DislikedJason
I have a live FXCM account and am not getting satisfactory answers so thought would try you. Spikes are reportdely occuring regularly at FXCM that are not present elsewhere. Why is this? Here is an example. http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...4792&page=2590
Answers received from FXCM staff so far are dont believe what you read on BB's. Not inspiring confidence given I am trialling a live FXCM (micro) account in parallel to my current providers. Wonder if you can give an answer that would improve FXCM credibility...Ignored
Thanks for your post and I'm always happy to help.
I noticed in that the post you referenced said something about it being "another example of a possible SL hunt by FXCM of its clients accounts". There's one big problem with that statement. FXCM does not determine the forex prices streamed on our platforms or the spreads. We have 10+ liquidity providers stream prices to FXCM, and the best bid and ask price is automatically fed into the Trading Station platform with a pip markup. So the prices you see are set by competing banks rather than by FXCM. As prices change so can the spreads, and wider spreads are the result less market liquidity. This is why you will often see spreads widen during news events or around rollover at 5pm ET as occurred in the post you reference. Many banks will briefly shut down and reset their servers, and those that remain active widen their spreads to about 10 to 15 pips. This usually only lasts a few minutes to allow the banks to check their systems, apply rollover interest and roll trades over to the new day.
In rare cases, a price spike could be the result of a bad tick (or incorrect price) from the liquidity providers that has made it through into the price feed. In these cases, we automatically adjust any trades impacted by the bad tick regardless of whether a client contacts us or not. So you can double check with us if you want to ask about a certain spike and whether it may be a bad tick.
I posted a more detailed explanation with examples of how pricing is determined in this post. I'm not sure which link you are referencing as not working, but this will likely give you the more detailed explanation you were looking for. If you're running into a broken link, let me know where you see it, so I can get it fixed.
Jason