NDD & A-Book Execution

A No Dealing Desk broker is defined by the absence of manual or algorithmic intervention between the client's order and the external market. When a client clicks "buy," the order passes through the broker's technology stack directly to one or more liquidity providers. The broker earns revenue from commissions or transparent spread markup, not from the client's losses. This structural design eliminates the most fundamental conflict in retail trading: the broker profiting when clients lose.

A-booking means the broker hedges or offsets 100% of client risk with external liquidity providers. When a client buys 1 lot of EUR/USD, the broker simultaneously buys 1 lot from an LP. The broker's profit and loss is independent of the client's outcome. Revenue comes purely from commission or markup. This is the purest form of NDD execution and the only model where the broker has zero financial incentive tied to client performance.

In a dealing desk model, the broker receives the client's order and decides how to handle it — often taking the opposite position. The broker becomes the market maker, setting its own prices and profiting from the spread and client losses. NDD removes this decision layer entirely. Orders are routed mechanically based on predefined rules, and the broker never holds a net position against clients. The difference is structural, not just procedural.

STP is the automation layer that makes NDD execution scalable. Every order passes from client platform to LP without manual intervention. The entire lifecycle — order validation, routing decision, LP communication, fill confirmation — is automated. STP ensures that the broker's execution policy is applied consistently to every single order, eliminating the possibility of selective treatment based on client profitability or order characteristics.

Choosing an NDD broker means choosing a structural alignment of interests. The broker makes money when you trade, not when you lose. This alignment manifests in every aspect of execution: prices come from competitive LP feeds rather than internal quotes, slippage is symmetrical rather than skewed negative, requotes are absent because there's no dealing desk to intervene, and execution metrics can be published because they reflect genuine market outcomes rather than manufactured ones.