Anybody trading with MF Global Spreads?

[alex2006]

I noticed they are running 1 pip EUR/USD and GBP/USD promotion until end of April and may extend it.

From 12 April, they run 24/7 FX trading instead of 06:00-21:15

They also lowered some FX spreads today.

Yesterday I opened a live account with no money in it (they don't offer demo accounts) trying to find out more. Charts are nothing apart from price, drawing trend line.

Minimum bet is 20p to start with.

How good/bad is their execution? Any experience?

 

[gle101]

I noticed they are running 1 pip EUR/USD and GBP/USD promotion until end of April and may extend it.

From 12 April, they run 24/7 FX trading instead of 06:00-21:15

They also lowered some FX spreads today.

Yesterday I opened a live account with no money in it (they don't offer demo accounts) trying to find out more. Charts are nothing apart from price, drawing trend line.

Minimum bet is 20p to start with.

How good/bad is their execution? Any experience?

Yes, I believe they are quite big in CFDs and futures. I have not read any information about them on this forum, maybe they are new in the SB business. Please give information about the spread on the Dow, Nasdaq, DAX and S&P (open hours). I notice the have 1 spread on the FTSE, and that is quite good.

 

[alex2006]

I believe it is a new player in the SB industry as they have just started 24 hours trading (22:15 Sunday - 21:15 Friday). Personally I don't like market open too early or too late as stop orders could be easily triggered. Some scalpers may prefer early trading hours.

FTST 100 1 pip, quoted either .0 or .5, e.g. 5681.5/5682.5
DAX 2 pips, quoted either .0 or .5
NASDAQ 100 1.5 pips 0.0-0.9
S and P 500 0.4 pip 0.0-0.9
Dow 4 pips, no decimal fraction.

 

[gle101]

I believe it is a new player in the SB industry as they have just started 24 hours trading (22:15 Sunday - 21:15 Friday). Personally I don't like market open too early or too late as stop orders could be easily triggered. Some scalpers may prefer early trading hours.

FTST 100 1 pip, quoted either .0 or .5, e.g. 5681.5/5682.5
DAX 2 pips, quoted either .0 or .5
NASDAQ 100 1.5 pips 0.0-0.9
S and P 500 0.4 pip 0.0-0.9
Dow 4 pips, no decimal fraction.

Thanks a lot.

 

[trader_dante]

I noticed they are running 1 pip EUR/USD and GBP/USD promotion until end of April and may extend it.

From 12 April, they run 24/7 FX trading instead of 06:00-21:15

They also lowered some FX spreads today.

Yesterday I opened a live account with no money in it (they don't offer demo accounts) trying to find out more. Charts are nothing apart from price, drawing trend line.

Minimum bet is 20p to start with.

How good/bad is their execution? Any experience?

Funnily enough I opened an account with them last night.

A few things put me off immediately.

1. You have to enter your stake BEFORE they will give you a quote. Call me cynical but I have never seen anyone do this before and you cannot help that sneaking suspicion come into your mind, regardless of whether it is the case or not (and it may well not be), that it is done for some purpose that doesn't favour the client

2. To log into the account, there is an extra level of security to get through after you put in your username and password. Since it requires one to put in say Letter 1 and Letter 3 of yet another password it is not that fast to bypass. Great if you are paranoid. Costly if you are in a hurry.

3. Their margin requirements are big. Compare to E*Trade who I currently use.

To trade £10 per point in the Dax with E*Trade you need £500 (with an attached stop).
To trade £10 per point in the Dax with MF you need £6,157.

This last point may not be that fair because I rang MF and the dealer said this margin requirement would be less with a stop attached but it is not clear by how much from the platform.

At any rate, points 1 and 2 are enough to stop me going further for now.

I've just opened a SB account with Saxo Bank. Love it already.

 

[alex2006]

@trader_dante
I have not traded with them yet. my two cents on those points:

1. I've never seen this with other SB companies. However as they do NOT limit trade size, this may be a way to say, hey, at this moment, we can handle your order because your stake is £5000 per bet. The quote is same as the quote board anyway. Because they don't know if you are going to buy or sell, therefore they may not try to work against you. They could simply implement this like other SB companies.

2. Agreed. It annoyed me as well. I have remember two set of passwords. My head is already full of passwords, mobile phone PINs, debit/credit cards PINs, email, online banking memorable data I can't remember, girlfriend's birthday etc etc.

3. Their margin requirements are bigger than others. They should state minimum margin with product info. Like Capital Spreads does, 40-200 rather than something like 1%. The attached screenshot was taken from Capital Spreads trading platform.

I think there are a lot for them to work on as they are new SB business.

 

[Jack Hughes]

SaxoBank spread bet is just WorldSpreads, isn't it?

 

[trader_dante]

SaxoBank spread bet is just WorldSpreads, isn't it?

Looks like a white label of Capital Spreads to me.

Look and feel is identical to E*Trade and Tradefair. Probably why I love it.

 

[alex2006]

Small print at the bottom: Saxo Bank Financial Spreads is a trading name of London Capital Group Ltd (LCG).

 

[Jack Hughes]

Small print at the bottom: Saxo Bank Financial Spreads is a trading name of London Capital Group Ltd (LCG).

Yet their site says that Twowayspreads is a partner, and the small print for that says it's Worldspreads.

 

[alex2006]

But partner is quite different from parents, at least they have no ties of blood, lol

 

[Jack Hughes]

Incest is rife in spreadbetting.

 

[alex2006]

Any real experience with this SB company? I wish they could reduce their spreads further and improve their trading platform. Considering the reputable established group , they could provide good execution/liquidity.