Zero Spread WorldSpreads

[Windowsill]

Surprising to offer zero spread on FSTE, DAX, etc, but still 2pt on Dow when a certain other SB co has had 1pt for months.

Who is the certain SB....?

 

[Tired_Of_Conmen]

Who is the certain SB....?

Think he means City Index/Finspreads. They are offering ongoing (it seems but who knows?) 1pt on Dow. But beware: I don't know about City, but Finspreads will eventually screw you out of winnings if you are winning time after time. You can't build an account with them. City you may be able to, I can't comment.

TOC

 

[Tired_Of_Conmen]

Dear Tired_Of_Conmen,

We have decided to offer 10 of our popular markets at zero spreads. We quote over 2,000 markets and there has been no change to the spreads on those. In our experience, clients trade a range of markets, so while we will clearly be earning less on the 10 'Zero Spreads' markets, we would hope clients will also trade other markets where we offer 'normal' spreads. So, while we are not a charity, as you correctly state, there is no catch.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

Hello! Thanks for the reply. That does sound great, you sound genuine enough. And I have read your other posts on this thread and seen that unless someone is trying to play price lag system beating tactics then you promise no dealing desk... also very good.

Can I then ask: what if a client ALWAYS stuck to these 0 spread markets and never traded anything else? Let's say for the next 10 years a trader never traded anything that your company can make a penny from in the spread. Any restrictions with this?

Thanks

TOC

 

[Ross Spur]

Think he means City Index/Finspreads. They are offering ongoing (it seems but who knows?) 1pt on Dow. But beware: I don't know about City, but Finspreads will eventually screw you out of winnings if you are winning time after time. You can't build an account with them. City you may be able to, I can't comment.

TOC

Your recent posts suggest you had a bad day ToC?!
Anyway, yes I did mean City, and Fins is more or less the same thing now in a different colour. I had fewer problems with Fins with 1pt Dow than others giving wider spreads, but no doubt it starts to go wrong when you try trading large stakes and short timeframes.

 

[gle101]

Hi Ross,

There is no dealer intervention for 'regular' traders, namely clients who have an opinion on the market, as opposed to clients who are simply trying to beat the system.

You use the term 'scalpers'. I guess it depends on what your definition of what a 'scalper' is. In my experience, this term is used interchangably between:

a) Short term traders who have a 1, 3, 5 or 10, (etc) minute view on where a price is going and try to profit from that; and

b) Traders who have no opinion on the market but try to generate a profit by dealing on system prices that may not be perfect (i.e. may lag the market by a second or so).


We are perfectly happy to offer clients who fit into the a) category above 'Zero Spreads', without Dealer Referral, but anyone who persistently tries to deal on slow prices will be placed on Dealer Referral.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

I have heard that one before.

 

[Crawsthorne]

Hi Arabianights,

We are only spread free on the 10 year Gilt at the moment. There isn't sufficient liquidity in the 2 year and 5 year to go zero spreads on those.

Regards,

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

I assume that consistent winners will remain on "Dealer referral" in order to retain Worldspread's edge? Out of interest when you put me on dealer referral, I was trading on my laptop from Portugal using a Vodafone 3G card - not exactly state of the art price feeds!

 

[gle101]

I guess Worldspreads are eager to go into the banking business.

 

[Ross Spur]

Apart from anything else, last time I tried it WS's platform was very slow and showed different prices in different windows.

 

[timaru69]

Ross,

I can tell you, sincerely, that we dont place clients on Dealer Referral without good reason and, for those that we do place on Dealer Referral are still quoted the market price. OK, it may take a couple of seconds longer, but we are only talking about a couple of seconds.

I do need to present the facts in relation to Dealer Referral and the concerns that clients have about prices being called against them. When a Trade pops up in front of our dealers, they are not aware whether a client is opening a new position or closing an existing one. If you are in any doubt about that, you are welcome to visit our offices and I will show you. All our dealer is interested in doing is quoting you a correct, two-sided price. If I thought I was being 'read' by a firm, I would simply sell if they called it up or buy if they called it down. With 1 points spreads, and now 0 point spreads, we simply cannot call the price away from the market price. We would be arbitraging ourselves.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

Hi again Conor

Can you be specific as to the reasons why people are put on Dealer Referral , is it only when WS believes a punter may be playing a price advantage due to data lag? Or are there other reasons?

Thanks again

T

 

[Conor Foley]

Just out of interest, do you have any plans to offer the zero spread on GBPUSD or the wall street 30?
on another note, I never fully understood why worldspreads opened up a trading as company called twowayspreads with almost similar software...

No plans to do that at the moment, San Miguel, but we will consider it in the future. We can't be 'best' on everything, although we are trying!

TwoWaySpreads is a partner of WorldSpreads. We provide them with an IT platform on an outsourced basis.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

 

[Conor Foley]

Hello! Thanks for the reply. That does sound great, you sound genuine enough. And I have read your other posts on this thread and seen that unless someone is trying to play price lag system beating tactics then you promise no dealing desk... also very good.

Can I then ask: what if a client ALWAYS stuck to these 0 spread markets and never traded anything else? Let's say for the next 10 years a trader never traded anything that your company can make a penny from in the spread. Any restrictions with this?

Thanks

TOC

It's a good question, TOC, and we do accept that it could happen. 'Zero Spreads' is not a 'loss leader' for us, in the way that a Tesco or a Sainsbury sell bread and milk at a loss, in the hope that you'll buy some caviar and champagne also. This is not actually costing us anything, aside from the extra administration that would be associated with the trades.

While the scenario you present could happen, and probably will happen in some instances, we don't believe it will be the norm and we're prepared to live with that.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

 

[Tired_Of_Conmen]

Your recent posts suggest you had a bad day ToC?!
Anyway, yes I did mean City, and Fins is more or less the same thing now in a different colour. I had fewer problems with Fins with 1pt Dow than others giving wider spreads, but no doubt it starts to go wrong when you try trading large stakes and short timeframes.

LOL nah not a bad day just trying to spare someone from suffering from the constant platform freeze of Finspeads when you seem to be doing well LOL!!

 

[Tired_Of_Conmen]

I assume that consistent winners will remain on "Dealer referral" in order to retain Worldspread's edge? Out of interest when you put me on dealer referral, I was trading on my laptop from Portugal using a Vodafone 3G card - not exactly state of the art price feeds!

Oooooooooooooo - the plot thickens................... :|

 

[Tired_Of_Conmen]

It's a good question, TOC, and we do accept that it could happen. 'Zero Spreads' is not a 'loss leader' for us, in the way that a Tesco or a Sainsbury sell bread and milk at a loss, in the hope that you'll buy some caviar and champagne also. This is not actually costing us anything, aside from the extra administration that would be associated with the trades.

While the scenario you present could happen, and probably will happen in some instances, we don't believe it will be the norm and we're prepared to live with that.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

Fair enough thanks for the answer!

 

[Conor Foley]

I assume that consistent winners will remain on "Dealer referral" in order to retain Worldspread's edge? Out of interest when you put me on dealer referral, I was trading on my laptop from Portugal using a Vodafone 3G card - not exactly state of the art price feeds!

Hi Crawsthorne,

My best guess is that the delay in your trade request coming from Portugal (through no fault of your own) meant that your trades were consistently being picked up as being inconsistent with our current price.

If you are in any doubt about our definitive position that 'Consistent winners are not automatically put on Dealer Referral', I am very happy for you to appoint an independent person to come in to the office and verify this. I will even pay for it! (Although I could then be accused of having a conflict of interest!)

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

 

[Conor Foley]

Apart from anything else, last time I tried it WS's platform was very slow and showed different prices in different windows.

Ross,

If you send me a screen shot with the issue you experienced about "different prices in different windows", I will happily look in to it for you.

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

 

[Conor Foley]

Hi again Conor

Can you be specific as to the reasons why people are put on Dealer Referral , is it only when WS believes a punter may be playing a price advantage due to data lag? Or are there other reasons?

Thanks again

T

No, you got it in one, T. It is only when we believe a client may be abusing a price advantage due to data lag. We give everyone the benefit of the doubt that it can happen innocently on a few occasions, but if it the behaviour is persistent, we have no choice. Believe me, we would prefer not to have to put anyone on Dealer Referral - it is extra work for us! The internet is not a perfect media. We're in the business of providing clients with the best prices and (hopefully!) the best customer service. We're not in the business of system lags!

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

 

[Crawsthorne]

Hi Crawsthorne,

My best guess is that the delay in your trade request coming from Portugal (through no fault of your own) meant that your trades were consistently being picked up as being inconsistent with our current price.

If you are in any doubt about our definitive position that 'Consistent winners are not automatically put on Dealer Referral', I am very happy for you to appoint an independent person to come in to the office and verify this. I will even pay for it! (Although I could then be accused of having a conflict of interest!)

Conor Foley
CEO
WorldSpreads

Conor

Thank you for your reply, althoough I think it an unlikely explanation because of:

1. The way I trade.
2. My data feed from Prorealtime and my other account with a major SB company were not affected by the use of a 3G card.

Like it or not, clearly Worldspreads has a reputation for discouraging clients who make money and personally, I think this is the biggest hurdle your company needs to overcome.

I think we all appreciate the increasing trend for company representatives to take an active part in these debates and for that I am grateful.

Regards

Charles

 

[ffsear]

What has the way you trade or pro real time got to do with it? He's talking about the lag time between the price you see on your screen in Portugal, and the time the order hits the W/S servers..

News flash!!! Prices move!

Like you said yourself...."not exactly state of the art price feeds"

 

[Crawsthorne]

What has the way you trade or pro real time got to do with it? He's talking about the lag time between the price you see on your screen in Portugal, and the time the order hits the W/S servers..

News flash!!! Prices move!

Like you said yourself...."not exactly state of the art price feeds"

I am not going to be drawn into an argument, but I will say that I own a successful IT company as well as monitoring ping rates etc and I do not believe that the time lag would be significant. Anyway, I am quite happy with my current provider and am unlikely to return to Worldspreads.