Best Thread CMC Markets owner answers your questions

[PC at CMC Markets]

hi 6am
headache gone now and sorry for crass answer to your question. I apologise.
you can bet in £1 increments and thats it sorry no fractional betting.
Might be something we do later but for now concentrating on more product releases and improvements to charts and launch of next gen cfds globally. so exciting.

regards Peter

I know you support fractional pricing, but do you support fractional bet size?
I can bet at £1 per point, or £2 per point, but can I bet at £1.62 per point for example?

I.e bet £1.62 on gold to rise and if the price rises 20 points I made (£1.62 x 20) = £32.4

P.S. Sorry about your headache I do not mind if you answer later

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi jesteruk

I never switch off not because I cannot relax but I genuinely enjoy working and the business I am in and being the major share holder in the company. Somebody said to me recently why dont you retire and my answer was why stop doing something you enjoy. I really love working for CMC Markets, enjoy the challenges and the teams we have there. some might say I am sad old git and they might be right but I have 3 handicap at golf, I have three holidays a year and a beautiful family (been married 23 years) so it is not all work and no play.

so lets answer your questions.
Of course we will not close anybody's account for making money. we hedge between 80 and 90 percent of trades, you are not taking money from us you are taking it from the markets. In fact, it is better for us if clients make money because they keep trading and generating flows for us which means more profits.

Yes we have lots of clients that trade physicals, bet with us, use cfds for their sipps. all sorts of clients. We have white label deals with banks and brokers around the world whos clients trade the markets through physicals and futures and cfds and spread bet with us. This last year or so lots of clients have made money on shares and commodities especially gold. forex is more volatile so not so good there. sorry cannot be more specific I think you know I cannot.

I have to be careful what I say about compliance my team get nervous because compliance is not my full time job but I understand it a lot because I have to.
From 1st January this year all client funds have to be segregated into a client account seperate from our own. Not sure of compensation schemes will find out and let you know. But any funds you or any other client deposits with us and any other spread bet firm have to be segregated and they are.

if you are seriously thinking about spread betting and you would like a one on one meeting with one of my team let me know and I can arrange that. you are welcome at our offices and we can catch a coffee together when you are in.

Hope that helps

will switch off now because wife wants to do some shopping. we just had the ocado drop but now it is over to Oxford Street to see what the sales are offering.
You see I am not the boss at home, even the cats are female. ha ha

cheers
pc

;

Hi Peter. thank you for the quick reply! do you ever switch off?

That really clarifies things. I trade shares conventionally on a medium term basis but cannot go short. Quite interested in spread betting but its a bit hard to get used to using it instead of the real market. With a conventional bookie on sports etc.. they simply will not let you win on the long term if you really found a way to beet them. Can you assure me that no matter how much money you make from spread betting you won't limit or close accounts? I know you hedge your risk so it should not be a problem but I have never met anyone who makes serious money from spread betting. Do you really have people on your books who clearly use it instead of trading the real market and consistently make large sums of money from you?

Also what sort of security do you have on deposits in your accounts? Are they insured or covered by the FSA £50000 rebate like bank accounts? In the case of CMC running into trouble are clients funds completely separate and untouchable by administrators?

Again thanks for your time in answering my questions

 

[jesteruk]

Thank you enjoy your shopping trip!

Think I will open a small account when you roll out some more markets and give it a go...
Interesting you say that about forex. Have tried that in the past and definitely found it the way to the poor house but there are so many people out there advertising it as a get rich quick scheme so its no wonder its popular.

Would you be able to consider something for your platform for the future? I understand entirely that you bet on YOUR price and you need to provide charts which quote this. However I believe that anyone serious about the markets will also be referring to real market price charts as well which include volume, open interest, market breadth etc..... Would it be something you could consider offering the real market charts alongside your own for reference purposes only? I'm sure it would be a massive selling point as charting packages and data feeds are expensive.

All the best

 

[XEC10]

Hi Xec10

Welcome to this site, I see you are a newbie. Thanks for taking the time to blog.
We are not going to upgrade market maker charts because all of our time effort and energy is going into Next generation technology and we will be releasing more and more upgrades to this. Firstly can I ask you to open demo account on spread bet system on www.cmcmarkets.co.uk. all you need to do is give email address and password. Then please check the next gen charting on our demo platform and let me know what you think. If this is improvement or not.
There are still some improvements coming for next gen charting but would be interested to see if you find next gen charting better for you

thanks peter

I hace a CFD account with CMC used for daytrading US stocks, and I don't wish to try a spread betting account. For a long time, after my own studies and programming, I've been convinced that most of technical analysis is utterly useless, its misleading and causes the trader to focus on the wrong thing, so yet another charting package that displays all the usual TA stuff isn't what I'm after. I had a quick look at the CMC Next Generation Charting, it looks nice as a play thing to fiddle with, but I trade with the objective of making money. What I want in any charting package is to see OHLC bars clearly displayed, on whatever time frame I choose, to be able to draw horizontal and diagonal lines and also to be able to draw the SMA on a daily chart. That is it, nothing more. All the other stuff for drawing fibs, stochs, RSI, bollinger etc isn't needed.

Regarding the NYSE tick index and NYSE composite index, volume, volume at price, do CMC ever intend to provide that data as part of their service?

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi jesteruk
short shopping trip only had to stock up on some fruit so back now but off out again soon to eat out.

thanks for your request. it is good idea let me speak to the team and get back to you
thanks peter

Thank you enjoy your shopping trip!

Think I will open a small account when you roll out some more markets and give it a go...
Interesting you say that about forex. Have tried that in the past and definitely found it the way to the poor house but there are so many people out there advertising it as a get rich quick scheme so its no wonder its popular.

Would you be able to consider something for your platform for the future? I understand entirely that you bet on YOUR price and you need to provide charts which quote this. However I believe that anyone serious about the markets will also be referring to real market price charts as well which include volume, open interest, market breadth etc..... Would it be something you could consider offering the real market charts alongside your own for reference purposes only? I'm sure it would be a massive selling point as charting packages and data feeds are expensive.

All the best

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi Xec10
Let me speak to the charting team to see what we have coming up and I will get back to you.
thanks peter

I hace a CFD account with CMC used for daytrading US stocks, and I don't wish to try a spread betting account. For a long time, after my own studies and programming, I've been convinced that most of technical analysis is utterly useless, its misleading and causes the trader to focus on the wrong thing, so yet another charting package that displays all the usual TA stuff isn't what I'm after. I had a quick look at the CMC Next Generation Charting, it looks nice as a play thing to fiddle with, but I trade with the objective of making money. What I want in any charting package is to see OHLC bars clearly displayed, on whatever time frame I choose, to be able to draw horizontal and diagonal lines and also to be able to draw the SMA on a daily chart. That is it, nothing more. All the other stuff for drawing fibs, stochs, RSI, bollinger etc isn't needed.

Regarding the NYSE tick index and NYSE composite index, volume, volume at price, do CMC ever intend to provide that data as part of their service?

 

[jesteruk]

Thank you. I really think it would attract people to your platform. If you could log in and get all the information you need including volume on the real market etc... It would save people from having to subscribe to other expensive services. A kind of all in one solution. I think it would help your cause to0, of persuading people that spread betting is a serious trading tool.

You could even charge a modest sum for the data feed and refund it if people trade to stop people taking advantage of a freebie. No doubt CMC would be able to obtain favorable rates for data feeds.

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi jesteruk

I think these are good suggestions and they sound interesting. Let me run it by the team tomorrow when I am in office. Unlike me they dont work weekends.
will get back to you.

cheers pc

Thank you. I really think it would attract people to your platform. If you could log in and get all the information you need including volume on the real market etc... It would save people from having to subscribe to other expensive services. A kind of all in one solution. I think it would help your cause to0, of persuading people that spread betting is a serious trading tool.

You could even charge a modest sum for the data feed and refund it if people trade to stop people taking advantage of a freebie. No doubt CMC would be able to obtain favorable rates for data feeds.

 

[gle101]

Hi jesteruk

I think these are good suggestions and they sound interesting. Let me run it by the team tomorrow when I am in office. Unlike me they dont work weekends.
will get back to you.

cheers pc

Yes, I am bound to agree, it is a good idea.

 

[brettus]

Hi jesteruk

I think these are good suggestions and they sound interesting. Let me run it by the team tomorrow when I am in office. Unlike me they dont work weekends.
will get back to you.

cheers pc

I'm pretty sure CMC b book every client. Well i know they have done in the past. I'm not sure about your platform. I think you are trying too hard.

 

[6am]

hi 6am
headache gone now and sorry for crass answer to your question. I apologise.
you can bet in £1 increments and thats it sorry no fractional betting.
Might be something we do later but for now concentrating on more product releases and improvements to charts and launch of next gen cfds globally. so exciting.

regards Peter

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your answer.

Is it possible to trade spreadbets and cfds from the same account?

If not is it possible to have one spreadbet account and one cfd account and link them for margin and financial charges purpose? For example I open one trade in spreadbet account and another in cfd account. Spreadbet trade went terrible wrong but cfd trade did well. Under normal rules you will liquidate spreadbet position but in this case you do not because spreadbet loss is offset by cfd gain. Is it possible to do that?

Regards,

6am

 

[Ross Spur]

Hi jesteruk
short shopping trip only had to stock up on some fruit so back now but off out again soon to eat out.

thanks for your request. it is good idea let me speak to the team and get back to you
thanks peter

Peter, you must be some kind of a workaholic to be answering our dumb questions on a Sunday, but while you're there could you put in a request for Heikin-Ashi candles, please, preferably on a white background so my failing old eyes can have an easier time. Thanks.

 

[pster]

Good morning pster
Sorry to misunderstand your question. I understand now.
You are right there are _ lines on charts when markets are closed. Normally weekends. We are removing them and should be taken out in next week or so.

thanks Peter

No, you still misunderstand my question. I'm asking about when markets are open, but there is nothing at all moving. Will you see candlestick charts with multiple dashes in a row? Like that: _ _

 

[montmorencyt2w]

I'm a big admirer of Ashraf Laidi, who puts out a lot of free information on the web (as well as the occasional chargable seminar), and I've often thought I should at least have the courtesy to give CMC Markets a try, in return.

However, the spreads have always put me off. I haven't looked lately, so perhaps that's changed. I'm not sure if this has already been covered in the early part of the thread, but if not, perhaps you would like to comment.

EDIT: I've now looked through at least some of the earlier postings, and I see it has been covered ("done to death", one might almost say), so no real need to reply to this aspect Peter).

 

[montmorencyt2w]

[...]
You heard it here first. watch the spread bet industry grow up over the next year and
you will see some really great pricing and execution from us and the spread bet industry will have to follow otherwise ... you know the rest
cheers pc

All good. The only danger IMO is that once it "grows up", HMG/HMRC is going to start sniffing round and revisit the tax status. Still, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

OK, I'll admit that I have an irrational dislike of dark background charts(!), but it would be good to have a choice.

Me too, and it's not irrational. Causes me eyestrain.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Peter,

I am amazed at your stamina for sticking with this thread so long, and answering so many questions already. I promise this will be my last question for a while. (Even I go to bed eventually).


Would you care to comment on what extent, if any, you lay off your customers bets (or net bets) in the underlying market?

Simon from the competition has written about this from time to time, and I think I have a reasonable idea of how it works for them. I guess you must be doing something similar.

Many thanks.

 

[gle101]

Peter,

I am amazed at your stamina for sticking with this thread so long, and answering so many questions already. I promise this will be my last question for a while. (Even I go to bed eventually).


Would you care to comment on what extent, if any, you lay off your customers bets (or net bets) in the underlying market?

Simon from the competition has written about this from time to time, and I think I have a reasonable idea of how it works for them. I guess you must be doing something similar.

Many thanks.

Well this is maybe too much, he has been here a week or so, Simon from Capitalspreads stayed on for many years. This under severe press to answer all kinds of allegations, from members with terrible language, who at that time really didn't care for a fair discussion.

 

[Ross Spur]

Well this is maybe too much, he has been here a week or so, Simon from Capitalspreads stayed on for many years. This under severe press to answer all kinds of allegations, from members with terrible language, who at that time really didn't care for a fair discussion.

Don't worry. I bet PC didn't get where he is today without being able to deal with a bit of bad-mouthing and pressure, so I'm sure he'll be able to cope!

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi Bretus
thanks for blogging. you are wrong we hedge between 80 and 90 percent of our business; we have a very large book of business from 16 offices around the world, partner deals, white labels. we operate a flow model. please see previous blogs I know there are 50 odd pages but some good questions and hopefully some good answers.

cheers peter

I'm pretty sure CMC b book every client. Well i know they have done in the past. I'm not sure about your platform. I think you are trying too hard.