No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex broker provides tight spreads by connecting you with liquidity pools through ECN, STP and DMA trading. This is different from market makers who are your counterparty. Our experts give our top No Dealing Desk brokers.
Updated: 10/06/2021
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See our selection of the best forex brokers with no dealing desk:
Our top choice among online No Dealing Desk (NDD) brokers is Sydney, Australia-based FP Markets. Established in 2005, this excellent online broker offers CFDs on a broad range of tradeable assets, including Foreign Exchange (Forex) currency pairs, indices, stocks, commodities and cryptocurrencies.
First Prudential (FP) Markets has been chosen as the best NDD forex broker based on four factors:
When it comes to pricing, FP Markets offers super-tight Forex spreads as narrow as 1 pip in its Standard commission-free account and 0 pips in its Raw account that has a $3 commission per full lot. You can easily open a demo account, and the minimum deposit required to open either type of live trading account is a very accessible AUD $100 or the equivalent in other currencies.
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Below you can review the typical spreads that come with trading CFDs on metals:
If you prefer the ever-popular, portable and free MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5 (MT4/5) trading platforms from MetaQuotes, you will not be disappointed with FP Markets. Depending on the device you use to trade forex, MT4 and MT5 software is available as a desktop, web trader and mobile trading app platforms. You can also use the broker’s own cutting-edge IRESS platform that will suit active traders with its comprehensive and advanced functionality.
IRESS, FP Markets proprietary trading platform comes with two interface models (IRESS ViewPoint and IRESS Trader) and advanced capabilities including:
Those who are just learning to trade can find plenty of educational material on FP Markets’ website. It also has a Traders Hub area where traders of any experience level can benefit from reading high-quality technical and fundamental analysis written by market experts.
FP Markets’ educational material includes professional material developed by FP Markets’ experts:
FP Markets funnels bid and ask for quotes directly from tier-one liquidity providers. Like all NDD brokers, FP Markets streams interbank rates via direct market access (DMA) and electronic communication network (ECN) technologies. With direct market access, fx traders can take advantage of ultra-fast automatic execution.
Note* According to order executed between 01-04-2020 to 30-04-2020, FP Markets can boost ultra-fast order execution of 41 milliseconds.
The ECB pricing model ensures reduced slippage on both market orders and limits orders. FP Markets offer access to a diverse pool of tier-1 forex liquidity providers including Barclays, BNP Paribas, CitiBank, Commerzbank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan, RBS, Standard Chartered, Societe Generale, and State Street.
Our team of experts at Compare Forex Brokers tested FP Market’s latency execution speed. We have used the latest technology and tested the execution time between the order being received, processed and confirmed by FP Markets’ servers and found a forex latency of 80 milliseconds.
Note* We have used limit orders to execute the order between our terminal and FP Markets’ servers.
Overall, you can hardly do better when it comes to regulation, pricing, asset range, platform or minimum deposit accessibility than FP Markets, so it remains our selection for the best broker overall that uses an NDD model. To practise trading strategies and familiarise yourself with FP Markets trading platforms, a free demo account is available.
The overall rating is based on review by our experts
With NDD execution, the ECN-style broker leads the pack when it comes to tight variable spreads. The broker is based in Sydney and regulated by ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission) in Australia, CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) in Europe, as well as oversight from the FSA (Financial Services Authority of Seychelles).
The ECN model employed by IC Markets ensures there is no direct conflict of interest with their clients. IC Markets ECN pricing model comes with the following advantages:
Note* The average forex spreads were calculated using price data from 01-07-2019 to 31-12-2019.
In addition to its commission-free Standard Account that boasts dealing spreads as low as 1 pip for Euro vs United States Dollar (EUR/USD), IC Markets offers a Raw Spread Account with a $3.50 commission per lot that lets you trade on institutional-grade pricing. This is virtually the same price levels offered by leading global execution venues.
Data taken from broker website. Accurate as at 04/06/2021
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With respect to speed, IC Markets’ MetaTrader 4 and 5 (MT4/5) trading servers have a super low latency of less than a millisecond on average. Its major Virtual Private Server (VPS) providers transmit pricing data via dedicated lines to nearby data centres, making direct Forex market access fast and highly efficient for IC Markets’ clients.
When it comes to market breadth, IC Markets’ quotes arrive from up to 25 pricing providers who send Executable Streaming Prices (ESP) to the broker. These prices are then directly offered to Raw Spread Account clients using its NDD model where Interbank market rates are not manipulated. You will also never see a re-quote from IC Markets.
In addition to supporting the market-standard MT4/5 trading platforms that have sophisticated automation capabilities and widespread acceptance, IC Markets also allows you to use the up-and-coming cTrader platform for extra functionality. If you want to trade via the web or a mobile app for iOS or Android, then MetaTrader offers great solutions for those platform types that IC Markets also supports.
For high volume or frequency Forex traders, especially those who use scalping trading strategies or algorithms and have a need for super-tight dealing spreads, IC Markets really does offer the best possible online deal execution and pricing, as you can see in the comparison table below.
Overall, IC Markets offer unfiltered access and no dealing desk interventions to the world’s biggest market. IC Markets clients can deposit and withdraw money safely and secure with 0% commission. The minimum deposit to start trading with a true ECN broker is only USD 200.
Melbourne, Australia-based and ASIC-regulated Fusion Markets features a very low per lot commission of only $2.25 and offers Forex dealing spreads from just 0.0 pips, so it gets top marks as an economical dealing partner.
Fusion Markets offers two types of trading accounts with two different commission structures:
Below, our team of experts will review some of the benefits of trading with a no dealing desk broker.
The NDD broker also does not have a minimum account size, so it could be the perfect deal execution choice for less-well-funded retail traders who still need the best possible pricing and commission structure.
Like to have someone available to help you out as you trade? Fusion Markets have you covered then since all live account holders get their own trading specialist to assist them in using its trading platform and trading the markets.
Note* Trustpilot, one of the world’s leading online review websites, gives Fusion Markets a 4.8 TrustScore (based on a total number of 135 reviews).
Fusion Markets customer support facilitates the interaction between the brokerage’s clients and the support team through 3 different communication forms:
To sign up for a trading account, prospective customers can fill out an online application form.
When it comes to trading platforms, Fusion Markets supports MT4, so you can Robo-trade using your favourite Expert Advisors (EAs) and enjoy using one of the most sophisticated and portable online Forex trading platforms around. MT4 also has versions for web and mobile trading, so you can trade wherever you are and whenever the market is open.
The Fusion Markets MT4 is energised with a lot of useful trading tools:
Fusion Market is the perfect fit for low commission trading on the currency market and a few selected CFD instruments. On average, Fusion Markets commissions are 36% cheaper than other ECN brokers. Fusion Markets doesn’t enforce any minimum deposit policy on its retail investor accounts. Think about signing up? Click the button below!
View Fusion Markets Review >>Visit Fusion Markets >>
Pepperstone is a multi-regulated Forex broker based in Melbourne, Australia that offers a top-quality overall trading experience with straight through processing order execution. The broker combines super-fast execution speeds, raw dealing spreads, low commissions, support and education to help you better attain your trading goals.
With respect to transaction speed, Pepperstone fills most orders in under 30 milliseconds, which should serve scalpers and Robo-traders very well. Pepperstone also supports the standard MT4/5 trading platform many traders favour, including its web-based and iOS or Android mobile versions. If you prefer cTrader, then you can also use it with this broker.
Our team of devoted FX experts have put to the test the order execution quality offered by Pepperstone and other no dealing desk (NDD) forex brokers. We tested the transfer time between the order being sent, processed and submitted by Pepperstone servers.
Note* The order speed tests revealed that Pepperstone can boost 85 milliseconds when submitting market orders. Compared to other ECN and STP brokers, Pepperstone is the fastest NDD broker. See a full speed comparison in the graph below.
High-volume trading clients can also qualify for cash rebates via the broker’s Active Trader program, and you can refer friends to the broker for a $100 credit to your trading account. Other perks of trading via Pepperstone include access to its 24/5 multi-lingual customer support and its award-winning learning resources aimed at getting traders started out on the right foot.
Pepperstone cash rebate program is contingent on the monthly trading volume executed by its clients. The maximum cash rebate you can get is USD $200 – $500 contingent on a trading volume exceeding 200-500 lots traded per month. For a detailed view of the forex cash rebates offered by Pepperstone, see the table below.
If you lack the funds to make a large deposit, then Pepperstone will still open an account for you, although the broker does recommend having at least an AUD $200 initial deposit.
Note* Pepperstone UK also offers a tax-efficient spread betting account with no dealing desk execution.
Overall, Pepperstone comes across as an excellent broker for trading Forex, index CFDs, cryptocurrencies and commodities. This makes it our top pick for the overall trading experience it provides clients. Pepperstone minimum account deposit is only USD 200. Grab your free demo account by clicking the button below.
View Pepperstone Review >>Visit Pepperstone >>
Based in London with regulated offices in the UK, South Africa, Cyprus and the Bahamas, FxPro is a top CFD provider with a well-earned reputation for fast trade executions.
FxPro uses a lightning-fast NDD model to fill most trades in below 11.06 milliseconds, and the broker can execute as many as two thousand trades per second. It boasts a current record of facilitating almost 200 thousand trades in a single day.
The company also makes trading more efficient for its clients by matching buy and sell orders before executing the balance in the market. This differentiates its speedy NDD model from those used by pure ECN and STP brokers.
Trades executed via FxPro get routed to its Equinix Data centres in London or Amsterdam. FxPro’s trading servers connect with tier 1 banks that provide liquidity using its proprietary Quotix software that acts as a trade aggregator engine, auto-dealing system, and liquidity bridge.
Although slippage on stop-loss orders is possible with this broker, 82% of the broker’s market orders left by clients in 2019 were executed at the specified price. Furthermore, 9% of such orders were executed at a better price, while 9% were executed at a worse price. Re-quotes can also happen, although they occurred in just 0.68% of all market orders given to the broker in 2019, with 0.32% receiving an even better execution price than initially quoted.
FxPro also offers a unique wallet feature separate from traditional trading accounts. This funding reservoir can help with risk management by keeping the bulk of your available capital securely separate from your trading account in case of a sharp unfavourable market movement that could otherwise bankrupt you. A FxPro wallet also provides traders with instant access to an additional reserve trading capital when desired.
Forex traders can enjoy the following advantages via the powerful FxPro Direct wallet:
Furthermore, the broker does not charge fees on deposits or withdrawals, which can be a substantial benefit if you plan on making regular transactions of that type.
FxPro’s industry-leading services in the Forex industry is trusted by more than 1.3 millions forex traders from over 173 countries worldwide. In 2017, FxPro was awarded as the Best Execution Broker Global by Global Brands Magazine. If you want to benefit from ultra-fast order execution, click the button below and start trading today.
View FxPro Review >>Visit FxPro >>
Based in Hellerup, Denmark, Saxo Capital Markets is regulated in 15 jurisdictions and offers access to over 42,000 tradable assets, making it our top broker choice for the very broad range of markets offered and very low risk of scams.
With Saxo Capital Markets you can trade 10 different asset classes, including:
Saxo offers competitive pricing using either its DMA or market maker execution options. You can trade major Forex pairs on dealing spreads starting at 0.4 pips, with more competitive rates available for high-volume traders.
Saxo Bank offers three pricing tiers with different levels of spreads based on the account type you opt for. Below you can review the typical ECN and STP spreads on the most traded currency pairs.
Saxo can provide traders with deep liquidity and the best possible exchange rates by getting its Forex dealing quotes from a broad range of tier 1 financial institutions that participate in the interbank market. These include banks, ECNs and other market-making firms that act as liquidity providers.
Although Saxo Capital Markets does not support popular trading platforms such as MT4/5, it does have its own proprietary platform called SaxoTraderGO that lets you use over 50 technical indicators for market analysis. This powerful and simple-to-use platform has different versions that let you operate from a Mac or Windows desktop computer, as well as using an iOS or Android tablet or smartphone.
SaxoTraderGo uses the same technology and advanced tools and indicators that hedge funds use. Below you can view what competitive advantages you can gain with SaxoTraderGO:
Saxo Bank has $16 billion in total customer assets, and it is processing more than 1 million transactions every single day. At Saxo Bank, you can enjoy direct market access with competitive pricing and a liquidity network composed of tier-one banks, MTFs, ECNs, SIs, Interdealer brokers and additional 36 exchanges.
Broadly speaking, the FX industry accommodates two types of forex brokers which can be divided into other subcategories as follows:
The Dealing desk brokers match client orders internally because they make the market for their clients. On the other hand, the No Dealing Desk brokers provide direct market access with no middleman intervention and unfiltered access to interbank bid and ask prices.
ECN stands for Electronic Communications Network and represents a pool of leading liquidity providers which aims at FX trading in a direct manner without a mediator. The ECN system will automatically match orders between different market participants and liquidity providers.
See our review of spreads for ECN pricing brokers with tight spreads.
STP stands for Straight Through Processing and is an electronic trading platform that funnels orders straight to the interbank market. Like the ECN model, the STP system unites market players from all over the world in an environment where traders can trade with each other at any size. With an STP broker, your orders are matched with the broker’s liquidity providers or other traders’ orders.
DMA stands for Direct Market Access and is an online electronic platform that executes orders directly on the foreign exchange market. A DMA broker will aggregate bids and ask prices from multiple liquidity providers to give forex traders the best available FX quotes. A DMA broker will not mark up the spread but instead will charge you a commission that is transparent.
NO, Pepperstone is a No Dealing Desk (NDD) broker with ECN and STP execution styles, raw spreads, and a deep network of liquidity providers. Pepperstone ECN pricing technology allows forex traders to interact with other market participants and participate in global FX trading.
NO, IC Markets is a true ECN provider that streams its bid and ask prices directly from major financial institutions. IC Markets offer ECN pricing through its Raw Spread Account, which comes with no requotes and no restriction on FX transactions.
A market maker (MM) broker is a type of broker that will create internally a market with its own bid and ask prices. The market maker FX quotes will mimic the bid and ask prices from the interbank market. The only caveat is that the market maker will be on the other side of all your trades. Additionally, traders are also offered with markup bid-ask spread.
The information provided by our team of experts at Compare Forex Brokers doesn’t constitute investment advice. We provide Forex Broker review content based on our own proprietary star scoring system, where we weigh a wide range of factors.
There are different types of forex brokers, but the most transparent model is offered by the no dealing desk forex brokers. With NDD brokers, the forex quotes you see through your platform are the final price your position will get submitted.
Below you can see some of the advantages and disadvantages that come with an NDD broker:
One disadvantage includes the inferior selection of risk management tools compared to market makers. Market maker brokers often offer premium order types like guaranteed stop-loss orders that can help reduce the risk of trading high-risk complex instruments like forex and CFDs.
Risk Warning: The main factor to consider when choosing an NDD broker is regulation. Make sure the no dealing desk broker complies with either the NFA or CFTC in the USA, FCA in the UK, ASIC in Australia, FSA in Japan, FSCA in South Africa, CySEC in Cyprus and other regulatory agencies alike.
Justin Grossbard has been investing for the past 20 years and writing for the past 10. He co-founded Compare Forex Brokers in 2014 after working with the foreign exchange trading industry for several years. He also founded a number of FinTech and digital startups including Innovate Online and SMS Comparison. Justin holds a Masters Degree and an Honours in Commerce from Monash University. He and his wife Paula live in Melbourne, Australia with his son and Siberian cat. In his spare time, he watches Australian Rules Football and invests on global markets.
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