papaya_financial
Well-known member
Saw a few people asking how ECN compares to a standard commission free account, so figured I would answer with what pushed me toward Valetax ECN specifically.
With a standard account, the spread already has the cost built in, so you never really see the raw number. With ECN, you get the actual market spread plus a separate flat commission. On Valetax that is $4 per round turn, or $0.04 per 0.01 lot. EUR/USD runs 0 to 1 pip raw, Gold is 0.7 to 0.9 pips. Once you add the commission back in, total cost is still lower than most standard accounts I compared it against, especially on higher volume days.
Deposit to start is only $50, which is low for this account type. Most ECN accounts elsewhere want $200 plus.
Execution has been consistently fast, under a second every time, no weird requotes during normal hours. I do trade around news sometimes and noticed leverage automatically drops to 1:200 in that short window before and after major releases, which is a bit conservative but understandable given volatility.
Rebates are a nice touch too, $3 back on EUR/USD and Gold, so if those are your main pairs the effective commission ends up lower than it looks on paper.
Running it on MT5 for the higher account limit, 10 accounts versus 2 on MT4, which matters if you like testing multiple setups at once.
If you are debating ECN versus standard, I would say ECN wins if you trade often and want to see your real costs. Standard is simpler if you would rather not think about commission at all. Happy to compare notes if anyone else is running this account.
With a standard account, the spread already has the cost built in, so you never really see the raw number. With ECN, you get the actual market spread plus a separate flat commission. On Valetax that is $4 per round turn, or $0.04 per 0.01 lot. EUR/USD runs 0 to 1 pip raw, Gold is 0.7 to 0.9 pips. Once you add the commission back in, total cost is still lower than most standard accounts I compared it against, especially on higher volume days.
Deposit to start is only $50, which is low for this account type. Most ECN accounts elsewhere want $200 plus.
Execution has been consistently fast, under a second every time, no weird requotes during normal hours. I do trade around news sometimes and noticed leverage automatically drops to 1:200 in that short window before and after major releases, which is a bit conservative but understandable given volatility.
Rebates are a nice touch too, $3 back on EUR/USD and Gold, so if those are your main pairs the effective commission ends up lower than it looks on paper.
Running it on MT5 for the higher account limit, 10 accounts versus 2 on MT4, which matters if you like testing multiple setups at once.
If you are debating ECN versus standard, I would say ECN wins if you trade often and want to see your real costs. Standard is simpler if you would rather not think about commission at all. Happy to compare notes if anyone else is running this account.
