The same with me, I can not demo a platform without using real money, I will just get so completely bored and pay no attention and at the same time I do not want to deposit a couple of thousand pounds just to demo it.
GFT UK Spreadbetting......
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The same with me, I can not demo a platform without using real money, I will just get so completely bored and pay no attention and at the same time I do not want to deposit a couple of thousand pounds just to demo it.
and or realistic. Actually now you mention it the salesman, did seem to really push.
Jack Hughes
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Anyone else opened an account with a $250 deposit?
windsurfing_stew
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I opened mine with £2k. Regardless of provider you really need about this amount to cover margin and open trade draw down (max short term losses during a trade). Even trading minimum sizes of say FX and indicies you will possibly blow up an account on less (obviously depending on minimum contract size of the provider) even with a suitable strategy.
Jack Hughes
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Can't see that you need £2k margin to trade anything if the minimum stake is £1, which is why it always looked as though GFT seemed determined to keep punters away.
Account up and running:
The account manager, a guy called Martin seems like a really nice guy. Talking to him on the phone he seemed to be interested in my trading style to offer tips on the best way to use GFT to compliment my style, how to pull up the indicators etc. He seemed a trading enthusiast and not just a salesman. So far so good. Also he gave me a three month demo account to run along side the live account.
The account manager, a guy called Martin seems like a really nice guy. Talking to him on the phone he seemed to be interested in my trading style to offer tips on the best way to use GFT to compliment my style, how to pull up the indicators etc. He seemed a trading enthusiast and not just a salesman. So far so good. Also he gave me a three month demo account to run along side the live account.
This should not be any concern of GFT. If you have the margin requirement, it should be sufficient to be able to trade with them. You are not trading the futures with them but SB, and if they are smart enough they will lower their account deposit, in order give traders the possibility to try them out. Are GFT a bank or a SB company? First hand It seems as if, they like to make profit from the former.
windsurfing_stew
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I think I agree with you on that. They certainly seem to have one of the higher account balance requirements out there. My guess is that because they invest a lot into their platfort costs, data costs and user support costs etc they want to make sure they are only attracting punters who they are going to make money off. Having said that I'm not sure the marginal cost of having smaller punters on the book poses that much additional cost - probably mostly support costs.
Interestingly if you have higher account balances like £50-150k there are some other good perks like free currency transfers, some AI indicators etc.
Interestingly if you have higher account balances like £50-150k there are some other good perks like free currency transfers, some AI indicators etc.
Jack Hughes
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The Dealbook platform might have been costly originally, but they don't seem to be in a hurry to fix some fairly basic faults with it. Their alleged expensive investment in 'user support' doesn't help much, because half the people there either don't know or don't care. As the opening deposit is about six times as much as anywhere else, I'd be surprised if GFT has many active SB accounts.
windsurfing_stew
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Hey Jack. There are a few things that would be good to fix with Dealbook, however I find it the best of the SB accounts I have. That is, they seem to have the best product. They don't charge for SMS alerts or take a cut out of FX carry on SBs which are big pluses for me too.
I accept your point on opening deposit sizes. I suspect that you are right and that they do loose a lot of small customers by keeping them high. This however is probably part of their business plan. Granted, it doesn't take into account that small players become big players. For me they have the right mix. If you're making larger and more frequent SBs you want good support and a suitable platform.
I accept your point on opening deposit sizes. I suspect that you are right and that they do loose a lot of small customers by keeping them high. This however is probably part of their business plan. Granted, it doesn't take into account that small players become big players. For me they have the right mix. If you're making larger and more frequent SBs you want good support and a suitable platform.
Jack Hughes
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Have you tried trading from charts directly? Potentially far better than IG's DealThru if it worked properly.
windsurfing_stew
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Hi Jack,
I haven't directly traded through the charts. I normally place the buy or sell order then once it is filled put on a target and stop. This target and stop I often move till they look visually right through the chart.
Stewart
I haven't directly traded through the charts. I normally place the buy or sell order then once it is filled put on a target and stop. This target and stop I often move till they look visually right through the chart.
Stewart
trading dynamo
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trading with GFT
I have been trading with GFT for 1 1/2 years now. The chart & order management functionality are by far the best i've come across.
This is balanced however by a platform which crashes periodically necessitating a full reinstall every couple of months, charts which freeze & of late very slow fills when using their direct deal tickets - fastest 3 seconds, slowest 10 seconds plus. They then only fill you if the price is in their favour (& no positive slipage) otherwise a requote. Getting any information out of them is like banging your head against a wall. Everyone in their dealing room tells you a different story.
The account managers are eager & efficient, however ultimately ineffectual as they are really trained only to open new accounts & handle the simplest of enquiry. Beyond that they refer you back to the dealers or IT in the US both of whom I find to be by & large obstructive & unhelpful.
I hope that helps !
I have been trading with GFT for 1 1/2 years now. The chart & order management functionality are by far the best i've come across.
This is balanced however by a platform which crashes periodically necessitating a full reinstall every couple of months, charts which freeze & of late very slow fills when using their direct deal tickets - fastest 3 seconds, slowest 10 seconds plus. They then only fill you if the price is in their favour (& no positive slipage) otherwise a requote. Getting any information out of them is like banging your head against a wall. Everyone in their dealing room tells you a different story.
The account managers are eager & efficient, however ultimately ineffectual as they are really trained only to open new accounts & handle the simplest of enquiry. Beyond that they refer you back to the dealers or IT in the US both of whom I find to be by & large obstructive & unhelpful.
I hope that helps !
Jack Hughes
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That all seems strangely familiar! They could be the best SB, if they took any notice of client feedback and tried to make DealBook work properly. You'll always get the worst price with deal tickets, but stop and limit orders dragged on the chart keep flicking back to the original position. As they seem to have no inclination to fix this fault, you have to assume it's a deliberate way of stopping what the SB providers term as scalping.
sighthound
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I used them for spreadbetting and had no complaints,their platform is as good as any out there if not better ,and I really do not see why they have not pushed this more.Alas now they have started charging inactivity fee's which is absolute b****cks to me
montmorencyt2w
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How do they work? What's the basis for counting as "inactivity"?
sighthound
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From what I can make of it if no trades are placed within a 3 month period then they charge you £35 for the privilage of not placing a trade. TBH I did change my internet service and I did not update my e-mail address so I may have missed the update that GFT where going to impose inactivity fees,and to compound matters more I was using my demo account to practise on weaker areas of my trading thinking that when I had gained more control over what I was doing then I would go back to my my live account and place the occasional trade only to find
my account had got smaller .Therefor account closed.I did have to laugh tho because there I was thinking I need to look at my entry signals and pinpoint the higher probability areas of making a trade and all the time I was still losing money.
