Best Thread Capital Spreads

[6am]

Hi Simon,

I am following this gentleman and noticed his recent post Trading Trail #39: The Curious Case of Cable and Wireless

I assume he trades with your company because he mentions it in charts.

I am curious about the time it took you to execute his orders. The first stop order got executed at 8:05:35 however his limit buy (which should be first to execute) was executed at 8:07:54. Is that normal?

Also the buy limit was execute at 30.1 but the graph does not have this price. Is that normal that you do not improve the execution price in this case?

Thank you.

 

[PipStar]

The percentage figure alone doesn't really mean much.

You can see how many accounts each broker has and what percentage of it was profitable. That's the way Simon also measured profitability with with his own outfit further up. I don't think you will be able to go more in depth than this, one has to use some kind of measurement.

 

[capitalspreads]

pipstar

i was interested in the numbers for our clients on FX since the start of the year so asked for a trade analysis

the number was 31.9% .. so pretty much the same as some of the US brokers. You must also remember that the US now has dramatically reduced margin/leverage and in the restricted ranges of recent times this will have reduced the chances of clients being 'chased' out of positions.

Whilst we give high leverage I personally always advise at seminars etc to keep it down to 20 times (5%) . But clients being clients will sometimes use margin in its extreme... occasionally making a killing but more often catching a cold.

Simon

 

[the hare]

I was interested in the numbers for our clients on FX since the start of the year so asked for a trade analysis.....

A slightly better way of doing this might be to ask what percentage are profitable after 10,20,30,40 trades etc. That allows people to compare against what you might expect to see just by random chance.

I'd be amazed if any broker is brave enough to publish those figures.

 

[capitalspreads]

6am

I can see why he was filled on the limit order at 30.1p as the charts just show the bid side of the price. So his buy order will have been filled on the opening price which on such a gap was probably 0.6p wide on the open i.e at 29.5-30.1 (you can see the opening bid on the candle chart was 29.5). The reason it took so long to fill will have been because the traders would have wanted to check that fills were done on fair prices and not on stupid levels at which no trades were done but some rogue bid or offer impacted our quote.

the stop, i believe, refers to a different position. Stops are easier than Limits in this instance as we only need to see that a stop level has been hit to activate it. As i mentioned the limit order will have needed to be checked as otherwise the client might have been unfairly hit.

Simon

 

[capitalspreads]

the hare

not really sure what this would tell us... it would need a hell of alot of data mining as well... to no great effect/illumination

random chance will generally dissipate after 20/30 trades and our average FX client does well over 200 trades a month this would not exactly give much useful data

Simon

 

[the hare]

the hare

not really sure what this would tell us... it would need a hell of alot of data mining as well... to no great effect/illumination

I appreciate its quite a lot of work, with no benefit to you whatsoever. I suspect that it will show is a stright line from 50% down to something approaching zero on the Y axis. The gradiant of the line, will be equivelant to the spread.

You wouldnt be in this business if it where not so

 

[Ross Spur]

You can see how many accounts each broker has and what percentage of it was profitable. That's the way Simon also measured profitability with with his own outfit further up. I don't think you will be able to go more in depth than this, one has to use some kind of measurement.

Yes, but it would be possible to have, say, 50% of clients profitable making fifty quid between them, while the 50% losers could have lost a million. Or vice versa, but I know which is more likely.

 

[PipStar]

Yes, but it would be possible to have, say, 50% of clients profitable making fifty quid between them, while the 50% losers could have lost a million. Or vice versa, but I know which is more likely.

I get your point. But this is not the purpose of that report. It just shows overall profitability.

 

[PipStar]

pipstar
i was interested in the numbers for our clients on FX since the start of the year so asked for a trade analysis
the number was 31.9% .. so pretty much the same as some of the US brokers. You must also remember that the US now has dramatically reduced margin/leverage and in the restricted ranges of recent times this will have reduced the chances of clients being 'chased' out of positions.
Whilst we give high leverage I personally always advise at seminars etc to keep it down to 20 times (5%) . But clients being clients will sometimes use margin in its extreme... occasionally making a killing but more often catching a cold.
Simon

Well, 31.9 % trader profitability is right in there as the average with U.S. brokers. It looks like it's a myth that only 5% of traders make money. May be they mean that 5% of traders make 'real' money which was Ross's point above.

I don't believe low leverage increases the chance of success in trading. And I disagree that high leverage is the reason why traders fail. Traders fail because they get the direction of the trade wrong, plain and simple. And they fail because of poor money management. Another reason is that they trade without having an edge. A poor trader using low leverage will simply drag on the process of emptying his account.

I tend to overlook brokers that offer less than 200-1 leverage. That's because my trading style requires high leverage. And I'm doing quite well.

 

[capitalspreads]

pipstar

My point about high gearing was generalistic and you summed it up in your piece.. people lose because of bad money management..

my issue is that, with high gearing, poor risk control is magnified which carries out the weak/incompetent faster than would be the case with low leverage

oddly enough the % of money winners and losers can be turned on its head to a certain extent in that a client of Capital Spreads can 'only' lose 100% of the money he deposits [maybe a bit more if a market gaps horribly against him] as we do not give credit and insist on stops on all positions. Whereas a big winning client can win multiples of his initial deposit. Not sure what % multiple is our biggest but i know of one who was over 10,000% from a standing start of £4k. No doubt there will be others who have beaten this.

But it is true that all FX providers /SBs/CFDs/Brokers (in fact the entire retail financial industry) depends upon the accrual of money from clients. Either through commission or through book running. How else can they (in the end) make money?

Simon

 

[alphadude]

hi Simon

is it possible for CapitalSpreads to sponsor a spread betting competition? perhaps with an initial account of $50 or $100 sponsored by CapitalSpreads?

we are having a discussion in a t2w thread about doing a spreadbetting competition with TradingFair; as they are having an offer of $100 topup.

I thought if you do sponsor something like this; it's a win/win.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/gen...thday-gift-captial-spreads-7.html#post1839544

PS: tried to PM you; but your t2w profile doesn't allow it.

 

[Ross Spur]

hi Simon

is it possible for CapitalSpreads to sponsor a spread betting competition? perhaps with an initial account of $50 or $100 sponsored by CapitalSpreads?

we are having a discussion in a t2w thread about doing a spreadbetting competition with TradingFair; as they are having an offer of $100 topup.

I thought if you do sponsor something like this; it's a win/win.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/gen...thday-gift-captial-spreads-7.html#post1839544

PS: tried to PM you; but your t2w profile doesn't allow it.

It'll be a loss for CS if we all use the BlackSwan guaranteed 200% fookin gain per fookin day strat. We should easily nudge Peter Cruddas out of the Sunday Times Rich List.

 

[capitalspreads]

had a bit of a problem logging in .. thought i had been banned !

Alphadude

We did do a charity trading game with T2W years ago but it sort of faded away.

Where free offers/top-ups etc are concerned frankly i hate them. Especially with SB/cfds trying to go a bit more up market, I feel they give the wrong message.

Trading is a serious business that can be a bit of fun as well. Not the other way around.

These days the platforms/products are way ahead of anything conceived of four/five years ago offering more, free, sophisticated technical analysis to retail clients (at the click of a button) than I ever had access to when i worked as a dealer for the banks back in the eighties/nineties.

Frankly freebies belittle the product

But, as with so much, with everyone and his dog doing them we have to join in.

Simon

 

[twinj]

Problem with charts. The saved layouts have been lost. I remember a similar thing happening a few times before. If my memory serves me right, they seem to coincide with holidays.

I hope the layouts are not lost permanently. It is a hassle setting everything up again. Will check tomorrow morning to see if okay or not.

 

[capitalspreads]

you have to actually save the technical data/lines etc on the chart otherwise the platform will not save it and you will have to set it up again

 

[twinj]

I have saved it on the chart as you say. But occasionally, the saved stuff gets lost as it has done today. Have you checked your chart status? Do you get the saved data out properly?

 

[twinj]

As we are on the matter of charts, it would be nice to be able to save the layout of several charts. So when one logs in, I am faced with the layout I left previously.

I noticed, you did not answer my other post on hedging and closing multiple positions. Could you please give me an answer?

 

[kwickwool]

Hi Simon,

Could you please tell me why my margin required ratio has gone up from 50:1 on the Dow to 200:1 without any email or correspondence from Capital spreads at all? Also the same on currencies, care to explain?

Rumor has it that Capital Spreads is over exposed and requires further funds from clients to cover their positions?

Can I please have an answer both in an explanation to the increase and also lack of correspondence please?

thanks,

Christian

 

[PualoP]

Hi Simon,

Could you please tell me why my leverage has gone up from 50:1 on the Dow to 200:1 without any email or correspondence from Capital spreads at all? Also the same on currencies, care to explain?

Rumor has it that Capital Spreads is over exposed and requires further funds from clients to cover their positions?

Can I please have an answer both in an explanation to the increase and also lack of correspondence please?

thanks,

Christian

This post makes no sense at all? If your leverage has gone from 50:1 to 200:1 then your leverage has INCREASED, i.e. Capital Spreads requires you to have less money reserved for margin in relation to your position?

Am assuming you're a total newb/drunk or a combination of both