Last look is a colloquial term for liquidity providers or brokers stating a quoted price rather than a firm price based on supply and demand. Since the price stated is a quoted price, the liquidity provider or broker has the option to execute the trade, offer an alternative price, or decline the trade.
Last look practices are often synonymous with Market Maker brokers which take the other side of your trade. Since their prices are quotes, there is a chance that they will manipulate their prices to their advantage or induce slippage when news events occur. Market makers tend to have higher spreads in comparison to ECN brokers.
ECN brokers receive bids / asks from their clients and directly match the best bid and ask prices across multiple market participants. The best prices are the prices stated on ECN brokers platform. Since ECN brokers only match trades, they do not have the opportunity to front run or have the “last look” to clients’ trades. We at BlackBull markets are proudly an ECN only broker, meaning we do not interfere with your trades and provide you with the best bid/ask spreads.
