This guest article is written by Jack Cornhill who is the Director of FCI Equities at Foreign Currency Innovations LTD.

The most obvious answer would be price? Surely? However, the pure fact remains this is not always the case. Price may well be the initial attraction, but if this was the sole reason when making your choice of platform provider then how tight would spreads have to be to undercut your competition?

 The majority of traders I speak to like to use the MT4 platform, this is due to the simplicity and ease of use, which in turn makes it very easy to place trades and keep an eye on your progress within your chosen positions. Setting stop losses and studying charts, whether that be Fibonacci or creating your own, MT4 seems to be the platform of choice.

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As we know, up to date information whether that be BREAKING NEWS with the Swiss meltdown or just an update on political news, people will use this to create an opinion on the movement of a currency and turn that into a profit. Which brings me to my next point, what information are you provided with? The competition within this industry to sign up the most respected client and provide them with their expert opinion is rife.

Discouraging experience

When using a company’s service, or in fact any walk of life, it’s natural that a human being likes to be made to feel special, which leads me on to my last point, ‘service provided’. We’ve all been there, ringing a company with a problem, sitting on hold for an hour or so then getting passed from pillar to post to every department within the business, with the last person saying ‘it’s not their area,’ and inevitability ending back with the person to whom you initially started explaining your problem .

Frustrating, right?? Unfortunately this is all too common and a ‘head banger’ for anyone, which is exactly why companies should invest a large amount of their profits into making sure the service they provide exceeds that of their competition, because this is where clients are won and lost in the war among providers.

If a company advertises a bonus on new accounts or new spreads and you ring to find out how it works, in my opinion, whoever answers that phone should be able to answer any question you may have in full detail, without having to refer with someone sitting next to them who still may or may not know the answer you are looking for.