Will we ever move to a fee-based model?

FXCM and CMS Forex, for example, are expanding the list of currency pairs covered on their platforms. CMS Forex has also added auto-execution for one-lot orders, but it's the fixed-spread feature that might prove to be the more attractive. In contrast to variable spreads, which may widen during volatile market conditions, CMS Forex's tighter fixed spreads enable consistent and predictable transaction costs for its traders.

Indeed, there is a growing contingent of retail foreign exchange traders that is making more noise about their desire to see definitive good prices, and they are willing to pay a fee for it. And there's no better way of getting those prices than straight from interbank feeds. So far, we've seen FX Solutions strike up a deal with sister company Icap to stream data from the EBS Spot platform into a pricing engine to generate a price for its clients.

Other technology companies might be looking at doing similar deals, where they would provide prices directly from bank streams and charge the end trader a fee rather than spreading the price.

There were some attempts to create more transparency and remove the risk that the broker is front running retail traders last year, when some retail brokers got rid of their dealing desks. But in this area too, from the forums anyway, there have still been some conflicts.

Even without a dealing desk, some firms are having to include disclaimers with their communication that say the prices available might not be the best price and that the prices might be different to different clients.

What the most successful model will be is yet to be seen, but what is clear is that demands from retail traders have grown and therefore the service proposition from retail brokers has become more creative.