Frequently Asked Questions

Three properties matter for an automated system, and none of them is the advertised minimum spread.

1. Latency and its dispersion

Average ping matters less than the spread between your median fill and your worst fill. A broker averaging 12 ms with a 1.5 pip 95th-percentile deviation is safer for a grid than one averaging 8 ms with a 9 pip tail. Grid logic assumes the adverse tail is bounded.

2. Spread behaviour under stress

Test the advertised spread during a tier-1 US data release, not during Asian session calm. The difference between those two numbers determines whether your system survives a news event. Brokers vary enormously here and the published figure tells you nothing about it.

3. Requote and execution policy

A zero-requote policy on an ECN account is a hard requirement for automated execution. On a market-maker model, requotes are normal and an EA cannot model for them reliably.

Pre-flight checklist

• Confirm the broker holds an active licence with a recognised regulator in your region.
• Confirm EA deployment and third-party EAs are permitted by the platform in question.
• Log at least 500 live orders to measure deviation before committing meaningful size.
• Confirm VPS placement near the broker servers is available at your account tier.

Where HisFx holds a disclosed introducer relationship with a broker, that relationship is stated on the relevant entity page and does not affect the evaluation. See the Disclosure page for the full list.

Regulation is the gate, not the pricing.

Entry requirements

• An active licence confirmed directly with a recognised tier-1 regulator (ASIC, FCA, CySEC or equivalent).
• A verifiable legal entity and registered jurisdiction.
• Published, checkable client-fund protection arrangements.
• Sufficient operating history to assess execution behaviour.

Why offshore-only entities are excluded

A 0.0 pip spread is easy to offer without the capital buffers a regulated entity must hold. Where we cannot verify the licensing jurisdiction and client-fund segregation, the offering is excluded regardless of how attractive the headline terms look.

Ongoing monitoring

Regulation status can change. Each record carries a verification date, and reviews are re-checked on a rolling basis. If a broker loses its licence or a warning is issued, the record is flagged or removed.

The complete methodology is published on the Disclosure page.