ECN — Electronic Communications Network — ECN Forex brokers additionally allow client orders interact with other clients' orders. ECN Forex broker provides a marketplace where all its participants (banks, market makers and individual traders) trade against each other by sending competing bids and offers into the system. Participants interact inside the system and get the best offers for their trades available at that time. All trading orders are matched between counter parties in real time. Often a small fee is applied.

Sometimes STP brokers are discussed as if they were ECN brokers. To be a true ECN, a broker must let clients show their own order size in the system and allow other clients to hit those orders. ECN-trading has some advantages as against trading by brokers, who turn out to be the market-makers, as by ECN-brokers the deals of Forex traders are not carried out against the broker, having its own counter-agent or other ECN broker client or in the form of liquidity, which is provided by ECN-broker partner.

ECN-brokers do not play against the client, as the market-makers and other broker company types do. InstaForex clients have 24-hour access to ECN-trading due to high internal liquidity rate and reliable counter-agents of the company. Presently, InstaForex appears to be one of the most popular brands in the world, offering the ECN-trading services.