Jason Hi
What is the difference betwen ecn and stp system,
why big broker like fxcm and finotec is a stp not an ecn?
What is the difference betwen ecn and stp system,
why big broker like fxcm and finotec is a stp not an ecn?
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DislikedJason, Quick question. Why is there a difference in volume between your MT4 platform and NinjaTrader? If they are connected to the same liquidity pools the volume should be the same across the board. NinjaTrader shows on average 3-4 times more volume, (and on a side note I assume your volume is being reported in Millions? as the numbers are small whole numbers). As a preface: I am looking at MT4 through a demo account and comparing to both demo and live account through NinjaTrader. The only assumptions I can come up with is that the MT4 (demo) is...Ignored
Disliked{quote} Hi Richard, I've forwarded your question onto our tech support team for more details, but I believe the difference you see has to do with how the two platforms count tick volume differently. Note the volumes you see on MT4 and NinjaTrader are tick volumes. Trading Station Desktop is the only platform where you can see Real Volume indicators with trading information from Mini, Standard and Active Trader accounts, so both DD and NDD forex execution data are included: {image} Your MT4 and NinjaTrader account...Ignored
Disliked...in addition, the only way I can see "Tick Volume" being something other than 1 on a 1 tick chart is if FXCM has several tick updates server side but is sending them out in batches every X ms to the client data stream. I don't know what these numbers are but the third option could be: 3) Tick Data = Tick data updated 4 times in 10 ms (being the time frame FXCM updates its data feed). These numbers are just guesses and for example purposes.Ignored
Disliked{quote} Tick volume is the amount of "price changes" your broker got in a certain timeframe. If NinjaTrader got 10 different price changes in lets say, one minute, it will draw a volume bar with a size corresponding 10. If their servers got 100 price changes in the next minute the bar will spike to a 100 size and so on. Now FXCM decided to instead of ticks, count how many trades their traders did in a certain timeframe. So if in one minute only 30 traders traded, their volume bar will draw a 30 size. If if the next minute 1000 traders traded the...Ignored
Disliked{quote} Thanks for your response ForexOracle. The problem with what you state is that is not what I see. I trade on a 1 tick chart and see every detail at this level. Jason states this is "tick volume" which yes is pointless and so I'm trying to understand why they would even push this data if this is indeed what is being sent. Point aside, I sit here and watch price change approximately 1 tick and thus based on what is being said the "volume" should thus be 1 but this is not always the case. I have been around awhile as well ...Ignored
I bring this up because Jason specifically states in another post, and I quote:
He then states above in this thread that it is "Tick Volume", look at the arrows in the attached image. Price is flat, "volume" is 3, this clearly shows this is NOT "Tick Volume" as Jason states.
Secondly, this could indeed be "Transaction Volume" as Jason calls it and as you state ForexOracle. The problem I have with this is the base number is always 1 not 0. So this means either they are pushing a 1 when it should be a 0 or...this is calculated in some other way. I also highly doubt FXCM clients are actively trading at every single price point 24 hours a day.
With that being said, why would a broker push the number of times price updated as volume when a simple indicator can calculate this, I have actually written just this in NinjaTrader 9 years ago to view how active the market is (on a 1 tick chart). Next, why would a broker push "transaction volume", this is pointless. The number of trades occuring on the brokers side has absolutely no value or bearing on anything. "Real volume" is what should be pushed, it is the only thing that has any meaning (were forex a centralized market).
DislikedWe are getting into semantics here, I am fully aware of everything you are saying and I agree with your definition of a tick however have you ever watched a single tick chart?Ignored
QuoteDislikedIf you watch a 1 tick chart you'll see flat spots, this is ecause the price does NOT change but the volume does and thus the datafeed is updated. Once again for NinjaTrader this is considered OnEachTick. Just because price does not change does not mean the datastream is updated, volume can change without the price changing.
QuoteDislikedThe traditional "volume" as you say depends on what you are trading: Stocks - The number of shares traded Futures - The number of contracts traded Currencies - The amount of curency traded I bring this up because Jason specifically states in another post, and I quote: Real Volume shows you how many currency units traded Transactions show you how many client orders executed Tick Volume shows you how many times the price updated He then states above in this thread that it is "Tick Volume", look at the arrows in the attached image. Price is flat, "volume"...
QuoteDislikedSecondly, this could indeed be "Transaction Volume" as Jason calls it and as you state ForexOracle.
QuoteDislikedThe problem I have with this is the base number is always 1 not 0. So this means either they are pushing a 1 when it should be a 0 or...this is calculated in some other way. I also highly doubt FXCM clients are actively trading at every single price point 24 hours a day. With that being said, why would a broker push the number of times price updated as volume when a simplirm,ndicator can calculate this, I have actually written just this in NinjaTrader 9 years ago to view how active the market is (on a 1 tick chart). Next, why would a broker push...
QuoteDislikedThats not correct. In the traditional tick volume you find on regular charts 1 tick will always correspond to 1 unity. When you see a flat line it means that price did not tick. So if price did not tick ( updated, no new price etc) instead of the chart just staying there idle they put a "flat spot" as you call it".
What confuses people is that TIME is assigned to tick charts
When you look at a supposedly "tick chart" you are actually looking at a 1 second chart.
So if on that precise second the broker server didn't get any new quote...
QuoteDislikedForex is over the counter so it is impossible to know the real amount of currency traded in a given timeframe.
Real volume in forex is unknown.
Equities, futures etc is different because it is done through an exchange so they know. The centralized exchange know how many shares, contracts etc were traded at any giving time. So equities , futures etc have access to REAL VOLUME. Not forex.
FXCM do show their real volume. But note that it is THEIR real volume not overall forex real volume.What they show is based on their customers only so...
QuoteDislikedYou can be sure of that. Everybody reports how many time price changes on their platform ( tick volume) so FXCM decided to report their traders activities ( be it how many traders traded or how many lots were traded) and use it as a marketing tool.
QuoteDislikedFXCM have thousands of traders around the world and many of them use EAs so I honestly don't have any problems believing that from Sunday night till Friday night they have quite a few transactions happening each second.
DislikedWe have such poor choices here in the US so most of my trading is with futures & equities now.Ignored
The trading environment and market participants can be very different when comparing the futures market to our No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution, and it's important to understand how that could impact your trading.
Market participants in futures such as high frequency trading and similar highly sophisticated market makers are acting as both price makers and price takers. This can negatively impact quality of execution for a retail trader. That's because it's a speed race at the institutional level. If you break up the trading steps, at a very basic level, from receiving market data, making a trading decision and then placing the trade, institutional participants are trading in speeds measured in microseconds and even nanoseconds compared to a retail trader making trading decisions that take at least a few seconds.
HFTs on exchange spend millions of dollars on the fastest access to market data, customized computer systems for fast algo processing, and collocated servers to transmit trades as quickly as possible. You can read about the lengths institutional participants will go to by reading Flash Boys by Michael Lewis or take a look at the amounts of money being spent on telecommunications and collocation services by publicly traded market making firms such as Virtu. Institutional participants at the futures level put such a high priority on speed because in a trading venue filled with these super‐fast traders, the slowest person loses the race to be the first to trade.
Therefore, a safer route for institutional liquidity providers to take is to quote smaller sizes at wider prices to minimize margin of error of being picked off. Mistakes are very costly. If your algorithm is wrong, it's better to be wrong at a smaller amount and wider price. The risks involved make market making a fishing expedition based on speed where quality pricing and liquidity could be punished. The competition in the highly sophisticated institutional market is too great to provide the best pricing possible along with deep liquidity if the institution is exposed to the risk of being picked off by other fast and sophisticated market participants.
So if you're the average retail trader likely receiving information from a website or TV channel, over a regular cable internet line, manually placing trades from your average desktop computer, back over our internet connection with any latency involved, do you think you're going to beat the Virtu's of the world for the best price available?
How is FXCM's trading environment different?
On our NDD model for Standard and Active Trader accounts, liquidity providers are only allowed to be price makers and not price takers. Only retail clients are allowed to take pricing. The liquidity providers do not have to constantly watch their back, worrying about predatory high frequency trading because the liquidity providers are only allowed to be price makers for our retail clients. They know that liquidity provider A (who may be a predatory liquidity provider on the futures market) is not allowed to crossover and take a price from liquidity provider B. This gives our liquidity providers the ability to make a market based on quality of price and liquidity rather than speed to protect against being picked off by predatory trading from other liquidity providers.
This includes data from both the DD execution we provide to Mini accounts and the NDD execution we provide to Standard and Active Trader accounts.
DislikedWhat is FXCM reporting as volume in both MT4 and NinjaTrader and why are the values different? Why is the base always 1 in NinjaTrader?Ignored
Disliked{quote} I'm sorry but you are incorrect here. A 1 Tick chart is NOT the same as a 1 second chart. I used to trade off of a 1 second chart and moved to 1 tick. In addition I have written several data feed adapters that manipulate price for charting purposes. On a 1 tick chart time is irrelevant but yet you say the chart draws a flat spot for every second that price does not update. This will depend on your charting software, I can assure you that with NinjaTrader this is NOT the case. How often the datafeed is updated depends on the broker. For example...Ignored
Disliked{quote} Yep, we may be deviating a little from the usual discussions here but since this thread has being a little quiet latelly I think FXCM is probably appreciating it This thread used to have a post every other minute, now it takes sometimes more than 24 hours idle !!! Fascinating how things can...... and do change, no ?!?Ignored
Disliked{quote} I think most people come to this thread to complain about the awful service that bucket shop provides. After complaining to no avail, most traders close their accounts and move their money to more serious brokers. It's part of the process. I, and most people, should have listened to the advice posted on several threads on these forums: "avoid FXCM like a plague"Ignored
DislikedThe HFTs are of no concern unless you're scalping for small ticks. For any trading more than a few ticks it's just an excuse to blame HFT for losses.Ignored
DislikedEven if there's a delay through a retail trader's connections, there's just as much chance that price moved to a better price rather than a worse price by the time the order hits the market. but...................Ignored