STP and ECN operate as the NDD (No Dealing Desk) which means that traders' orders are forwarded to the interbank market without being processed by the dealing desk. That differs these two account types from the accounts that operate as the DD (Dealing Desk) where the broker acts as the counter-party to all the clients' trades. Also STP trades are forwarded directly to liquidity providers while ECN trades form inner liquidity between the members of the electronic network.

The key difference between these two types of accounts is the commission. On ECN accounts traders are charged a fixed commission for opening and closing trades and spreads depend on the prices of liquidity providers. On STP accounts no commission is charged but the FXOpen mark-up is added to the spread of liquidity providers.

The additional differences are listed in the table: