Hi all,
I have been trading the two major pair futures for a while, but have recently been looking to move onto 'real' Forex, i.e. the spots, both as this will give me more pairs to trade, and because many brokers tend to quote the spots rather than the futures.
I have come to understand that there are no one 'real' quote at any given time, but that it rather depends on what source or composite of sources you get your quotes from (albeit that they will vary little) due to the diverse nature of the beast that is Forex.
When getting specifc broker data from ex. Oanda or CMS, I will have a curve that looks the same as any curve out there, i.e. very 'liniar'; akind to the futures I am used to seeing (see pic ex. 1 from Oanda).
My problem comes when I use a general, non-broker data feed (in my case, I use eSignal) as the data will have virtually all (ok, maybe not all, but many) underlying sources, and will thus include all available bid/ask at a given time. This, on charts less than a day, will give very wide and constantly overlapping bars (see pic ex 2 from eSignal).
Although I understand - I think - the fundamental reason for this to be, it does make the wide tire track that is live Forex data on eSignal virtually useless for (intra-)day trading.
I could just sign up with a specific broker but I like the reliabilty and charting package I have from eSignal (notwithstanding having access to markets beside Forex).
So my question is really: How the heck do people get around this in practical, everyday terms? Or don't they? Have I misunderstood something fundamental, or is it just 'tough, move on'?
Any thoughts?
All the best...
Jyde
I have been trading the two major pair futures for a while, but have recently been looking to move onto 'real' Forex, i.e. the spots, both as this will give me more pairs to trade, and because many brokers tend to quote the spots rather than the futures.
I have come to understand that there are no one 'real' quote at any given time, but that it rather depends on what source or composite of sources you get your quotes from (albeit that they will vary little) due to the diverse nature of the beast that is Forex.
When getting specifc broker data from ex. Oanda or CMS, I will have a curve that looks the same as any curve out there, i.e. very 'liniar'; akind to the futures I am used to seeing (see pic ex. 1 from Oanda).
My problem comes when I use a general, non-broker data feed (in my case, I use eSignal) as the data will have virtually all (ok, maybe not all, but many) underlying sources, and will thus include all available bid/ask at a given time. This, on charts less than a day, will give very wide and constantly overlapping bars (see pic ex 2 from eSignal).
Although I understand - I think - the fundamental reason for this to be, it does make the wide tire track that is live Forex data on eSignal virtually useless for (intra-)day trading.
I could just sign up with a specific broker but I like the reliabilty and charting package I have from eSignal (notwithstanding having access to markets beside Forex).
So my question is really: How the heck do people get around this in practical, everyday terms? Or don't they? Have I misunderstood something fundamental, or is it just 'tough, move on'?
Any thoughts?
All the best...
Jyde
