No Dealing Desk Forex Brokers
- Written By thinkforexbrokers
- Updated:
Looking to trade forex and other financial instruments at interbank rates? Check out our curated list of the most trusted brokers that operate without dealing desk intervention. These top-rated brokers never trade against their clients and rely on reputable liquidity providers to offer tighter spreads, faster order execution, and enhanced price transparency. We also highlight the advantages of trading with such brokers and share tips on how to spot reliable no-dealing desk (NDD) providers.
74-89 % of retails CFD accounts lose money
73.85 % of retails CFD accounts lose money
59.57 % of retails CFD accounts lose money
Trading leveraged product is risky
74 to 89 % of retails CFD accounts lose money
75.5% of retails investor accounts lose money
The vast majority of retail client accounts lose money
82 % of retails investor lose money
IC Markets
70.64 % of retails accounts lose money
Comprehensive Comparison of the Top 11 No Dealing Desk Forex Brokers
Forex Broker | Demo account available? | Min Deposit | Trading Platforms | Regulators |
Yes | $0 | MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, DupliTrade, Fusion+ Copy Trade, TradingView | ASIC, FSA (Seychelles), VFSC (Vanuatu) | |
Yes | $0 | MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, TradingView | ASIC (No. 414530), UK FCA (No.684312), CySEC (No. 388/20), BaFin (No.151148), DFSA (F004356), CMA (128), SCB Bahamas (SIA-F217), FSA (SD108) | |
Yes | $100 | MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, FxPro Edge (proprietary) | FCA (No. 509956), CySEC (No. 078/07), FSCA (No.45052), SCB (No. SIA-F184), FSA (SD120) | |
Yes | $0 | MT4, MT4 Webtrader, MT4 Android; for VFSC clients MT4, MT5, and GP Copy | ASIC (No. 385620), VFSC (No. 40256) | |
Yes | $200 | MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, cTrader, ZuluTrade | FSA (Seychelles), CySEC (Cyprus), ASIC (Australia), SCB (Bahamas), CMA (Kenya) | |
Yes | $0 (Standard) $2,000 (Prime) $20,000 (Institutional) | MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, TradingView, cTrader, MT WebTrader, BlackBull Shares, BlackBull CopyTrader, BlackBull Trade, BlackBull Invest, ZuluTrade | FSA (Seychelles) (No. SD045), FMA (No. FSP403326) | |
No | $50 ($10,000 for Pro ECN accounts) | MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, ProTrader, TradingView, Copy Trading | FCA (license no. FRN: 590299), VFSC (reg. No. 700271), ASIC (license no. no. 428901), FSCA (license no. 51268), CIMA (no. 1383491) | |
Yes | $0; $5 (EU and UK) | MetaTrader4, MT4 WebTrader, Axi Mobile | ASIC, FCA, CySEC, DFSA, FSA (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), FMA | |
Yes | $0 Classic $200,000 + Platinum $1,000,000 + VIP | Proprietary, SaxoTraderGO, SaxoTraderPRO, TradingView, SaxoInvestor | FCA (No. 551422), FSA Denmark (No. 1149), MAS (No. 200601141M), ASIC (No. 32110128286), SFC Hong Kong (No. 1395901), FSA Japan (No. 0104-01-082810), Registered with CONSOB (no. 296) | |
Yes | Standard accounts: $100 Cent accounts: $10 | MT5 Desktop, MT5 WebTrader, MT4 | CySEC (No. 331/17), FSC (No. 000102/31), ASIC (No. 426359), FSCA (no. 50885) | |
Yes | $50 (AU$100) | MetaTrader4, MetaTrader5, WebTrader, IRESS, cTrader, TradingView | ASIC, CySEC, FSA (Seychelles), FSCA, FSA (St. Vincent and the Grenadines), SCB (Bahamas) |
Top 12 Brokers with NDD Order Processing
1. Fusion Markets
Fusion Markets takes the top spot on our list thanks to its low commissions and ultra-tight spreads. The broker is regulated by ASIC, VFSC, and FSA Seychelles, offering cost-efficient trading across more than 250 financial markets, including forex, precious metals, energies, indices, and shares.
Traders seeking budget-friendly options can take advantage of round-turn commissions as low as \$4.50 and spreads starting from 0.0 pips on major currency pairs. Headquartered in Melbourne, Fusion Markets operates without a dealing desk and works with multiple liquidity providers to deliver optimal trading conditions. Additionally, copy trading is available through the broker’s proprietary Fusion+ platform.
Gleneagle Asset Management Limited (ABN 29 103 162 278), trading as Fusion Markets, is the issuer of the Fusion Markets products referenced in this communication. Trading these products carries the potential for profit but also involves a high risk of loss, which may exceed your initial deposit and may not be suitable for all investors. You should carefully read the Financial Product Service Terms, the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS), and the Financial Services Guide (all available on the Fusion Markets website), consider your financial situation, investment objectives, and needs, and seek independent financial advice before investing in Fusion Markets products.
2. FP Markets
FP Markets is a fully licensed broker offering raw ECN pricing, making it an excellent choice for traders seeking no-dealing-desk (NDD) trading. The broker provides deep liquidity, highly transparent pricing, and fast order execution with minimal slippage. Clients also benefit from tight spreads across more than 10,000 financial instruments, including currency pairs, shares, commodities, indices, and bonds.
Traders seeking optimal pricing can link their raw-spread accounts to MT5, MT4, or cTrader platforms. Raw account spreads start from 0.0 pips, with a \$6 round-turn commission per trade, and minimum deposits begin at \$50 or the currency equivalent. As a true NDD broker, FP Markets sources its spreads directly from top-tier liquidity providers without adding markups and delivers superior execution via Equinix servers in New York. EU-based retail clients enjoy maximum leverage of 1:30 and are protected from extreme losses through negative balance protection.
CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of rapid financial loss due to leverage. Approximately 72.92% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should carefully consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your money.
3. Pepperstone
Pepperstone stands out for its strong regulatory compliance, wide range of tradable instruments, and some of the most competitive spreads in the market. Serving traders in over 160 countries, the broker operates under licenses from ASIC, CySEC, CMA, and DFSA.
Traders can choose between Standard and Raw accounts, offering variable and raw spreads, respectively. Pepperstone provides access to more than 1,200 financial instruments, including forex, currency indices, commodities, stocks, and ETFs. Utilizing a no-dealing-desk execution model, the broker connects to a deep pool of liquidity providers, including tier-1 banks and major financial institutions, minimizing slippage and ensuring faster, more transparent trade execution.
CFDs are complex financial instruments and carry a high risk of rapid financial loss due to leverage. Approximately 75.5% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should carefully consider whether you understand how CFDs function and whether you can bear the high risk of losing your investment.
4. FxPro
FxPro is a strong choice for traders looking for fast order execution, low trading costs, and a broad range of markets. Serving over 7.8 million clients across more than 170 countries, the broker offers ultra-tight spreads and access to more than 2,100 instruments, including over 70 forex pairs, shares, and indices.
For experienced traders, FxPro provides opportunities to diversify through futures on soft and hard commodities. Licensed by CySEC, the broker operates without a dealing desk, ensuring client orders are executed in an average of 12 milliseconds. Users on cTrader and MT5 accounts also benefit from access to Depth of Market (DoM) data.
Trade responsibly: CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of rapid financial loss due to leverage. 74% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. Ensure you understand how CFDs work and carefully consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
5. Global Prime
Launched in 2007, eToro has become one of the top platforms for copy trading, especially for those just getting started. The broker is big on transparency, strong customer support, and strict regulation — holding licenses in Cyprus, Australia, the UK, and the US. With over 5,000 instruments available, including 40+ forex pairs, eToro’s easy-to-use platform gives traders plenty to explore.
If you’re new to trading, eToro has you covered. They offer tons of helpful content like market analysis articles, live courses, and free educational videos to help you get up to speed. You can also open a free demo account with $100,000 in virtual funds to practice and build confidence before trading with real money.
Global Prime is a trading name of FMGP Trading Group Pty Ltd (ABN 74 146 086 017), regulated by ASIC and authorized to conduct financial services in Australia under Australian Financial Services License No. 385620. Additionally, Gleneagle Securities Pty Limited, trading as Global Prime FX, is a registered Vanuatu company (Company Number 40256) regulated by the VFSC. The Global Prime website is owned and operated by FMGP Trading Group Pty Ltd.
6. IC Markets
IC Markets has been serving traders for over 15 years, a testament to its strong focus on customer satisfaction, reliable compliance record, and competitive pricing. The broker employs advanced technology to provide execution speeds and trading conditions that few competitors can match.
Operating with an Electronic Communication Network (ECN) pricing model, IC Markets does not maintain a proprietary order book. Instead, it sources prices from third-party liquidity providers, resulting in tighter spreads, faster trade execution, and an overall enhanced trading experience. Traders can access a diverse range of over 2,250 financial instruments, including 61 currency pairs.
CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of rapid financial loss due to leverage. Around 70.64% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should carefully consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
7. BlackBull Markets
BlackBull Markets has earned a reputation as a leading global broker, providing cost-effective trading services to clients in over 180 jurisdictions. The broker stands out for its extensive market offerings, with a portfolio exceeding 26,000 tradable instruments.
Spreads at BlackBull Markets start from 0.0 pips, making it an attractive choice for traders seeking to minimize trading costs. The broker operates without a dealing desk, passing prices directly from external liquidity providers to clients. This model ensures enhanced price transparency and rapid execution, often within 20 milliseconds, while minimizing slippage.
8. Vantage FX
Vantage is recognized as a top-tier trading platform, excelling in both execution speed and cost efficiency. The multi-regulated broker offers access to over 1,000 CFDs across currency pairs, soft and hard commodities, stocks, and indices, while experienced traders can also explore more advanced instruments such as bonds and ETFs.
Utilizing ECN technology, Vantage ensures smooth order execution by sourcing price quotes from multiple tier-1 liquidity providers, including Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Societe Generale, HSBC, and J.P. Morgan. The broker emphasizes transparency and adheres to strict regulatory standards, holding licenses from reputable authorities like ASIC and the FCA.
9. Axi
Axi is a well-established brokerage boasting over 15 years of market experience and a strong regulatory reputation. The broker is highly regarded for its fast trade execution, competitive pricing, deep liquidity, and multilingual customer support. Traders have access to more than 290 financial markets, enjoying low-latency order execution with minimal slippage.
By connecting clients directly to top-tier liquidity providers, Axi ensures precise pricing and efficient execution. Additionally, traders can enhance their skills through Axi’s extensive educational resources, while account funding is free of charge, adding to the overall cost-effectiveness of trading with the platform.
CFDs are complex financial instruments and carry a high risk of rapid losses due to leverage. The majority of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs. You should carefully consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford the high risk of losing your capital.
10. FBS
FBS is a fully licensed and regulated NDD broker, known for delivering precise real-time market prices and lightning-fast trade execution without any dealing desk intervention. Utilizing advanced Straight Through Processing (STP) technology, FBS sources prices from multiple liquidity providers, including Finalto, to ensure optimal trading conditions.
Traders can access over 550 instruments across various markets via popular platforms like MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5. New clients can open Standard or Cent accounts, enjoying spreads starting from just 1 pip. FBS also offers negative balance protection, a variety of fee-free deposit methods, and multilingual customer support, making it a reliable choice for traders worldwide.
Risk warning: CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 72.12% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should carefully consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
11. CMC Markets
With a legacy stretching back to 1996, CMC Markets has established itself as a leading online broker in today’s trading landscape. The platform is renowned for its automated execution, delivering trades in just 30 milliseconds. Advanced traders can take advantage of VPS hosting, which provides ultra-low latency execution and other benefits—free of charge for clients trading at least 15 lots per month.
CMC Markets allows users to engage in spread betting, CFD trading, and options trading. Traders can access a wide range of instruments, including currency pairs, indices, and commodities. The broker is especially popular for its competitive spreads, which start from 0 pips.
Spread bets and CFDs are complex financial instruments that carry a high risk of rapid losses due to leverage. Approximately 69% of retail investor accounts lose money when spread betting or trading CFDs with this provider. It is important to understand how these products work and to carefully consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
11. ActivTrades
Licensed across multiple regulatory jurisdictions, ActivTrades is a reputable forex broker serving over 100,000 traders in 170 countries. The broker offers commission-free trading with tight spreads starting from 0.5 pips on more than 50 currency pairs, as well as access to hundreds of stocks, commodities, indices, and cryptocurrencies. Its fully automated routing system ensures optimal order execution, with average speeds of just 0.004 seconds.
ActivTrades’ robust trading infrastructure can process over 100,000 client orders per second, with approximately 93.6% of orders executed at the requested price. Traders can manage risk effectively using advanced order types, including progressive trailing stop, immediate or cancel, and fill or kill. Orders can be placed via MT4, MT5, or the proprietary ActivTrader platform, offering flexibility and full control over trading strategies.
Risk Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 75% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should carefully consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.
What Is a No Dealing Desk (NDD) Broker?
Brokers using the no-dealing-desk (NDD) pricing model act as intermediaries between traders and the interbank market. They source prices from a network of liquidity providers, primarily tier-1 banks—major global banks with deep financial resources that ensure market depth and tight spreads—and non-bank financial institutions such as hedge funds and investment firms.
The Depth of Market (DOM), or order book, shows traders the supply and demand for an asset at different price levels. For NDD brokers, the DOM reflects actual market depth from multiple liquidity providers, giving traders a clear view of order flow and helping them make informed decisions.
This model also reduces conflicts of interest, as brokers do not profit from client losses, and provides direct access to underlying markets. Prices from large liquidity pools minimize slippage and requotes, while raw spreads and faster execution appeal especially to professional traders.
While NDD brokers often lower overall trading costs, access to raw spreads usually comes with higher commissions, which is an important consideration for cost-conscious traders.
How Do NDD Brokers Compare to Market Makers?
NDD brokers provide enhanced price transparency by giving traders direct access to interbank market prices and processing orders without any dealing desk involvement. In contrast, market makers operate in-house dealing desks and set their own quotes, often earning profits from the spread between the bid and ask prices.
Market makers “create” markets for their clients, which is why they are named as such. They may trade against their clients, introducing a potential conflict of interest. These brokers generally offer fixed spreads rather than floating ones.
When a trader places a buy order with a market maker, the broker first tries to match it with a sell order from another client. If no match is found, the broker takes the opposite side of the trade. Essentially, market makers manage orders internally rather than sourcing prices from external liquidity providers.
Types of NDD Brokers
There are two main types of NDD brokers: STP and ECN.
STP (Straight Through Processing) brokers act as intermediaries between clients and the wider market. Orders are routed through the broker’s servers and then sent to a counterparty, which can be an interbank participant, a market maker, or another STP broker. There is no dealing desk intervention or re-quoting. Execution speeds are generally fast but can vary depending on the order route. STP brokers earn profits through commissions and small markups added to spreads.
ECN (Electronic Communication Network) brokers take things a step further by sending client orders directly to the central interbank market, allowing trades to be executed at the best available interbank prices without dealer involvement. Execution is extremely fast, often within milliseconds. ECN brokers typically charge commissions and always offer variable spreads.
While both STP and ECN brokers pass orders to the interbank market, ECN brokers may route orders to major market participants rather than directly to liquidity providers. In short, all ECN brokers operate on an STP basis, but not all STP brokers qualify as ECN brokers.
How to Identify Top-Rated NDD Brokers
When searching for a trustworthy NDD broker, the first aspect to verify is licensing and regulation. Reputable brokers overseen by strict authorities such as the FCA, ASIC, and CySEC maintain high standards of client protection, price transparency, and overall security. These brokers follow stringent fund segregation rules, enforce leverage limits for retail clients, and typically provide negative balance protection. Trading with a well-regulated broker also ensures you have legal recourse in the event of disputes or issues.
Next, evaluate commissions and other trading costs. Leading NDD brokers tend to charge lower round-trip commissions compared to competitors and apply minimal or no markups to spreads. Additionally, seek brokers that do not impose fees for deposits, withdrawals, overnight positions, or inactivity, as this can significantly reduce trading expenses. Finally, consider account types and minimum trade sizes. Beginner traders or those with smaller portfolios should opt for brokers that offer micro or cent accounts, allowing them to trade with fractions of a standard lot and manage risk more effectively.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Trading with NDD Brokers
Trading with NDD brokers comes with both advantages and drawbacks. On the positive side, traders gain direct access to the market, often resulting in lower trading costs since fees are usually commission-based. Execution speeds are faster, and deep liquidity from multiple providers ensures more accurate pricing. Additionally, trading without a dealing desk minimizes the risk of price manipulation and conflicts of interest.
However, a key downside is the presence of variable spreads. Since NDD brokers do not fix spreads, the exact cost of a trade can fluctuate. During periods of high market volatility or low liquidity, spreads may widen significantly, potentially increasing trading expenses beyond what you might expect under normal market conditions.
NDD Brokers FAQs
The protection you receive depends on the regulatory jurisdiction of your NDD broker. Brokers licensed by top-tier authorities such as ASIC, CySEC, BaFin, or the FCA are legally required to safeguard retail clients from negative balances. This means that if a leveraged position starts losing value rapidly and your account balance falls below the required maintenance margin, the broker is obligated to automatically close your position to prevent your account from going into a negative balance.
Regulated brokers are transparent about their order execution policies and make this information readily available to clients. Typically, brokers with in-house dealing desks provide fixed spreads, whereas ECN brokers operate with floating or variable spreads. If you’re unsure about your broker’s execution model, reaching out to their customer support team for clarification is always a good idea.
NDD brokers are ideal for traders of any experience or risk tolerance. Many of these brokers provide micro and cent accounts, enabling beginners or budget-conscious traders to trade smaller contract sizes. Additionally, top NDD brokers offer comprehensive educational resources to help novices build their market knowledge and trading skills.
Brokers using the NDD model generally provide quicker order execution than market makers. Execution speed is influenced by factors such as server location, infrastructure quality, and the trading platform used. Multi-threaded platforms like MT5 usually outperform single-threaded alternatives, further enhancing trading efficiency.
Brokers that operate without dealing desk intervention provide faster order execution, making them ideal for high-frequency traders and scalpers who enter and exit multiple trades each day. Active traders are attracted to ECN brokers because they typically offer lower overall trading costs.
