FXCM Discussion

Unless there's a bank holiday, Wednesday is triple rollover day. That's to account for the interest of Saturday and Sunday, since no rollover is applied over the weekend. More details can be found on the DailyFX Rollover Calendar.

If you shorted USD/RUB at 4:59pm New York Time on Wednesday and closed the position 2 minutes later, you would earn 3 days worth of interest. Whether that would offset the spread cost is another story. That's why many intraday traders tend seek to be flat by 5pm everyday, so rollover is not a factor in their trading.

Thanks for explanation,

Hi Jason,

Thanks for you post at fti's thread. I will give you more detail but want to wait till Monday as this is what has been informed to me by one of your colleague.

Regards

Hi, Jason,

Open a account in USD or EUR ?

We don't have the same picture, why ?

http://nimga.fr/m/FFe4c.jpg

Hi Jason,
Please see the PM.
Regards

Hi Scalpeur,

The image you posted did not allow me to zoom in to see details. However, if you're seeing a difference between the MT4 charts on your USD and EUR denominated trading accounts, this could be due to a time zone difference on the two MT4 servers.

Our newest MT4 servers (denominated in USD) are set to a time zone of GMT+3. That means midnight on those servers coincides with the 5pm New York Close. This is also know has having "New York Close" charts.

However, our other MT4 servers (including all non-USD servers) are still set to GMT. That means midnight on those servers coincides with 8pm New York Time. This 3-hour shift could result in differences when you compare indicators on one server with the other.

You might be interested to know that your MT4 login details will also work on our Trading Station platform which always has New York Close charts regardless of the account type or the time zone on the server.

My pleasure, Simpleman, I've replied to your PM

How do traders like George Soros read the market?

TopTradr, the co-hosts of our weekly trading contest, are starting a new webinar series to share the "Secrets of a TopTradr". Their goal is to create a venue where people can learn from and ask questions of experienced traders representing a variety of approaches to the markets.

The subject of their first webinar is Kelly Tonkin, an experienced macro trader. Macro traders operate by looking for patterns in detailed and long term economic data and then using that knowledge to trade relevant financial markets. This trading approach was made famous by George Soros, the "Man Who Broke the Bank of England". But what's it like to seize the opportunity and capture the big moves (and big wins) by studying the long term economic forces behind the market?

Tonkin currently manages a $75M fund at Penrich Capital where he heads the UK division. His 20 years of experience in the industry includes time at Bankers Trust and Lehman Brothers. With his extensive career and strong belief in trading education and risk management, he looks forward to sharing his knowledge in the first "Secrets of a TopTradr" webinar.

I'll post more details with the exact date and time of the event when I receive them.

Are you planning to offer more CFDs? I would appreciate agricultural CFDs on commodities like corn, wheat, etc.

While I don't have specifics on that for you at this time, we do gauge demand from clients to decide whether to offer new products. I'll pass your request onto our management team.

Thank you for your swift reply!

I'm glad they've prosecuted these greedy cheaters! Strange thing is that if you steal a screwdriver from your company you may not be hired by anyone in the future. If you're a broker stealing money from your customers for many years you're let to continue your business. Still remember people from FXCM trying to explain here that this unfavourable "slippage" is the result of them having super fast links to banks and shouldn't be treated as unfair. These thieves and cheaters should be banned from this business forever.

Email I've just received:

Dear Client:

Please review the below information carefully as FXCM will be depositing funds in your account that are available to withdraw.

Recently Forex Capital Markets Limited (“FXCM LTD”) and FXCM Securities Limited ("FXCM Securities") (together "FXCM UK") reached an agreement with the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) to identify orders which should have received positive slippage from August 2006 – December 2010 and refund the amount back to affected clients. FXCM UK was fined by the FCA in connection with this agreement due to a breach of best-execution rules related to asymmetric price slippage. The breach was halted upon a system change being implemented in December 2010, after which price improvements were passed on to the clients. The Final Notice for FXCM UK can be found here.

We have reviewed your past trading activity and your account(s) have been identified to receive a price improvement (positive slippage) refund. The refund will be deposited into your FXCM trading account(s) and will be available by 27 April 2014.

http://www.fca.org.uk/your-fca/docum...arkets-limited

"Specifically, for a period of over four years, FXCM Ltd allowed FXCM LLC to retain the gain from positive price movements occurring between receipt of FXCM Ltd’s orders and execution of those orders while passing on to customers the losses from negative price movements occurring prior to the execution of customer orders. This handling of price movements was inherently unfair to customers and allowed FXCM Group to retain USD $9,828,677 from positive price movements. "

So, if you want to support criminals, open an account with FXCM and send them your money. GOOD LUCK!

Hi Frontier,

I'm glad you've received information about your price improvement credit and would be happy to address the recent FCA settlement along with any additional questions you may have. No doubt there are others on this forum who share your concerns. I want to take this opportunity to say that you're right to be upset with us. FXCM should have passed on positive slippage to our clients from the beginning.

As you mentioned, while this settlement was announced just a few weeks ago, the time period it relates to actually occurred from 2006 to 2010. Our system was updated in 2010 to pass all potential price improvements to clients, and our clients have received the benefit of price improvements since that time. The FCA settlement has to do with positive slippage not being passed on in full when transactions were offset with liquidity providers prior to the 2010 update. Under the terms of the settlement, FXCM has agreed to pay fines totaling £4 million to the FCA and to provide approximately $10 million in restitution to affected clients. This settlement is a significant step in our efforts to put this legacy trade execution issue behind us.

It's important to note that as a result of the changes we made in 2010, FXCM is now one of the only firms in the industry to give price improvements on both limit and market orders. By contrast, when a dealing desk broker re-quotes traders, the trader often receives a re-quote when the market moves in their favor, but does not receive a re-quote when the market moves against them. In other words, the process is asymmetrically applied to the broker’s benefit. It's possible that this asymmetrical application of re-quotes could cause traders to miss out on potential price improvement. That's why we welcome the FCA's announcement that they're conducting a review of the execution practices of 40 firms in the industry, which we hope will uphold the same high standards and execution policies FXCM implemented back in 2010.

Taking a look at FXCM price improvements today…

Analyzing a total of 43,128,901 forex and metal trades executed by FXCM during the six month period of August 2013 -January 2014, 6,391,641 or 15% of the trades benefitted from price improvements totaling $15,726,247. Of the total number of trades executed, 4,648,672 trades were limit and limit entry orders. Sixty percent of those limit and limit entry orders were positively slipped providing clients $7,296,520 in price improvements. Of the total trades executed in the six month period of August 2013 - January 2014 clients were executed at their requested price 73% of the time with no slippage. Only 12% of orders were slipped negatively. As mentioned before, FXCM is currently one of the only firms in the industry to give price improvements on both limit and market orders.

At FXCM, there are no re-quotes and traders benefit from the positive slippage in full whenever it's available.

Yeah, I remember years ago reading the same information about how good FXCM is, how many ultrafast links it has to big banks, and that 99% of my trades are a fraction of a pip against me is also beneficial and I should be happy about it rather than complain. Sorry, but personally I wouldn't believe in a word that comes from FXCM, the issue was raised many times by many people so you knew about it but did nothing.

Everyone has to make his/her own conclusions, but my IQ would have to go to negative territory to voluntary transfer a single penny to FXCM. Luckily, there are other options available so why take the risk?

Jason, I thought that FXCM had a New York close on its daily candles with no Sunday candle. I have opened an account and d/loaded your MT4 and it does have Sunday candles. Explain.

We have multiple MT4 servers. Our newest live and demo MT4 servers are set to GMT+3 and therefore have New York Close charts. I notice your forum profile mentions that you live in the UK. I'm guessing you signed up for an account on our GBP demo server which is set to GMT. You can get login details for one of our MT4 servers with New York Close charts if you select USD as the currency when you sign up for a demo.

Thanks for the reply Jason. No, it is not a demo account. It is a live DD account so do I have to open another account and select USD or can I have it changed?

You can move your account to our USD MT4 server that has New York Close charts. However, if you currently have a spread betting account on our GBP MT4 server, it's important to note that while the pricing on the USD server would be the same, your account would no longer have the tax-free status afforded to spread betting accounts in the UK. It would be classified as a regular (non-spread betting) trading account. It's something to think about and I would appreciate your thoughts on this:

We're gathering feedback from our clients regarding whether or not we should switch all of our MT4 servers to GMT+3, so they have New York Close charts. Currently some of our USD servers are set to GMT+3, while the others are set to GMT. In addition, our non-USD servers including all GBP and EUR accounts are set to GMT, since we thought that time zone would be preferable for our clients in Europe.

How do you feel about this? Are you fine with converting your GBP spread betting account to a non-spread betting USD account? or do you think we should change the time zone on our GBP server to GMT+3, so that it has New York Close charts. If decide to convert your account from GBP to USD, you can do so from the MyFXCM.com website by clicking on Add New Account and choosing to "create a new account with different login information."

Thanks,
Jason

Hi Jason, in all honesty I wouldn't want to convert it to a non-SB acc. I have decided to give Alpari a try as they offer the NY close with SB. If you decide to change to NY close then I will open another account as your spreads on DD are better than Alpari.
I think that most people who trade longer TFs would prefer the NY close. Just my opinion.

Thank you for this feedback. I'll let you know if we decide to change the server time on our GBP MT4 server to offer New York Close charts.