There are several levels of FOREX dealers with online access:

Bucket shops. These have essentially no connection to the real-world FOREX market. The identifying characteristic on most of these is that they heavily tout currency futures and options over spot FOREX. Book makers. These are perfectly legitimate in some countries and fine if you want to simply place a “bet” on a currency. One Web site to explore is www.deltaindex.com. 39 Broker Selection Process (continued) • Finally, you will want to spend some time with the broker’s online Dealing or Trading Platform paper trade, and then trade a miniaccount for 30 days. Most trading platforms are not bug-free—it’s extremely complicated software and real-time delivery over the Internet is not a small task. • Check the discussion boards for other traders’ experiences. Top on your list should be: 1. Does the broker have a good recommendation? 2. How did it score on the broker selection process? 3. Do you feel comfortable with the trading platform? Is it reliable? 4. Does the broker offer telephone and email means of communication and trade back-up? 5. Are costs in line with the market? Especially pip spreads and margins? 6. What are the requoting experiences of other traders? 40 WHAT EVERY TRADER MUST KNOW Retail market makers (RMMs). These represent the vast majority of online dealers. There is a wide spectrum amongst them with respect to their organizational form and how much they actually connect directly to the FOREX market. One such dealer is actually a U.S.–domiciled bank: www.cbfx.com. A few other RMMs are: • www.gftforex.com • www.saxobank.com • www.sbfx.net • www.gaincapital.com Institutional market makers. These are very closely aligned with the FOREX interbank market, and are great if you have enough for their minimum account requirement.Two examples are www.hotspot.com and www.fxall.com. Institutional FOREX. At the top of the heap is the Intranet-based trading system, EBS. This is actually a consortium of close to 200 banks and represents well over 50 percent of bank FOREX trading. You must be a bank to participate. For more, see www.ebs.com. It is still critical that traders investigate the integrity of prospective brokers as well as their services, costs, and trading platforms. Some traders jump from one dealer to another in the blink of an eye. Don’t do it; rather, investigate thoroughly beforehand.