The emergence of electronic connectivity networks (ECNs), the introduction of direct market access (DMA), the emergence of algorithmic trading and smart order routing, and the proliferation of the OMS on the buy-side trading desks rapidly lead to the development of newer, more advanced functionality focused on the execution aspect of the trading process in the early 2000s. This range of solutions became known as the execution management system (EMS).

It's important to mention I do not discount duplicity on the part of some brokers: re-quotes, stop-hunting, true excessive slippage and other "anomalies", if they are purposely carried out to mitigate the broker's risk constitute manipulation and would, I think, constitute criminal activity.

But I do not buy in to the ubiquitous "bucket-shop" (that doesn't express my position on the "bucket-shop" v. "ECN" controversy, by the way) harangue to be found on forums and on some blogs, emanating primarily from the reviews published at Forex Peace Army, many of which are written by none other than novice news-specific traders. I am not denigrating FPA or Felix Homogratus: there are, undoubtedly, "forex bastards" (the former name of the FPA site) that ought to be exposed and blacklisted (whether that's possible by means of gathering reviews is not apparent) but the complaints leveled by so many ("they widen their spreads during the NFP", "I didn't get filled on my market order at the price I submitted it at") belie the very prevalence of general bastardliness they're intended to expose. Perhaps others choose to disagree....

One is left with serious doubts about the veracity of many of the accounts (and there are quite a few) found at FPA and elsewhere; and not because the authors are lying, but because they aren't infallible - or more to the point, sufficiently educated - narrators of whatever event(s) prompted them to post. Simon reminded me recently of an outstanding post at FF I read some time ago on the topic, to be found here. Some time there, with the post at Macrotactics and a basic brokerage handbook reading up on basic order types (market, limit, stop) and the function of spreads suffices to squelch much of the noise.

Besides, news trading is, even if pulled off flawlessly, a very superficial way to trade. For the sake of argument, assume one can consistently make money doing it: what is it you really know? Which releases to watch, what time those releases occur, what pairs will be most affected, and perhaps, along with a little strategy about timing, the mechanical steps required to simply place trades? No. Now, suppose you do have an excellent, holistic grasp of the underlying fundamentals contributing to the printed number released: can you leverage that into an advantage in timing of execution? If you're trading at 08:30 ET on the first Friday of the month, probably not.

I don't trade the news (though I trade through it) for very good reasons, some of which can be gleaned reading the above-referenced material. The appropriate inference from of all of that, I think, is that there are better ways to trade: more stable, more reliable, more consistent and consequently more profitable ways to trade. Finding at least one of those ways, tirelessly conforming to it through hard work and truly making it one's own by attaining mastery is the only vocation of a trader.

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