Forex rebates on every trade - win or lose!

I'm well aware of this Hils, I think you've banged on about it a lot over the years and a few firms were caught.

I think the thrust of the article was more about why anyone would trade Forex instead of shares etc.. I mean, it's not as if we don't buy & hold Forex for the long term :-)

I know I've mentioned the Virtual Dealer Plugin previously, Floss. But the article's author did spend the first half of his piece saying how FXCM had been weighting the dice in their favour, so I figured it was worth mentioning again.

But, going on to the second half of the article, I did think the author's logic was flawed. I felt that what he was actually trying to say was that trading in general was dumb in comparison to investing. That's an age-old argument of course, and I won't bother to expand on it here.

For some reason, however, he chose to target Forex trading as being dumb, and that's where his argument fell apart imo. He pointed out that the spot Forex market was open 24/5 and was gapless. He pointed out that it was liquid and that it was efficient. He also pointed out that it was necessary to use leverage to optimise returns. Now, where I come from, those are all very valid reasons TO trade a market.

If he had said that trading some out-of-favour commodity such as Elk Toenails was dumb, I'd have kinda agreed with him. But to choose a market where it's very easy to push through 1 or 2 mio units bc of a major in under 0.5 of a second, and with typical combined spread and dealing costs of about 0.001% the bid. Nah!

Finally he acknowledged that the market employed battalions of strategists and economist capable of disseminating news in the blink of an eye. Well I personally don't think those guys are super-human because it's the bots that react quickest to the news but, whatever, he implied that smart people traded Forex (which I already knew) and then, in the next sentence, he implied they were dumb.

Really?

Totally agree Hils. Forex is simply any other market magnified and speeded up.

I agree with Hils,as always.

The reasons the guy was giving for not trading FX are the ones which have driven FX trading. I only ever traded cable because I could get in or out at will.

I always thought that FX was the most efficient of all traded markets and came closest to the economic model of perfect competition.


But I'm thick as sh*t so wtfdik.


:-)

Is anyone on here still trading Forex? What trading platforms are people using?

Raw spread ECN on MT4 or cTrader through Aussie regulated brokers, IC Markets or AxiTrader, who have dediboxes inside NY4 and LD5. $7 comm per rtl (or less through the green shed).

Interesting day for FX providers:

Alpari:

Important announcement

Submitted on Fri, 16/01/2015 - 12:00;

The recent move on the Swiss franc caused by the Swiss National Bank’s unexpected policy reversal of capping the Swiss franc against the euro has resulted in exceptional volatility and extreme lack of liquidity. This has resulted in the majority of clients sustaining losses which has exceeded their account equity. Where a client cannot cover this loss, it is passed on to us. This has forced Alpari (UK) Limited to confirm today, 16/01/15, that it has entered into insolvency. Retail client funds continue to be segregated in accordance with FCA rules.



CMC

Peter Cruddas, Chief Executive, CMC Markets said:
“Yesterday's unprecedented move by the Swiss National Bank created a large amount of volatility in the Swiss Franc and Foreign Exchange markets.

Like many of our competitors, CMC Markets sustained some losses, however, the overall impact including possible bad debts has not materially impacted the Group.

The Group’s balance sheet post these events remains strong, with a regulatory capital ratio of 24% (300% pre CRD IV) and own funds in excess of £130m. All retail client funds are fully segregated and protected.

CMC Markets continues to have a strong balance sheet and business model; the Group remains on course to exceed last year’s financial performance.

It’s business as usual.”



Capital Spreads

London Capital Group
Statement on Swiss Franc movement
RNS Number : 3731C
London Capital Group Holdings PLC
16 January 2015


16 January 2015


LONDON CAPITAL GROUP HOLDINGS PLC

("London Capital Group", "LCG", the "Company" or the "Group")

Statement on Swiss Franc movement
LCG maintains minimal exposure

Following yesterday's announcement by the Swiss National Bank, which resulted in extreme movement in the value of the Swiss Franc, and a sudden reduced liquidity in the Swiss Franc foreign exchange market, London Capital Group provides an update on the financial impact to the Group. The impact on the Company's balance sheet from market and credit exposure will be dependent on the Company's ability to recover client debts, but in total it will not exceed £1.7 million.

All clients' positions were closed at a more beneficial level than the Company could close its own exposure.
The Group is well capitalised with a strong balance sheet upon which the recent events relating to the Swiss Franc has had no material impact. LCG will publish its results for the year ended 31 December 2014 on 25 March 2015.



IG

IG Group Holdings plc
15 January 2015



Statement on Swiss Franc movement

Following this morning's exceptional announcement by the Swiss National Bank, which resulted in a sudden and extreme movement in the value of the Swiss Franc, IG Group Holdings plc ("The Company", "The Group", "IG") believes it is appropriate to provide an update on the negative financial impact to the Group. The precise level of the impact will be partially dependent on the Company's ability to recover client debts, but in total it will not exceed £30 million, from market and credit exposure.

The market exposure occurred where client positions were closed at a more beneficial level than the Company was able to close its entire corresponding hedge due to the market dislocation.

This occurs against the backdrop of very strong recent and current performance and IG's extremely robust financial position.

As scheduled, on 20 January 2015, IG will present its results for the first six months of the 2015 year, and will provide an update on progress on its strategic initiatives.

credit Suisse on currency brokerage FXCM: "With that said, we do not think the company will be able to conduct business tomorrow." (today)

Edit: http://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/fxcm-comments-on-swiss-franc-movement-20150115-01137

Hilary

Do have a good source for news that affects Forex movements?

Do you mean an event calendar, a pre-event strategy on how best to deal both sides of the risk, where to get the news itself fast, or a post-event synopsis and analysis, Haystack?

Getting the news fast. It is more the unscheduled news that would affect thingsvthat I am interested in. The rest is available from various sources although one consolidated source would be good

Which part of the almost 24 hour forex trading periods do you find best? I have been trying to compared volatility during the day with overnight and other parts of the day. I wondered if traders in the Far East and other areas behaved differently.

For a consolidated source which provides some sensible opinion too and pre-event strategy, order book info, etc, there's http://www.forexlive.com/ - and don't forget to say hello to Choccie while you're there. :o)

For getting the news fastest, I personally use Bloomberg TV (real TV, not interweb). I've got a screen mounted on my wall, but today it'll be tuned into the 4th test and I'll swivel my chair round so I can look at it. If you use Twitter and follow two or three city traders, you'll find that some of the news is tweeted virtually instantly. Otherwise, a couple of the event calendars expand and update by jQuery callbacks very quickly after the event.

In terms of the best time of day, it's important to realise that much of the money doesn't come into the market until London gets on board. So you can often see big swings in Asian trade, but sometimes they're on low volume.

Certain crosses will also become very rangebound at certain times of the day. Around 45% of the total Forex volume goes through EUR/USD, so it's generally in demand around the clock. But, if you take EUR/GBP for instance, there's generally no news out of either London or anywhere else in Europe between 9pm and 6am, so it's often possible to identify a tight channel and buy at support and sell at resistance between those times, scalping a few pips each way with a reasonable degree of confidence. And if you prefer something that trends well and which can move several hundred pips a day, it's hard to beat the GBP/AUD right now.

Thanks for that. I tend to like to know as much as possible about things.

What indicators do you use on charts?

Schaff Trend Cycle which is a smoothed stochastic of a MACD. And a ruler and pencil.

Where do you get your charts from?

Sorry about the Spanish Inquisition!

I use broker charts - MT4 and cTrader.

Am also now trading forex and commodities almost exclusively. So much more civilised than shares :-)

What platform are you using?