Best Thread FXCM Discussion

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason, thank you for sharing this information.

Could you clarify the meaning of the Transactions window in Market Behaviour Indicators? What are the units on the y-axis and what is the meaning of 1,038?

Many thanks in advance,
George

Hi George,

The Transactions Indicator shows the sum of individual tickets executed during a specified period.

For example:

• Client A opens 10K EUR/USD, closes 10K EUR/USD = two transactions
• Client B opens 10K EUR/USD, closes 5K EUR/USD, closes 5K EUR/USD = three transactions
• Total Transactions: Five

Below is a video walkthrough of FXCM's five new volume-based indicators: Real Volume, Transactions, Directional Real Volume, On Balance Real Volume and Market Movers Index.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason,
following our exchange re GBPAUD & GBPNZD recently. Looking at my GBPNZD 5M chart this morning, I see that the high-low range of the 5M candle on the RBNZ rate announcement was a around 490 pips.

I cannot recall whether this is typical of the volatility in that pair at the time of RBNZ announcements. My understanding is that the FXCM bid-ask are a pure derivative of the prices from all of FXCM's liquidity providers.

Could you comment as to whether generally speaking the volatility in prices on news releases has increased over recent months/years? I have heard the idea that increases in post-news volatility may be due to the a reduction in prop trading done by banks, thus sucking liquidity from the markets. It would be great if you could comment about that.

Hi George,

On FXCM's No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution, the bid and ask prices you see on your platform are the best quotes we receive from competing liquidity providers.

Liquidity in both GBP/AUD and GBP/NZD has become more erratic recently, particularly during news events like the RBNZ announcement. That is why we informed you of our decision to increase margin requirements and decrease the maximum order size for those two currency pairs specifically: http://www.trade2win.com/boards/forex/71234-fxcm-dailyfx-signals-strategies-110.html#post2663610

That's something to keep in mind when trading GBP/AUD and GBP/NZD.

[As a sidenote, I have been using FXCM for many years. One of the big reasons for it is the responsiveness of the staff and my ability to get hold of someone on the telephone if I have a question.]

Our goal is to provide you with excellent customer service. I'm glad you are pleased.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Happy Holidays From FXCM

The holidays are coming fast, so I want to make sure you are aware of our special forex trading hours for Christmas and New Year's:

Click here for CFD Holiday Trading Hours. (CFD trading is not available to US residents.)
Click here for the Holiday Rollover Schedule.

Aside from Christmas and New Year's, FXCM's live customer support team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Trading Desk opens Sundays between 22:00 and 22:15 GMT and closes Fridays at 21:55 GMT.

FXCM encourages you to review and update your account profile on an annual basis to ensure the information within your profile is accurate and up to date. To ensure accurate account information, please log in to MyFXCM.com with your live account log-in details and make any necessary changes under "Account Information."

Our service includes products that are traded on margin and carry a risk of losses in excess of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

 

[Jason Rogers]

I will be out of the office for the Christmas holiday and will reply to your posts and private messages when I return on December 30th. Our holiday hours are listed in my previous post. If you require immediate assistance, please contact our live customer support team: http://bit.ly/1ilO0qa

For all of you celebrating Christmas, I wish you a happy one!

Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward All!

 

[Jason Rogers]

I just received the following heads up from DailyFX senior strategist David Rodriguez:

As a quick note, please be aware that rollover charges are especially elevated tonight [5pm New York time rollover] for the GBP, EUR, and JPY. It is near-identical to last year, when a sharp drop in available liquidity forced interbank Forward rates to deviate substantially from their typical spread to spot prices.

In short: strong demand for overnight lending in JPY, GBP, and EUR has been met with short supply, and pricing has surged accordingly.

See the article from last year for reference, while I’ve attached some Bloomberg screens from today for further illustration.​

GBP/USD Rolls

source: Bloomberg


EUR/USD Rolls

source: Bloomberg


USD/JPY Rolls

source: Bloomberg​

 

[Jason Rogers]

I will be out of the office until January 4th and will reply to your posts and private messages when I return. Our New Year's holiday hours are listed in my post quoted below. If you require immediate assistance, please contact our live customer support team: http://bit.ly/1ilO0qa

I wish all of you a blessed and prosperous new year!

The holidays are coming fast, so I want to make sure you are aware of our special forex trading hours for Christmas and New Year's:

Click here for CFD Holiday Trading Hours. (CFD trading is not available to US residents.)
Click here for the Holiday Rollover Schedule.

Aside from Christmas and New Year's, FXCM's live customer support team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Trading Desk opens Sundays between 22:00 and 22:15 GMT and closes Fridays at 21:55 GMT.

FXCM encourages you to review and update your account profile on an annual basis to ensure the information within your profile is accurate and up to date. To ensure accurate account information, please log in to MyFXCM.com with your live account log-in details and make any necessary changes under "Account Information."

Our service includes products that are traded on margin and carry a risk of losses in excess of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Update to Trading Station Desktop

Just a quick heads up: a new version of Trading Station Desktop is now available.

That means the next time you log into the platform after this weekend, it will automatically update you to the latest version. If don't want to wait, then you can install the new version now: http://bit.ly/1O20wZ1

It was first released on 21 December 2015, so if you installed the platform after that date, then you already have the latest version.

New features include Stop-Limit orders, multiple Marketscope charting windows and the ability to save multiple logins. Please let me know if you have any questions about the update.

Our service includes products that are traded on margin and carry a risk of losses in excess of your deposited funds. The products may not be suitable for all investors. Please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.

 

[Jason Rogers]

CNH rolls surge as China gets more aggressive in deterring speculation

DailyFX quantitative strategist David Rodriguez sent me the following alert this morning:

"overnight rollover charges in the USD/CNH have surged as the PBOC has unofficially made it substantially more expensive to hold CNH-short positions. This is consistent with their preference to defend the CNH against speculation, and theres no question that they're feeling the heat on the surge in the CNH vs CNY spread. (more on that here)"

image source: Bloomberg

Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.​

 

[Wicked_Daddy]

Jason,

I just updated my Trading Station yesterday, at a prompt upon starting it. This was a surprise, as I had received no communication from FXCM. But no biggie.

The issue I have is that the Traders Dynamic Index indicator has been removed from my suite of indicators. All my templates that included this no longer display it. I went to FXCM Apps to reacquire it - it doesn't exist. Why?

It's not really a big deal. I can make my own and the tools in Trading Station make it pretty easy to create a replica. But the pre-made one was convenient.

Edit: I also just noticed that the shift indicator tool is gone. So I can no longer shift an MA forward. What's up with that?

Also, how do I remove an indicator from the "add indicator" menu? There are a couple that depended on the TDI and they no longer work because the data is absent.

Thanks.

 

[Jason Rogers]

The issue I have is that the Traders Dynamic Index indicator has been removed from my suite of indicators. All my templates that included this no longer display it. I went to FXCM Apps to reacquire it - it doesn't exist. Why?

Hi WD,

You can download a copy of the Traders Dynamic Index from FxCodeBase.com to install on your Trading Station Desktop: http://bit.ly/1RLxnUe

I also just noticed that the shift indicator tool is gone. So I can no longer shift an MA forward. What's up with that?

Below are some shift indicators you can install on Trading Station Desktop:

• Zero Lag Moving Average from FXCMapps.com http://bit.ly/1OTXVA6
• Multiple search results from FxCodeBase.com http://bit.ly/1WflzbN

 

[Wicked_Daddy]

Hi WD,

You can download a copy of the Traders Dynamic Index from FxCodeBase.com to install on your Trading Station Desktop: http://bit.ly/1RLxnUe



Below are some shift indicators you can install on Trading Station Desktop:

• Zero Lag Moving Average from FXCMapps.com http://bit.ly/1OTXVA6
• Multiple search results from FxCodeBase.com http://bit.ly/1WflzbN

None of this helps. I have the TDI in folder of original downloads and it will not import into Trading Station. I get an error. Tech support says to uninstall/reinstall the platform. Done it twice, that doesn't work.

The shift indicator functions are not located in any of the threads you sent. They used to be standard functions in Trading Station and now they are not, nor are they in the FXCM Apps catalog.

Really poor. Really frustrating.

 

[Jason Rogers]

None of this helps. I have the TDI in folder of original downloads and it will not import into Trading Station.

Have you tried installing the Traders Dynamic Index from the link I provided?

The shift indicator functions are not located in any of the threads you sent.

The links I gave you were for alternative shift indicators, not the same one. Perhaps one of them will provide the functionality you're after.

 

[Wicked_Daddy]

Have you tried installing the Traders Dynamic Index from the link I provided?

Yes, I downloaded it from your link and attempted installation on a different PC as as well with a fresh install of TS. No results.

I'm going to assume that (for reasons I can't figure out) the TDI, shift indicator and shift oscillator functions have been omitted in the new release. That sucks. I can make a TDI using the RSI and some MAs. Inconvenient but no biggie. But I would not expect FXCM to be taking away features in a newer version of TS. Quite the opposite should be the case.

 

[Jason Rogers]

I'm going to assume that (for reasons I can't figure out) the TDI, shift indicator and shift oscillator functions have been omitted in the new release. That sucks. I can make a TDI using the RSI and some MAs. Inconvenient but no biggie. But I would not expect FXCM to be taking away features in a newer version of TS. Quite the opposite should be the case.

Our developers indicated to me that the old versions of those two indicators were somehow incompatible with the latest updates made to Trading Station charts. However, I've let them know of your interest in seeing these indicators return, so perhaps they will be able to add new versions of them in a future update to the platform.

I'm glad you were able to find a workaround in the meantime.

 

[Wicked_Daddy]

Our developers indicated to me that the old versions of those two indicators were somehow incompatible with the latest updates made to Trading Station charts. However, I've let them know of your interest in seeing these indicators return, so perhaps they will be able to add new versions of them in a future update to the platform.

I'm glad you were able to find a workaround in the meantime.

Good to know I'm not crazy (though some would argue that). Thanks Jason. I figured out how to set the parameters in the Ichimoku indicator to create a time shifted MA without all the other Ichimoku stuff (although I like Ichi for some things).

I do like the flexibility of the indicator parameters on TS. Very customizable.

 

[options-george]

Hi Jason.

Yesterday I received an email from FXCM advising that they will introduce price decimalization on index CFD's.

Could you shed some more light on this development? I am interested to know who actually asked for this to be introduced. Do you think it will benefit retail traders, or will it actually disadvantage them since it could allow low-latency traders to exploit the decimalization (as seems to have happened with the introduction of 4 decimal point pricing on US equities some time ago)?

Will this mean that orders on CFD's can be entered to 2 decimal points? I am curious to know how SPX500 could be going to 2 decimal points. My understanding was that the underlying futures contract on the CME has specific tick increments.

Would you be ok to comment on whether FXCM is selling its retail order flow to any high-frequency trading firms, in the way that many other US brokers have done in recent years (assuming that Michael Lewis has stated the situation correctly in his recent "Flash Boys" publication)?

I do apologise for being direct with my questioning in this post - if you feel it's too direct, please do PM and I am happy to rephrase and/or tone it down a notch. In any case, I very much value your existence on the forum here

 

[Oscar Reed]

Hi Jason

Why are your deal tickets showing no price in bold.

Was like it on Monday also.

Only seems to be on index markets.

Thanks
Oscar

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason.

Yesterday I received an email from FXCM advising that they will introduce price decimalization on index CFD's.

Could you shed some more light on this development?

Hi Jason

Why are your deal tickets showing no price in bold.

Was like it on Monday also.

Only seems to be on index markets.

Thanks
Oscar

Hi George and Oscar,

Over the next few weeks we will be decimalizing these instruments:

• US30
• SPX500
• NAS100
• UK100
• FRA40
• GER30
• HKG33
• AUS200
• EUSTX50
• USOil
• UKOil
• NGAS

That means the CFD prices will be quoted to two decimal places. The pip value itself will remain the same.

Decimalised pricing on CFDs allows you to trade with:

• Increased precision in stop orders
• Increased transparency as the pricing will more accurately reflect the underlying market

Do you think it will benefit retail traders, or will it actually disadvantage them since it could allow low-latency traders to exploit the decimalization (as seems to have happened with the introduction of 4 decimal point pricing on US equities some time ago)?

CFD decimalization will benefit FXCM clients as shown in this example:

Suppose the DAX price is 9713.48 and you are long GER30 with a stop at 9713.00. Previously, with no decimalization, you would have been stopped out of your trade, because the price would have rounded down to 9713. With decimalised quotes, however, you can still be in this trade.

Will this mean that orders on CFD's can be entered to 2 decimal points? I am curious to know how SPX500 could be going to 2 decimal points. My understanding was that the underlying futures contract on the CME has specific tick increments.

Index futures contracts as their name implies have you speculating on the future price of an underlying index. By contrast, FXCM Enhanced Index CFDs allow you to speculate on the spot rate instead, and the S&P 500 is quoted to two decimal places: http://us.spindices.com/indices/equity/sp-500

Would you be ok to comment on whether FXCM is selling its retail order flow to any high-frequency trading firms, in the way that many other US brokers have done in recent years (assuming that Michael Lewis has stated the situation correctly in his recent "Flash Boys" publication)?

The problems you describe with equities don't exist with FXCM. That's because unlike the HFT firms trading stocks, the liquidity providers on our No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution are only allowed to act as market makers in competition with each other, not our clients.

Our liquidity providers can post bids and offers indicating where our clients can sell and buy respectively, but cannot act as customers themselves to hit bids and offers ahead of our own clients. This setup allows FXCM clients to benefit from price competition instead of suffer from it.

That said, it's important to note that while FXCM offers NDD execution for forex, we act as a market maker for CFDs. However, similar principles of price competition apply, since we source quotes from different liquidity providers to offset our own risk.

I do apologise for being direct with my questioning in this post - if you feel it's too direct, please do PM and I am happy to rephrase and/or tone it down a notch. In any case, I very much value your existence on the forum here

It's my pleasure to answer any questions for you that I can about FXCM. If you ever have questions beyond my expertise (they exist :smart then I will still do my best to direct you to the appropriate resource.

 

[options-george]

Hi Jason,
many thanks for your detailed reply - that's very appreciated.

Could you clarify further as to the handling of CFD products in which FXCM acts as the market-maker?

Would it be possibly for you to draw a picture of how FXCM, the client (e.g. me!) and the liquidity providers fit together? What exactly happens when I put an order into the market? And how does this situation differ from when I trade the fx instruments?

Many thanks in advance

 

[hhiusa]

It's my pleasure, George

On the No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution model, FXCM offsets each client order one-for-one with the best prices from competing liquidity providers.

FXCM believes the NDD model is the most fair and transparent to provide to traders which is why we have offered NDD forex execution since 2006. That was when we were first able to convince forex liquidity providers to offset individual client orders as small as one mini lot. In 2012, we extended our NDD forex execution to include micro lot orders.

In contrast to the NDD forex execution we provide to traders on all standard FXCM accounts, we are the market maker for CFD products. That means we act as the buyer when you sell and the seller when you buy a CFD. This requires the dealing desk to manage the risk on the other side of your orders.

One way they can do this is by offsetting internally. That means offsetting your buy orders with sell orders placed by other traders, and offsetting your sell orders with buy orders placed by others. If there are more buy orders than sell orders, or vice versa, then the dealing desk can offset the difference externally with our liquidity providers.

While we haven't yet been able to set up an NDD arrangement with CFD liquidity providers for the order sizes our clients demand (we offer micro lot CFD trading and a $50 account minimum, it is something we hope to offer in the future, and CFD decimalization can be an important step in that direction.

You never answered my question in this thread thoroughly.

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/general-trading-chat/212984-what-slippage-normal-stats-my-4621-trades-2.html#post2698054