What Scalpers Need
Scalping demands specific broker conditions: raw spreads from 0.0 pips on major pairs, execution speed under 50 milliseconds, no restrictions on trade duration or frequency, and VPS hosting options for algorithmic scalping strategies. ECN/STP brokers typically provide the best environment as they profit from commissions rather than spread markups.
Key Evaluation Criteria
Compare brokers on real trading conditions, not advertised ones. Monitor actual spreads during London and New York sessions using independent tools. Test execution speed with market orders during news releases. Verify that the broker's terms of service explicitly permit scalping and high-frequency strategies without penalties or account restrictions.
Infrastructure Considerations
For serious scalping, broker proximity to liquidity providers matters. Choose brokers offering free VPS services located in the same data center as their trading servers. Cross-connect latency under 1ms can significantly impact profitability when taking hundreds of small trades daily. Also consider commission structures, as per-lot costs accumulate quickly with high trade frequency.
