Who this is for
You're taking many small trades for small targets — often 5-15 pips — and you need execution that matches. Scalping is where broker quality becomes a measurable P&L input. Every pip of spread, every millisecond of latency, every re-quote is directly costing you money.
What to look for
Every broker will tell you they're the best. Here are the concrete things the desk checks before recommending any broker for this category:
Scalping a 10-pip target with a 2-pip spread means the market has to move 12 pips for you to break even. Raw ECN pricing is non-negotiable.
Slow fills = slippage = smaller profits and bigger losses. Look for brokers with co-located servers near major liquidity hubs (London, NY).
A re-quote is the broker telling you 'the price moved, do you want the new one?' — by that time your edge is gone. Modern brokers should execute at market, not re-quote.
Commission-based brokers charge a flat fee per lot and give you raw spreads. This is cheaper than 'commission-free' brokers for active traders.
Some brokers explicitly ban scalping in their terms of service. Read the fine print before funding — the last thing you want is a profitable week voided by a ToS violation.
Genesis FX clears every scalping criterion the desk tested: raw ECN pricing with sub-0.5 pip spreads on EUR/USD during liquid sessions, sub-100ms fills from the desk's New York location, and zero re-quote events in our testing. Crucially, Genesis has no scalping restrictions in its terms — the broker openly welcomes high-frequency retail activity.
Open a Genesis FX account →Affiliate link · no extra cost to you · we only recommend what the desk trades
Scalpers: watch the London open and New York open specifically. Spreads can widen on news and during Asian hours. A broker that's tight during peak liquidity may be less tight during thin sessions. Plan your scalping windows around the 8am-12pm London window and the 8:30am-12pm NY window.
Key takeaways
- →Scalping lives and dies by spread, execution speed, and re-quote policy
- →Use ECN / raw spread accounts — commissions are cheaper than fat spreads
- →Genesis FX is the Candleread desk pick for scalping — tight spreads, fast fills, no restrictions
- →Scalp during the London and NY overlap for the best pricing conditions