Inside the Brokerage: 5 Things I Wish Every Trader Knew

Today’s market conditions remind me of when I first started working at a CFD & forex brokerage.

It was 2008 — and we all know what happened that year.

Seventeen years on, after working across brokerages in multiple roles, I’ve seen what works, what doesn’t, and what most traders never realise until it’s too late.

Here are five lessons from the inside that could make a real difference to your trading performance.

Most retail traders at the brokerages I’ve worked for chose spread-only accounts.

In almost every case, this is the wrong choice.

Let’s break it down:

On the surface, the cost is the same. But over time, the commission-only account performs better. Why?

Because a wider spread increases your chance of being stopped out.

Let’s say your stop is 10 pips away from your entry, placed at 1.1040.

It works the same on the target side: a wider spread pushes your take profit further away.

Over thousands of trades, this difference adds up — not in your favour.

Most brokers automatically place traders on the B-book by default. Here’s the quick breakdown:

There’s a perception that being on the B-book is bad — that brokers will manipulate prices or delay execution to make you lose.

And yes, in the early days (especially around 2008), some brokers did exactly that. But in the licensed, regulated brokerages I’ve worked with, those days are largely over.

Good brokers today don’t treat B-book traders any differently from A-book traders. The difference is in risk management. For example, a trader might be switched to the A-book once their account balance exceeds a certain amount (say $50,000).

So while it's important to know the distinction, being on the B-book doesn’t mean the odds are rigged — unless you’re with a dodgy broker.

One of my trading mentors started out in the interbank market in 1981. The first thing he was taught? Always use a stop-loss.

Open any decent trading book and the first chapter will stress risk management. But here’s the shocking reality: around 90% of trades placed by retail clients don’t have a stop attached.

Worse, many of these traders use high leverage on small accounts — a deadly combo.

It’s no wonder brokers B-book these accounts. The data shows they lose consistently.

If you want to give yourself a real shot at long-term success:

These simple steps automatically put you in the top 10% of traders — not by performance, but by discipline.

This one’s especially important if you’re trading with a foreign broker and not depositing via bank transfer.

I spent time as Head of Emerging Markets, and that role gave me a front-row seat to how payment fees actually work behind the scenes.

One of the biggest challenges for foreign brokers is making it easy for clients to deposit funds. To solve this, hundreds of payment providers have popped up — each tailored to different countries and preferred local methods.

It sounds convenient. But here’s what most traders don’t realise:

These payment providers often take 3–7% of the deposit in hidden fees.

That might seem reasonable for a typical e-commerce transaction, but in trading, it come from your capital.

For example, if a broker receives $100,000 in client deposits, they might pay $5,000 to $7,000 in processing fees. And the same again to send money back to the client.

In many cases, brokers don’t absorb this cost. But they also don’t explain it clearly.

Some charge a visible deposit fee, but many simply mark up the exchange rate. So you send $1,000 thinking it’s fee-free, but only $940 arrives in your trading account after conversion and hidden costs.

And yes — this can happen even with brokers who advertise “zero deposit fees.”

 What they don’t mention is that the payment processor still takes a cut, even though they don’t technically charge anything. 

Some payment processors do the same thing to brokers — charging fees to broker and marking up the FX rate for the customer without making it obvious. I’ve seen this firsthand.

So, if you’re not depositing by bank transfer, be cautious.

You don’t want to be down 5–7% before you’ve even placed a trade.

After reviewing thousands of trading accounts, one pattern stands out:

The best traders keep it simple.

They:

I’ve seen new traders do extremely well simply by shorting EUR/USD during a clear downtrend — or buying gold during strong bullish moves.

In contrast, struggling traders often:

Trading success doesn’t come from doing more — it comes from doing less, better.

Working inside brokerages gave me a front-row seat to how traders succeed — and how they fail.

This article isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to show you how to play smarter.

If you take away one thing, it’s this: you’re not just trading against the market — you’re trading inside a system. Learn how it works, and you’ll stack the odds back in your favour.

About the Author

Sam Eder is a trading industry professional who has worked inside global brokerages since 2008. Sam brings a unique perspective from both sides of the trading platform — the kind that only comes from years behind the curtain. 

He is the Author of ‘The Consistent Trader’, and his Advanced Forex Course for Smart Traders has over 45,000 students.