Sorry, just seen this.

I realise that there is no 'free lunch' in the real world, and brokers are always the first to get their 'cut' - and I obviously do not know exactly what is involved where dealing desks are concerned ('everywhere', if you are correct). The usual definition, applied to MT brokers, associates the dealing desk with brokers that have a vested interest in seeing the customer lose as many trades as possible - not only do they make money on the losing trades, which they take the other-side of, they also collect the spread on each any every trade. If you are correct, 'proper' brokers also have dealing desks, but how come they do not fleece customers like their MT variants - they have variable spreads, lower commissions, no scalping restrictions etc. - there clearly must be a world of difference in they way their respective dealing desks are operated...