Best Thread Capital Spreads

[darrenf]

Simon

I know you have answered this before and that "if done orders" are on your development list but....

Just to reiterate, If done orders are top of my wish list. You will definately have one more new account (ie mine) and no doubt countless others as soon as you can introduce this as no other sb company offers this as far as I am aware.

For me, the ability to set a stop/ limit to a pending order would add real value.

Please let me know as soon as this becomes available!

Cheers

 

[a0-0b]

I am surprised at all this knocking of Capital Spreads

Definately not knocking (on my part anyway). I'm relatively happy with the service (no other SB that i now of have API or ifDone) but i am extremely impressed by simons continued honesty and posting on the forum. That's one feature none of the other SB's can claim to my knowledge.

Simon,

Is it possible to publish expected dates for ifDone? You'll always get the critisism when your late but for most of us some indication would e appreciated (summer, end of year?).

If an API is out of the question (which it appears to be - and i appreciate the potential support nightmare) how about working with current charting/trading software companies to provide an alternative interface. What about quote tracker?

Andrew.

 

[LittleWhiteBull]

Simon

I too am very happy with Capital Spreads so far. The support I have been getting from Customer Service is good and they are very helpful and patient with me.

I'm not surprised you don't want to divulge your marketing strategy, I am surprised you were asked! But hey - don't ask, don't get.

Oh and what percentage of trades are wins for the punters at the moment, on average - don't want to say? now don't be shy!!!

 

[capitalspreads]

I am sorry but I cannot quote on percentage winners/losers but we have some big winners and some big losers. (or big as I would term it) . We are not out of line with the general market client performance which is reported ad nauseam from various day trader analysis reports.

Hopefully the 'if done' unit will be out before autumn.

Simon

 

[white_thought]

Hi Simon. I noticed that you now quote the Nikkei, how long have you offered this? Also, do you have any plans for offering Hang Seng or MIB30? Your trading platform is excellent.

 

[capitalspreads]

we only added the nikkei a few days ago and we only quote it during Chicago (CME) traing hours. As with nearly all our markets we will generally only quote markets that are actually 'open' . Therefore giving us the ability to hedge.

For this reason , unless we extend our trading hours we will not be quoting the Hang Seng. We are looking to add the MIB along with the other european markets very soon.

 

[hagadol]

Capital Spreads / Bias Of Price

While I have been generally happy with Capital Spreads, compared to some of the other companies, I have been getting hacked off at seeing their price always bias relative to the market in their favour.

While I am sure all brokers are at it, in this respect, how do the different companies compare ?

I notice that:

1. When the market moves in my favour, the price at Capital Spreads, can lag up to 5/6 ticks. However when the market moves against me suddenly they are ahead 2/3 ticks. Happens on all my trades , since I have been watching it. I have never noticed their price biased in my favour, even once.

2. Entries - When I try to enter a trade, if the price moves against me 1/2 ticks before their confirmation, I get entered. If it moves for me, before the confirmation, I get the "Price Has Expired" message.

Hagadol

 

[FetteredChinos]

i presume you are trying to trade the daily cash products on major indices? their price follows the futures +/- a fixed amount. this is why is darts around as the futures are more volatile.

if you dont like it, since virtually all the SB companies do the same, then trade direct access, or chart/trade the futures on the SB platform, or better still, move to FX lol

FC

 

[hagadol]

In recent weeks i have only been trading FX.

 

[a0-0b]

I had thought the prices were biased for a while too, but it was just a combination of:

Charts not matching the securities (i.e. stock charts for futures)
Delayed charts (when i bothered writing down the spreads and checking 15 minutes later they were fine).

Oh, yeah, and the fact that i'm using small ammounts of money and unless they have found a way of biasing everyones prices individually there is no way they would be interested in mine.

a0-0b

 

[hagadol]

I am sure it was be simple for a programmer to design a system, which biased the broker (not just Capital Spreads) depending on if client was in profit or debit on a trade.

Perhaps they offer different prices (bias) depending if you are long or short, relative to the market price offerings.

 

[a0-0b]

I am sure it was be simple for a programmer to design a system, which biased the broker (not just Capital Spreads) depending on if client was in profit or debit on a trade.

Perhaps they offer different prices (bias) depending if you are long or short, relative to the market price offerings.

Simply open two accounts or get in touch with someone else who has one to compare prices. I'm sure such an offering would be against FSA rules and is easy to check for.

 

[TheBramble]

The SB bias is not personal. They don't (AFAIAA) 'know' who is placing what bet at what level (unless you're a truly serious player).

They have an aggregate position which they bias based on their expectation of future market movement.

Don't forget - they're not hedging many (if any) of their punters' bets - they're normally taking the opposite side to the majority of their clients.

 

[sidinuk]

It would be impossible for the spreadbet companies to always bias their prices in the right direction, they don't know what's going to happen anymore than you or I. They merely follow the futures markets which move more quickly than the cash market.

2. Entries - When I try to enter a trade, if the price moves against me 1/2 ticks before their confirmation, I get entered. If it moves for me, before the confirmation, I get the "Price Has Expired" message.

]

This is the real scam. Why do you think they insist on all deals being manually executed by a dealer? Globex can match thousands of deals instantly every minute so why can't a spreadbet company do it? The difference is that Globex provides a fair market for buyers and sellers to deal with each other, the spreadbet companies are just bookmakers who take the other side of your bet and need to be sure that they can lay off your bet, if necessary, at a profit before they take it.

 

[capitalspreads]

Dear all

I realise that this is not the usual site for my comments but....

general comments would be .. it is impossible for us to bias prices against individual clients, our prices go out on to our platform and are available to all. Can you imagine the increase in data flow if we had to keep track of individual positions and then convert this into the price output for individual clients.

The Globex arguement is all very well but the difference is that, as you say, there has to be a buyer or seller on the otherside otherwise your deal will also not be done. If you try to sell and the price is hit before you then you will have 'nothing done' and you will then have to try to hit the new price ad nauseam. You may trade a 'market' order but this could end up with a much worse fill than you were expecting. In general the SB companies will accept nearly all trades whether or not market has moved a couple of pips in the meantime.

We accept that sometimes we refuse FX trades but this is normally only when the trade is actually outside the existing market spread. So if GBP?USD is at 1.7705-1.7710 and we get a buy trade at 1.7705 or lower we will not accept the trade but we do usually accept trades within the spread. We are at the mercy of bank FX feeds in the same way as everyone else. And FX has become incredibly volatile.

The perception that the price always moves faster against you than for you is just that 'a perception' . I have the same feeling when I am trying to get a hedge on, when I get it wrong the market always seems to move violently against me but never seems to do the same in my favour !!

Simon

 

[Gez]

Capital spreads

Can someone explain to me why the price with cs differs from what it actually is? What i mean is, i had a long position open at 9915 i waited for a 15 point gain before i closed thinking that after the spread i would have a 10 point win but the sell price quoted was 6 points higher than the market giving 4 point gain instead of 10, any clues?

 

[FetteredChinos]

Gez, the price was following the Dow futures price, so it doesnt always tally with what your charting package is telling you. there are about 30 threads on this site as to whether SB companies bias their prices etc. do a search for SB bias and you should be able to dig up a fuller explanation.

on another point, you were waiting for a 15 point gain before closing out your position? with 5pts taken for the spread, this will make you bankrupt in the future. you should try to target at least 5 times the spread as a profit target, or else transaction costs will slowly erode your account.

good luck with it all though

FC

 

[Gez]

Thanks Fettered,
I`m trying the scalping method at the moment which is why i was keen on CS as there tight spreads are ideal for this, thanks for the advice though.

Gez

 

[hagadol]

Simon / Capital Spreads

When I go into a position with you I usually watch the price on the charts provided by FXCM. Either:

http://www.dailyfx.com/FinanceChart.html

or in there Marketscope plug in they provide in their trading software.

When the price goes in my favour, the FXCM chart starts moving increasingly ahead bias of your spread. However when the price goes against me, your price always leads there chart by a few ticks.

This is not a "Perception" since I have watched this it happens on every postion, since I noted the difference.

Do you offer the same price to clients who are long a s short ?

As a general comment, note aimed at Capital Spreads, it would be extremely easy for a broker's programmers to offer one of two sets of price, to clients, depending on if they are long or short. Even if Capital Spreads offer the same price to all, I am sure you will agree, it is quite within the realms of possibility for a programmer and or broker to offer to seperately biased price / spreads.

Again today I tried to enter a position with you. Price went for me by a tick, system said could not enter (words to that effect). On second try price went against two ticks before confo and I got in. Is this fair ?

Hagadol

 

[capitalspreads]

I can only repeat once more that we do not bias prices in any way.

The technology would obviously be available to do so but would be counter productive as clients would soon see it happen and move elseware. Not only that, the really big arguement against it would be that it would enable clients to make small trades (£1 a point) wait for the bias to kick in then do a £20 a point trade the other way round at a very favourable rate !!
If you were to make completely random trades you would see that the price went in your favour as often as it went against in the seconds between trade and confirmation. The only time we do not accept trades is when the price is actually on or outside the spread quote by the time we get the trade through at our end. (and even then sometimes we do accept them anyway).

You must also be aware that the chart will probably be showing trades not bid/offer prices so that in a trending market our price may indeed seem to lag because if the chart is showing trades then if we are quoting 40/45 and a trade goes through somewhere in the world at 45 then immediately trades 48 our system may still be quoting 40/45 on your platform (because of delays due to the fact that we have to take this same information and put it out to you) but if you have the trade ticket open the delay should only be a second or two.