No I don't think City is such an important player. On the other side, if IG decided to offer 1 point spread on the Dow the others probably have to follow.
BeerMonster
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Hi SLM
Many thanks for the reply to my earlier posting.
With regard to the FTSE 100, can you have a look at the margin requirement please. I think I am correct in saying that you require 5% margin which on a current price of nearly 5300 is around £265. Other SB companies require initial margins from Tradefair's £30 up to city index's figure of £60. I appreciate that Tradefair puts in a stop and the margin figure will go up to 150 times if funds are available but even 150 is a lot less than your 265 figure. If I have got my maths correct and I am comparing like with like could you reduce the margin to no more than 60 times/£60 per point like city index and preferably less?
Regarding the fractions for the FTSE 100 I am afraid that I am getting .1 .3 .6 .8 if you could standardize it to the 0 .3 .5 .8 fractions that would be great.
Looking at the UK equities at 8am opening time this morning all your "first show" prices that I saw time stamped 09.00 on MT4 were accurate prices but unfortunately they were not available to trade for a minute or two later as the share code was greyed out. One share I am following, on another price feed I use, showed a bid price higher than the ask for a few minutes (may be how it finished last night) and your system just quite rightly showed the price at 17.29 at which it closed.
What I am trying to say is can you make the first price, time stamped for the current day, available to trade as they all seem genuine to me and get rid of the greying out of the symbol?
With regard to the 1 point spread on the dow raised by others, I am thinking of opening an account with city index solely for this tight spread even though I realise that it may be a loss leading limited promotion. Perhaps you could just match city's 1 point for the time that they offer it?
Many thanks
Many thanks for the reply to my earlier posting.
With regard to the FTSE 100, can you have a look at the margin requirement please. I think I am correct in saying that you require 5% margin which on a current price of nearly 5300 is around £265. Other SB companies require initial margins from Tradefair's £30 up to city index's figure of £60. I appreciate that Tradefair puts in a stop and the margin figure will go up to 150 times if funds are available but even 150 is a lot less than your 265 figure. If I have got my maths correct and I am comparing like with like could you reduce the margin to no more than 60 times/£60 per point like city index and preferably less?
Regarding the fractions for the FTSE 100 I am afraid that I am getting .1 .3 .6 .8 if you could standardize it to the 0 .3 .5 .8 fractions that would be great.
Looking at the UK equities at 8am opening time this morning all your "first show" prices that I saw time stamped 09.00 on MT4 were accurate prices but unfortunately they were not available to trade for a minute or two later as the share code was greyed out. One share I am following, on another price feed I use, showed a bid price higher than the ask for a few minutes (may be how it finished last night) and your system just quite rightly showed the price at 17.29 at which it closed.
What I am trying to say is can you make the first price, time stamped for the current day, available to trade as they all seem genuine to me and get rid of the greying out of the symbol?
With regard to the 1 point spread on the dow raised by others, I am thinking of opening an account with city index solely for this tight spread even though I realise that it may be a loss leading limited promotion. Perhaps you could just match city's 1 point for the time that they offer it?
Many thanks
Smart Live Markets
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Hi
The issue with the FTSE index should be resolved again. My night trader had not read the email instucting him on what to do to resolve this, so will be OK now.
We have no plans to offer the Dow on 1 point. If that is critically important to you then please do open an account with City Index. I used to work there and they are a good company. We are primarily offering FX, which City do not come close on, but we offer Indices, Equities etc as well to provide a more exstensive offering on Meta Trader than anyone else.
The issue with UK equities we have discovered is an MT4 problem where it has problems turning on so many markets simultaneously at 8am. We are working on trying to find a away to resolves this.
Regards
Paul. SLM
I think the DOW spread is reasonable, to be honest.
i have been quite happily using them for a little while now:
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/trading-journals/95342-redarts-smartlive-journal.html
I have accounts with CMC (Not good. Slow, big spreads and haven't 'kept up' with the industry standards), IG (not bad), RBS(very good), tradefair(very good although dont like the basic platform), ETX (not much experience with them but similar to tradefair), and, I must say, that Smartlive are probably my favourite at this point.
In fact, they should hire me and pay me more money than im worth for my input and stuff really.
I do think that they could lower the spreads on US stocks though. Most of the high volume stocks that I look at on a DMA platform often have a 1c spread, whearas the same stocks can have a spread of 7 or 8 on SL. At the moment I limit myself to a few stocks where the spread seems to be a more reasonable 3 pip spread on SL, like EBAYand KLAC often have.
Still quite impressed thus far....
i have been quite happily using them for a little while now:
http://www.trade2win.com/boards/trading-journals/95342-redarts-smartlive-journal.html
I have accounts with CMC (Not good. Slow, big spreads and haven't 'kept up' with the industry standards), IG (not bad), RBS(very good), tradefair(very good although dont like the basic platform), ETX (not much experience with them but similar to tradefair), and, I must say, that Smartlive are probably my favourite at this point.
In fact, they should hire me and pay me more money than im worth for my input and stuff really.
I do think that they could lower the spreads on US stocks though. Most of the high volume stocks that I look at on a DMA platform often have a 1c spread, whearas the same stocks can have a spread of 7 or 8 on SL. At the moment I limit myself to a few stocks where the spread seems to be a more reasonable 3 pip spread on SL, like EBAYand KLAC often have.
Still quite impressed thus far....
Yes I can confirm, the fractions on the FTSE have been corrected, very good. Hopefully it will be easier getting in and out of trades when having standardize pips.
BeerMonster
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Hi Paul SLM
Many thanks for the reply, any comments regarding the margin requirement for the FTSE 100 please?
Many thanks for the reply, any comments regarding the margin requirement for the FTSE 100 please?
Smart Live Markets
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Hi
Yes, sorry meant to say. We will be lowering the margin on the Indices as several people have pointed out they are a little high. We will not be as low as 60 though I am affraid.
We may lower them to 3% which equates to aout 150. We are having discussions about this now and hope to have something in place by the end of month.
One of the problems when setting margins is what the actual REAL margin is for us to hegde client positions. On the FTSE this is OVER 6%. So if a company runs all their clients positions in the hope they lose then this does not matter. But if the company wants their clients to win and hedges positions then they have to take this into account or things can get very expensive.
Regards
SLM
BeerMonster
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Hi SLM
Thanks for the info, so maybe good news regarding the margin soon, good to know that you want us to win!
Cheers
Thanks for the info, so maybe good news regarding the margin soon, good to know that you want us to win!
Cheers
Don't all SBs just try to balance their books, so if enough people are betting on the same market there's not much hedging to be done?
Smart Live Markets
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Hi
In a perfect world you would be correct. But funny enough life is nerver that simple.
People tend to all act the same way, they see a big move and think 'thats over done' and then bet for it to go the other way. Or they all react on a price of news or a rumour. As SB companies have to show prices that reflect the market they cannot bid up or offer a market in an attempt to balance their books.
Regards
SLM
Tired_Of_Conmen
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Hi all
I started a thread on T2W coz lately I've been walking down the road of "trying to find a decent SB broker". It's a long, tough, often disheartening path.
I have to say, though, that recently I've opened a demo with SLM for the reasons everyone is talking about in this thread (MT4, good spreads, AMAZING customer service) and so far I have been impressed more than with any of the many others I have tried in past/recent times.
I want to spreadbet as yes perhaps I'm lazy when it comes to tax. My head is full of charts, markets, MM, risk management, attitude towards markets etc. - the stuff that's important, not s*dding tax returns. Frankly, we are blessed in the UK to have this opportunity no-one else does and I simply refuse to believe this idea that spreadbetting is a path to ruin in trading, but I don't blame the people that feel this way if they've been stung by the conmen in this game, like I have before.
If (and I mean a big IF) you can find an honest SB broker then why should it be any different from trading futures, FX spot, stocks etc.. It shouldn't, it works, you can trade your way to financial freedom with any trading vehicle, but there is that big IF....
So I'm hoping SLM are the answer to my IF.
So far, so good. I recommend them for anyone who is basically on this same path as me. I haven't found anything wrong with them yet but yes I'm on demo and I've read some people moan about late market opening and heavy re-quotes BUT equally I have notice how quick the customer service from SLM, live on this thread, have heard the moans, answered fairly and above all SOLVED the problem! I mean would you get that from IG? CMC? Capital? No. You moan about an issue on a forum, they wont roll up their sleeves and fix it like SLM have! You moan in an email and you get a reply from a receptionist saying thanks for your comments. Only with SLM have I experienced true efforts to accomodate customer needs, I mean actually hear the problem and say "ok sorry my fault I forgot to push a button, problem now solved" from a company rep (who I believe is higher than a rep, I think these guys answering on this thread/emails obviously are the show-runners which is even better customer service frankly).
Where else in the world of SB are you going to find that?? They have even said that a poor data spike will be a). refunded b). re-positioned as if nothing had happened. If CMC (aka Steal4Free) did this, no offence, but they would be out of business by October.
So for all the gripes and moans and never ending requests on this thread, guys at SLM I want to say: if you are reading this, a huge well done from me. You new service is not perfect yet, but I really think it can be. You seem genuine, I think I can trade profitably with you without worrying whether you'll steal it back like other SB companies, I think I can contact you without having to climb Everest, I think I can trust you to do business with. Thanks for your efforts, you obvoiously know you are a small fish in a big pond right now yet I think if you carry on with such wonderful customer attention and responses to needs/wants to build your business, you will maintain this edge you have currently (with MT4 etc..) and you will one day swallow IG whole.
I noticed a few posts on this thread were a bit too negative towards a new SB company who are clearly trying their hearts out to give you what you want. Not really fair. Give these guys a chance to spread their wings a little coz from where I'm sitting they have answered many prayers of the SB community already and are trying hard to answer more.
TOC
I started a thread on T2W coz lately I've been walking down the road of "trying to find a decent SB broker". It's a long, tough, often disheartening path.
I have to say, though, that recently I've opened a demo with SLM for the reasons everyone is talking about in this thread (MT4, good spreads, AMAZING customer service) and so far I have been impressed more than with any of the many others I have tried in past/recent times.
I want to spreadbet as yes perhaps I'm lazy when it comes to tax. My head is full of charts, markets, MM, risk management, attitude towards markets etc. - the stuff that's important, not s*dding tax returns. Frankly, we are blessed in the UK to have this opportunity no-one else does and I simply refuse to believe this idea that spreadbetting is a path to ruin in trading, but I don't blame the people that feel this way if they've been stung by the conmen in this game, like I have before.
If (and I mean a big IF) you can find an honest SB broker then why should it be any different from trading futures, FX spot, stocks etc.. It shouldn't, it works, you can trade your way to financial freedom with any trading vehicle, but there is that big IF....
So I'm hoping SLM are the answer to my IF.
So far, so good. I recommend them for anyone who is basically on this same path as me. I haven't found anything wrong with them yet but yes I'm on demo and I've read some people moan about late market opening and heavy re-quotes BUT equally I have notice how quick the customer service from SLM, live on this thread, have heard the moans, answered fairly and above all SOLVED the problem! I mean would you get that from IG? CMC? Capital? No. You moan about an issue on a forum, they wont roll up their sleeves and fix it like SLM have! You moan in an email and you get a reply from a receptionist saying thanks for your comments. Only with SLM have I experienced true efforts to accomodate customer needs, I mean actually hear the problem and say "ok sorry my fault I forgot to push a button, problem now solved" from a company rep (who I believe is higher than a rep, I think these guys answering on this thread/emails obviously are the show-runners which is even better customer service frankly).
Where else in the world of SB are you going to find that?? They have even said that a poor data spike will be a). refunded b). re-positioned as if nothing had happened. If CMC (aka Steal4Free) did this, no offence, but they would be out of business by October.
So for all the gripes and moans and never ending requests on this thread, guys at SLM I want to say: if you are reading this, a huge well done from me. You new service is not perfect yet, but I really think it can be. You seem genuine, I think I can trade profitably with you without worrying whether you'll steal it back like other SB companies, I think I can contact you without having to climb Everest, I think I can trust you to do business with. Thanks for your efforts, you obvoiously know you are a small fish in a big pond right now yet I think if you carry on with such wonderful customer attention and responses to needs/wants to build your business, you will maintain this edge you have currently (with MT4 etc..) and you will one day swallow IG whole.
I noticed a few posts on this thread were a bit too negative towards a new SB company who are clearly trying their hearts out to give you what you want. Not really fair. Give these guys a chance to spread their wings a little coz from where I'm sitting they have answered many prayers of the SB community already and are trying hard to answer more.
TOC
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Makes a change to read a post here that isn't negative! I think you're being a bit hard on other SBs about poor data spikes, though. Prices have to correlate with the underlying market, so if the spike only appears on one company's quotes they really have to reinstate positions.
Tired_Of_Conmen
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Hi
I don't mean every SB company with those comments about spikes, but from personal experience I know SB companies do steal from you and force you to challenge them before they give money back/re-instate positions. One company in particular is so known for it (outside of Steal4Free) it seems unless you keep 100% on top of every penny you'll find holes in your pockets.
Such a shame
Anyway, whatever, coz SLM are here and promising much, and they're putting their money where their mouth is at the moment... let's see how this all develops. Man, I really hope they are the real deal and stick around forever.
TOC
Smart Live Markets
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Hi
I don't mean every SB company with those comments about spikes, but from personal experience I know SB companies do steal from you and force you to challenge them before they give money back/re-instate positions. One company in particular is so known for it (outside of Steal4Free) it seems unless you keep 100% on top of every penny you'll find holes in your pockets.
Such a shame
Anyway, whatever, coz SLM are here and promising much, and they're putting their money where their mouth is at the moment... let's see how this all develops. Man, I really hope they are the real deal and stick around forever.
TOC
Hi
Thanks for the welcome comments.
We will never please all of the people as the saying goes, but we are genuinly trying.
There are a lot of limitations put on us by using the Meta Trader platform, but we believe these are more than out-weighed by the benefits.
But whatever platform one offers there is no excuse for poor customer service, and treating customers fairly and honestly, something that has been sadly lacking from this industry for many years, IMHO.
We hope to be introducing a refer a friend scheme in September if that is of any interest to people.
Details soon.
Regards
SLM
Well this is too much even for my taste.
Justify criticism is what a new starter in this business need, in fact I would say they welcome it. SLM monitor this thread very carefully, and as you say they have been trying to deal with the problems very swiftly, as it have been brought forth by traders. I just can't see this thread being too negative, I find it to be quite balanced. SLM have in my viewpoint received a fair treatment, and I think they are quite pleased the way they are being reviewed here. They give support and get valuable feedback and promotion for the company at the same time.
Tired_Of_Conmen
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Well this is too much even for my taste.
Justify criticism is what a new starter in this business need, in fact I would say they welcome it. SLM monitor this thread very carefully, and as you say they have been trying to deal with the problems very swiftly, as it have been brought forth by traders. I just can't see this thread being too negative, I find it to be quite balanced. SLM have in my viewpoint received a fair treatment, and I think they are quite pleased the way they are being reviewed here. They give support and get valuable feedback and promotion for the company at the same time.
Fair point gle101, I think my main reason for posting was to sort of say thanks really to SLM for (potentially) a great offering and I guess to people on this thread for contributing. There was one comment in particular, wont bother going back to find it, it's not that important, that sort of showed there are people out there who just want want want. And no, it wasn't Black Swan! Seems some people are a little over cautious maybe because of past experiences but hey if we all were like that we wouldn't cross the road to get to the shops!! Sometimes life is too short and you have to jump in at some point.
Remember, a bad workman blames his tools but if the hammer is actually broken then fair enough he can't nail into the wood. I think SLM seem to be a pretty solid hammer so far, so all I'm saying is if you go live with them and everything goes ok (fills, opening hours etc) and you still aren't satisfied, well, maybe you can consider yourself a bad workman... (not directed at anyone at all).
I'm just excited about spreading on MT4 with a seemingly genuine broker/bookie that's all.
TOC