FXCM Discussion

ah great, thanks for the heads up on the charts.

Ls,
within Marketscope 2.0 all non-FX pairs fail to load. Examples: SPX,USOIL, Bund, HKG33 and USDOLLAR.
Any technicall issues on your side?

Hi USD-Bear,

Is your trading account denominated in Euros? I've just confirmed that we received reports from some traders on one of our Euro-denominated servers having issues loading CFD charts. Our tech support team is currently asking for more details from these traders in order to investigate further.

Please follow the steps below to gather information regarding your connection to send to our tech support team.

1. Click on this link https://files.fxcorporate.com/traceroute.bat

1. If using Internet Explorer > Click Run.
2. If using Firefox or Chrome > Save File, Open File, > click Run

2. Wait up to 60 seconds for the black screen to disappear and for notepad file to appear.

Copy the contents of the notepad file into an e-mail, along with a brief description of the issue, and send it to [email protected] along with the name of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Our tech support team can then use this information to investigate further and follow up with you.

Jason

hi Jason,
yes it is an EUR-account with fxcm-UK, thanks for your note, problems disappeared after some 5 hours, never knew what it was.....

Glad to hear that's sorted. Thanks for the update

Hi Jason,

I currently trade a very large account for a client of mine with fxcm and remitting my monthly commission is a little challenging for my client. I currently have an fxcm active trader account, so please how do I change my active trader account to a PAMM account so that my monthly commission would be automatically deducted from my clients account and remitted into my account?

Hi Makavell,

In order to have a PAMM account, you typically need to be set up as a money manager. I have just sent you a private message with the contact details of one of my colleagues in our Active Trader department who can assist you further with this.

Update for Trading Station Mobile

We recently released an update to the Trading Station Mobile platform for smartphones and tablets. To confirm that you have the latest version (1.8.111513) look at the version number at bottom of the login screen. You can download the latest version of the app in the Google Play and Apple Stores.

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You will also notice that there is now an option to view live currency and CFD rates directly from this screen without having to log into your account. Below are some of the other new features that have been added with this update:

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A. Share button to post your charts on social media such as Facebook and Twitter
B. New indicators including Donchian Channels (shown), OB/OS Oscillator, BB Percentage and BB Averages
C. Option to change chart background from black to white

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Video news updates from DailyFX analysts

Does anyone know if FXCM have stopped providing data on the MT4 platform for metals and indices, they've disappeared of my demo only leaving FX.

Thanks

As far as I am aware if you have an account/demo opened with FXCM US they will not be available. If this is not the case, have you tried right clicking on Market Watch window>Show All.

Thanks for the reply Mitch, I tried "show all" I'm in the UK and always been able to access them till last week.

Is that equivalent to 100 full lots/monthly round turn Jason? Do I understand that correctly? Just want to confirm. Thank you

Hi Aus1way,

I think this tech issue you're experiencing with CFDs not appearing on your MT4 demo account might be related to a recent update we made on that demo server. I've sent you a private message with login details for a new MT4 demo that does show CFDs. Also, I request that you reply back to my PM with your current MT4 demo login details, so our tech support team can check your demo settings to see what caused CFDs to stop appearing.

Thanks,
Jason

Yes, 10M (million) in notional trading volume is equivalent to 100 standard (100K) lots, or 1000 mini (10K) lots. If you're trading that volume, shoot me a private message, and I can ask one of our specialists to follow up with you to discuss Active Trader pricing.

Thanks very much for your help Jason you do a great job on this thread, PM sent with details.

Thanks Aus1way, I replied to your PM

Jason,
Thanks for the reply.

just experienced a negative slippage of 22 pips on gbp/usd
stop was 6338 and was stopped out at 6361 .
and live chat says this is normal during news timing wtf
didnt expected this from fxcm . had the price re-quoted several times too today on mt4

Hi Myk,

I just pulled up a chart to find the price movement you referred to, and I see that this occurred at 09:30 GMT during the release of UK employment data.

http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/6133/e0wz.png

It's important to understand that anyone trading in the forex, stock, or futures market, has to be willing to accept the risk that goes along with having orders executed during illiquid market conditions. The tick chart below shows that after the UK employment data was released at 9:30 GMT, the ask price of GBP/USD moved almost 40 pips from a low of 1.63247 to a high of 1.63645 within 3 seconds.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2979/ds2f.png

Your stop order was filled at the best available price at the time based on what was available from our 10+ liquidity providers which include several of the largest banks in the world. There's no sugarcoating this. Slippage is one of the risks you assume when trading and is not specific to FXCM.

The risk of slippage is greatest during volatile markets such as around a news announcement like employment or NFP, or when holding trades open over the weekend. Speaking of NFP, take a look at the chart below which shows the GBP/USD tick chart right at 8:30 EST during the March 8, 2013 NFP release.

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/2...01332723pm.png

GBP/USD dropped from 1.50361 to 1.49972 in one tick. Yes one tick! That means there were no prices quoted by the liquidity providers in between those prices. If you had an order to sell GBP/USD at 1.5020, your order would not have been filled at 1.5020 because there was no quote at that price from a liquidity provider offering to buy when you wanted to sell. You likely would have been filled at the next available price around 1.49972. FXCM isn't deciding to fill or not fill at certain prices, your orders are filled based on liquidity and where there is liquidity on the other side of the transaction to fill your order.

Also, keep in mind that slippage works both ways. If you have a limit or take profit order, and the price gaps in favor of your trade, then you will get filled at the more favorable price which is trading in the market. This is called positive slippage or price improvement. The stats below show that FXCM clients receive price improvements on limit orders just as frequently as they receive negative slippage on stop orders. In fact, we even provide tips on our website to help clients minimize negative slippage and maximize price improvements.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/1...ovementspo.png

Another thing you can do to minimize negative slippage is to note the times when majors news events are scheduled. These are times when the likelihood slippage is greatest. That and weekends, which is the reason why some shorter term traders also like to go flat before trading closes on Fridays.

There are no re-quotes with FXCM. There is an important distinction between re-quotes that can occur with other brokers, and the "off quotes" message you can encounter on our MT4 platform using our No Dealing Desk (NDD) price feed. On our NDD model, your order is executed at the best available price based on competing quotes from 10+ liquidity providers. We simply add a pip markup that acts as our commission. One big advantage of this model is that while slippage is possible, slippage can be either positive or negative.

Re-quotes may occur at other brokers when a trader makes an order for a specified price, but the order is manually rejected by the broker's dealing desk. This is done because filling the order at the original price would mean a loss for their dealing desk. The dealer sends a new price back to the trader, often a worse price, which they can either accept or reject. Re-quotes can slow down your trading.

While it's highly unlikely that you would ever receive a re-quote from another broker that offers you a better price than you requested, below are some stats regarding our execution which show that FXCM clients receive price improvements just as often as they receive negative slippage. In fact, on market orders to open and close trades, our client receive price improvements slightly more often than negative slippage. That's because the Maximum Deviation feature on the MT4 platform (known as the Market Range feature on our Trading Station) helps our clients minimize negative slippage while maximizing positive slippage.

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2...ppagestats.jpg

There are no re-quotes with FXCM. If you received an "off quotes" message on our MT4 platform, then it means the price that was available in the market to execute your order was outside the Maximum Deviation range that you specified for the order. The key advantage of this Maximum Deviation feature on MT4 (known as Market Range on our Trading Station platform) over the re-quotes that can occur with other brokers is that FXCM's platforms let you control how much negative slippage you are willing to tolerate, while still giving you the opportunity to maximize the positive slippage or price improvements you receive. Also, our platforms helps you avoid the delays that can occur with re-quotes, which is especially important if you trade at times when prices are changing quickly, such as during a news event when other brokers are most likely to re-quote you.

On FXCM's No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution model, we immediately offset client orders with one of our 10+ liquidity providers. We fill client orders at the best bid and ask prices being quoted at any given moment and just as a fixed pip markup which acts as a commission. That means we make our money from client trading volume, not client losses, and we make the same amount regardless of how much you win or lose on a trade.

The "off quotes" messages you encountered are an indication that the price where you placed your order is no longer available. For example, you may have placed an order to buy EUR/USD at 1.3080, but the price is now 1.3082. If your Maximum Deviation setting on the MT4 platform is set to less than 2 pips, then your order will not be filled, and you will get the "off quotes" message. The Maximum Deviation setting allows you to specify how much negative slippage you are willing to tolerate on your orders. If the price currently available in the market is within your specified tolerance, then your order will be filled.

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/9...mdeviation.png

If you find you are getting the "off quotes" message frequently, you might want to consider increasing your Maximum Deviation as shown above. Since FXCM uses 5-digit pricing (fractional pips), every 10 points for the Maximum Deviation is equivalent to one pip. If you adjust your max dev to 30, that would equate to price range of 3 pips.

Also, you mentioned you a scalper. If you are trading manually, you might find the Trading Station platform better suited to your needs than MT4, since the Trading Station comes with built-in one-click trading functionality.

Alternatively, if you want to stick with MT4, you might want to try our free Quick Buy and Quick Sell scripts.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Jason

Below are the trading and customer service hours for Christmas and New Years (all times in GMT)

Customer Service and Forex Trading Hours

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CFD Trading Hours

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Jason