Customer Support

One way to get a glimpse inside your forex broker’s business is to contact their support staff by a variety of methods. Send emails, use live chat, call them, get them to call you, whatever. No matter how small or irrelevant your questions may seem, they are important. Not only because you are a potential customer and you deserve their time and attention, but also because it allows you to judge how committed they will be if you do open a real account with them. If they are unable or unwilling to spend time with you to answer your questions now, then they most likely won’t act any differently after they have received your money. I encourage you to ask as many questions as you can think of, sometimes even ones you know the answers to, just to see if they will lose patience with you or refuse to answer questions that may seem obvious, or that expose their weaknesses. Some brokers get defensive when you ask them about regulation, for example – not a good sign. Make sure you also ask some tough questions about their internal systems, such as how they process orders, if they offset client orders in a higher tier or if they are the counterparty to clients’ trades, ask them about their liquidity providers, withdrawal fees etc (if you are not sure what these things mean, please refer to our "How Forex Brokers Work" article). These are all things that a client has the right to know. Any decent broker has to respect that and give you the answers. There is no reason not to, unless they have something to hide. It is also a good idea to keep a record of all your correspondence with your broker, just in case some disagreement arises in the future.