The forex broker acts as an intermediaries in the currency markets. Without them, we cannot place our orders. There are a number of ways around the forex broker. Dealing directly with banks are an choice only the richest traders have while floor trading is the other way around brokers.

Sadly, most of us aren’t Billionaires and lack the skill and resilience required for the rigors of floor trading. Forex brokers get their own currency rates from the bank. The forex brokers then turns a profit by offering their clients these currency pairs at a higher spread. The profit is made through the spread. Below is a brief look at two very popular and recognized forex brokers on the web today.

Very popular, Oanda is one of the largest players in the online currency trading scene. Even from the start, they offered trading accounts in different base currencies. Oanda actually started as a company converting large sums of currencies for large corporations. Oanda is owned by the founder of the Olsen Group, Richard Olsen. He has penned two popular books that deal with the currency markets, Introduction to high frequency trading and the forex traders bill of rights

Oanda has won many awards year by year such as the 2008 Euromoney award for excellence. They have lower than usual variable spreads compared to other brokers. Oanda uses a java based trading software that clients can log into from any computer as long as it has an internet connection.

FXCM (Forex Capital Management) is arguably th most recognized name in the online currency trading market. They have been aggressively expanding globally and have the lowest spreads among the top online brokers. They are a multi-lingual forex broker with all the key languages covered and it takes as little as $25 to open a micro account with them. Their trading software is named the Trading Station 2 and are testing Metatrader 4 for future use as well. They have a total of 6 base currencies for trading accounts that include the Yen, Pound, Euro and the USD.

Fxcm and Easy Forex are just a few topics that this author specializes in. Prema De Silva has been active in the currency trading market for longer than 7 years. Her objective is to share her knowledge on the area whever she can.