FXCM Discussion

1. http://www.leaprate.com/2016/12/fca-...nsation-rules/
2. https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/c...on/cp16-42.pdf

Hi Jason.

I hope all is well with you.

Does FXCM offer a GMT close server for use with MT4 for U.S. clients? If so, does that server have matching bid/ask prices on marketwatch and charts? Is it available on both standard and mini accounts? And finally, what do I need to do to switch my accounts over?

Thank you for your time.

1greyfox

Other than the less-than-stellar customer support micro account holders have to contend with, it seems Trading Station II and Active Trader users are largely immune from the execution/performance issues experienced by the guys on MT4/

Hi there

Can you guys at FXCM sort out the price scale on Marketscope so that the digits actually fit.

Thanks.

Hi Abdunbar,

Trading Station (Desktop, Mobile and Web), MT4, NinjaTrader and TradingView will all let you trade from their charts. Trading Station Desktop also has a Depth of Market indicator, but you can't trade from it at this time. However, you can place it on your chart, and trade from the chart.

While FXCM has updated our Trading Station platforms to prevent US clients from attempting to place non-FIFO orders, but there are limits to the changes we can make to third party platforms in regards to how they handle non-FIFO compliant orders. MT4 was created before FIFO execution became a requirement in the US, so while the platform still allows you to attempt a non-FIFO compliant order, it will be canceled on our end if you have an FXCM US account, in order to comply with local regulations. NinjaTrader is a multi-asset platform used by many futures traders, so it was designed with FIFO in mind, since FIFO execution was always the norm in the futures market.

Client funds with FXCM UK and FXCM Australia and Friedberg Direct in Canada are segregated in accordance with client money rules in the UK, Australia and Canada respectively. In addition, client funds in the UK are insured by the FSCS for up to 50,000, and in Canada by the CIPF for up to $1,000,000.

The people upset about no segregation are US traders. US regulations don't offer client fund segregation or insurance. However, US regulations to require forex brokers to meet higher capital requirements than in many other juridictions or even other markets in the US:

1. $20 million minimum for forex brokers (AKA Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers) https://www.nfa.futures.org/nfamanua...2011&Section=7
2. $1 million minimum for futures brokers (AKA Futures Commission Merchants) https://www.nfa.futures.org/nfamanua...%201&Section=7

Furthermore, the CFTC has electronic access to the bank accounts of US regulated brokers to confirm their balances at any time.

If you are referring to the SNB flash crash, you may be thinking of other brokers which ceased operations after that day. FXCM never stopped trading. Despite the events of January 15, 2015, our regulatory capital position is as strong as it has been in recent years. While the minimum regulatory capital requirement for our global operations is $60.3 million, we have regulatory capital of $151.2 million, a surplus of $90.9 million as of November 8, 2016.

On FXCM's No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution, we offset each client order one-for-one with the best prices available from competing liquidity providers. With the NDD model, we don't profit from your losses or lose from your profits. Instead, we make money from the commission. We make the same amount of commission whether you win or lose. Therefore, we'd rather you win, so you trade more.



Even on the DD execution, we provide to Mini accounts ($50 minimum opening balance), it's worth noting that we use the same base price (before adding a fixed pip markup to the all-inclusive spread) as we use on the NDD execution we provide to all Standard accounts (5k minimum) and Active Trader accounts (25k minimum) before adding the commission. One of the advantages of trading with FXCM is your trades settle once you receive confirmation your order has been executed. That means your funds are immediately available for withdrawal or to apply to new trades unlike with some other markets or brokers.

Our terms of business state the following: "FXCM may take steps to mitigate risk arising from market making, including, but not limited to, at our sole discretion and at any time, transferring your account to our No Dealing Dealing desk offering". This refers to Mini accounts (on DD execution) being converted into Standard accounts (on NDD execution) for risk management purposes.

FXCM innovated transparency in the forex market with competitive and market-driven No Dealing Desk (NDD) execution. We would love to provide NDD on all accounts, and actually did so in the past. Even now that we offer both NDD and DD account types, the bulk of our revenue still comes from our highest volume traders on the NDD model.

However, in running the numbers, we found that below the 5k balance threshold, it is hard for us to recoup in commissions the fixed costs that go into providing customer support for any account. Smaller brokers that predominantly had clients with smaller account balances struggled with this fact, which is why they no longer operate in the US. We ended up inheriting a lot of their business.

The DD model allows us to provide service even to traders with a $50 account balance. And as I mentioned above, FXCM uses the same base price for DD execution on Mini accounts (before adding the markup) as the base price we use for our NDD execution (before adding the commission). That's a key reason traders can have confidence trading with us regardless of the account type they choose.

Our NDD and DD account options are a win-win for traders. Traders with 5k to invest or more can set up a Standard NDD account with FXCM. Traders with less than 5k can still trade on a Mini account with DD prices based on our NDD feed. Since the minimum to open a Standard NDD account is 5k, we may reach out to Standard account holders whose balance has remained below 4k for extended period about switching to DD.

You might want to double check the terms of business of the other broker you mentioned. Last I read, they are a market maker even for traders with larger account balances. Our NDD model and strong capitalization are keys reason why the latest figures from the CFTC show traders have more money on deposit with FXCM than any other US-regulated forex broker:

Welcome to the forum, EC

We used to allow US residents to trade through the FXCM entity of their choice. However, US regulations changed several years ago to allow only CFTC-regulated brokers to offer forex to US traders. All accounts held by US residents with FXCM UK and FXCM Australia had to be transferred to FXCM US after that change.

Was there a particular leverage amount you were after? I try not to exceed 10:1 effective leverage in my own trading for risk management purposes.

Thanks for sharing this info, Phylo

FXCM will participate in the feedback period allowed by the FCA, and traders are welcome to submit feedback as well: https://www.fca.org.uk/cp16-40-response-form

Hi 1greyfox,

All our USD- and AUD-denominated MT4 servers have the time zone set to GMT+2 in so midnight on their daily chart candles corresponds to the 5pm New York Close. In order to have an MT4 account on a server set to GMT, it would have to be denominated in either EUR or GBP. Is there a particular reason you want GMT charts? Perhaps I could suggest another solution depending on what you need.

Hi Traderberg,

We strive to provide excellent support to all of our clients, Micro account holders included. If you have time to provide me with additional feedback on where our Micro support has fallen short, I would like to share it with our customer support managers and staff, so we can improve. In regards to the execution/performance issues you reference on MT4, most of these posts are the result of people misinterpreting the "Off quotes" message on the platform. Often it's the same handful of people posting about these "Off quotes" messages even if they no longer trade with FXCM. I encourage you to read this post where I explain in detail how the "Off quotes" message helps protect FXCM clients from unwanted negative slippage: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...77#post9079377

"less-than-stellar customer support" is quite a compliment. Crappy customer support is the right word. TS II is a scam machine.

Hi Angus,

Thanks for this feedback. It seems the last digit gets cut off on charts for CFDs like GER30, but not on charts for currency pairs like USD/JPY. I've shared this info with our developers.

To follow up, I have confirmed with our developers that this is now a known tech issue affecting symbols with 7 digits in their price like GER30. It will be fixed in a future update to the platform.

In regards to platforms, I've been paper trading for 3 years now using Thinkorswim. I like it, but TDA can be expensive to trade with. I've come to rely heavily on a feature that syncs the cross hairs one screen with the same time on a second screen. Example: Wherever I place the cross hairs on my 1 hour chart, it shows up in the same place on my higher time frame, 5 hour chart. I've played around (not heavily) with other platforms and can't seem to find this feature elsewhere.

Does Ninja, MT4 (why is this one so popular) or Trading Station have this feature? If so, I'd like to try it out. I'd like to try going live sometime in the 1st q of '17

Ninja: right click chart >> Cursor >> Global Cross Hair

MT4: No default global cross hair. Requires custom indicator. https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/12081.

why ? - because its relatively easy to program own indicators and this - http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=70582

Any priority charting package will include the required function. Example: Sierra Chart (FXCM Data) → Tools >> Global Cursor On.

- Sierra Chart FXCM trading Service

Thanks Phylo! Do they also allow for a 2 screen setup or is than setup for 2 windows within ONE screen?

Affirmative if you mean dual or multiple monitors but that up the multi monitor software in use to manage the application across all monitors.
If you use DisplayFusion and have problems spanning across all monitors pm me for link to solution.
Multiple chart windows are allowed per screen.

If you use more than one setup and use separate mouse and keyboards for each setup, to use a single m & kb see Synergy - https://symless.com/synergy/ - or Garage - https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/down...s.aspx?id=3546

Thanks Phylo. You know your. I can learn a lot from reading your posts.

Indeed! Thanks for sharing this info, Phylo

It's that time of year again

Normally, the forex market trades 24 hours a day, 5 days a week without interruption even for major holidays around the world, and FXCM provides live customer support 24 hours a day even on weekends and holidays.

However, Christmas and New Year's are the two exceptions. Here is a link to FXCM's holiday hours for trading and customer support during these holidays: http://bit.ly/2ih7xrW

For everyone celebrating Christmas, I wish you a happy one! Happy New Year to all!

To take advantage of this with Sierra Chart you need to have a TS2 account. That is an account based on FXCM's trading station. I know as I recently went through the process to use Sierra Chart.

Unsolicited kudos to Sierra Chart. For the price it is hands down the best charting package one can use.