1% on FX, but that's still about twice CS's rate, for instance. Unless I'm reading the wrong thing, SLM wants 3% on indices, 5% on shares. That's six times as much on Dow, compared with elsewhere.
1% on FX, but that's still about twice CS's rate, for instance. Unless I'm reading the wrong thing, SLM wants 3% on indices, 5% on shares. That's six times as much on Dow, compared with elsewhere.
is anyone else finding the SML Mt4 platform very unreliable at the moment. Been noticing a fair few gaps appearing on FX and price tends to freeze and then jump or freeze altogether and you have to close the platform down. I know its not my internet connection because it performs well on other companies platforms. Doesn't really fill me with confidence it would be ashame for a company which otherwise seems very good to be ruined before its established by their platform tech
Think I spoke too soon.
Same old problems again.
Earlier a few times, and right now(seconds ago) I am unable to close my dow position when it was at the profit I wanted. Position In a loss now.
I enjoy very much trading with SLM, better and faster execution now. Problems is to be expected with a new starter, and especially with a SB MT4 platform. In order to be secure one must have a another SB up and running (one always should) in order to hedge if necessary. As said before, I am quite convinced they will solve the price feed problems in the near future.
Some questions:
1) I'm on Metatrader right now, but I can only see currencies as my choice of markets to trade. I don't really trade these at all and really I focus on FTSE 350 and AIM. The FTSE 350 is on the markets sheet for SLM but how do I get these to show up on Metatrader?
2) A lot of my trading is based around news, particularly trading statements that are released at 7.30 in the morning, I see some material about SLM providing a news service on metatrader but I can't get this up either?
1) I'm on Metatrader right now, but I can only see currencies as my choice of markets to trade. I don't really trade these at all and really I focus on FTSE 350 and AIM. The FTSE 350 is on the markets sheet for SLM but how do I get these to show up on Metatrader?
2) A lot of my trading is based around news, particularly trading statements that are released at 7.30 in the morning, I see some material about SLM providing a news service on metatrader but I can't get this up either?
Tenapenny
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Demo or live? You may not get them up till those markets open. If not give them a call in the morning. Always been very helpful to me.
Tenapenny
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You don't get the full range of markets on demo I'm afraid. There's no minimum amount to open a live account though, so it might be worth putting a few quid in and see if the platform is suitable for you with the markets you need.
Smart Live Markets
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Hi Bakez
Tenapenny is correct, we dont offer the full range of products listed on our demo, but just check that you are viewing all the products by right clicking the market watch window and selecting 'Show All'.
We dont have a news feed going into MT4 just yet, this is something we will add later. We want to make sure its a good quality news feed with frequent, up-to-date and relevent articles, and not something sporadic and irrelevent which we find with many feeds into MT4.
SLM
Tenapenny is correct, we dont offer the full range of products listed on our demo, but just check that you are viewing all the products by right clicking the market watch window and selecting 'Show All'.
We dont have a news feed going into MT4 just yet, this is something we will add later. We want to make sure its a good quality news feed with frequent, up-to-date and relevent articles, and not something sporadic and irrelevent which we find with many feeds into MT4.
SLM
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Hello
With reference to margins, you must remember our markets are a little different from those you are comparing us to, indeed some might say better.
Our products are not daily, nor are they a futures (with a couple of exceptions). They are rolling, and as such never close until you or MT4 close them. Thus you do not realise any trading loss (or profit) until the actual position is closed, not every night like some companies.
If you put a position on in say the EurUSd or indeed the FTSE, it will stay open. We do not charge you a pip to roll it on, the only thing we do is charge (or credit) you financing at what we believe to be some of the best rates available to anyone.
If you had gone long the FTSE with us today in £5 a point, then you would still be long at the same price in the morning with us but would have accumulated a financing charge of £1.93. If you had gone short then you would have been charged nothing. You could keep this position open for 1minute or a year. It's the same spread. We believe this to be the fairest and easiest way to trade.
With regards to the margin, if you bare in mind what I have said above then our margins are very good. I have just compared them to one of the market leaders for their futures margin on the FTSE and they are 200 and we are 167. The only difference is that MT4 is not 'orders aware' meaning that your margin requirement cannot be reduced by adding a stop loss.
The setting of a margin is not done ad hoc. A lot of thought and methodology goes into it. The old rule of thumb used to be the average of 3 days movement. But these days a lot more goes into it, not least the margin we have to pay to the exchanges to hedge all your positions. We are able to charge competitive margins as some clients positions net off against each other. But invariably this is not always the case and we can end up paying considerably higher margins than those we offer. In the old days with 10 point spreads that was not an issue, but these days with 1 point spreads there has to be give and take.
Also remember those who offer the best margins do not always have your best interests at heart. They could be tempting you to leverage yourself highly in the hope you get stopped out because they are running your positions rather than hedging them, which is actually being increasingly frowned upon by the financial authorities, hence the USA bringing in a maximum leverage of 50:1 on FX.
On FX our margins start at 1%, not least because this is the lowest we could get MT4 down to when putting spread betting onto it. Again this equates to about 137 on the EurUsd which is a lot lower than some of our competitors, but not of course if you take into consideration a stop loss.
We will always keep reviewing our margins, spreads, markets and financing. But it is fair to say that when asked, who would want tighter spreads, more markets, lower margins and financing?
Regards
SLM
Does Smart Live Markets hedge all trades or are they kept in house?
Smart Live Markets
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Hello
The simple answer is we do both, because we have to.
We offer two platforms to clients. One for FX/CFDs and the other for spread betting.
On both we allow people to trade from a small size upwards. On spread betting in the FTSE for example this is from 10 pence per point. I physically cannot hedge that size. The minimum I can hedge with the exchange is £10 per point. So we have to run a book and then hedge as and when we reach a position size that we can.
So we run a small book which we hedhe out when we reach limits that we are able to hedge. Also in an ideal world, clients will come on and buy and sell at the same time in similar markets thus negating the need for us to hedge and thus help us to keep our costs down. We may end up long the FTSE and short the DAX which certainly on an intraday basis menas we are flat as far as we are concerned.
The other point is that we offer fixed, tight spreads. To do this we cannot auto hedge, because the real world does not offer fixed spreads and we would lose money all the time. We offer this to help our clients and to stabalise what can be very volatile pricing. We then hedge out where we need to by covering combined exposures to a currency or market.
We always give our clients the best pricing we can and have their genuine interests at heart. If clients do want an STP (Straight Through Processing) FX platoform then we do offer this on our FX/CFD platform if they would rather have that, commission free.
I hope that helps.
Regards
SLM
The simple answer is we do both, because we have to.
We offer two platforms to clients. One for FX/CFDs and the other for spread betting.
On both we allow people to trade from a small size upwards. On spread betting in the FTSE for example this is from 10 pence per point. I physically cannot hedge that size. The minimum I can hedge with the exchange is £10 per point. So we have to run a book and then hedge as and when we reach a position size that we can.
So we run a small book which we hedhe out when we reach limits that we are able to hedge. Also in an ideal world, clients will come on and buy and sell at the same time in similar markets thus negating the need for us to hedge and thus help us to keep our costs down. We may end up long the FTSE and short the DAX which certainly on an intraday basis menas we are flat as far as we are concerned.
The other point is that we offer fixed, tight spreads. To do this we cannot auto hedge, because the real world does not offer fixed spreads and we would lose money all the time. We offer this to help our clients and to stabalise what can be very volatile pricing. We then hedge out where we need to by covering combined exposures to a currency or market.
We always give our clients the best pricing we can and have their genuine interests at heart. If clients do want an STP (Straight Through Processing) FX platoform then we do offer this on our FX/CFD platform if they would rather have that, commission free.
I hope that helps.
Regards
SLM
Smart Live Markets
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Hi Ross,
We are aware of the issue today and we part tested the remedy that certainly improved the situation, so this will now be fully applied to the live systems. I am confident this will resolve the situatuation.
SLM
We are aware of the issue today and we part tested the remedy that certainly improved the situation, so this will now be fully applied to the live systems. I am confident this will resolve the situatuation.
SLM
Has anyone else been experiencing a slower execution speed? Even for less than a pound per pip trades? Before, I don't remember seeing an Order In Process stage. It was so quick before but now the order in process can take well over a three seconds. Has something indeed changed?
Last edited:
Smart Live Markets
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Hello
Nothing has changed on the system, so you should not be experiencing problems, unless of course you are trying to deal on latent prices. Please contact us directly if you would like us to investigate any problems that you may be having.
Regards
SLM
Nothing has changed on the system, so you should not be experiencing problems, unless of course you are trying to deal on latent prices. Please contact us directly if you would like us to investigate any problems that you may be having.
Regards
SLM