How does online trading look in North America?

Online trading has been popular ever since the Internet appeared. While not every market has been equally accessible, people have started to trade futures, stocks, options, currencies and many other financial instruments through the world wide web already over two decades ago. In this article we are going to examine the US, Canada and Mexico from the perspective of the accessibility to online trading.
Trading in the US
United States is actually a country that makes the best possible access to the stock market, yet restricts accessing other markets. A lot of changes have actually happened over the course of the last 10 years. In the past US has been one of the largest markets for the currency brokers. There were over 50 companies servicing US traders…and then this quantity begun to shrink quite a lot. There were two main reasons for that. Firstly, NFA and CFTC, the governing bodies of online trading in the US, have imposed a few heavy fines on some of the brokers. Some of the fines haven’t had that many grounds, yet they still had to be paid. This was a game changer for many brokers, hence they quit the market. Secondly, the same governing bodies have increased the needed capital adequacy for operating in the US, so not only the brokers that didn’t want to operate in the US left, but also the ones that couldn’t afford it. Finally, the regulator also required the brokers to limit the leverage to 50:1, which is a very smart idea that is designed to protect the traders. However, this way the brokers can generate even lower volumes, hence smaller income.
Trading in Canada
If you are from Canada, this usually look much easier. This is also the case when it comes to choosing one of the top Forex brokers in Canada in 2016. While Canada has remained a closed country in terms of regulating its own brokers, quite a few regulated brokers have entered the market due to the lack of penalties. Also, some brokers that are regulated in Europe have been welcome by Canadian traders. Historically the fines have only been issued to absolute scams.
Stock trading is nearly equally accessible in Canada as it is in the US. Other financial instruments seem not to be left behind too.
Trading in Mexico
When it comes to Mexico, stock brokers seem to be a bit more dormant. Also, historically stock trading hasn’t been as popular in Mexico. Other markets aren’t seem to be popular too. Perhaps the main reason for this is the speed of Internet that doesn’t allow very fast decision-making. And as you may imagine, internet lags are deadly for the day traders. As for the currency trading brokers, the situation in Mexico is pretty much similar to Canadian. There are no strict restrictions imposed by the regulators and the country is open to both European regulated brokers and the offshore ones.