Best Thread FXCM Discussion

[hhiusa]

I'm not judging you on your trading ability. I'm not judging you on anything. but it is pretty funny the way you bang on about knowing everything about everything and then show an example where you pay 10 pips commission (and not realise it) on a trade size of 25p per point. I think that's pretty funny, i'd be too embarrassed to do that

How ironic. You were the one who decided to reply with a sarcastic remark. It is funny that you mention jumping to conclusion. Nowhere did I say that I did not realize it. I opened and closed a trade for illustration purposes. It is not my fault that you have trouble with math. I am charged 0.2 basis points * trade value or $2.00. Your math skills amuse me.

I think its also funny that you jump to conclusions often. You chastise me for not trading and question why i'm here. You don't think that anyone could have a genuine motive for being here but assume that everyone here is a doofus and needs to be corrected by you. Have you ever considered that when I told you I don't trade that I may have been referring to my personal account and not my professional life.

I have done more trades in the first 5 days of this month than you have probably done in a life time. If you have done more than 100,000 trades in your lifetime then I am wrong, but I doubt you have. I haven't fallen the right way up in to a nice position at work, I set up and established an FCA regulated trading company from scratch and became profitable 8 months later.

And here come the evasion tactics. You must be taking lessons from F. Apparently, you have not heard of quality not quantity.

Apparently, you have not heard of swinging trading.

You keep trading your 25p per point and correcting all of us on here when we're wrong and I'll keep running the offices of my company in 4 countries trying to keep my thousands of clients happy

Someone who really ran a multinational corporation would not behave like you. That last statement is like a child throwing a tantrum.

 

[Oscar Reed]

 

[hhiusa]

It looks like your Iress account is doing well.

 

[Oscar Reed]

Not a great Friday for FXCM.
And there changing name.
Maybe the new name will be Jason Rogers.
Have a small account with them and like there platform.
But will have to review the changes and how it effects Aussie clients
Before I decide to stay with them.
Hopefully JR will update us all.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fxcm-re...xtend-credit-accord-swings-to-loss-1457650497

 

[hhiusa]

Not a great Friday for FXCM.
And there changing name.
Maybe the new name will be Jason Rogers.
Have a small account with them and like there platform.
But will have to review the changes and how it effects Aussie clients
Before I decide to stay with them.
Hopefully JR will update us all.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/fxcm-re...xtend-credit-accord-swings-to-loss-1457650497

That does look like insolvency is around the bend. I would imagine that it affects Aussie clients differently than Americans; possibly even worse.

I remember you said that IB would use client funds to trade for their own accord.

 

[Oscar Reed]

They look fine with the Leucadia support.
Pull that loan then there would be a problem.

There balance sheet is better than the Eurozone.
And some Brit's want to stay with it, madness.
Just keep printing and hope to find growth and inflation(theft).

http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...XCM_Q4_2015_Earnings_Presentation_-_FINAL.PDF

 

[hhiusa]

There balance sheet is better than the Eurozone.
And some Brit's want to stay with it, madness.
Just keep printing and hope to find growth and inflation(theft).

Absolutely. :clap:

JR has not been seen in a while. "FXCM must cut non-core spending". I hope he didn't lose his job with all the non-core spending cuts.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Not a great Friday for FXCM.
And there changing name.
Maybe the new name will be Jason Rogers.
Have a small account with them and like there platform.
But will have to review the changes and how it effects Aussie clients
Before I decide to stay with them.
Hopefully JR will update us all.

Hi Oscar,

To clarify, the public company (FXCM Inc.) will change its name and ticker symbol (NYSE: FXCM) as we announced this in the press release which included full details of our restructure with Leucadia, however FXCM the broker will not change its name at all. We will still remain FXCM within all of our entities.

The stock price is a reflection of shareholder value as a result of the Leucadia loan. While I can't personally comment on it beyond citing info that's already publicly available, below is an excerpt from a LeapRate article on the topic:

"most of the overall writeoff/loss is non cash and non operational, and has nothing to do with FXCMs operations and corporate health, but rather with accounting charges FXCM needs to take due to US GAAP accounting rules thanks to the future benefit that FXCM gave up to Leucadia."

The key point here is that the terms of the Leucadia loan impact FXCM shareholders, not FXCM account holders. Despite the events of 15 January 2015, FXCM's capitalization remains at levels similar to before the SNB flash crash: http://bit.ly/1poAYvd

You asked how this affects Aussie clients. While ASIC does not publish monthly financial data on forex brokers, the latest financial data from the CFTC show traders continue to have more money on deposit with FXCM than any other US-regulated forex broker.

If you have any additional questions regarding the stock, you're welcome to contact our Investor Relations department: http://bit.ly/1SEYg7W

 

[hhiusa]

Hi Oscar,

To clarify, the public company (FXCM Inc.) will change its name and ticker symbol (NYSE: FXCM) as we announced this in the press release which included full details of our restructure with Leucadia, however FXCM the broker will not change its name at all. We will still remain FXCM within all of our entities.

The stock price is a reflection of shareholder value as a result of the Leucadia loan. While I can't personally comment on it beyond citing info that's already publicly available, below is an excerpt from a LeapRate article on the topic:

"most of the overall writeoff/loss is non cash and non operational, and has nothing to do with FXCMs operations and corporate health, but rather with accounting charges FXCM needs to take due to US GAAP accounting rules thanks to the future benefit that FXCM gave up to Leucadia."

The key point here is that the terms of the Leucadia loan impact FXCM shareholders, not FXCM account holders. Despite the events of 15 January 2015, FXCM's capitalization remains at levels similar to before the SNB flash crash: http://bit.ly/1poAYvd

You asked how this affects Aussie clients. While ASIC does not publish monthly financial data on forex brokers, the latest financial data from the CFTC show traders continue to have more money on deposit with FXCM than any other US-regulated forex broker.

If you have any additional questions regarding the stock, you're welcome to contact our Investor Relations department: http://bit.ly/1SEYg7W

You are comparing apples with oranges. FXCM is a CFD only broker. Several brokers including Interactive Brokers offer access to the physical Forex market.

Stockholders and the shareprice will affect account holders. Do you have customers funds in segregated accounts? If FXCM defaults upon its loan payments, can it return all of its customers' funds and do it without a hassle?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Do you have customers funds in segregated accounts?

FXCM is one of the only retail forex brokers in the world to be regulated on three continents. The provisions that regulators have in place to protect client money vary from region to region.

In the UK, client funds are segregated in accordance with FCA and they are insured for up to £50,000 per client by the Financial Services Protection Scheme. In Canada, client funds are segregated in accordance with IIROC rules and they are insured for up to $1 milllion per client by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. In Australia, client funds are segregated in accordance with ASIC rules, but there is no insurance for accounts comparable to what is found in the UK or Canada.

Your forum profile mentions that you live in the US like me . It’s worth noting that there is no legislation in this country to protect US forex accounts either through client funds segregation or insurance. That makes it all the more important for US traders to evaluate the financials of any broker before trading with them. In light of this, it shows a great vote of confidence by US retail traders that they have more money on deposit with FXCM US than any other US-regulated forex broker.

If FXCM defaults upon its loan payments, can it return all of its customers' funds and do it without a hassle?

Leucadia is getting an ownership stake in FXCM so defaulting on the loan would be a default on itself. That said, it's still our priority to repay the loan in full by selling non-core assets as previously mentioned.

Furthermore, since we are a publicly-traded company, traders have access to information about the Leucadia deal. By contrast, most other forex brokers are privately-held companies, so it's hard to know how much debt they have on their books or the state of their finances.

We believe in making our financials transparent so that clients and potential traders know about the performance and health of FXCM as a company. We also believe all traders should be asking his or her broker some pivotal questions regarding the company's financial stability. FXCM's financials are audited by Ernst & Young, which is one of the top four ranked accounting firms in the world.

As of November 5, 2015:

• Adjusted Q3/15 revenues of $59.6 million
• Adjusted EBITDA from continuing and discontinued operations of $5.2 million
• $254.3 million in operating cash
• $713.2 million in customer equity
• 178,273 active retail FX accounts
• Regulatory capital surplus of $85.1 million

For a full in-depth look at FXCM's financials, recent press releases, monthly customer trading metrics and SEC filings, please visit our Investor Relations page: http://bit.ly/ZOCB0Y

 

[hhiusa]

FXCM is one of the only retail forex brokers in the world to be regulated on three continents. The provisions that regulators have in place to protect client money vary from region to region.

In the UK, client funds are segregated in accordance with FCA and they are insured for up to £50,000 per client by the Financial Services Protection Scheme. In Canada, client funds are segregated in accordance with IIROC rules and they are insured for up to $1 milllion per client by the Canadian Investor Protection Fund. In Australia, client funds are segregated in accordance with ASIC rules, but there is no insurance for accounts comparable to what is found in the UK or Canada.

Your forum profile mentions that you live in the US like me . It’s worth noting that there is no legislation in this country to protect US forex accounts either through client funds segregation or insurance. That makes it all the more important for US traders to evaluate the financials of any broker before trading with them. In light of this, it shows a great vote of confidence by US retail traders that they have more money on deposit with FXCM US than any other US-regulated forex broker.

Leucadia is getting an ownership stake in FXCM so defaulting on the loan would be a default on itself. That said, it's still our priority to repay the loan in full by selling non-core assets as previously mentioned.

Furthermore, since we are a publicly-traded company, traders have access to information about the Leucadia deal. By contrast, most other forex brokers are privately-held companies, so it's hard to know how much debt they have on their books or the state of their finances.

We believe in making our financials transparent so that clients and potential traders know about the performance and health of FXCM as a company. We also believe all traders should be asking his or her broker some pivotal questions regarding the company's financial stability. FXCM's financials are audited by Ernst & Young, which is one of the top four ranked accounting firms in the world.

As of November 5, 2015:

• Adjusted Q3/15 revenues of $59.6 million
• Adjusted EBITDA from continuing and discontinued operations of $5.2 million
• $254.3 million in operating cash
• $713.2 million in customer equity
• 178,273 active retail FX accounts
• Regulatory capital surplus of $85.1 million

For a full in-depth look at FXCM's financials, recent press releases, monthly customer trading metrics and SEC filings, please visit our Investor Relations page: http://bit.ly/ZOCB0Y

It is worth noting that FXCM is not a Forex broker, they are a Forex CFD broker. I use full service firms that provide physical access to the Forex market.

 

[Oscar Reed]

It is worth noting that FXCM is not a Forex broker, they are a Forex CFD broker. I use full service firms that provide physical access to the Forex market.

What's the difference?

Did not think there was a central clearing market for FX.

 

[hhiusa]

What's the difference?

Did not think there was a central clearing market for FX.

There is no central clearing. Interbank Forex is an international network of banks. When you place a trade in the physical forex market, a bank is selling to you or buying from you. Access to the Interbank usually requires a certain capital amount. If a broker does offer access without capital constraints, it is because they are already hold a significant amount of the currencies and are charging you a mark up price. Most so called Forex brokers are Forex CFD brokers.

Forex CFDs are derivative products whereas Forex is not. When you place a trade through FXCM, it does not a physical exchange. FXCM's website says that they have spread mark ups.

If I click a price on my market depth forex window, it instantaneously transmits at that price unless someone beats me to the punch, in which case the price will change before I will have even been to click at that price. So, If I manage to click on that price fast, I will be guaranteed to get that price because some bank is actually willing to sell at that price.

There is not just one price. There are many prices simulatneously. A price is offered from each bank.

The Foreign Exchange Interbank Market
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/06/interbank.asp

Most of the total forex volume is transacted through about 10 banks. These banks are the brand names that we all know well, including Deutsche Bank (NYSE:.DB), UBS (NYSE:UBS), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and HSBC (NYSE:HBC). Each bank is structured differently but most banks will have a separate group known as the Foreign Exchange Sales and Trading Department. This group is responsible for making prices for the bank's clients and for offsetting that risk with other banks. Within the foreign exchange group, there is a sales and a trading desk. The sales desk is generally responsible for taking the orders from the client, getting a quote from the spot trader and relaying the quote to the client to see if they want to deal on it. This three-step process is quite common because even though online foreign exchange trading is available, many of the large clients who deal anywhere from $10 million to $100 million at a time (cash on cash), believe that they can get better pricing dealing over the phone than over the trading platform. This is because most platforms offered by banks will have a trading size limit because the dealer wants to make sure that it is able to offset the risk.

On a foreign exchange spot trading desk, there are generally one or two market makers responsible for each currency pair. That is, for the EUR/USD, there is only one primary dealer that will give quotes on the currency. He or she may have a secondary dealer that gives quotes on a smaller transaction size. This setup is mostly true for the four majors where the dealers see a lot of activity. For the commodity currencies, there may be one dealer responsible for all three commodity currencies or, depending upon how much volume the bank sees, there may be two dealers.

Read more: The Foreign Exchange Interbank Market | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/06/interbank.asp#ixzz43CrRMfcM
Follow us: Investopedia on Facebook

Is Your Forex Broker A Scam?
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/09/forex-broker-scam.asp


Interactive Brokers

1. no base + 0.00002 * trade or $2.00 minimum. This equates to about $2.00 per 100K
2. No transfer fees

Exante

1. 0.00005 * trade value. This equates to about $5.00 per 100K
2. Average spreads and liquidity greatly depend on market conditions and cannot be guaranteed

All of the brokerages listed below have account transfers fee in excess of $49.95.

Retail Brokers

1. TD Ameritrade - $0.10 per 1,000 units + $75.00 account transfer fee
2. FxPro - Forex CFDs
   1. Spreak mark ups
   2. 
3. FXCM - $0.04 per 1,000 units. Forex CFDs only.
   1. 
   2. 
4. London Capital Group - Forex CFDs only
   1. Spread mark ups
      • 
   2. Minimum trade size is 0.1 lot.
   3. Minimum spread mark up is 1 pip.
   4. 
5. Oanda
   1. Spread mark ups
   2. Forex CFDs only
6. CMC Markets
   1. Spread mark ups
   2. Forex CFDs only
   3. 
7. Saxo Bank
   1. 
   2. 

 

[Jason Rogers]

What's the difference?

Hi Oscar,

Unfortunately, there seems to be some confusion.

FXCM is both a forex broker and a CFD broker, but these are not the same thing. CFD trading is available only to FXCM clients living outside the US. We offer CFD trading in stock indices (S&P and DAX), metals (Gold and Silver), energy products (Oil and Gas) and international shares (AAPL and GOOG): http://bit.ly/1L0cTho

It's important to understand that FXCM clients trading currency pairs (EUR/USD and GBP/JPY) are NOT trading CFDs; they are trading on prices quoted in the spot forex market. Retail trader access to CFD products is prohibited in the US by securities law, so FXCM offers only forex trading to US residents, not CFDs.

Did not think there was a central clearing market for FX.

You are correct.

Our clients have the option of trading forex with FXCM as the market maker using a Mini account, if they do not wish to make a large deposit, since the minimum for this account type is only $50. However, FXCM's primary product is the No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution we provide to all our clients using a Standard account (2k minimum) or Active Trader account (25k minimum).

At the heart of FXCM's business is our commitment to offer clients direct market access. We have achieved this with our No Dealing Desk (NDD) offering, which we believe is the fairest way to trade the forex market. The execution model provides traders with transparent buy and sell prices streamed from over a dozen global institutions 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Who Are FXCM's Liquidity Providers?

FXCM's liquidity providers include global banks, financial institutions, prime brokers, and other market makers. FXCM LLC currently has 16 liquidity providers: Bank of America N.A. – Barclays Bank, PLC – BNP Paribas – Nomura International, PLC - Citadel Securities LLC – Citibank N.A. - Morgan Stanley & Co., LLC - UBS AG - Deutsche Bank AG – Effex Capital, LLC – Goldman Sachs International – and Commerzbank AG. Liquidity providers that stream pricing through the FastMatch Electronic Communication Network include: The Royal Bank of Scotland plc – RBC Capital Markets - Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking – Credit Suisse Group AG.

How Do Liquidity Providers Compete?

Each liquidity provider streams through a direct feed of executable buy and sell prices to FXCM. FXCM's No Dealing Desk Price Engine selects the best buy price and the best sell price, which result in the best available spread. There is no markup added to FXCM's Standard No Dealing Desk account type, making our spreads transparent and some of the lowest in the industry.

In addition to best price, liquidity providers are also ranked by their executable prices, order rejection rate, spreads, quoting prices, and latency. Those that provide the best pricing and execution will receive an increase in orders, whereby poor performers will be moved to the end of the line or completely removed from the platform. By holding our liquidity providers to such high standards, we are able to provide the best possible customer experience.


What Do Liquidity Providers See?

When a trader places an order through FXCM's Straight-Through Processing system, an exact matching order is sent from FXCM to the liquidity provider that is providing the best price. For example, a buy order in the example above would go to liquidity provider #2. To the liquidity provider, all orders appear as Market Orders from FXCM and contain no information about the trader. Since your stops, limits, and your entry orders are invisible to these price providers, we create an environment free of price manipulation. When we combine this with no re-quote trading you have the opportunity to confidently trade all market conditions, even during key news events.


Transfer Fees

There also seems to be some confusion about our transfer fees.

While there is a fee for bank wire transfers (and this varies by country due different bank charges), FXCM offers many free deposit and withdrawal options including ACH, BACS, EFT, SEPA, debit card and credit card (not available in the US).


Low Account Opening Minimums and No Minimum Commissions

Furthermore, unlike the broker being promoted in the post above, FXCM does not have a $10,000 account opening minimum or a $2 minimum commission per trade.

As mentioned above, you can open a Mini account with as little as $50. Or you can open a Standard account with FXCM with as little as $2000 and a place a 10k EUR/USD trade and pay 40 cents in commission.

You can even open a 1k EUR/USD trade and pay only 4 cents commission. And if you place larger trades more frequently, you can opt for an Active Trader account which could qualify you for commission discounts.

 

[OLdNoob]

Morning Jason hope you are well,

Quick one for you, for uk spreadbet micro account holders with more then 2k in their accounts what would be the benefits if any of moving up to a standard account?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Morning Jason hope you are well,

Quick one for you, for uk spreadbet micro account holders with more then 2k in their accounts what would be the benefits if any of moving up to a standard account?

Great question, OLdNoob :smart:

Transparency is at the core of everything we offer at FXCM. While other brokers don't tell you what the restrictions are with their execution and you end up finding out the hard way, FXCM provides you all the information you need to make the right decision and have an excellent trading experience that meets your expectations.

On the DD model used for Mini accounts, we will face market risk as a result of entering into trades with clients. Because of this risk, FXCM needs to implement certain restrictions during news events: The typical 2-5 pip minimum distance from current market rate for stop and limit orders on DD accounts could increase to upwards of 10 pips. Note that Standard accounts on the NDD model with FXCM (including spread betting accounts) have no such restrictions regarding order placement.

Additionally, we may take steps to mitigate the risk arising from market making more effectively by transferring your underlying account to our NDD offering. That means, we don't have to resort to the dealer intervention practices (re-quotes and excessive spread widening particularly during news events) which can occur with DD-only brokers, and you can have confidence in trading your FXCM account regardless of the account type you choose.

 

[OLdNoob]

Thanks Jason, just to confirm then, there are no restrictions on lot sizes with the standard account,for example would I still be able to increase/decrease my size on the dax by 8p per point move?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Thanks Jason, just to confirm then, there are no restrictions on lot sizes with the standard account,for example would I still be able to increase/decrease my size on the dax by 8p per point move?

That is correct. FXCM offers the micro lot trading you describe on both Mini and Standard accounts.

 

[timsk]

Hi Jason,
I've been using the MT4 platform to trade the Dax but am having all kinds of issues with my current broker. Namely, I use Renko charts which, as you probably know, don't come as standard with MT4 and have to by accessed using offline charts via an EA. For reasons that neither my broker or I can fathom, the Renko EA appears to be freezing the live trading platform. No problem with demo at all, but that's no use if I can't switch effortlessly to my live account. So . . .

I did some searching for platforms that have Renko charts as standard and your name - i.e. FXCM - kept cropping up. I've opened a FXCM demo account, but the charting options appear to be restricted to line, bar and candles. Hopefully, I'm just being stupid and you can point to the Renko option which is obvious to everyone else but me!

Cheers,
Tim.

 

[OLdNoob]

Hi Jason,
I've been using the MT4 platform to trade the Dax but am having all kinds of issues with my current broker. Namely, I use Renko charts which, as you probably know, don't come as standard with MT4 and have to by accessed using offline charts via an EA. For reasons that neither my broker or I can fathom, the Renko EA appears to be freezing the live trading platform. No problem with demo at all, but that's no use if I can't switch effortlessly to my live account. So . . .

I did some searching for platforms that have Renko charts as standard and your name - i.e. FXCM - kept cropping up. I've opened a FXCM demo account, but the charting options appear to be restricted to line, bar and candles. Hopefully, I'm just being stupid and you can point to the Renko option which is obvious to everyone else but me!

Cheers,
Tim.

http://help.fxcm.com/us/TS-Desktop/38755873/What-are-Renko-Charts-Trading-Station.htm