is one of the first things to check for.
- Look for any type of page that tells you about the company you’re thinking of investing in. Their location, the people running things, and when the company was founded should not be a secret. If you can’t find a shred of information about this, try searching online and be wary of opening an account.
This may seem like a lot to look at, but it really isn’t. All you have to do is skim over things to get your first impression of the broker, then you can decide who deserves a spot on your list of considerations. Later on, you should go back and look at things in more detail, especially when it comes to fees and conditions. The good news is that following these tips will ensure that your list is full of transparent brokers that should be upfront about their conditions, which will make the selection process a breeze.