Dealing desk and market maker
A dealing desk is a broker model where the broker itself takes the other side of your trades, acting as a market maker, instead of passing them to the outside market.
How it works
When you buy EUR/USD from a dealing desk broker, the broker is the one selling to you. It quotes prices close to the market and earns from the spread, and often from the fact that most clients lose over time. It may hedge large or profitable flows with its own liquidity providers.
The upsides are fixed or stable spreads, instant fills on small orders and tiny lot sizes. The downside is a conflict of interest: your loss can be the broker's income. That is where requotes (being offered a different price), slippage in the broker's favour and delays around news come from at dishonest firms.
The opposite is a no dealing desk model (ECN or STP), where orders go to outside liquidity providers and the broker charges a commission. Many brokers are hybrids in practice: some clients go to the market, others stay in-house.
A dealing desk broker offers a fixed 2-pip spread on EUR/USD. You open 1 lot where a pip is worth $10, so you pay $20 in spread right away. If the trade closes 30 pips down, your $300 loss effectively becomes the broker's income unless it hedged the position.
One mistake is assuming every dealing desk broker is a scam, or that "ECN" in the name guarantees anything. The model is legal when the broker is regulated. Judge by the licence, execution statistics, how often you get requotes and how withdrawals go, not by the label.
Questions and answers
What is a dealing desk in simple terms?
It means the broker itself sells to you and buys from you instead of finding someone in the market. It runs a small internal market.
Does a dealing desk broker trade against you?
It can profit when clients lose, which is a conflict of interest. Regulated brokers must still execute orders fairly, so pick one with a licence you can verify.
What is the difference between a dealing desk and ECN?
With ECN or STP your order goes to outside liquidity providers and the broker charges a commission. With a dealing desk the broker fills the trade itself and earns mainly from the spread.
Related terms
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Updated: 2026-10-19