Forex data - general or specific?

Jyde

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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
 

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Stay away from eSignal for FX. They have had many problems with theie muliple feeds, this is even spoken about by their own moderators on their own forum.
 
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Jyde said:
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 ditched Esignal for FX as the GTIS spiky data is useless for intraday. They do have Hotspot FX as a contributor now, so I've requested that they make that source ( and perhaps COes & FXCM) available as separate feeds. They said they'lll look into it. So maybe sometimes next century....
In the meantime I use a plug-in to feed data from any of the Metatrader MM's into my charting package. I trade with Oanda and the feed I use is pretty darn close to theirs.
If you use the Oanda API your hooked into their live feed. Some people hook Tradestation onto it.
 
Thank you both. Those are very clear and consise answers.

All the best...
Jyde
 
Certain charting packages like Intellicharts will let you choose your feed (ie Comstock or FXCM). For the most part it doesn't matter that much because they are only going to be a few pips off and your trading isn't going to be affected by your charts showing 114.21 when the market maker showed it as 114.23. Nearly all brokers offer free charts using their own feed anyway but those only have limited functionality.

Trader/God
 
I look at mytrack data in Sierra Charts, and the oanda simulator prices. Most of the time they track within a pip or 2 of each other. During announcements oanda almost always leads, and it takes mytrack 5-10 seconds to catch up. Looking back at one minute charts, you won't see the difference, but in real time, you just gotta trade the charts that come with the platform.

Now if you could find a pair of datafeeds where the trading platform lagged...... :devilish:

JO
 
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