Spread down to 0.0 pips this morning

[options-george]

i trade FX and use FXCM for my trading.

this morning I noticed something that I hadn't seen before. Shortly after the announcement that S&P cut Japan's credit rating, the spread on a large number of FX pairs dropped to 0.0 or 0.1 pips (down from the 2.5-5.0 that I normally see) several times over the next thirty minutes, each time it stayed like that for up to 10 seconds. My understanding is that FXCM is linked to about 15 different market makers and then makes up the best bid/ask combination from the 15 quotes.

Any idea why the spread dropped to 0.0? Is this indicative that there were some very large quantities on the bid and ask of various market makers?

G

 

[tar]

i trade FX and use FXCM for my trading.

this morning I noticed something that I hadn't seen before. Shortly after the announcement that S&P cut Japan's credit rating, the spread on a large number of FX pairs dropped to 0.0 or 0.1 pips (down from the 2.5-5.0 that I normally see) several times over the next thirty minutes, each time it stayed like that for up to 10 seconds. My understanding is that FXCM is linked to about 15 different market makers and then makes up the best bid/ask combination from the 15 quotes.

Any idea why the spread dropped to 0.0? Is this indicative that there were some very large quantities on the bid and ask of various market makers?

G

it means we dont accept business within the next 30 minutes

 

[Hotch]

Well, it's completely possible that fxcm had a negative spread and were still making their cut. It does happen occasionally when the arbing software is down