Best Thread FXCM Discussion

[Jason Rogers]

NFA Margin Requirements - US Brokers - Dec. 5

Attention US traders,

The NFA has sent Notice I-16-27 to US brokers requiring an increase in the margin requirements for certain currencies as well as the removal of the increased margin requirement for the Swiss franc that has been in place since 2015:

Below is the full text of the NFA notice:

Notice I-16-27
November 28, 2016

Immediate attention required – Financial Requirement Section 12 – Changes in required minimum security deposits for forex transactions

Increase in required minimum security deposits

Given the recent volatility in the currency markets, and the margin increases that CME and ICE have implemented with respect to foreign currency futures involving the Mexican peso, Japanese yen, and New Zealand dollar, the Executive Committee has determined to increase the minimum security deposits required to be collected and maintained by FDMs under NFA Financial Requirements Section 12 to the following:

• Mexican peso – 8%
• Japanese yen – 4%
• New Zealand dollar – 3%

These increases become effective, for both new and existing positions, at 5 p.m. (CST) on December 5, 2016 and remain in effect until further notice.

Decrease in required minimum security deposits

Given the recent margin decreases that CME and ICE have implemented with respect to foreign currency futures involving the Swiss franc, the Executive Committee has also determined to reduce the minimum security deposit required for currency pairs involving the Swiss franc to 3% (from the current 5% requirement imposed in January 2015). The decrease becomes effective at 5 p.m. (CST) on December 5, 2016 and remains in effect until further notice.

If you have any questions on these requirements, please contact Sarah Walsh, Associate Director, Compliance ([email protected] or 312-781-1202) or Nicole Wahls, Manager, Compliance ([email protected] or 312-781-1886).​

In order to comply with the NFA notice, FXCM US is raising margin requirements on MXN, JPY, and NZD pairs at approximately 5:00pm EST on Monday, December 5, 2016. FXCM US will also be decreasing margin requirements on CHF to 3% from the current 5% requirement imposed in January 2015.

Again, this NFA notice applies only to the US, so margin requirements for accounts with FXCM UK and FXCM Australia are not affected. We urge all clients to proceed cautiously as market moves may be large and unpredictable. Up-to-date margin requirements (per 1K lot) are displayed in the Simplified Dealing Rates window of Trading Station.

Remember that forex trading can result in losses that could exceed your deposited funds and therefore may not be suitable for everyone, so please ensure that you fully understand the high level of risk involved.

 

[Jason Rogers]

I will be out of the office until Monday, December 19th and will respond to your posts and private messages when I return.

For immediate assistance, you can contact our 24-hour live customer support.

 

[OLdNoob]

Dear Trader,

Recently, the FCA has released a proposal which looks to lower leverage on FX and CFD products. The maximum leverage allowable under this proposal would be 50:1.

Jason,

I've never worked out leverage used in trades only looking at risk per trade with regard to where my stop is set. Occasionally I look at the margin used column in tradestation and as we all have this info available to us could you maybe give us a figure of what 50:1 leverage would look like as margin used now.

In other words how much of my usable margin would equate to a 50:1 leverage cap?

Also would this proposal be implemented on spread betting accounts as well?

Thanks

 

[Jason Rogers]

Dear Trader,

Recently, the FCA has released a proposal which looks to lower leverage on FX and CFD products. The maximum leverage allowable under this proposal would be 50:1.

Jason,

I've never worked out leverage used in trades only looking at risk per trade with regard to where my stop is set. Occasionally I look at the margin used column in tradestation and as we all have this info available to us could you maybe give us a figure of what 50:1 leverage would look like as margin used now.

In other words how much of my usable margin would equate to a 50:1 leverage cap?

Also would this proposal be implemented on spread betting accounts as well?

Thanks

Hi OLdNoob,

Like all traders in the US, where forex is regulated by the CFTC and NFA, I have already been trading under the US regulators required 50:1 leverage cap for several years. However, it doesn't affect my personal trading, since I limit my effective leverage to 10:1.

I will explain how this works with a couple of examples.

A leverage cap of 50:1 means for every British pound you have in your account equity, you can control no more than £50 in open positions. The minimum trade size on our platform is 1 micro lot or 1000 currency units. If you are trading cable (GBP/USD) that means your smallest trade would have a notional value of £1000.

Therefore, the margin required from you to enforce the 50:1 leverage cap would be £20 per micro lot of GBP/USD. If you wanted to open a position of 10K GBP/USD or 10 micro lots, you would have to set aside £200 as used margin from your account.

When I say that I personally limit my effective leverage to 10:1, I mean that even though I could technically open 10K GBP/USD for every £200 in my account, I open no more than 2K GBP/USD for every £200 in my account.

The difference between trading 10K GBP/USD and trading 2K GBP/USD is risking $1 per pip versus risking 20 cents per pip.

In regards to the FCA's proposals, my understanding is that they would apply to spread betting accounts as well. FXCM will participate in the feedback period allowed by the FCA, and as a trader you are welcome to submit your feedback to them as well: https://www.fca.org.uk/cp16-40-response-form

 

[Jason Rogers]

It's that time of year again

Normally, the forex market trades 24 hours a day, 5 days a week without interruption even for major holidays around the world, and FXCM provides live customer support 24 hours a day even on weekends and holidays.

However, Christmas and New Year's are the two exceptions. Here is a link to FXCM's holiday hours for trading and customer support during these holidays: http://bit.ly/2ih7xrW

For everyone celebrating Christmas, I wish you a happy one! Happy New Year to all!

 

[Jason Rogers]

I will be out of the office until Thursday, December 29th and will respond to your posts and private messages when I return.

For immediate assistance, you can contact our 24-hour live customer support.

It's that time of year again

Normally, the forex market trades 24 hours a day, 5 days a week without interruption even for major holidays around the world, and FXCM provides live customer support 24 hours a day even on weekends and holidays.

However, Christmas and New Year's are the two exceptions. Here is a link to FXCM's holiday hours for trading and customer support during these holidays: http://bit.ly/2ih7xrW

For everyone celebrating Christmas, I wish you a happy one! Happy New Year to all!

 

[Luc.Chase]

Real one-click trading with tight spreads

Taking spreadbetting the EURUSD pair as an example.
CityIndex has tight spreads and good exciton but it takes about 13 clicks to enter a bracketed trade with them. OandA has an excellent system for entering correctly sized and bracketed default trades with one click, but their spread is three times wider than CityIndex.
Is FXCM a good option for both tight speads and quick bracketed order entry?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Taking spreadbetting the EURUSD pair as an example.
CityIndex has tight spreads and good exciton but it takes about 13 clicks to enter a bracketed trade with them. OandA has an excellent system for entering correctly sized and bracketed default trades with one click, but their spread is three times wider than CityIndex.
Is FXCM a good option for both tight speads and quick bracketed order entry?

Hi Luc,

There a no requotes when you trade with FXCM, and we offer the same execution for our spread betting clients as we do for non-spread betting accounts.

While our website displays our historical spreads, note that for spread betting accounts, we add a fixed pip markup to the spread on FX trades. That spread markup takes the place of the commission charged for FX trades on standard non-spread betting accounts, since no commissions is charged on spread betting accounts.

You can register for a free spread betting demo account to see our spreads in real time and test the one-click trading functionality of our Trading Station platform. Please let me know if you have additional questions.

 

[Luc.Chase]

Hi Luc,

There a no requotes when you trade with FXCM, and we offer the same execution for our spread betting clients as we do for non-spread betting accounts.

While our website displays our historical spreads, note that for spread betting accounts, we add a fixed pip markup to the spread on FX trades. That spread markup takes the place of the commission charged for FX trades on standard non-spread betting accounts, since no commissions is charged on spread betting accounts.

You can register for a free spread betting demo account to see our spreads in real time and test the one-click trading functionality of our Trading Station platform. Please let me know if you have additional questions.

Well you kind of evaded my question, but anyway I tried the Android app and found no sign of any kind of one-click ordering. In fact,it took eighteen clicks to place a bracketed order.
Any particular reason for that?

 

[tar]

With fxcm's regular platform you can set default stop loss and take profit and you can trade with one click , but i agree they should add this to their Android app i already requested that here . But maybe thats not what you meant by bracketed orders .

 

[Jason Rogers]

Well you kind of evaded my question, but anyway I tried the Android app and found no sign of any kind of one-click ordering. In fact,it took eighteen clicks to place a bracketed order.
Any particular reason for that?

It wasn't my intention to evade any question you posed. If you would like further clarification on any point, please let me know.

In regards to one-click trading, that functionality is available on Trading Station Desktop, not Trading Station Mobile. That's why you couldn't find one-click trading on your Android app.

If you have Trading Station Desktop, or Trading Station Web running on a PC, you can try the following steps. Click on Trading Settings in the platform menu bar. Then select "One-Click" for the mode.

You also have the option of checking Stop and Limit boxes so that these order types are automatically set a specified pip distance from your opening price when place a trade. If that's what you mean by a bracket then you will be able to do so with one click on Trading Station Desktop or Web.

 

[Jason Rogers]

With fxcm's regular platform you can set default stop loss and take profit and you can trade with one click , but i agree they should add this to their Android app i already requested that here . But maybe thats not what you meant by bracketed orders .

Thanks for pointing out that one-click trading with stop and limit orders included when you open a trade is available on Trading Station Desktop and Web. I have noted your request to add such functionality to Trading Station Mobile. Up to this point, I believe the concern our mobile app developers have is that with one-click trading on a touch screen device there could be many accidental trades. That's why they prefer to ask for confirming on mobile orders.

Have you seen one-click trading on other mobile trading apps? How did they address the potential for trading errors? I will share your feedback with our developers.

 

[Signalcalc]

Thanks for pointing out that one-click trading with stop and limit orders included when you open a trade is available on Trading Station Desktop and Web. I have noted your request to add such functionality to Trading Station Mobile. Up to this point, I believe the concern our mobile app developers have is that with one-click trading on a touch screen device there could be many accidental trades. That's why they prefer to ask for confirming on mobile orders.



Have you seen one-click trading on other mobile trading apps? How did they address the potential for trading errors? I will share your feedback with our developers.

You could make it a 2 step approach on the mobile platform with preset stops and limits, that would go some way to avoiding trading errors and still speed up the process, but then why not also provide the choice for one click trading and leave it to the operator to decide on 1 or 2 click trading depending on the traders ability to control his fingers!!

 

[student_trader1975]

Is FXCM UK still OK even though FXCM U.S. will shut down?

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fx...r-taking-positions-against-clients-2017-02-06

 

[JSMITH07611]

Bye bye fxcm

BYE BYE FXCM

see here

http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr7528-17

and here

http://www.leaprate.com/2017/02/fxc...ket-fined-7-million-for-defrauding-customers/

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi JSmith,

Below is the statement we published on the FXCM website.

FXCM US Reaches Settlement with NFA and CFTC
FXCM to Exit the U.S.
Sells Accounts to GAIN
FXCM to Pay down Loan​

NEW YORK, February 6, 2017-- FXCM Inc. (NASDAQ:FXCM) (“FXCM”) today announced simultaneous regulatory settlements with the National Futures Association ("NFA") and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) against its U.S. subsidiary, Forex Capital Markets LLC and certain of its principals. FXCM Holdings, LLC was also named in the CFTC settlement. The named FXCM entities and principals neither admit nor deny the allegations associated with the settlements. The NFA settlement has no monetary fine, and the CFTC settlement has a $7 million fine.

FXCM will be withdrawing from business in the U.S. and has signed a non-binding letter of intent with GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. (“GAIN”) under which GAIN would purchase FXCM’s U.S. customer accounts. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and a definitive agreement. FXCM and GAIN are working to determine the timing for the account transfer and expect to provide further information in that regard in the coming days. In 2016, FXCM’s U.S. business had unaudited net revenues of approximately $48 million and generated an EBITDA loss, but the costs associated with the business will not be transferring to GAIN. There will be no changes to FXCM customers outside of the United States.

Withdrawing from this business will free approximately $52 million in capital. Proceeds from the account sale and the release of capital will go toward the further repaying of FXCM’s loan from Leucadia National Corporation.

FXCM will for the interim period continue to service its U.S. customers and to provide top quality trade execution pending the customer-account sale and business withdrawal. FXCM will also be working diligently to be sure that an account transition to GAIN’s retail brand, FOREX.com, will be orderly, expeditious and seamless. FXCM wants to express its most sincere thanks to those U.S. customers who have been with FXCM over the years and wish you all the best of luck following this transition.

FXCM wants to stress that these settlements have no impact on any customer of FXCM’s global businesses. FXCM and its global subsidiaries will continue to provide excellent execution and competitive pricing to its customers overseas through its award-winning technology, customer service and trading tools.

Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

In addition to historical information, this release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and/or the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect FXCM's current views with respect to, among other things, its operations and financial performance in the future. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about FXCM's industry, business plans, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Accordingly, readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict including, without limitation, risks associated with FXCM’s plans to shut down its US subsidiary and a potential sale of its US customer accounts, risks associated with FXCM’s strategy to focus on its operations outside the United States, risks associated with the events that took place in the currency markets on January 15, 2015 and their impact on FXCM's capital structure, risks associated with FXCM's ability to recover all or a portion of any capital losses, risks relating to the ability of FXCM to satisfy the terms and conditions of or make payments pursuant to the terms of the finance agreements with Leucadia, as well as risks associated with FXCM’s obligations under its other financing agreements, risks related to FXCM's dependence on FX market makers, market conditions, risks associated with FXCM’s litigation with the National Futures Association or any other potential litigation or regulatory inquiries to which FXCM may become subject, risks associated with potential reputational damage to FXCM resulting from FXCM’s plans to shut down its US subsidiary, and those other risks described under "Risk Factors" in FXCM Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K, FXCM Inc.'s latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and other reports or documents FXCM files with, or furnishes to, the SEC from time to time, which are accessible on the SEC website at sec.gov. This information should also be read in conjunction with FXCM's Consolidated Financial Statements and the Notes thereto contained in FXCM's Annual Report on Form 10-K, FXCM Inc.'s latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in other reports or documents FXCM files with, or furnishes to, the SEC from time to time, which are accessible on the SEC website at sec.gov.

These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in our SEC filings. FXCM Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.

About FXCM Inc.

FXCM Inc. (NASDAQ:FXCM) is a publicly traded company which owns 50.1% of FXCM Group, LLC (FXCM Group).

FXCM Group is a holding company of Forex Capital Markets LLC, (FXCM US), Forex Capital Markets Limited, inclusive of all EU branches (FXCM UK), FXCM Australia Pty. Limited, (FXCM AU), and all affiliates of aforementioned firms, or other firms under the FXCM group of companies [collectively "FXCM"]. FXCM Group is owned and operated by FXCM Inc. (NASDAQ:FXCM) and Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE:LUK). Leucadia National Corporation is a multi-billion dollar diversified holding company engaged through its consolidated subsidiaries in a variety of businesses.

FXCM is a leading provider of online foreign exchange (FX) trading, CFD trading, spread betting and related services. The company's mission is to provide global traders with access to the world's largest and most liquid market by offering innovative trading tools, hiring excellent trading educators, meeting strict financial standards and striving for the best online trading experience in the market. Clients have the advantage of mobile trading, one-click order execution and trading from real-time charts. In addition, FXCM offers educational courses on FX trading and provides trading tools proprietary data and premium resources. FXCM Pro provides retail brokers, small hedge funds and emerging market banks access to wholesale execution and liquidity, while providing high and medium frequency funds access to prime brokerage services via FXCM Prime.

Trading foreign exchange and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk, which may result in losses that could exceed your deposits, therefore may not be suitable for all investors.



Jaclyn Sales, 646-432-2463

Vice-President, Corporate Communications

[email protected]

[email protected]

 

[Luc.Chase]

Thanks for pointing out that one-click trading with stop and limit orders included when you open a trade is available on Trading Station Desktop and Web. I have noted your request to add such functionality to Trading Station Mobile. Up to this point, I believe the concern our mobile app developers have is that with one-click trading on a touch screen device there could be many accidental trades. That's why they prefer to ask for confirming on mobile orders.

Have you seen one-click trading on other mobile trading apps? How did they address the potential for trading errors? I will share your feedback with our developers.

It's good that it is available at least in a very basic form on the desktop, but either you expect responsible trades to be taken on the mobile platform or you don't. I would say any platform that can't offer a quick way to enter a trade with a default stop is not ready for use.
The key issue isn't so much that it is exactly one-click to enter the market, but that it isn't a dozen clicks. I would suggest the dev team look at it slightly differently. Not so much that it is a one-click trade but a one-click order-setup, followed by Submit.
To ask a trader on any platform to have to enter nearly twenty clicks to create a proper order is asking for trouble. It's like encouraging traders to enter naked, targetless trades ( with no stop and no target ). Also, on a mobile device, you want things to be smarter and to require less work, not more work.
Regarding if I had seen this on any apps. Yes, from the broker I mentioned in my original post.

Unfortunately, I think your spreads are also much wider than those at CityIndex ( but their platform takes at least thirteen clicks on both desktop and mobile ). So, I'm still looking for a spread-betting firm with both features at the same time.

 

[tar]

Thanks for pointing out that one-click trading with stop and limit orders included when you open a trade is available on Trading Station Desktop and Web. I have noted your request to add such functionality to Trading Station Mobile. Up to this point, I believe the concern our mobile app developers have is that with one-click trading on a touch screen device there could be many accidental trades. That's why they prefer to ask for confirming on mobile orders.

Have you seen one-click trading on other mobile trading apps? How did they address the potential for trading errors? I will share your feedback with our developers.

Yes ctrader mobile app , one click with a default sl ...

 

[Luc.Chase]

Taking spreadbetting the EURUSD pair as an example.
CityIndex has tight spreads and good exciton but it takes about 13 clicks to enter a bracketed trade with them. OandA has an excellent system for entering correctly sized and bracketed default trades with one click, but their spread is three times wider than CityIndex.
Is FXCM a good option for both tight speads and quick bracketed order entry?

Sorry I didn't define my use of 'bracketed trade'. I mean a trade which includes a protective Stop and a Target order.

 

[tar]

Sorry I didn't define my use of 'bracketed trade'. I mean a trade which includes a protective Stop and a Target order.

Then yes thats available at the web/desktop platforms ...