Direct Market Access (DMA)

Direct Market Access gives traders the ability to place orders straight into the order book of an exchange or liquidity venue, rather than through an intermediary that internalizes or repackages the order. It offers the greatest pricing transparency and typically the tightest spreads, but usually requires larger minimum trade sizes or account balances than standard retail accounts. DMA is most common in equity and futures trading, and among the more institutional-grade forex ECN offerings aimed at professional or high-volume traders.