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Recommended Brokers for GOLDWAVE EA

22 January 2026, 19:05

Shengzu Zhong

IC Markets vs EC Markets — Reduce Spread & Commission, Keep More Profit

Recommended Brokers: IC Markets vs EC Markets

Why the “Right Broker” Is Not About Hype — It’s About Keeping More of Your Own Money

🔧 Why broker choice matters (especially for serious traders and EA users)
Most traders obsess over entries, indicators, and the next market move. But there is one variable that quietly decides long-term performance—especially if you trade frequently or run any systematic approach:

Transaction costs.

Spreads, commissions, and execution conditions are not “small details.” Over hundreds or thousands of trades, they become a structural advantage—or a structural leak.

🛡️ Regulation & Safety: Not the Differentiator

From a regulatory and safety perspective, IC Markets and EC Markets are both operating under strong regulatory frameworks. In practice, for most traders, security is not the key differentiato

The real difference—especially for serious traders—comes down to one thing only:

✅ Transaction cost over the long run

And here’s the psychological truth:

Transaction cost is the only variable in trading that is 100% controllable, predictable, and independent of market conditions.

You cannot control the next candle.
You cannot control the next news headline.
But you can control what you pay to participate.

1️⃣ Spread: Uncertainty vs Certainty (The Hidden Mental Tax)

Let’s use Gold (XAUUSD) as an example, because it’s where costs and volatility matter most.

IC Markets (typical behavior)

Variable spread on gold (changes with liquidity/volatility)

EC Markets (typical behavior)

More stable/transparent pricing depending on the account type

This difference is subtle—but psychologically and mathematically important.

With variable spread, you never know the exact cost at the moment you place the trade.
With more stable pricing, the cost is known in advance.

That “certainty” reduces emotional interference and makes your system results more consistent.

Note: exact spreads depend on account type and market conditions. Always verify the live symbol specification on your platform.

2️⃣ Commission: The Silent Long-Term Drain

Commission is the cost traders feel the least—and pay the most over time.

A typical example of raw/ECN-style pricing often looks like this:

IC Markets Raw-style pricing: commission per lot per side (round-turn is double)
EC Markets ECN-style pricing: commission per lot per side (round-turn is double)

If your cost per lot is reduced—even by a few dollars—this becomes massive at scale.
No assumptions. No market dependency.
It is a guaranteed cost reduction.

3️⃣ Strip Away Emotion. Keep the Math.

This is the mindset shift:

Retail traders focus on:
❌ “How much can I make on this trade?”

Professionals focus on:
✅ “How much money can I guarantee I don’t give away unnecessarily?”

Reducing transaction costs:

Does not change your strategy
Does not increase risk
Does not rely on win rate
Directly increases net performance over time

It is the lowest-risk optimization available in trading.

4️⃣ Where Professionals Really Pay Attention: Scale

Let’s use a realistic example (not exaggerated):

Account size: $200,000
Average monthly volume: 3,000 lots

Even a small saving per lot becomes impossible to ignore.

Here is the key psychological insight:

This is not “additional profit.”
It is money that would otherwise be silently lost to transaction costs.

And because it’s silent, most traders never optimize it—until it’s too late.

Final Perspective

If you:

Trade frequently
Operate with meaningful capital
Care about long-term efficiency
Prefer certainty over variability

Then choosing the right broker setup is not an “aggressive move.”
It is a structural optimization.

You are not “switching brokers.”
You are keeping more of your own money—by design.