Spread betting at FXCM

Jason Rogers, any news on cutting spreads :?:

Eventually they will have to come around. IG is a world leader and I just think they need to adjust to that level in order to compete.

Always appreciate any feedback you have about FXCM and our services. Spreads are an important part of trading and along with the benefits of having no re-quotes and no debit balance protection.

A world leader? Too bad they don't have no debit balance policy like FXCM....was just reading through this thread.
 
Always appreciate any feedback you have about FXCM and our services. Spreads are an important part of trading and along with the benefits of having no re-quotes and no debit balance protection.

A world leader? Too bad they don't have no debit balance policy like FXCM....was just reading through this thread.
Sorry to say it doesn't help Jason, it just doesn't justify the wide spread you offer. There are a bunch of other contenders that give a far better price and the re-quote problem doesn't jusifify paying this kind of a price tag. If FXCM doesn't look at industry leading companies like IG while setting up their SB operation, then you are in deep water. You might know your way around FX, but I wonder if this is the case when it comes to SB.

There are a lot of stories going around on different forums, I have noticed FXCM have their own share of horror tales.:)
 
Jason hi, I've been using a demo micro account with fxcm for a while now and am very happy with it. I want to go live and opened an account but could not fund it due to my card company being a 'second party'. I opened a spread beting account with IG for this reason, only funded it with minimal amount to check it out. What a load of pants their platform is to use compared to fxcm's.
I am only interested in forex for now and wanted to know if a spread betting account has the same rules on funding the account ie second party debit cards.
Thanks.
 
Jason hi, I've been using a demo micro account with fxcm for a while now and am very happy with it. I want to go live and opened an account but could not fund it due to my card company being a 'second party'. I opened a spread beting account with IG for this reason, only funded it with minimal amount to check it out. What a load of pants their platform is to use compared to fxcm's.
I am only interested in forex for now and wanted to know if a spread betting account has the same rules on funding the account ie second party debit cards.
Thanks.

Hi Pugg,

Thanks for the post.

The spreadbet account has the same rules as the micro account. We won't be able to accept second party debit cards for any account type unfortunately. We have these rules setup to comply with regulations against money-laundering.

-Jason
 
That is a real bummer, I really don't like IG.
When one of they're guys was trying to get me on the account type which is 'safer' for newbies with bigger spreads. I said I will be ok with a normal account, I'll just be carefull. The reply I got was ' if you don't take risks you won't make any money'. That is not the best advice in the world of trading.
I got the impression they could'nt wait to get their hands on my cash.
I am just gonna carry on practicing my strategy in demo mode with you guys until I sort out a normal account. I am used to your platform and really not happy with IG.
 
I should have mentioned that the card I use is in my name, is licenced by and carries a mastercard logo. It is issued by APS finance its called a cash plus debit card.
I can't understand why IG accept it you don't surely they operate under the same regulations that you do ?
Also I see that the minimum for opening an account is now £5000, is that for all accounts including spread betting ? I was hoping to start with £3000.
 
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' if you don't take risks you won't make any money'.

I completely agree, not the best advice for a new trader!

Sounds like a good plan. You can begin with the micro account later on if you want to test on a small scale. And thanks for the feedback about the platform, happy to hear you like it!
 
Hi Pugg,

Thanks for the post.

The spreadbet account has the same rules as the micro account. We won't be able to accept second party debit cards for any account type unfortunately. We have these rules setup to comply with regulations against money-laundering.

-Jason

What exactly is a second-party debit card?
How do I know if mine is or isn't one?
Thanks,
Mike
 
What exactly is a second-party debit card?
How do I know if mine is or isn't one?
Thanks,
Mike

Hi Mike,

Any funds we receive for a trading account has to come from a bank account, credit card, or debit card in the trading account holders name. For example, if I have a trading account in the name of Jason Rogers, the funds will need to come from a bank account, credit card, or debit card in the name of Jason Rogers.

Second party (or third party) means the funds are not coming from a bank account, credit card, or debit card in the trading account holders name. For example, Mike "Trader" would not be able to deposit funds into Jason Rogers' trading account. You will not be able to add funds to my trading account. We are also unable to accept pre-paid cards because we can't trace that the funds are coming from a bank account in the account holders name. This is done to protect against money laundering.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Jason
 
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Hi Mike,

Any funds we receive for a trading account has to come from a bank account, credit card, or debit card in the trading account holders name. For example, if I have a trading account in the name of Jason Rogers, the funds will need to come from a bank account, credit card, or debit card in the name of Jason Rogers.

Second party (or third party) means the funds are not coming from a bank account, credit card, or debit card in the trading account holders name. For example, Mike "Trader" would not be able to deposit funds into Jason Rogers' trading account. You will not be able to add funds to my trading account. We are also unable to accept pre-paid cards because we can't trace that the funds are coming from a bank account in the account holders name. This is done to protect against money laundering.

Hope that clears things up a bit.

Jason


Thanks Jason. That is what I assumed it meant, but Pugg, above, said that the card that was refused was in his name, so I wonder what the problem was, unless it was prepaid.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Rogers View Post
If applying as a UK citizen, the micro account is opened with FXCM UK.

Jason, regarding your answer above on a different thread, is this UK based Micro account still classed as a spread betting account ( i.e no tax)or a normal account that will attract tax on any profits? The reason I ask is I have a FXCM Micro account with a few $100's sitting in it for a good few months but have not used it for a while since I assumed it was not a SB account and I'm from the UK . At present I use IG and day trade full time. Thanks
 
Jason, regarding your answer above on a different thread, is this UK based Micro account still classed as a spread betting account ( i.e no tax)or a normal account that will attract tax on any profits? The reason I ask is I have a FXCM Micro account with a few $100's sitting in it for a good few months but have not used it for a while since I assumed it was not a SB account and I'm from the UK . At present I use IG and day trade full time. Thanks

Hi silverpuma,

It is not classified as a spreadbet account, so it will be subject to UK taxes. I haven't heard of a reason as to why we don't offer micro accounts in the spreadbet variety, but I'll let the micro team know there have been some requests.

Only the standard 10k account can be opened as a spreadbet account. Minimum lot size being a 10k mini lot.

-Jason
 
Hi silverpuma,

It is not classified as a spreadbet account, so it will be subject to UK taxes. I haven't heard of a reason as to why we don't offer micro accounts in the spreadbet variety, but I'll let the micro team know there have been some requests.

Only the standard 10k account can be opened as a spreadbet account. Minimum lot size being a 10k mini lot.

-Jason
Ok Jason thanks for the info. One last question though, I trade using 2% of my capital per trade and with IG this allows me to be very exact like for example if my 2% risk equates to say £500 and my stop loss is 30 pips I can have a position size of £16.66. Is there away I can get close to this actual pip size using your "lot" approach. Or to say it another way on a 10K mini account can I open part lots like 16.6 lots? Thanks for your help thus far.......:)
 
Ok Jason thanks for the info. One last question though, I trade using 2% of my capital per trade and with IG this allows me to be very exact like for example if my 2% risk equates to say £500 and my stop loss is 30 pips I can have a position size of £16.66. Is there away I can get close to this actual pip size using your "lot" approach. Or to say it another way on a 10K mini account can I open part lots like 16.6 lots? Thanks for your help thus far.......:)

I see what you mean. You'll need to figure out how many lots should be traded so that a 30 pip move against you is equal to £500. I created a formula you can use to figure this out. You basically just have to plug in the figures you already have, as well as enter in the pip value found in the simple dealing rates window, and you have the number of lots. Let me know you an example using the 30 pip stop loss for £500 loss you mentioned above. We will also assume you are trading GBP/USD because the currency pair will determine the pip value.

1. This is the forumla:

formulam.png


Plug the numbers from your example into the formula:

formulawithnumbers.png


# of lots = 25.25

The formula is basically the same as the one you are using except that with FXCM you have to take into account the pip values to then determine how many lots to trade.

2. A couple things to consider:

I used the pip value for a standard (spreadbet) account which trades in increments of 10k. The lot size of 25.25 means you would trade 25.25 lots of 10k. It's not possible to trade fractions of a 10k lot in the spreadbet account, so the total number of 10k lots to be traded is 25. Total position size would be 250k.

If you work through the numbers again with 25 lots of 10k, your total loss on a 30 pip stop loss is £495. So close, but not exact since the smallest trade size is 10k and you're rounding to the nearest 10k.

I hope that helps.

-Jason
 
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