MBTrading Futures Inc. has been in operation since 1999 based in California, USA.  They are one of the few ECN (Electronic Communications Network) brokers out there for trading Forex, stocks, commodities, and futures.  MBTrading’s platform and service make it unique in many respects for the professional Forex trader.

First, being a true ECN can give the trader some key advantages versus trading with a retail broker.  They offer straight through processing and all of their live price feeds show the actual inter-market rates, not fixed spreads like with retails brokers.  So there is no dealing desk that is taking the other side of your trades.  In addition to the stocks and futures trading available from their platform, they also offer 20 currency pairs.  With their recent change to allowing as low as $400 account deposit and 100:1 leverage, MBTrading has given more flexibility and more accessibility to smaller account traders.

The MBTrading website is vast and full of good information.  They even offer some tips about income taxes for traders located in the USA.  A free trading demo account is available.  Most important about their website is the “Fees” page which discusses the many different fees traders are charged.  Since MBTrading is an ECN and they do not build in their fees into the rate spreads like retail brokers, they must charge a fee per leg of your trades, the entry and the exit, which currently starts at $5 per 100,000 lot size per each side of the trade.  This can add up very quickly if you make many trades per day.  You can negotiate a better commission rate with them if you do trade high volume and higher amounts per trade.  The very best advantage that MBTrading does offer is their customer support.  The held desk is available 24hrs a day via telephone or email, and the online chat service is available from 8:30am –6pm EST Mon-Friday.  They are very responsive and knowledgeable.

The registration process is easy enough, but MBTrading offers only two ways to deposit:  wire transfer or personal check.  Getting started trading with their proprietary software, MB Navigator, is tougher.  It is a downloaded software, with many bells and whistles that can give a seasoned trader many advantages when trading Forex, but it takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to use this software.  It is fully customizable which is another advantage.  The charts they offer are web-based only and very limited on features.  They can provide a feed for some chart services like eSignal, which is nice.

When trading with an ECN there are a few things to get used to.  Since MBTrading offers straight through inter-bank rates, the spreads can be 1 pip or 30 pips, depending on volatility in the market.  And, with open variable spreads, they must charge commission fees and rollover fees, which are high for the industry.  Also, they have daily “maintenance time” from 4:55pm-5:10pm and also around midnight EST, for about 7 minutes.  So the platform is down during these times.  MBTrading advertises that they welcome all trading styles, including scalping, which is often not allowed with retail brokers.

MBTrading does have some informative tutorials and an extensive User Guide for their trading platform, but little in the way of training or extra services.  All in all, this broker is great for experienced traders, but may be more difficult for a beginner to get started trading the Forex market.

There were no major red flags that popped up during this review process.  Overall this ECN broker seems to offer good services and trading features with their trading platform, and excellent customer service.  MBTrading is regulated by the NFA in the US.

This reviewer gives MBTrading 4 stars.