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

The difference between ECN and market maker execution

A lot of the brokers you'll come across fall into one of two categories: market makers or ECN brokers. This isn't just terminology. A dealing desk broker is essentially the other side of your trade. ECN execution routes your order straight to liquidity providers — you're trading against real market depth.

In practice, the difference becomes clear in how your trades get filled: spread consistency, how fast your orders go through, and whether you get requoted. A proper ECN broker generally deliver tighter pricing but apply a commission per lot. Market makers widen the spread instead. There's no universally better option — it hinges on how you trade.

If your strategy depends on tight entries and fast fills, ECN execution is generally the right choice. The raw pricing more than offsets the per-lot fee on high-volume currency pairs.

Why execution speed is more than a marketing number

Every broker's website mentions how fast they execute orders. Numbers like sub-50 milliseconds sound impressive, but what does it actually mean in practice? More than you'd think.

A trader who making a handful of trades per month, shaving off a few milliseconds won't move the needle. For high-frequency strategies working small price moves, every millisecond of delay can equal slippage. A broker averaging 35-40 milliseconds with no requotes offers an actual advantage versus slower execution environments.

Certain platforms built proprietary execution technology to address this. Titan FX, for example, built their Zero Point technology which sends orders immediately to LPs without dealing desk intervention — the documented execution speed is under 37 milliseconds. For a full look at how this works in practice, see this Titan FX broker review.

Blade vs standard accounts: where the breakeven actually is

This is the most common question when setting up an account type: should I choose commission plus tight spreads or a wider spread with no commission? It depends on your monthly lot count.

Here's a real comparison. A spread-only account might offer EUR/USD at 1.1-1.3 pips. A raw spread account offers true market pricing but adds around $3.50-4.00 per lot round-turn. For the standard account, you're paying through the spread on each position. At 3-4+ lots per month, ECN pricing saves you money mathematically.

Most brokers offer both as options so you can pick what suits your volume. Make sure you do the maths with your own numbers rather than trusting marketing scenarios — broker examples often be designed to sell one account type over the other.

High leverage in 2026: what the debate gets wrong

High leverage polarises the trading community more than any other topic. Regulators have capped leverage to relatively low ratios for retail accounts. Offshore brokers still provide 500:1 or higher.

Critics of high leverage is simple: retail traders can't handle it. Fair enough — the data shows, traders using maximum leverage lose money. But the argument misses nuance: experienced traders rarely trade at 500:1 on every trade. What they do is use the option of more leverage to minimise the money tied up in any single trade — which frees funds for other opportunities.

Obviously it carries risk. That part is true. But that's a risk management problem, not a leverage problem. When a strategy benefits from lower margin requirements, having 500:1 available means less money locked up as margin — and that's how most experienced traders actually use it.

Choosing a broker outside FCA and ASIC jurisdiction

The regulatory landscape in forex falls into different levels. The strictest tier is FCA, ASIC, CySEC. Leverage is capped at 30:1, require negative balance protection, and generally restrict what brokers can offer retail clients. Tier-3 you've got jurisdictions like Vanuatu and Mauritius and Mauritius FSA. Lighter rules, but the flip side is higher leverage and fewer restrictions.

The trade-off is not subtle: tier-3 regulation means higher leverage, lower account restrictions, and usually cheaper trading costs. But, you sacrifice some regulatory protection if something goes wrong. No compensation scheme paying out up to GBP85k.

For traders who understand this trade-off and prefer execution quality and flexibility, offshore brokers are a valid choice. The key is checking the broker's track record rather than simply checking if they're regulated somewhere. An offshore broker with a long track record and no withdrawal issues under tier-3 regulation can be more reliable in practice than a freshly regulated tier-1 broker.

Scalping execution: separating good brokers from usable ones

For scalping strategies is one area where broker choice makes or breaks your results. When you're trading small ranges and holding positions for seconds to minutes. With those margins, even small variations in spread become profit or loss.

Non-negotiables for scalpers comes down to a few things: raw spreads from 0.0 pips, order execution in the sub-50ms range, a no-requote policy, and explicit permission for scalping and high-frequency trading. Some brokers technically allow scalping but throttle orders when they detect scalping patterns. Read the terms before depositing.

Brokers that actually want scalpers tend to make it obvious. Look for average fill times on the website, and they'll typically throw in VPS access for automated strategies. source When a platform avoids discussing execution specifications anywhere on their site, that's probably not a good sign for scalpers.

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

Copy trading took off over the past few years. The pitch is obvious: identify profitable traders, mirror their activity in your own account, benefit from their skill. How it actually works is less straightforward than the marketing make it sound.

What most people miss is the gap between signal and fill. When a signal provider opens a position, the replicated trade executes milliseconds to seconds later — when prices are moving quickly, the delay can turn a profitable trade into a bad one. The smaller the average trade size in pips, the more the lag hurts.

Having said that, a few implementations work well enough for people who can't monitor charts all day. Look for transparency around real track records over no less than several months of live trading, not just simulated results. Risk-adjusted metrics matter more than raw return figures.

Some brokers offer proprietary copy trading integrated with their standard execution. This can minimise the delay problem compared to external copy trading providers that sit on top of the trading platform. Check the technical setup before expecting historical returns will translate with the same precision.