Spread betting at FXCM

[RoryP]

Jason,

Hats off to you sir. Just read through this this thread and have to say your posts are all very informative, good stuff.

Heres the thing; if FXCM can integrate MT4 in to their spread betting platform and maintain the transparency that you have shown here they will wipe the floor with the other SB firms.

I have a demo with FXCM, love the platform, not the charts. I will fund my FXCM account soon, partly due to the way that you have conducted yourself here on their behalf. Done the rounds with the SB firms, some good, some not so good hopefully FXCM will prove to be better than the lot. So much potential, hope your managers realise that!

Best

R

 

[Jack Hughes]

Jason,

Hats off to you sir. Just read through this this thread and have to say your posts are all very informative, good stuff.

Heres the thing; if FXCM can integrate MT4 in to their spread betting platform and maintain the transparency that you have shown here they will wipe the floor with the other SB firms.

I have a demo with FXCM, love the platform, not the charts. I will fund my FXCM account soon, partly due to the way that you have conducted yourself here on their behalf. Done the rounds with the SB firms, some good, some not so good hopefully FXCM will prove to be better than the lot. So much potential, hope your managers realise that!

Best

R

Agree with all that.

 

[Truth Seeker]

If this company wants be the biggest and the best it simply needs to reduce the spread size and the annoying way they slip you (outside news times) then insult you by quoting some 'liquidity' problem hence the slip, BS, this is FX, it trades 1.2 Trillion per day, there's no liquidity problems.
I trade the real market too (currinex) and never get slipped outside news times, so what's the deal with the slipping on the SB, trying to cream some pips off the top?

 

[nunrgguy]

Thanks, in fact all order types from the chart would be ideal . Most people place orders based on the chart so if you want to set a lint order you hAve to get the price from the chart, write down the price, go to the platform and enter the order . If you have an order window open you can't go to thechart and click on it for the price.

Also, how can you close a trade on this platform with a limit order as it alows hedging. I really would rather not use Market orders to close.

 

[top trader]

I pay 1 point spread in Euro/USD and 2 in Cable plus trade other indexes, shares etc with Capital group companies (s/b). Can FXCM beat that?

Thanks.

 

[Truth Seeker]

I pay 1 point spread in Euro/USD and 2 in Cable plus trade other indexes, shares etc with Capital group companies (s/b). Can FXCM beat that?

Thanks.

Have you checked their own investors performance chart? It looks like a downhill ski slope....Looks like everyone is bailing, watch your money as Pro spreads were called Futures Betting and have already gone busty once....

http://www.londoncapitalgroup.co.uk/charts.html

 

[Jack Hughes]

Wonder if CS would accept a massive short on LCG?

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Have you checked their own investors performance chart? It looks like a downhill ski slope....Looks like everyone is bailing, watch your money as Pro spreads were called Futures Betting and have already gone busty once....

http://www.londoncapitalgroup.co.uk/charts.html

Are Prospreads part of LCG?

LCG are covered by the FSA guarantee, aren't they?


Funny, I had been going to ask if anyone traded on the shares of spread-betting companies, assuming this would be a one-way (buy) bet. Apparently not.

 

[Vaco]

yes they are mont, since the name change from futuresbetting

 

[Jason Rogers]

Jason,

Hats off to you sir. Just read through this this thread and have to say your posts are all very informative, good stuff.

Heres the thing; if FXCM can integrate MT4 in to their spread betting platform and maintain the transparency that you have shown here they will wipe the floor with the other SB firms.

I have a demo with FXCM, love the platform, not the charts. I will fund my FXCM account soon, partly due to the way that you have conducted yourself here on their behalf. Done the rounds with the SB firms, some good, some not so good hopefully FXCM will prove to be better than the lot. So much potential, hope your managers realise that!

Best

R

Hi Rory,

Thanks for that and we look forward to having you as a client.

If there's anything you would like to see in the charts that's missing or just general functionality you would like changed, let me know. Every couple of months our developers ask me what traders are requesting, so I'll keep a list and let them know. In fact we just did an update this past weekend to add more time frames to the charts, Gann fans/retracements, Andrew's Pitchfork, Fibonacci TimeZones and more.

-Jason

 

[jonobrienuk]

Hi Jason

I have a couple of suggestions for your software.

1. On the charts I would like to be able to save templates and layouts like I can in MT4, so when I click on a layout it will load all my charts just how I want them, but then if I want to change the chart to a differant setup I can quite easily by changeing its template, I know I can do this in Marketscope but I would have to save a template for every pair.

2. This is not to do with the charting but with the trading window, it will only let me load 20 pairs at a time and then I have to remove some to add others. Why can't it load as many pairs as I want (all of them).

That is it for now, hope the suggestions make sense, if not say so and I will try again.

Cheers.

Jon

 

[montmorencyt2w]

yes they are mont, since the name change from futuresbetting

Thanks. Had not spotted that. Wonder why they are offshore?

 

[Jason Rogers]

If this company wants be the biggest and the best it simply needs to reduce the spread size and the annoying way they slip you (outside news times) then insult you by quoting some 'liquidity' problem hence the slip, BS, this is FX, it trades 1.2 Trillion per day, there's no liquidity problems.
I trade the real market too (currinex) and never get slipped outside news times, so what's the deal with the slipping on the SB, trying to cream some pips off the top?

Hi TruthSeeker,

On NDD execution, slippage does not translate into a greater amount of revenue for FXCM. Revenue on NDD execution is based off of trading volume rather than market making activities. FXCM makes the same pip mark-up amount whether the order is slipped or not.

The most common time you would see slippage occur is during a volatile period such as a news announcement. While there is a substantial amount of liquidity in the forex market as a whole, there are periods when that liquidity will dry up such as a news event.

The liquidity will also vary by currency pair. Take a look at this table from the Bank for International Settlement's 2007 survey:

Source: http://www.bis.org/publ/rpfxf07t.pdf?noframes=1

It lists the currency pairs with the most volume being transacted in them. Even pairs such as EUR/JPY, EUR/CHF, EUR/GBP only make up about 2% of daily trading volume each. (The BIS survey is scheduled to be updated later in 2010 last I heard.)

In the end, liquidity on any platform will only be as good as the liquidity being provided by the banks the broker has a relationship with. And the banks don't provide the same amount of liquidity or spread levels to each broker. Brokers negotiate with each bank for the spread and amount of liquidity provided at each spread level. FXCM currently has 10 banks providing pricing for our NDD execution.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Thanks, in fact all order types from the chart would be ideal . Most people place orders based on the chart so if you want to set a lint order you hAve to get the price from the chart, write down the price, go to the platform and enter the order . If you have an order window open you can't go to thechart and click on it for the price.

Hi nunrgguy,

Nearly all trading functionality is available from the charts such as market orders, entry orders, adding stops/limits, closing trades. This past weekend we added the ability to partially close trades from the charts. OCO order creation is one that hasn't been added yet.

Also, how can you close a trade on this platform with a limit order as it alows hedging. I really would rather not use Market orders to close.

The limit order should be added to each individual ticket through the Open Positions window. That way a new trade is not opened due to hedging being enabled. See the screenshot below, I circled the stop and limit columns for the GBP/CHF trade I have open.

Left clicking on the empty space below the words stop and limit will open the Stop?Limit Order window. Or you can right click on the ticket, and choose Stop/Limit Order from the menu.

Once you add the stop or limit to the open position, it will also appear on the chart. See here:

You can also add the stop and limit directly from the chart. To do this, right click on the open position line on the chart, and stop/limit will appear in the menu.

Note: If you want to use a limit or stop order to open a new position, you should use an Entry Order. On our platform, stop/limit orders are only used to close an open position. Whereas the Entry Order feature is used to open a new position where you can enter your own entry price (as opposed to buying or selling at the current market price).

Let me know if anything is too confusing

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

I pay 1 point spread in Euro/USD and 2 in Cable plus trade other indexes, shares etc with Capital group companies (s/b). Can FXCM beat that?

Thanks.

The lowest pricing structure should be on the Active Trader platform. The combined transaction costs of the Active Trader platform (spreads + commissions) should be substantially lower than the transaction costs (spreads) available to the typical FXCM Standard account. The commission is based on the amount of volume you trade. The higher the volume, the lower the commission. The Active Trader commission structure can also be applied to the FX Trading Station II and MetaTrader4.

We designed a separate platform for Active Trader so that you can view the depth of market and available liquidity at each depth.

Here's a screenshot of the price box for Active Trader showing depth of market. The amounts are in millions.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason

I have a couple of suggestions for your software.

1. On the charts I would like to be able to save templates and layouts like I can in MT4, so when I click on a layout it will load all my charts just how I want them, but then if I want to change the chart to a differant setup I can quite easily by changeing its template, I know I can do this in Marketscope but I would have to save a template for every pair.

2. This is not to do with the charting but with the trading window, it will only let me load 20 pairs at a time and then I have to remove some to add others. Why can't it load as many pairs as I want (all of them).

That is it for now, hope the suggestions make sense, if not say so and I will try again.

Cheers.

Jon

Hi Jon,

Not sure I completely understand question 1. Are you wanting pre-made templates added to the charts which you can toggle between?

For question 2, we limit it to 20 pairs due to the amount of data being transmitted. From our experience, traders don't watch all 40+ currency pairs or products available. That much data being broadcast to all demos and live accounts can add up. So we limit the maximum number of currency pairs being displayed. If you find it crucial to have more than 20 currency pairs or products displayed in the quotes window at once (on a live account), you can ask the customer support team to remove the cap. It can be done.

-Jason

 

[carlos b]

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Re: Spread betting at FXCM

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Quote:
Originally Posted by montmorencyt2w
Someone else will no doubt give a fuller answer, but as a quick answer, the FXCM is a bit more like a "proper" trading account, with an SB wrapper to give UK residents the tax advantage that this offers.

This is a great explanation and couldn't have said it better myself.

We basically took the rolling spot forex account, and gave it an SB wrapper to give UK residents the tax advantage.

Here's an explanation with numerical examples as to why it doesn't always equal to £1/pt on our platform.

Let's use the GBP/USD as an example. The banks are accepting trades in standardized amounts of currency such as standard lots of 100,000 (100k), mini lots of 10,000, and some banks will accept micro lots of 1,000. This is very basic, but when you trade currencies, you exchange 1 of the first currency for the quoted amount of the second.

So let's suppose current buy price for GBP/USD is 1.5983. This means you can buy £1 for $1.5983. If you trade a standard lot of 100,000 (100k), you have bought £100,000 for $159,830 at the current buy price. If the sell price then rises to 1.5984 (gain of 1 pip), your position is worth $159,840. The gain in value by a 1 pip movement is $10. By exchanging $10 into £ at the current exchange rate ($10 / $1.5984), you then get 6.26£/pt. The point value can fluctuate as the GBP/USD rate changes.

You always end up with a profit or loss denominated in the second currency quoted in the pair. If you traded a USD denominated account, the pip value would always be equal to $10 since the profit is in USD, and your account is denominated in USD. If your account is denominated in GBP, the profit has to be exchanged back into GBP.

jason so am i correct in assuming in my earlier post that in terms of the pound (the currency every uk resident in particular will be spending once profit is made and witdrawn from the account) every pip gain in real terms is only 60% of what your return would be relative to other SB firms in the UK on the GU one of the most popular pairs out there?

I may have missed an explanation already but can you elaborate as to why you do this?

appologies for returning to this particular subject but 40% of your possible profits per the pound is alot to go missing.

in my humble opnion if you could reverse this calc somehow to reflect the £1 per pip you'd have the icing on the cake and add metatrader you'd have the figurine on the icing and you would def have it sewn up on th SB front in the UK at least

cheers

cb

 

[Vaco]

carlos, forex is not traded at £1, £2, £3 a pip etc.

it is traded in lots and the value of each lot is determined by your account currency and the price your chosen pair is trading at. this site heps calculate. http://www.earnforex.com/pip-value-calculator

so on cable each micro lot 0.01 lots is worth approx 6.4 pence, so a mini lot 64p and a 1 lot is £6.4 per pip.

nothing is going missing this is just how fx is traded.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

It would only be sewn up for me if funding from debit card was accepted as standard, with refunding to same card, without any arbitrary restrictions. This is what every other UK SB firm offers, as far as I know.

Current funding/refunding methods have put me off for the time being.

 

[nunrgguy]

It would only be sewn up for me if funding from debit card was accepted as standard, with refunding to same card, without any arbitrary restrictions. This is what every other UK SB firm offers, as far as I know.

Current funding/refunding methods have put me off for the time being.

That's all good unless you've not changed your bank account in the meantime. Ive had problems with that one in the past before