Spread betting at FXCM

[Hamish249]

Folks,

I'm looking for an Metatrader front end which is linked into a spreadbetting back end so all EA profits are tax free. Can FXCM or anybody do this?

Rgds

Hamish

 

[Jason Rogers]

Folks,

I'm looking for an Metatrader front end which is linked into a spreadbetting back end so all EA profits are tax free. Can FXCM or anybody do this?

Rgds

Hamish

Hi Hamish,

FXCM has spreadbet accounts available, but not accessible with the MT4 platform. You could use the FX Trading Station II or Strategy Trader platform with a spreadbet account.

If you want to do automated trading, I would suggest looking at the Strategy Trader platform since you can use it to automate your strategy. The coding language for Strategy Trader is C#. If you have an EA already coded for MT4, our programming services team could possibly help with converting it over to the Strategy Trader platform. Here's where they post strategies http://forexforums.dailyfx.com/free-trading-strategies/.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Easter Holiday Trading Hours

Important information on changes to trading hours due to the Easter holiday:

There are no changes to forex trading hours. Trading closes on Friday at 4:00pm ET (20:00 GMT) and starts again on Sunday at 5:15pm ET (21:15 GMT)/

CFD Trading hours will change from Thursday, April 21 to Tuesday, April 26 for some CFD trading instruments. Below is a list of the changes to trading hours for the CFD products. All times are in GMT.

Please Note: Oil, metals, and indices trading is not available to residents of the USA and its territories.

 

[ncfc]

To answer the question Hamish, only Smart Live markets currently provide a MT4 platform on spreadbetting.

 

[Ross Spur]

Had a mail to say spreads on UK100 and DAX were 1pt, but info on site says 2(3)pt. Also, if FXCM can do 1pt on those markets, why not 2pt on US30, as per the competition?

 

[Jason Rogers]

Had a mail to say spreads on UK100 and DAX were 1pt, but info on site says 2(3)pt. Also, if FXCM can do 1pt on those markets, why not 2pt on US30, as per the competition?

Hi Ross,

Can you let me know where you are seeing 2(3)pt spread on the website and I will ask the web team to correct it. I'm checking the spreads on the CFD product details page and product guide, and they are reflecting the correct information for UK100 and GER30 spreads.

Our goal with the CFD products is to ensure there are no re-quotes. If we can lower the spreads while maintaining the same quality in execution, it will be given serious consideration as with the UK100 and GER30. Your feedback is definitely appreciate!

-Jason

 

[Ross Spur]

Hi Ross,

Can you let me know where you are seeing 2(3)pt spread on the website and I will ask the web team to correct it. I'm checking the spreads on the CFD product details page and product guide, and they are reflecting the correct information for UK100 and GER30 spreads.

Our goal with the CFD products is to ensure there are no re-quotes. If we can lower the spreads while maintaining the same quality in execution, it will be given serious consideration as with the UK100 and GER30. Your feedback is definitely appreciate!

-Jason

I didn't mean CFDs. Just go to the SB menu at the top and select 'spreads', which opens a pdf file dated June 2010.
re. US30, surely 4pt on something based on YM is effectively more than twice as wide as 1pt on UK or DAX, so 2pt would be reasonable?

 

[Jason Rogers]

I didn't mean CFDs. Just go to the SB menu at the top and select 'spreads', which opens a pdf file dated June 2010.

Thanks for letting me know! Will make sure it gets updated.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Everyone,

I will be out of the office and away from the forums until May 30th. If you need any assistance from FXCM before then, please feel free to contact client services directly http://www.fxcm.com/contact-fxcm.jsp. And as always, FXStatus.com will be updated in the event of a technical issue .

Until then, happy trading and see everyone again on May 30th.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Trading Seminar with Richard Farleigh

For those of you in the UK, FXCM and H20 Markets is sponsoring a free forex seminar on Monday June 6th with Richard Farleigh as the guest speaker. Richard Farleigh is a former professional hedge fund manager, author of the critically acclaimed book '100 Secret Strategies for Investing' and star of BBC's hit show Dragon's Den. Richard will be explaining how he was able to consistently trade the financial markets and will be providing a full explanation of the sophisticated trading techniques contained in his critically book "Taming the Lion". The seminar is being held Monday June 6th from 8:30am - 11:30am at The Grange Hotel in London. You can register here http://www.fxcm.co.uk/richard.jsp, and we look forward to seeing you there if you can make it.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

FXCM dwarfs CMC, and they offer something very important, you will NEVER go in the red on your account by bad trading or bad luck. With many other SB companies including CMC, you can end up owing them ££££££££ as well as blowing your account balance. These are the facts, call them up, read their website. To me this is invaluable. CMC are not going to offer this to its clients which imho is a mistake because this is real client protection and a good selling point.

There was some lively debate going on in the CMC thread about FXCM’s no debit balance policy, and I thought I would go into more detail in FXCM’s own thread about our policy and our thoughts on this whole situation.

No Debit Balance Policy

One thing FXCM's traders can be confident with is that they will not lose more money than they deposit into their account. It is FXCM's policy to credit accounts to a zero balance when debit balances occur as a result of trading.

There are a couple of important points to emphasis with this:

1. We only offer the most liquid instruments in forex and CFD trading. This means that whenever you need to exit your positions because you've reached a margin call, there's a very high likelihood your positions can be closed without your account going into a debit balance. We don't offer any single share CFD's because of this. And for those currency pairs which are somewhat more exotic than the major pairs, such as the MXN, HUF, TRY, etc. a higher margin requirement is required as an additional buffer.

2. FXCM enforces a real margin requirement instead of waiting for your account to reach £0. The initial margin you are required to set aside when opening the trade is also the account liquidation level. If your account equity hits your margin requirement level, every trade in your account will automatically and immediately be closed to prevent your account from ending up in a debit balance.​

It is possible in some instances during volatile markets that a gap could cause your account to end up in a small debit balance. It is FXCM's policy to credit accounts back to a zero balance when the debit balance occurs as a result of trading. One of the greatest concerns traders have about leverage is that a sizable loss could result in owing money to their broker. With FXCM, you only risk what you put in.


The margin watcher in the FX Trading Station II platform makes it very easy for you to keep track of your margin. I have added some screenshots below of the FX Trading Station II show how the margin tracker and margin call on our platform works. In the accounts window, there is a column titled Usd Mr. That column keeps track of your current margin requirement for open positions. If your account equity drops to your Usd Mr level, a margin call will occur. All positions are closed immediately. In the below screenshot, account equity would need to drop to £50 for the margin call to occur. Account equity drops as losses on open positions increase.

In the next image, the Usd Mr (used margin) is larger since I have opened more positions thereby increasing my margin requirement. The margin requirement is now £500. If my account equity drops to £500, a margin call will occur and close all positions immediately. We do not let your account reach £0 before initiating the margin call.

Another nice feature in the accounts window is the color coding for the Usbl Mr column. Usbl Mr (usable margin) shows you how much margin you have leftover to sustain against further losses. (Equity = Usd Mr + Usbl Mr). You can also watch the Usbl Mr as an indication on whether you are in danger of a margin call. If your usable margin hits 0, then the margin call occurs. We color code the margin call as green, yellow, or red to give further notification you are in danger of a margin call. If your account margin drops to 30%, the column turns orange and a notification appears. If your account margin drops to 10%, the column turns red and a notification appears. See the screenshot below:

Margin Call: And of course, the dreaded margin call!!! A message will appear on your screen, and you will see all positions closing. I circled the close time in my positions window to show all positions were closed. Any leftover margin freed up as a result of the positions closing is placed back into my account which I can then use to open new positions.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

-Jason

 

[Ross Spur]

As per post in CMC thread mentioned, is FXCM likely to reduce its spreads in line with other SBs?

 

[Truth Seeker]

It would be a good idea to reduce the spreads then the competition would be wiped out.

Is there any chance you could arrange accounts to be opened for a £500 as I feel you have dramatically reduced new account sign ups by increasing your min to £2k. As you can see, £500 is still more than your original £200 min before you raised it.

 

[Truth Seeker]

From PC head of CMC in reply to your post Jason, care to answer it here?

Hi Jason,

Very kind of you to post on here and fully appreciated by me and the other posters. Thanks for that. Not sure you have cleared up the question because there is no mention of you guaranteeing up to any amount any deficiency. But that is not for debate here. You are right to debate on your own forum.

Thanks for taking the time and good luck with the business.

regards Peter

 

[Jason Rogers]

As per post in CMC thread mentioned, is FXCM likely to reduce its spreads in line with other SBs?

Hi Ross,

FXCM maintains a no re-quote policy for stock indices, metals, and oil. We will offer the lowest spread possible in order to maintain this policy. If we are able lower spreads while maintaining this policy, we certainly will as we did with the UK100 and GER30.

FXCM traders don't have to worry about re-quotes or dealer referral.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

From PC head of CMC in reply to your post Jason, care to answer it here?

Hi Jason,

Very kind of you to post on here and fully appreciated by me and the other posters. Thanks for that. Not sure you have cleared up the question because there is no mention of you guaranteeing up to any amount any deficiency. But that is not for debate here. You are right to debate on your own forum.

Thanks for taking the time and good luck with the business.

regards Peter

Hi Truth Seeker,

Much of this was covered in the previous post http://www.trade2win.com/boards/spread-betting/65334-spread-betting-fxcm-52.html#post1596780, but to reiterate. The reason why we are able to have this policy while other brokers are not is because 1) we trade only very liquid products (not thousands and thousands of random illiquid products) and 2) we have a real margin call. We do not wait for your account to hit 0 before closing trades and we do not close one trade at a time. All positions are closed when you reach liquidation margin level. For some brokers, it may be in their best interest to close your account at 0 since that additional loss would be their profit. With FXCM, your positions are closed at the liquidation margin level to reduce the chances of your account ending up with a debit balance. Our policy is to adjust any account that ends up with a debit balance as a result of trading.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Update on holiday trading hours and rollover:

There is 5X rollover today (June 29) for CAD and HKD pairs and 4X rollover for all other pairs due to bank holidays. This Friday (July 1) there is no rollover for any currency pairs. Please keep this in mind if holding any trades open at 5:00pm ET.

There will be no changes for forex trading hours due to the July 4 holiday in the US, but there will be modifications for some of the CFD trading hours on Monday July 4th. Below is a list and all times are in GMT.

Let me know if you have any questions.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

then the competition would be wiped out.

That would be nice

Is there any chance you could arrange accounts to be opened for a £500 as I feel you have dramatically reduced new account sign ups by increasing your min to £2k. As you can see, £500 is still more than your original £200 min before you raised it.

Account minimums are not something we change too often, and I doubt we would lower the minimum. But I'll take note of your suggestion and make sure it gets included in the suggestion list.

-Jason

 

[YouAreNotFree]

Jason. Every single time I create a demo account via the FXCM website the login and password given never work.

Each time I have to contact your customer support and have them send me a login manually. This one always works.

It ticks me off.

At this time I need another demo account, maybe I will get round to contacting Customer support, maybe I won't and I'll forget about FXCM.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Jason. Every single time I create a demo account via the FXCM website the login and password given never work.

Each time I have to contact your customer support and have them send me a login manually. This one always works.

It ticks me off.

At this time I need another demo account, maybe I will get round to contacting Customer support, maybe I won't and I'll forget about FXCM.

Hi there,

Thanks for letting me know. Couple of things to keep in mind when registering for the demo. Logins are specific to platform it was registered for. So registering an FXSTII demo will not give you access to the MT4 demo. What type of demo account are you registering for? Second, the most common reason I have found for a demo giving wrong username or password is that the information is being copied and pasted into the login window instead of typed in. Copy/Paste will often times add a space to the end of the username or password which could cause the login to be rejected.

If you're having trouble, maybe you could email me the login information for your demo and I will try it on my computer? My direct email is [email protected] if you want me to give it a try.

-Jason