Welcome comments on CMC

[Hayek]

I am considering to open a fx account in CMC. Please leave your comments here in this post.

I also have several questions.

1. Does CMC accept international clients other than Americans, Australians and Canadians?

2. How about their order execution around fundamental news? I know CMC has officially given up stop-loss-guaranteed policy which I think already useless since no dealer guarantee that now. What is your impression about their order execution speed and slippage around fundamental news?

3. Do you have any experience that they purposely hunt your stop?

Thank you for your valuable comments and advices.

 

[a_gnome]

I used to use them a long time ago (about 5 years ago perhaps). At that time I wasn't too impressed with them for a number of reasons:
1. The quoting process was done manually
2. The quote was indicative and they would often requote you when you tried to trade. Strangely enought the requote was always against you as they always knew what your position was.
3. They did once actively go for my stops but when I kicked up a fuss they re-instated my trades.

As far as I know they accept international clients (they certainly used to) as they are originally a UK operation.

At the time I wrote a review of them which you can view at:
CMC Review
I also once met a couple of their ex-dealers who said that everything that I mentioned in the article did actually go on!

Having said all that, this was a long time ago and I have since heard positive things about them so perhaps someone with more recent experience could comment.

HTH

 

[Rainmaker]

Unfortunately I do not have any FX experience with CMC - only stocks, commodities, indices. I was a very active trader with them and suffered a great deal when they had system problems, etc. I was left heavily out of pocket and moved my business elsewhere.

 

[Hayek]

Thanks for a_gnome's and Rainmaker's information.

 

[Racer]

I definitely would NOT use them. Customer service terrible, quote delays if you are making money etc. etc
I have had accounts with several spread bet companies/brokers/CFDs etc and can say that CMC are the worst company I have every encountered

 

[TRADERguy]

I use CMC Forex and generally have a positive view of them. I've read that the customer service in the UK is horrible but the people in the US are friendly and helpful. The drawback with them is that their charts are useless so be prepared to pay $50 a month for Intellicharts which they offer a data feed for. I've had slippage on a market entry once (on a NFP release) and have been requoted once (on a CPI release). They do not guarantee stops but I have never had slippage on a stop loss. They offer One Cancels the Other (OCO) orders and if done orders. I especially like that they have backup servers in different parts of the world unlike some other firms where all the servers are at one site in Manhattan.

 

[Faris]

Hello.

Does anyone know whether CMC (US) manually confirm trades or is the execution of trades done automatically through a system. I am considering trading through them but i do not like there platform.

Faris...

 

[blueingreen]

Cmc

I have traded there for some time, but eventually I quit, because apart from the stop execution policy, which reflects the market reality, and cannot be taken as a sole blame of any broker, the real problem with them has become the tendency to freeze the execution of trades as soon as market gets volatile, so if you hit a bid thinking the market will go down ,what is likely to happen, is that the window freezes and then if the price goes up, you get a confo you have sold, if instead it goes in your favour, either you get a requote, or you get filled lower, where the price is maybe 2 minutes afterwards... Since lately the markets tend to either be dead, and in that case I do not trade, or very volatile, and in that case CMC does not let you trade, I decided our interests diverged to the point it was better to stop...

 

[Racer]

blueingreen yes agree with your comments. Markets are enemy enough without taking on another!

 

[gullible]

I can confirm the experiences described by others on the thread. Particulalry the tendency to Freez your order screen and only 'fill' your order if it is going against you. Initially I though it was my computer. However, 3 of us were trading from the same room,same connection and only happended to me. They must keep an eye on your 'winnings;. At the time I was doing very well on Dow and my mates were not.

Also, during good voliatility the system would go down ( never during quite times), if you phone them it would take ages for them to answer the phone.

On two separate occassions they cancelled my opening trade (without calling me) and left the closing trade. When I called them they said that the opening trade was a 'bad' price and only after arguing for about 10 mins they canacelled my closing trade to bring back to nil gain/loss situation. On the second occassion they would not even do that.

They as market makers have told me that my limit order on Abbey National (FTSE 100 companiey) was not filled because there were no buyers.! Again, afte kicking up a fuss they filled it, but surprise, surprise, within seconds of filling in my limit sale order the price moved in my direction further, i forget the exact figure but it was about 15-20p a share.

It is not that I was trading big quantities:-

Abbey National - 1000 shares
DOW (when the screen froze) 1 contract, 1 contract, 5 contrcats maximum.

Having said bad (but true) things about CMC, on the postive side their spreads are very competitive and on CFDS no charge to open or close a trade.

I remember reading somewhere that D4 free is sometimes referred to as steal4 free.

I have recentley started to trade with capital spreads and to date have not had any problems with them. Couple of times my trade did not go through, I called them and despite the price having gone in my favour by 20 points on Dow they filled my trade in at the price ruling when i had clicked the mouse. Their customer service is very courteous, polite and helpful. Deal4 Free do not know the meaning of customer service and courtsey, politness and helpfulness appears to be specifically banned by their board.

trust this helps.

 

[Rainmaker]

I have experienced all of the above with CMC. Surely this is either extremely sharp practice or a matter for the FSA to investigate. Either way, it tells me that there is no reason why any successful trader should use CMC!

 

[SvenFoster]

I remember reading that d4f uses a queuing system for trades and that they can be selective on the price given based on the queue forexample...

If the market is in your favour and your in the money they may hold your confirmation for say 15 seconds. The market could continue in your favour for those 15 seconds and then they finally confirm your exit at the price quoted at the beginning of the queue.

As you imagine there is an alternative scenaro to this in which the price goes against you whilst in the queue and you get the last price.

as far as i remember this was for SB but the FX /cfds may be the same but this is just a distant memory and shouldn't be used solely as a reason to discount them

 

[Hayek]

OK, thanks all. Enough negative experience of you with CMC for me. It behaves almost the same as my present dealer CMS.

So, what dealer would you like to recommend to me? It more and more seems to be a pretty tough question for everybody recently.

 

[TRADERguy]

I'm left wondering by the previous postings if the others that have commented are using CMC Forex or one of the other types of accounts because my experiences have been much better than theirs. As far as retail forex goes I started with CMS and CMC is much better. To those that have posted negative comments are you using CMC forex or are you playing in the spreadbet area?

 

[JTrader]

Good point TRADERguy

I cannot really pass judgement as I have not used the CMC forex service, having just trading forex through CMC forex.

I have been led to believe that the pricing for the two account types should be pretty much the same at all times. However, it is reasonable to assume that CMC forex will offer a better equipped and more professional forex trading service than CMC forex spreadbets.

 

[Strunz]

I have traded there for some time........

blueingreen
I would like to contact you in private.Please send me an e-mail to [email protected]

 

[c6ackp]

I enquired last week whether the CMC SB FX execution, prices, spreads, etc. were the same as the CMC Forex service.

I was told by a D4F representative that the CMC Forex service is identical to the CMC SB FX service. They both use MarketMaker v5 and all the pricing etc. use the same data feed.

So switching to CMC Forex won't solve any existing issues you may have with CMC SB FX.

 

[atholh]

Charts upgrade, etc.

Been with CMC Forex for quite a few years...I've never had problems with their execution. Slippage has hardly ever happened except occasionally at the time of major news releases with fast markets which is not unusual if the interbank market is gapping too. Strange data spikes/false quotes are extremely rare (unlike certain other brokers with very large advertised client bases) and their daily range is extremely close to the EBS ranges (yes, I have a private web address that allows me to get all the EBS ranges live!), usually within 3 or 4 pips. Last week they have just upgraded their charts (which used to be virtually useless) to ProRealTime which as good as you are going to get anywhere. Just a few thoughts...

 

[Hayek]

I tried CMC demo several times. My PC got crash every time around 1 minute after I logged on the platform.

 

[TRADERguy]

I tried CMC demo several times. My PC got crash every time around 1 minute after I logged on the platform.

Well, I haven't used the demo in a couple of years but I would look to java conflicts as a possible source of the problem. Try removing everything java from your computer and then install the java version as directed from the CMC download page. I believe that java is now automatically installed for the live platform version.