FXCM: CFD Trading

[Jason Rogers]

Last Thursday, FXCM released CFD's for major stock indices, oil, gold, and silver. Please feel free to use the thread to provide any feedback if you use the demo or trade CFD's with FXCM on a live account. CFD Trading with FXCM.

 

[spreadbetor]

Just opened a CFD account, have to say its pretty impressive not to have requotes! Well worth a try!

 

[oilman1]

just opened an account with FXCM, very impressive software and charting. i have accounts all over and it beats all the competition.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Thanks for the feedback thus far everybody. One thing that has been mentioned recently is the size of the CFD contract...too large. For example, to trade oil the minimum position size is 5 requiring $2,000 in margin. We will be decreasing the minimum trade size and margin requirement for oil and other contracts most likely this weekend. I'll post an update on Monday with exact details.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Lower Minimum Trade Size

It took a week longer than I anticipated, but the minimum trade size for almost all of our CFD contracts has been lowered. This makes it easier to manage positions rather than having to trade such a large size. Here is where you can find the new minimum trade sizes CFD Product Details

And you can test a CFD demo account by registering Here.

 

[brendansvest]

How much are your commissions?

 

[Jason Rogers]

How much are your commissions?

Hi brendansvest,

There are no commissions for our CFD trading. The cost will be the spread. Please check here for the target spread on each product: CFD Product Details . For some of the contracts, you will see it listed as 2(4). This indicates the spread target is 2 during peak trading times and will increase to 4 outside of the most active trading times.

For example, the spread on the UK 100 can vary from 2 to 4 pips. If you trade one lot, then each pip is worth 1 pound, so the cost would be 2 to 4 pounds depending on the spread.

Note: Finance charges. All open positions at 5 p.m. (New York time) are rolled forward to the next trading day. If you hold a long (buy) position then you will be charged financing (LIBOR +3%) to roll the position, and if you are short you may receive financing (LIBOR -3%).

 

[brendansvest]

Ok, so you only offer indices, gold etc. No individual equities?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Ok, so you only offer indices, gold etc. No individual equities?

If you trade an individual equity, please let me know what it is, and I'll let the trading desk know there is demand for it. Our CFD offering has no re-quotes. Here is a complete list of the CFD products currently available:

Stock Indices:
US30
SPX500
NAS100
UK100
GER30
ITA30
ESP35
FRA40
HKG33
JPN225
AUS200

Commodities:
USOil

Metals:
XAU/USD
XAG/USD

Product guide: http://www.fxcm.co.uk/docs_pdfs/cfd_product_guide.pdf

 

[brendansvest]

Ok, so if you offered individual equities would there be a commission charge or would you be making a spread? Also would there be no re-quote on individual equities?

In respect of the no re-quote if I bought FTSE uk100 @ £1000 per point I would be filled at the current offer price?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Ok, so if you offered individual equities would there be a commission charge or would you be making a spread? Also would there be no re-quote on individual equities?

In respect of the no re-quote if I bought FTSE uk100 @ £1000 per point I would be filled at the current offer price?

For individual equities, I haven't heard of any specifics being discussed yet, so all of the following information is unofficial. I don't see us adding a commission on top of the spread being charged if/when we offer individual equities, and I don't see any reason why we wouldn't apply the same no-requote policy to individual equities. The policy will be laid out when we decide to start offering individual equities. I personally don't see individual equities happening within the next month or two, but I will make sure to provide an update when it does occur.

While there are no re-quotes, slippage is possible. I spoke with the trading desk about your question to get more details. The most common instance of slippage occurs on a stop order being slipped to the open price upon market open. For larger orders, your order will be filled at the underlying market rate so for your example with £1000 per point there could be slippage in order to fill it at the underlying market rate. What I would recommend is that if you trade substantial sizes, set the order type to market range = 0 that way the order will not experience slippage but be rejected instead in the event it has to be filled at a different price.

The policy of no re-quotes is intended to make trading as fast and efficient as possible without having to wait for confirmation of a trade or a re-quote. We've re-quotes to be one of the top frustrations for CFD traders in that you lose a lot of valuable time in making trading decisions.

 

[Broco]

CFDs on futures, indices, us shares etc.

there is another broker that gives you a chance to trade CFDs on futures, indices, us shares etc.
they offer 0.01 lot trading with only $100 to start
unlimited time demo platform
swap-free accounts and 1:200 leverage and so on

do not want to make any commercial, so if anybody is interested visit my homepage

 

[Jason Rogers]

Update on FXCM's CFD products...

The spread for some of our CFD products was reduced last week. Here's the list of product's with new spread:

USOil
Old: 8
New: 5

SPX 500
Old: 8
New: 5

NAS100
Old: 3
New: 2

UK 100
Old: 2 (4)
New: 2 (3)

GER30
Old: 2 (4)
New: 2 (3)

FRA40
Old: 4
New: 2 (3)

JPN225
Old: 25
New: 15

AUS200
Old: 4
New: 2 (4)

We're also in the process of beta testing CFD trading on the MT4 platform. Look for that to be released within the next couple of months once the beta testing is complete!

-Jason

 

[kalott]

Re: Lower Minimum Trade Size

It took a week longer than I anticipated, but the minimum trade size for almost all of our CFD contracts has been lowered. This makes it easier to manage positions rather than having to trade such a large size. Here is where you can find the new minimum trade sizes CFD Product Details

And you can test a CFD demo account by registering Here.

The margin for 1 GER30 is 6 735 usd on the demo

Is it 90 usd on a real account?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Re: Lower Minimum Trade Size

The margin for 1 GER30 is 6 735 usd on the demo

Is it 90 usd on a real account?

Hi Kalott,

I tested a demo account just now and it's showing $90 as the margin requirement for 1 GER30. Are you seeing 6 735 usd in the MMR (Minimum Margin Requirement) column of the simple dealing rates window? If so, can you send me a private message with your demo username and I can have this investigated. Below is a screenshot of the demo and where to find the MMR column.

 

[kalott]

In metatrader it looks like this

 

[Jason Rogers]

In metatrader it looks like this

Thanks for posting the screenshot! I was able to replicate the problem on my side with the Metatrader demo and will have our technical support team investigate and resolve this problem.

I will post again once I have confirmation it has been resolved.

-Jason

 

[kalott]

Never mind, i use trading station instead its better than metatrader

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/tra...m-trading-station-platform-3.html#post1454588

 

[kalott]

Chart EURUSD

 

[Jason Rogers]

UK100 and GER30 Spreads

As of April 3, the spread for UK100 and GER30 has been reduced from 2(3) to 1(2). This means the tightest spread possibly offered throughout the day will be 1 pip. Here's a screenshot of the UK100 and GER30 taken a few minutes ago: