Worked example
Practising on FXCC's numbers
This is an exercise sheet, not a review. We are going to take three things that FXCC publishes — a spread, a ladder of account types and a list of licences — and turn each of them into something you can do arithmetic with. By the end you should be able to repeat the whole exercise on any firm you come across, which is the actual skill being taught.
The figures we are working from
Nothing below is our estimate. Where a firm has not published something, or we could not read it on a source we trust, the box says so instead of guessing — a habit worth copying when you build your own broker notes.
Exercise one — turn the spread into money
FXCC does not publish a EUR/USD spread we were able to verify, so there is no honest arithmetic to do on this page. Do not substitute a number you read on a comparison site: an unverified spread quietly becomes an unverified cost, and then an unverified plan. Use one of the other examples on the practice index for this exercise and come back to this file for the account ladder below.
Exercise two — read the account ladder
Account tiers are a pricing structure dressed as a status ladder. FXCC offers 5 rungs. Read them as a question — what does each rung ask of me, and what does it give back? — rather than as a set of prizes to climb towards.
- Standard (ECN)The entry rung. Whatever the published spread applies to, it is almost always this one — so this is the rung your arithmetic above describes.
- ECN XLA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- ZeroA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- CorporateA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
- DemoA higher rung usually trades a tighter spread for a commission, a larger deposit, or a status test. Convert both pricing models to money per lot before you decide either is cheaper.
Account names as published: Standard (ECN), ECN XL, Zero, Corporate, Demo. Platforms listed: MT4, MT5.
Exercise three — what this licence list means for you
A long licence list is not automatically a good sign. What matters to a beginner is a narrower question: which entity would hold my money, and who supervises that entity? Those are often not the same as the impressive name at the top of the list. Here are FXCC's lines, each with a plain reading.
| Regulator | Entity on the register | Number | What that means for a beginner |
|---|---|---|---|
| CySEC · Cyprus | FX Central Clearing Ltd | 121/10 | a mid-tier regulator: real supervision and a register, usually with a smaller or capped compensation scheme |
| MISA (Mwali/Comoros) · Comoros (Mohéli) | Central Clearing Ltd (KM) | BFX2024085 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
| VFSC · Vanuatu | [FXCC group] Central Clearing Ltd (Vanuatu) | 14576 | an offshore registration: a company exists and pays a fee, but expect little practical recourse from that entity |
No top-tier line appears on this file. That does not make the firm illegitimate, but it does mean the compensation-scheme and capital-rule protections a beginner usually assumes are present are not evidenced here. 2 lines are offshore registrations; treat those as a company address rather than as supervision.
The record behind these numbers
- FX Central Clearing Ltd is registered under Cyprus company law with registration number HE 258741 and holds CySEC CIF licence 121/10 (own regulation page).
- The FXCC brand operates a second company, Central Clearing Ltd (KM), authorised by the Mwali International Services Authorities (MISA) under International Brokerage and Clearing House License no. BFX2024085 with a registered address in Fomboni, Mohéli, Comoros.
- www.fxcc.com states it does not provide services to residents of EEA countries, Japan and the USA; the EEA-facing site fxcc.eu serves European clients via the CySEC entity.
- A group company registered in Vanuatu under the International Company Act (registration number 14576) is licensed by the VFSC as a regulated financial services provider (own regulation page).
- The broker's homepage states all client funds are held in segregated accounts.
- The brand has been in the market since 2010 (own regulation page).
What we could not verify
The following are unconfirmed and are deliberately left blank rather than estimated: minDeposit not verified on an own spec page; maxLeverage not verified on an own spec page; spreadEurusd not verified (site publishes 'average effective spreads' without an EUR/USD figure on crawled pages); negativeBalanceProtection not verified in own legal text; full legal name of the Vanuatu VFSC-licensed entity truncated on the regulation page. Confidence in this file overall: medium. When you build your own notes on a firm, keep a list like this one — the gaps are more useful than the figures, because they tell you what to go and check.
Run the same exercise on another firm
pipdojo.com does not rank brokers, does not award badges and does not tell you where to open an account. This page exists so the arithmetic you learn in the curriculum has real numbers to bite on.