Spread betting at FXCM

[Jason Rogers]

mt4 in a spreadbet account would prob get you the majority of the uk fx trading community on board.

The more requests the better! Then I can go back and show there's resounding demand

 

[Jack Hughes]

The more requests the better! Then I can go back and show there's resounding demand

Didn't AN Other unmentionable SB outfit offer MT for a while a year or two back, then withdrew it because it didn't work properly with their system? ... But that could be because their platform didn't work properly by itself (and still doesn't).

 

[carlos b]

vaco.. not that easy is it? what you see on the screen is not always what you get when executing trades even if it were demo.....therfore you would need to pay to find out for real on a live account.

thanks for the replies jason

i was referring to this ost you made earlier in the thread


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Re: Spread betting at FXCM

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Quote:
Originally Posted by jiggly
what is the minimum bet per point spread betting on this platform?

hi jiggly,

The minimum bet per point is currently 0.60£. for the cable.

On the platform, your profit is in the counter currency. So if you are trading GBP/USD, your profit is in USD, and then converted back to GBP at the current exchange rate.

If each point is worth $1, then it is worth 0.60£ at the current exchange rate ( $1 / 1.60 = 0.60£). If you traded two lots, then each point would be worth 1.20£ and so forth.

If you are trading a pair that has the GBP as the counter currency, such as EUR/GBP, then it is equal to exactly 1£ per point since your profit is already in GBP. "

re margin calls..what would be you best advice to prevent liquidation of an account or positions due to margin calls.. (the obvious being money management) what other actions can be taken to minimize risk?

some of those reviews (some you have to take with a pinch of salt) but a few do appear quite damning on margin calls and spread widening etc.. i hope they are piffle



** update; been doing alot more research as i am very interested in using FXCM, but my paranoia grows...

had a scenario last night where i was on chat with FXCM helpdesk..
i just needed something clarifying re an entry order... however somewhere in the convo came a comment with regards to execution on demo.. "what you have to understand is that demo liquidity is always there therefore execution will be processed no matter what"

where on a live account liquidity may prove an issue for execution it seems.

question: in that case, other than to get a feel for the platform or practice skills of execution entry/exit, what is the point of trading a demo account if it does not mirror the reality?

would be a happy bunny if these bucket shops were regulated more closely.. the picture & feel i'm getting is that termonolgy such as slippage or increase in spreads due to volatility changes is just a smokescreen to allow carte blanch to move the goalsposts mid trade to steal cash or ensure further deposit.. FXCM may not make on the trades in the same was as others, but margin calls, widening of spread in "more active" market climes & stop hunting seem to dominate peoples frustration...

jason if FXCM arent making on the stop hunting front etc, with your feed, who is? because everywhere i'm reading i see posts with factual evidence of people who had trades hedged in profit who are getting whacked on margin calls or stops cor price quotes @times that are continents away from price action....

are FXCM affiliated with the banks that generate price in anyway?

like vaco said if you could get metatrader on SB and imo also allay fears and prove somehow that the above should not and would not happen, i believe you would clean up!

cheers

cb

 

[carlos b]

update:

really like the platform..chat service seems helpful.. email service not as good..

profit differntials in regards to other SB models..
as oppsoed to other models of SB you do not get the usual 1 for 1 in GBP unless GBP happens to be the counter currency..

ie according to the helpdesk..: make 10 pips on the gu @ current approx price (1.6xxx)...and gross profit is +6 odd in real cash terms as it is reflecting the market price of the currency pair ...ie you get 0.60 to pip

with the other models of SB firms you will get £1 for 1 pip as they calc their own price..

 

[marlintrdg]

Hi Jason,

Just my quarterly Nag,

Metatrader 4 Please

Indexes Please (Majors)

Metals Please (Gold/Silver?)

BTW: The FXCM CFD spreads for the above are really quite painful hopefully spreads that wide won't show-up on the Spreadbetting platform.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason,

Just my quarterly Nag,

Metatrader 4 Please

Indexes Please (Majors)

Metals Please (Gold/Silver?)

BTW: The FXCM CFD spreads for the above are really quite painful hopefully spreads that wide won't show-up on the Spreadbetting platform.

Duly noted!

 

[gabour76]

FXCM scam
take care loss money

 

[neil]

FXCM scam
take care loss money

And your evidence is ?

 

[DCSD]

Hello,

I am new to SB and trading in general and i have a couple of questions

1. I currently use IG, and i place trades by betting amount per pip, so if i buy £1 / pip and the trade goes down 10 pips then i lose £10 (+spread) which i can understand. However, in the demo account i opened for FXCM using the Trade Station software, i place bets with amounts of 10K, 20K etc. Please can someone explain how this works to me please?

2. Again using IG as an example, i can place bets as low as 10p per pip. what is the minimum amount to open an SB account with FXCM and what is the minimum bet size i can place? This is important to me as i am very new to this and i dont want to be risking too much initially

Thanks!

DC

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Hello,

I am new to SB and trading in general and i have a couple of questions

1. I currently use IG, and i place trades by betting amount per pip, so if i buy £1 / pip and the trade goes down 10 pips then i lose £10 (+spread) which i can understand. However, in the demo account i opened for FXCM using the Trade Station software, i place bets with amounts of 10K, 20K etc. Please can someone explain how this works to me please?

2. Again using IG as an example, i can place bets as low as 10p per pip. what is the minimum amount to open an SB account with FXCM and what is the minimum bet size i can place? This is important to me as i am very new to this and i dont want to be risking too much initially

Thanks!

DC

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.

Thus it trades in so-called standard lots or maybe minilots (can't quite remember).
You can also open an "FXmicro" account which trades microlots.
The latter might be more suitable if you are moving from 10p bets with IG
(Although that introductory bet size normally goes up after a few weeks, unless, possibly, you ask them to keep it and they agree).

As a quick intro just do a google on "standard lots" "minilots" "microlots".

Most UK spreadbetting firms have bets more like IGs. Just the minimum bet size varies, although £1/pt seems quite common.

 

[jonobrienuk]

Hello,

I am new to SB and trading in general and i have a couple of questions

1. I currently use IG, and i place trades by betting amount per pip, so if i buy £1 / pip and the trade goes down 10 pips then i lose £10 (+spread) which i can understand. However, in the demo account i opened for FXCM using the Trade Station software, i place bets with amounts of 10K, 20K etc. Please can someone explain how this works to me please?

2. Again using IG as an example, i can place bets as low as 10p per pip. what is the minimum amount to open an SB account with FXCM and what is the minimum bet size i can place? This is important to me as i am very new to this and i dont want to be risking too much initially

Thanks!

DC

Hi DC.

I thought the minimum pip value on IG Index was 50p a pip.

As for the FXCM platform the lot size 10k is equal to $1 per pip in usd(eg GBPUSD) trades which equals about 62.5p($1/1.6, current value of GBPUSD) . There platform does show quite clearly what the multiple factor for each pair is to turn it back into £ per pip values.

Hope that helps a little.

Can I ask why you are looking to move away from IG Index?

Jon.

 

[jonobrienuk]

Hi Jason,

Just my quarterly Nag,

Metatrader 4 Please

Indexes Please (Majors)

Metals Please (Gold/Silver?)

BTW: The FXCM CFD spreads for the above are really quite painful hopefully spreads that wide won't show-up on the Spreadbetting platform.

Hi Jason.

I agree with all of the above.
I would move to FXCM if it was just forex on MT4 spreadbetting, but the others would be the icing on the cake.

Kick some but at fxcm and lets have mt4, you would probably be the most popular spreadbetting company then.

Cheers.

Jon.

 

[DCSD]

montmorencyt2w,jonobrienuk,

Thank you for your response. I can see now on the platform the pip cost. I will need to read up on how lots and margin and pip cost all relate. Im just used to the IG method!

Jon, im not actually moving away from IG, but there are a couple of reasons why i want FXCM too:
1. Another platform to play with in case one of them goes down. Ive seen IG go down for a few hours once.
2. No requotes on FXCM

IG allows 10p a pip

DC

 

[Jason Rogers]

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.

For a currency pair such as EUR/GBP, the profit is in GBP so the point value will be a fixed amount that does not fluctuate.

Traditionally most spreadbet brokers have been market makers so they can arbitrarily set the point value for a position and then let you choose how much you want each point to be worth. On our No Dealing Desk execution, the point value is determined by the actual amount of currency being traded the currency your profit or loss is denominated in.

I hope I didn't confuse you more

Edit: Just saw Jon's answer:

As for the FXCM platform the lot size 10k is equal to $1 per pip in usd(eg GBPUSD) trades which equals about 62.5p($1/1.6, current value of GBPUSD) . There platform does show quite clearly what the multiple factor for each pair is to turn it back into £ per pip values.

Another great simple explanation. Here's a screenshot of the dealing rates and where to find the pip values. We display the pip value in each currency pairs quote box. I drew a red box around the location of the pip value on each of the 4 currency pairs:

Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason.

I agree with all of the above.
I would move to FXCM if it was just forex on MT4 spreadbetting, but the others would be the icing on the cake.

Kick some but at fxcm and lets have mt4, you would probably be the most popular spreadbetting company then.

Cheers.

Jon.

Thanks Jon,

We'll see how much but kicking I can accomplish over here :cheesy:


-Jason

 

[nunrgguy]

Could really do with OCO orders etc from the chart - can place simple stops from the chart but not much else

 

[Jason Rogers]

Could really do with OCO orders etc from the chart - can place simple stops from the chart but not much else

Thanks for the feedback. Will send your suggestion for OCO entry order creation from the charts to our development team!

-Jason

 

[Vaco]

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.

For a currency pair such as EUR/GBP, the profit is in GBP so the point value will be a fixed amount that does not fluctuate.

Traditionally most spreadbet brokers have been market makers so they can arbitrarily set the point value for a position and then let you choose how much you want each point to be worth. On our No Dealing Desk execution, the point value is determined by the actual amount of currency being traded the currency your profit or loss is denominated in.

I hope I didn't confuse you more

Edit: Just saw Jon's answer:



Another great simple explanation. Here's a screenshot of the dealing rates and where to find the pip values. We display the pip value in each currency pairs quote box. I drew a red box around the location of the pip value on each of the 4 currency pairs:

Jason

Regarding the pip value, it does not change when you change the size you are going to trade, surely it would be a simple fix to tie it in with the size been traded. Also how do you change the default size cant seem to find it

 

[Jack Hughes]

Thanks for the feedback. Will send your suggestion for OCO entry order creation from the charts to our development team!

-Jason

And ask them about adding indices, please, Jason.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Regarding the pip value, it does not change when you change the size you are going to trade, surely it would be a simple fix to tie it in with the size been traded. Also how do you change the default size cant seem to find it

Hi Vaco,

The dealing rates will always display the pip value for the smallest amount you can trade in the account type you have setup. To figure out the pip value for a larger amount, you would have to multiple the number of lots being traded by the pip value.

Here's how to change the default size of the dealing rates window and price panels. Right click anywhere over the dealing rates or currency quotes, and in the menu that appears, choose "Price Panels Size". See image below:

Cheers,

Jason