FXCM Discussion

Forex Tax Webinars

Tax time is right around the corner, and Robert A. Green, CPA and CEO of GreenTraderTax.com has agreed to host a couple of forex tax webinars next month. Here's the schedule:

• Tuesday, March 1 at 11 AM ET
• Thursday, March 10 at 4 PM ET
• Tuesday, Mar 15 at 11 AM ET
• Thursday, Mar 24th at 4 PM ET

You can register and find more details about the upcoming webinars here.

Hi everyone.
I have a micro account with FXCM. The trading platform is Marketscope. I've found a strategy or indicator (I think) online. The indicator author published only the code of the indicator. How do I install the indicator/strategy?
I'd appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Cape Cobra
The indicator or strategy can be found here:
http://www.forexcodesource.com/index...topsAndTargets

...and here..
http://www.forexcodesource.com/index.php/BreakevenStop

Hi CapeCobra,

Both of the Strategies you listed are for the Strategy Trader platform. You will need to download the .FXD file from ForexCodeSource.com and then import it into Strategy Trader. Below is a screenshot of what to click on to import the .FXD file:

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/2...r228201110.png

If you only want strategies to use on Marketscope then look through FXCodeBase.com. There are 1000+ custom indicators and strategies available for Marketscope. If there's something missing that you need, feel free to post the request on FXCodeBase, and I'm sure they would be able to create it for you. And here's a guide on installing indicators/strategies into Marketscope: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...7&#post4176837

Let me know if you have any questions.

-Jason

Hi,
To be able to use these strategies in Marketscope, you should convert them to the Lua language.
By the way, there is a lot of indicators and strategies for Marketscope on the fxcodebase site. Take a look at these strategies:
http://fxcodebase.com/code/viewtopic...reakeven#p8476
http://fxcodebase.com/code/viewtopic...reakeven#p6252
Hope this will help.
Also it's possible to put free requests for developers on this site and they add or change strategies for free

Natali & Jason

Thanks a lot for the help, guys!
I really appreciate it.

Thanks for pointing this out Natali . FXCodeBase.com is a great resource for Marketscope. I did a search of the new indicators yesterday and posted a highlight for a couple custom indicators I found interesting http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...47#post4439047

By Jacob Bunge
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
The chief executive of FXCM Inc. (FXCM) has had enough currency trades go against him to come away with a sense of irony, a healthy thing for anyone raising a child--or an industry.

Drew Niv's aim is to nurture retail foreign-exchange trading so it can stand alongside online stock-brokerage titans like Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and TD Ameritrade (AMTD), but the business faces a hurdle in the form of its most-active customers.

"It's not a question of whether the ethics are legitimate," Niv said of the $4 trillion per day global market, regularly described as a Wild West for individual investors. "It's an issue of whether you're using it legitimately. And some people are not treating it with the proper respect."

Niv is talking about day traders, who have helped build retail foreign-exchange trading into a $200 billion per day market, but have done less to promote currencies as an asset class for more-passive investors. Their tendency to pile on leverage and swing for the fences leads to blowups and drives down the number of profitable accounts at companies like FXCM, he said.

The ratio of profitable to unprofitable accounts is important. U.S. regulators require online forex brokerages to break out how many client accounts turned a profit each quarter, coloring potential customers' perception of the firms. It also plays into views on long-term profitability, and therefore potential investor interest. FXCM and rival Gain Capital Holdings Inc. (GCAP) went public in December, and others could follow.

"The market does go through a regular shake-out of traders who are undisciplined," said Javier Paz, forex analyst with the research firm Aite Group. "There is something to be said for the increasing profitability of those who stay in, and all of a sudden start to show the way to others."

The forex market draws in risk-loving day-trader types in part because of its evolution, Niv said. The perception that trading currencies is a rigged game, with brokerage companies like FXCM playing the role of market-maker, exchange and broker for individual investors, pressured Niv to take his company toward a more agency-like model in late 2006.

FXCM's trading system takes in prices from 16 banks and trading firms and shows customers the most-competitive bids and offers. Those firms cannot see the identity of FXCM's customers or their positions, and while FXCM is not an exchange, Niv said "it's essentially delivering fairness."

Leverage is another factor. The historically large amounts of borrowed money that individual investors were allowed to use when trading major currency pairs gave traders leeway to place big bets, which frequently went bad, Niv said.

"You have guys that will open an account with $2,000 and are not looking to make a 15% return--they're trying to make 2,000%," he said. "The statistics are not in their favor."

A move by U.S. regulators last year to dial down the amount of leverage that can be used to trade major currency pairs, to a 50-to-1 ratio from 100-to-1, affects brokerage revenues but will help burnish the industry's reputation, according to Niv. In jurisdictions like Hong Kong, where leverage is capped at 20-to-1, roughly half of FXCM's client accounts are profitable, compared to 23% in the U.S. in the fourth quarter of 2010.

"Where leverage is more restricted, we do better," he said.

More-disciplined investors tend to place more money with FXCM. About 44% of customer accounts with more than $10,000 on deposit are profitable, said Niv, nearly double the 23% seen for FXCM's day-trader clientele. Its average account size is $3,800, across about 175,000 tradable accounts.

Macroeconomic factors have played a part in the market. Record-low interest rates across most of the developed world have sucked the wind out of more-passive "carry trade" strategies, where investors sell the cash of countries with a low rate and buy currencies in jurisdictions with a higher rate.

Today, Niv said, carry-trade investors have "almost disappeared" amid the low-rate environment, a product of central banks working to ensure easier credit.

"The reality is that this business is still an infant business," said Niv. "A lot of the issues people have with it are explained by that."

(Jacob Bunge is a reporter covering exchanges and trading for Dow Jones Newswires. He can be reached at 312 750 4117 or by email at [email protected].)

Jason,

What is minimal lot in FXCM micro?
Is it 0.01? And do you accept application from Indonesia?

Thanks much.
Regards,

I have been using TSII for about 9 months now and I think it is the best platform out there. Also spreads during news are not so bad, the only terrible time when spreads are high is from 5:01 P.M EST to about 5:08 P.M. EST this may be because I have a micro account but maybe not. One day when I get enough capital I may want to switch to another broker who has commission-forex but I need a platform that is easy-to-use like this one. One thing I like about it is that I can trade micro lots and trade from the charts, all while saving layouts and templates which helps a lot because I am a system trader. In my opinion 7/10 for a broker. Took the 3 points away because of whacky spreads and there platform does run pretty slow sometimes.

Hello Jason,

When you have an account using 1 platform for example MT4, can you trade using another platform like trading station II?

Hi ivonivon,

Thanks for the questions.

The minimal lot size for an FXCM Micro account is 1k, and the platform you would use is the FX Trading Station II platform. MT4 is currently not available for use with the micro accounts. A standard 10k account would need to be opened in order to use the MT4 platform with FXCM, and the minimum lot size is 0.10 (mini lot).

FXCM accepts applications from Indonesia for both micro and standard 10k accounts.

-Jason

Hi awsl,

The answer is no unfortunately. If you have an account setup on MT4, the login will only allow you to trade with the MT4 platform. What you could do instead is have a second account setup on the FX Trading Station II and transfer funds between those accounts through www.myfxcm.com.

-Jason

Hi jaksasquatch,

I appreciate the feedback, and good to hear you like the FXTSII platform. Regarding a commission trading setup, that is also available with FXCM through the Active Trader program. Active trader has reduced spreads plus a commission which is designed to lower the overall transaction costs compared to the standard 10k account.

Active trader can be setup on either the Active Trader platform or TSII platform. Plus as a system trader, you could use the active trader TSII account to access the Strategy Trader platform for automated trading.

-Jason

We're almost a month away from the US tax filing deadline, which means we're bound to get more and more questions about how to report gains/losses from forex trading on your tax returns. FXCM is sponsoring* a forex tax webinar being held tomorrow at 4:00pm ET by Robert A. Green, CPA and CEO of GreenTraderTax.com. You can register for the free webinar here, and the recording from the March 1 webinar is also available in case you can't make it to the one tomorrow.


*Please be advised that Green & Company Inc. (GreenTraderTax.com ) is an independent tax service and is not affiliated with FXCM. FXCM does not provide tax advice and no portion of the presentation should be so construed as such. FXCM has no obligation or liability relating to or derived from any tax, penalty or related interest charge assessed against a taxpayer or any return preparer.

I'm going to deposit 2000$ for my standard account with FXCM . . The most thing I'm worrying is about Spreads of FXCM , as default spread for EU is around 2.5-3 pips and GU is >= 3pips , it's quite high and I'm not sure if I can place any trade during news time or not . Some high impact news is dangerous to trade , but it's confused if we can't trade during all news time due to high spread .
Any old customers can give me some advice if you have been using FXCM for a long time ? Should I go for a FXopen ECN account or FXCM standard account ?

regards

The euro spread is high i agree , but cable is around 2.7 or less most of the time which is fair , check other crosses they have good spreads on them like Gbp/Aud for exmple , but i agree euro spread and the yen's is high . For news trading the widening of the spread is only for short time , u should demo with them b4 u go live try for yourself ...

For example now @ Gbp news , the spread was 4.4 30 seconds b4 the news then at the news spiked to 10 pips for handful of seconds then back to normal immediately ...

Hi,
Thank you for your help .
I just tried to test Trading Station II with demo account to see how good it is . It's really amazing platform with instant execution , it's really great with "Close all positions" just by one click .
About spread , though EU have higher spread than others brokers , but if we compare all pair's spread , FXCM look fairly and stable than others . Example GBPNZD have above 20 pips spread at many brokers and more than 35 pips in Standard account of FXopen , but it's only 6-8 pips spread at FXCM , it's great with me also.Anyway , since we can trade profitable , 2-3 pips spread just like a small fees right ?
I will deposit next week and try myself , will update more reviews and my experience later about FXCM later

Regards

CNBC's Money in Motion Currency Trading tv show sponsored by FXCM premieres tomorrow, March 11 at 5:30pm ET. It was originally scheduled to launch on Feb. 25th, but it was delayed 2 weeks. Here are the show times:

United States
Premieres Friday, March 11th 5:30p ET

Europe
Premieres Friday, March 11th 23:30 CET

Asia
Premieres Saturday, March 12th 0630 SIN/HK

Australia
Premieres Saturday, March 12th 0930 AEDT

Any one know of a strategy for TS that will close a percentage of a trade at a desired level and then move the balance to BE?

Thanks!