Margin-free trading?

balusa

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I wonder if margin-free trading is a good or bad thing for traders. On one hand, you can keep open positions almost for as long as you like. On the other hand, this can bring all kinds of troubles upon you just because you can do so. So, is margin-free trading a boon or a bane?
 
every skint student type would open a multi-billion dollar 'bet'. If it won they'd be set for life, if not then, hey, why not go bankrupt and get out of all those student loans a the same time.
 
As a rule, there are margin requirements in brokerage systems. Bu the one in which I am reading (www.dukascopy.com) does not have them....Is it for my good or for theirs?
 
I like this bit in the 'advantages page':

Easy come, easy go. Unique opportunity to sign a CFD agreement entirely via the Internet (no paperwork involved!) and monitor your account from the World Wide Web (including communicating with brokers via secure channel from your personal page).


lol. Easy come (opening an account), easy go (your money)!!

Looks like a proper bucket shop operation and best left well alone.
 
Madasafish, do you think that these spread rates are disadvantageous? Because i was i asking about them in a different thread on this forum
 
Sidinuk,
I do not know much about this company, but I have been their client for over a month now (I have a trading account of 2500 bucks ) and so far i cannot complain, because they sent me back on request 300 bucks and they promptly respond to all my questions. But i might be wrong about them, so I am very interested in you experience with this company. It seems that you have had trading experience with them...Did you have any troubles getting back your money? Did they treat you unfairly? Please write, because I am currently considering opening a bigger account with them, and all info about their trustworthiness are crucial for me. You can either reply to this post or or send me a private e-mail to [email protected]
Thanks.
 
I don't get the impression Sidnuk has dealings with them!

"Current spreads charged by the company for live trades are as follows: 0.15% of the value of the contract for most index trades"
.... I make that a 15 point+ spread on the Dow, which would be appalling. The website's not clear if there is commission on top of that (but there better not be!). The "10 second execution time" is not good either, about 1 second would be good.

Have a look through 'Broker Reviews' on the T2W homepage (just down from the top on the right margin) for some better ideas.
 
Yeah, i know the spreads are not the best...But they do not charge any other commissions...And, anyway, they are the only ones who allow me to trade on indices...
If anyone had a bad experience with them, please let me know, because i do not want to waste my money on another "bubble" company...
 
No I have no direct experience of the company but from reading their website I came up with the same points that Peto highlights. They don't look value for money.

Also, they have no set margins but positions are limited to available funds. This encourages trading at too large a size with too tight a stop which leads to client accounts being wiped out very easily, which is the general idea for this type of 'trading' firm.

They will always deal with complaints very quickly and amicably as they want to encourage trading with wide spreads and tight stops. They know that will do the job for them, no need to be awkward.
 
I actually thought that no margin requirement was to my advantage. I can keep a position open for really long time, which comes pretty handy when the tide turns against me and then back in my favour. Margin was created exactly to prevent traders from keeping long positions. But correct me if I am wrong...

I also do not see how the absence of margin can induce one to opening large size positions... I thought that abrupt market fluctuations were to blame for that, not the absence of margin...
 
If the margin requirement to trade 1 ES contract is $4,000 then with $4,000 in an account the most you can trade is 1 contract ($50/pt).

With $4,000 in an account and no fixed margin requirement, other than the amount of cash available, you could trade a lot more contracts. Say you trade 10 contracts you only have 8 pts of freedom before the entire deposit runs out and your position is closed for you crystallising a loss which wipes out the account.

Of course, if you have a proper trading plan then the relaxed margin requirements can work for you, but the company is aimed at traders who are under-capitalised and want to trade larger size. Which ultimately will lead to the account being quickly emptied.
 
In a futures market every trade has an opposite.
Deposit(Initial Margin) limits your position to your financial capacity and margin is to guarantee your trade at the Clearing House. Basically if you're in a winning trade someone is losing. What's to stop the loser walking away? He has paid up front, held by the Clearing House, and he's margined each day.
The Clearing house guarantees all trades.
 
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Spread 0.15% on DAx = 6 points...
Futures spread +costs on IB =3/4 points
CMC =4 points


Bias?

Dunno

..

Would I trade with them.. ? I guess if I had little money and was very good...
 
Sidinuk, I see your point. But ultimately your trading results depend on the trading strategy that you embark upon, and the absence of margin requirements can rather help in than interfere with achieving your trading goal (provided that you have one :)).
 
balusa, I totally agree with you. As long as your sensible (which you obviously are) and have a trading system then the lack of margin can be beneficial.
 
I wonder if the notion of margin ever matters any more given the strong upward trends that seem to have firmly established themselves in the economy lately...:) I went long on EURO a couple of days ago at 1.2589 and I have been making steady gains ever since... It just seems I cannot lose. I wonder how my broker will cope with the situation when he will be deluged with requests to pay up...:) Anyone has the same winning positions as i do?
 
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