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

The difference between ECN and market maker execution

Most retail brokers fall into two execution models: market makers or ECN brokers. The distinction matters. A dealing desk broker becomes the one taking the opposite position. An ECN broker routes your order through to liquidity providers — your orders match with real market depth.

Day to day, the difference becomes clear in a few ways: whether spreads blow out at the wrong moment, how fast your orders go through, and requotes. Genuine ECN execution generally deliver tighter pricing but add a commission per lot. Dealing desk brokers widen the spread instead. Neither model is inherently bad — it depends on your strategy.

If you scalp or trade high frequency, a proper ECN broker is typically the better fit. The raw pricing makes up for the per-lot fee on the major pairs.

Fast execution — separating broker hype from reality

Brokers love quoting how fast they execute orders. Figures like under 40ms fills sound impressive, but how much does it matter in practice? Quite a lot, depending on your strategy.

For someone executing longer-term positions, the gap between 40ms and 80ms execution doesn't matter. For high-frequency strategies trading small price moves, slow fills can equal slippage. If your broker fills at in the 30-40ms range with zero requotes offers an actual advantage over one that averages 200ms.

A few brokers have invested proprietary execution technology that eliminates dealing desk intervention. One example is Titan FX's Zero Point execution system which sends orders straight to LPs without dealing desk intervention — their published average is under 37 milliseconds. There's a thorough analysis in this review of Titan FX.

Blade vs standard accounts: where the breakeven actually is

This is the most common question when setting up an account type: do I pay a commission on raw spreads or zero commission but wider spreads? The maths comes down to your monthly lot count.

Let's run the numbers. A spread-only account might show EUR/USD at 1.1-1.3 pips. A commission-based account shows true market pricing but adds around $3.50-4.00 per standard lot round trip. With the wider spread, the cost is baked into the spread on each position. If you're doing more than a few lots a week, the raw spread account saves you money mathematically.

A lot of platforms offer both as options so you can compare directly. Make sure you work it out using your real monthly lot count rather than trusting marketing scenarios — they usually make the case for the higher-margin product.

Understanding 500:1 leverage without the moralising

Leverage divides forex traders more than almost anything else. The major regulatory bodies restrict leverage to 30:1 in most jurisdictions. Offshore brokers continue to offer ratios of 500:1 and above.

The standard argument against is simple: it blows accounts. Fair enough — statistically, traders using maximum leverage do lose. But the argument misses something important: experienced traders don't use the maximum ratio. What they do is use the option of high leverage to lower the money locked up in each position — freeing up funds to deploy elsewhere.

Sure, it can wreck you. No argument there. But blaming the leverage is like blaming the car for a speeding ticket. If what you trade benefits from less capital per position, having 500:1 available lets you deploy capital more efficiently — and that's how most experienced traders actually use it.

Choosing a broker outside FCA and ASIC jurisdiction

Broker regulation in forex operates across different levels. At the top is regulators like the FCA and ASIC. They cap leverage at 30:1, require negative balance protection, and generally restrict what brokers can offer retail clients. On the other end you've got the VFSC in Vanuatu and similar offshore regulators. Lighter rules, but which translates to higher leverage and fewer restrictions.

The compromise is straightforward: offshore brokers means higher leverage, lower trading limitations, and typically more competitive pricing. The flip side is, you sacrifice some investor protection if there's a dispute. No investor guarantee fund paying out up to GBP85k.

If you're comfortable with the risk and pick better conditions, regulated offshore brokers work well. What matters is checking the broker's track record rather than simply reading the licence number. A platform with 10+ years of clean operation under an article offshore licence can be a safer bet in practice than a freshly regulated tier-1 broker.

What scalpers should look for in a broker

Scalping is where broker choice makes or breaks your results. You're working tiny price movements and staying in trades open for very short periods. With those margins, tiny differences in execution speed become profit or loss.

The checklist isn't long: 0.0 pip raw pricing from 0.0 pips, execution in the sub-50ms range, zero requotes, and no restrictions on scalping and high-frequency trading. A few brokers claim to allow scalping but add latency to execution if you trade too frequently. Look at the execution policy before committing capital.

Brokers that actually want scalpers will put their execution specs front and centre. You'll see execution speed data somewhere prominent, and they'll typically offer VPS hosting for automated strategies. If the broker you're looking at is vague about fill times anywhere on the website, take it as a signal.

Copy trading and social platforms: what works and what doesn't

Copy trading has become popular over the past several years. The concept is obvious: find traders who are making money, copy their trades without doing your own analysis, collect the profits. In practice is less straightforward than the marketing suggest.

The biggest issue is time lag. When the lead trader executes, your mirrored order executes milliseconds to seconds later — during volatile conditions, the delay might change a good fill into a bad one. The smaller the strategy's edge, the bigger this problem becomes.

Despite this, some implementations work well enough for people who can't develop their own strategies. The key is finding transparency around audited trading results over no less than a year, instead of simulated results. Looking at drawdown and consistency matter more than raw return figures.

Certain brokers build in-house social platforms integrated with their main offering. This tends to reduce the execution lag compared to standalone signal platforms that connect to the trading platform. Research how the copy system integrates before assuming historical returns will carry over to your account.