GFT Forex
GFT Forex is based in Ada, Michigan and has five other offices in Chicago, New York, Sydney, Tokyo, and London.
Regulation
GFT Forex is an affiliate of Global Futures and Forex. Traders should be aware what this means when it comes to regulation and safety of funds. The parent company Global Futures and Forex is regulated by the NFA and CFTC, however GFT Forex being an affiliate is not. See here for listings. This means traders are not protected by the regulatory authorities like they would be with regulated firms.
This setup is similar to what happened with RefcoFX and its Refco parent company. When Refco declared bankruptcy on October 17th, 2005, RefcoFX clients could not withdrawal their funds. Clients with account held in the regulated entities, like Refco Canada, were able to get their money back eventually, thankfully.
Marketing
GFT Forex is one of the heavier spenders on online advertising, spending approximately $100-400k per month on online advertising (according to spyfu.com).
GFT does use introducing brokers (IB) to bring in accounts. They list the advantages to be an IB for them on their website which include the following: back-end office, advanced trading platform, chatting, and other benefits for the customers.
Platform
GFT's platform is called FX Dealbook 2. It includes thorough and functional charts, and offers the largest number of pairs of any of the FX brokers in the United States. They have won some awards which you can read about on their site.
Dealing
GFT Forex follows a dealing desk model where they are the counter-party for the traders' trades. Many traders do not like this model as there is a potential conflict of interest between the trader and the broker.