NDD brokers provide direct access to interbank market rates of exchange. They offer what is known as Straight-Through Processing (STP) which is a system that works directly with liquidity providers. Instead of dealing with one liquidity provider, clients using trading platforms with NDD forex brokers deal with numerous providers to get the most competitive and exact bid and ask prices.
This is a complete guide on the best NDD forex brokers.
In this in-depth guide you’ll learn:
- Comparison between NDD forex brokers
- What is an NDD forex broker?
- Pros and cons of a No Dealing Desk (NDD) system
- Dealing Desk (DD) vs No Dealing Desk (NDD)
And Lots more.
Let’s dive right in…
🔥 Broker | 📜 Regulation | 📱 Platforms | 🚀 Open an Account |
CM Trading | FSA | MetaTrader 4 | 👉 Click Here |
Exness | FSCA, FSA, CySEC, FCA, CBCS, FSC (BVI), FSC (Mauritius) | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 | 👉 Click Here |
FxPro | FSCA | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 | 👉 Click Here |
FXTM | CySec, FSCA | MetaTrader4, Metatrader 5 | 👉 Click Here |
JustForex | FSA | MetaTrader 4 | 👉 Click Here |
Pepperstone | Australia, Bahamas, Cyprus, Dubai, Germany, Kenya, UK | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeView | 👉 Click Here |
Plus500 | CySEC, FCA, ASIC, FMA, FSB, MAS | MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 | 👉 Click Here |
Price Markets | FCA | MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 | 👉 Click Here |
Tickmill | FSA | MetaTrader 4 | 👉 Click Here |
XM | IFSC, CySec, ASIC | MetaTrader 4 | 👉 Click Here |
Choose your quick section of our best NDD Forex Brokers below
Our 10 Best Handpicked NDD Forex Brokers Revealed:
NDD forex brokers may also use ECN methods to access instantly executable rates for their clients. NDD forex brokers make money by charging an exchange fee or a commission.
CM Trading
Minimum Deposit
USD 100
Regulators
FSA
📱 Trading Desk
MetaTrader 4
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
154
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
🏛️ Visit Broker
According to research in South Africa, CM Trading is a brand name that operates under BLACKSTONE Marketing SA (PTY) LTD. The company is one of the world’s most innovative Forex brokers and the largest broker in South Africa.
CM Trading was founded by traders for traders and combines years of experience to create a one-stop destination for online trading. As an online Forex broker, CMTrading specializes in Forex, Index, and Commodity trading.
Exness
Minimum Deposit
USD 10.00
Regulators
FSCA, FSA, CySEC, FCA, CBCS, FSC (BVI), FSC (Mauritius)
📱 Trading Desk
MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
107
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
According to Research in South Africa, Exness was founded in 2008 with developments occurring at an impressive rate since the company’s inception.
Exness holds brokerage licenses in the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Seychelles, South Africa, Mauritius, BVI, and Curaçao.
FxPro
Minimum Deposit
–
Regulators
–
📱 Trading Desk
–
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
–
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
FxPro is another of the most well-known brokers in the Forex trading market. They offer 4 account types: the FXPro MT4, MT5, cTrader, and Edge accounts.
They are counted among the top MetaTrader brokers, offering the full suite of MT4 and MT5 platforms.
FXTM
Minimum Deposit
USD 10
Regulators
CySec, FSCA
📱 Trading Desk
MetaTrader4, Metatrader 5
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
–
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
FXTM is an award-winning broker that places a huge emphasis on their customer support offering support over multiple channels, in multiple language, 24/7.
They offer a huge range of educational resources, materials and tools, making it a great place for a beginner trader to start and grow.
JustForex
JustForex has gained an impressive international reputation. JustForex offers its clients high-quality services and trading conditions. JustForex provides unique analytical materials and a large selection of payment methods, financial instruments, tight spreads, no limits on trading strategies, and beneficial partner programs.
Pepperstone
Minimum Deposit
USD 10
Regulators
FCA, SCB, CMA, ASIC, DFSA, CySEC, BaFIN
📱 Trading Desk
MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader and TradeView
₿ Crypto
Yes – CFDs
📈 Total Pairs
70
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
🏛️ Visit Broker
Pepperstone offers a host of platforms and markets. They provide both the MetaTrader 4 and 5 platforms, as well as cTrader platforms and offer a ton of different trading assets such as commodities, stocks, indices, Forex, crypto, and futures.
Pepperstone was founded and launched in London. They trade in accordance with the regulatory principles set down by the European Securities and Markets Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority.
Plus500
Minimum Deposit
USD 100
Regulators
📱 Trading Desk
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
70
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
Plus500 is a leader in the field of Contracts for Difference (CFDs) and the company delivers trading facilities on not only shares but also forex, commodities, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, options, and indices. Furthermore, Plus500 has a global reach.
Price Markets
Minimum Deposit
–
Regulators
–
📱 Trading Desk
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
–
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
🏛️ Visit Broker
According to research in South Africa, Price Markets is an award-winning brokerage firm founded in 2013. The company’s headquarters are based in London, the United Kingdom.
The company offers its services to multiple countries across the globe, with the exception of the United States and a few other countries due to legal restrictions.
Tickmill
Minimum Deposit
USD 100
Regulators
FSA
📱 Trading Desk
MetaTrader 4
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
62
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
Overall, Tickmill is competitive in terms of its trading fees and spreads. Tickmill can be summarised as a safe and credible regulated broker with a trust score of 97 out of 99 (High Trust).
XM
Minimum Deposit
USD 100
Regulators
IFSC, CySec, ASIC
📱 Trading Desk
MetaTrader 4
₿ Crypto
Yes
📈 Total Pairs
55
Islamic Account
Yes
Trading Fees
Low
🕒 Account Activation Time
24 Hours
XM is known for its amazing platform that is great for both beginner traders as well as experienced ones.
It has a reputation for being the next-generation broker for online Forex trading since they offer features such as auto trading, they have no hidden fees or commissions and its order executions are blazingly fast with 99.35% taking place in under one second.
What is an NDD forex broker?
👉 You get two types of forex: Dealing Desks (DD) which are also called Market Makers and No Dealing Desks (NDD). The No Dealing Desks model is divided into Straight-Through Processing (STP) and Electronic Communication Network (ECN).
👉 As the name suggests, NDD forex brokers do not pass their clients through a Dealing Desk. This means they do not take the other side of their clients’ trade and there is no conflict of interest on executing orders.
👉 How NDD works is the trader’s order goes ‘straight through’ to the interbank market via trading platforms such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. The interbank market is made up of banks, hedge funds, mutual funds, larger brokerages and corporate investors.
👉 You can think of NDD forex brokers as bridge builders. Their trading platform creates a pathway to the interbank market which otherwise would not be accessible to online retail forex traders. For this privilege, NDD charges a very small commission or just a markup by increasing the spread slightly.
👉 NDD brokers can either be STP or STP+ECN brokers.
Pros and cons of a No Dealing Desk (NDD) system
👉 Forex brokers use the NDD system to work directly with numerous market liquidity providers, as opposed to one liquidity provider with the DD system. This means their clients get the most competitive bid and ask prices as well as the most exact prices. The rates are instantly executable; there is no slippage or re-quotes with the NDD system of trading.
👉 There are two key implications of dealing directly with the interbank market: the size of currency spreads and the amount of additional cost to make a trade.
✅ PROS
✔️ Direct access to the interbank market
👉 NDD forex brokers are simply priced aggregators, meaning they collect prices from various sources and then quote the best bid-ask price to their clients. The interbank market participants send their prices through an electronic network which means the prices are updated in real time. This avoids the need for brokers to re-quote.
✔️ No conflict of interest
👉 When you trade with NDD brokers, the other side of your trade (counterparty) is taken by the liquidity providers. It’s not taken by the forex broker which means there is no conflict of interest. One of the criticisms of Market Makers (Dealing Desk brokers) is that they make money when forex traders lose money and they are often accused of manipulating or holding backorders.
✔️ Best bid-ask prices
👉 The offshoot of the above two benefits is that NDD brokers can offer the best bid-ask prices in the forex market. They have access to a wide variety of liquidity providers and only charge a small fee for the service of passing on orders.
👉 With NDD forex brokers, the bid-ask spread is variable because there are always so many quotes from different liquidity participants. The spread may widen at times and at other times, it will be very tight.
✔️ No re-quotes
👉 When you trade forex with an NDD broker, you can expect rapid execution of orders. It’s very rare in normal market conditions for a NDD forex broker to issue a re-quote when you have hit the execute button on the trading platform. NDD brokers don’t hold the position themselves so there’s no reason why trades should not be executed instantly at the given price.
👉 The only time when things get choppy with NDD brokers is when the forex market is particularly volatile. This may be after a big economic data release or breaking headline news.
✔️ Automated electronic system
👉 The NDD broker model is fully automated which means NDD brokers can rapidly execute their clients’ orders at the price posted by the liquidity provider. NDD brokers merely acts as an intermediary; they take the price order from their clients and execute the order on the liquidity provider’s quote.
👉 The electronic communications network (ECN) can handle a multitude of liquidity providers and hundreds of orders at the same time for the same currency pairs. The Straight-Through Process (STP) is also an electronic network but it can’t handle as many prices or quotes at the same time as an ECN. Instead, the STP goes straight through to several Tier-1 banks, large brokerages and financial institutions but there are few participants available on the system.
❌ CONS
❌ NDD brokers may offer wider spreads
👉 Traders using NDD brokers are exposed directly to the exact spread available to retail customers. As a result, NDD brokers may offer wider spreads. This can make the cost of a trade greater as retail traders must give up the value of the spread with each trade.
❌ NDD brokers charge an exchange fee or a commission
👉 NDD forex brokers make money by charging an exchange fee or a commission. They pass the spread directly through to the customer and charge a fee for their service. Compared to trading with a DD broker, using a NDD broker can become more expensive over time.
👉 However, the fee charges by NDD brokers is a small price to pay for the fact that there is no conflict of interest, the NDD broker won’t trade against you and you have access to the most competitive and exact bid-ask prices.
Dealing Desk (DD) vs No Dealing Desk (NDD)
👉 This is a question that most beginner forex traders will ask when it comes to choosing the right broker for their trading needs. Should you use a Dealing Desk (DD) broker or a No Dealing Desk (NDD) broker?
👉 It really depends on your trading style. There are pros and cons to each type of broker. You either get tighter spreads and pay a commission per trade, or you get wider spreads and no commissions.
👉 Day traders and scalpers generally prefer tighter spreads because the forex market needs less traction to cover transaction costs and they can make small profits. For longer-term swing and position traders – like your everyday forex trader, wider spreads tend to be insignificant.
👉 Here is a comparison between Dealing Desks (Market Makers) and No Dealing Desks (STP/STP+ECN):
Dealing Desk (Market Makers)
👉 Dealing Desk (DD) forex brokers are also called Market Markers.
👉 Market Makers create markets for clients. Under certain conditions, a MM will sell to the trader and buy from the trader. Market Makers may trade in the opposite direction to their clients if they need to. A MM can control prices by widening the spread and reducing its risk of completing a trader’s orders. Thus, the bid-ask price seen by the trader is not always the same as the actual price in the forex market.
👉 Key characteristics of DD forex brokers:
➡️️ offer fixed spreads
➡️️ take the opposite side of your trade
➡️️ provide artificial quotes
➡️️ orders are filled by broker on a discretionary basis
No Dealing Desk (STP/SPT+ECN)
👉 NDD forex brokers are not counterparties to their trading clients. They act as intermediaries to directly connect their trading clients with the interbank market. This allows forex traders to trade directly at the same level as the interbank forex market.
👉 NDD forex brokers fulfill an important role because individual retail traders are too small to participate in the interbank market. True NDD trading platforms should not require re-quotes and there should be no pause in confirming orders. Traders are able to conduct real-time transactions without any restrictions using an NDD forex brokers trading platform.
👉 Key characteristics of NDD forex brokers:
➡️️ offer variable spreads or an exchange fee or commission
➡️️ act as intermediaries between clients and liquidity providers
➡️️ bid-ask prices come directly from liquidity providers and other ECN participants
Forex Trading Africa Disclaimer
Forex is a complex instrument and trading forex involves a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. You need to understand how forex trading works and decide whether you can afford to take the risk of losing money on trade orders that do not go your way.
Forex Trading Africa annually reviews brokers regarded as the best in the world and provides information on the products, fee structure, market analysis and service they offer. We aim to provide important information for you to base your decisions on when choosing the right forex broker for your needs.