Justin's Playground

EUR is crazy.....

Wow....

I still believe EUR is highly overshooting..... it needs some deep correction.

https://www.fxstreet.com/rates-charts/eurusd

Nial is bragging this.... but he also had failed a lot before he got this...

Will exchanges replace Prime brokers? That is the question.
https://financefeeds.com/will-exchan...kers-question/

How does Interactive Brokers compare with Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse as a hedge fund's Prime Broker?

https://www.quora.com/How-does-Inter...e&success=True

"Already posted this, but I guess it can help:
I am currently working on setting up a hedge fund in Luxembourg and have been therefore screening the market for a Prime since some time now. Also, I am a private client of Interactive.
I have been considering Credit Suisse, Deutsche and some other PB divisions of big banks, as well as Interactive Brokers.
I wouldn’t call IB a “discount broker” or “retail broker”. I am not sure what the market looks like in the States but here in Europe, there are big banks, retail brokers (Saxo Bank, Binck, IG, etc.) and there is IB, some kind of hybrid player offering true DMA, servicing mostly institutional clients but accepting retail, etc.
Here is my view after several months of meetings/conf calls with Primes and I guess it will help you:
Trading/execution: at IB, everything is done electronically. At a big bank, you can call up to place orders. I have been comparing execution quality for some time now and there is not much difference. IB’s routing also is quite powerful.
Fees (custody, commissions, financing costs): it will be a small hedge fund to start with: $ 100mm. IB remains cheaper. Banks can certainly be more competitive if I grow
Service: it is true that as a private client of IB, you sometimes feel that you are annoying them, although their desk in Switzerland is quite professional. But I am now in touch with their desk for institutional clients for some time and I have to say that they have been on top of things, better than some of the banks I am talking to. I do not need to reach out to a Relationship Manager 24/7 and even less to have dinner with him. IB’s US, Swiss, London and HK desks would be sufficient to me, especially if they show the same level of professionalism that I have been experiencing so far.
Product offering: big banks are much more flexible. If you want to add a product, they will do what it takes to add it. IB will give it a try but if it does not fit with their risk policies, they will not consider it
This brings me to leverage (and safety): IB’s corporate culture is quite conservative as 85% of the group is still owned by its employees . You can feel it when you ask for a product to be added, look at the leverage or ask for a give up setup: their requirements are higher than what a CS, DB or GS would ask for. The good side is that they have almost $ 6 billion in equity capital, liquidate positions in real-time and hold no positions in OTC securities or derivatives… Are the big banks still too big to fail? Not sure
Reporting: I had the IB reports checked by my auditors: perfectly fine and fully-automated (some banks would provide me with some prehistoric Excel sheets!).
To conclude - and after months of talks - the only reason why I think start-up hedge funds (with say <$300mm and no particularly sophisticated needs) would not consider IB as Prime is because of marketing. Just to have the name “Goldman” in the prospectus. And I think that this is changing. With their technology and the volumes that they execute (look at their annual report, it is basically the same as what large banks execute), I see IB becoming a major PB brand in the coming years, at least for funds < $500mm."


"If you are constantly making trades in the tens of millions of dollars range, then discount brokers are not that much cheaper. Also, a prime broker is willing to lend you tens of millions of dollars in margin whereas IB is not likely to be able to do something that big.

Also once you are trading at the volume, the prime broker will change their services to match what you want. If you want a security or some sort of service that Interactive Broker doesn't provide, they aren't going to immediately provide it for you. If you can put tens of millions of dollars on the table, then a prime broker will figure out what it will take to get you what you want, whereas discount brokers are not set up to provide those sorts of services.

For example, Interactive Brokers provides pretty good service, but it's not as if you can call up IB, complain about their website, ask to speak to the web design team, and have the project manager totally redo their system so that you can show the web pages in lavender. However, if you are a big customer, prime brokers are set up to do precisely that. I've never had Interactive Brokers treat me to lunch so that I can gripe about their services, but this sort of thing is pretty standard for prime brokers. If you are a client of a prime broker, you aren't going to be calling the call center, there will be a person, and often an entire team of people whose mobile number you have."

Looks bloody complex..... disappointment.

will wait for H1 to close to see if a short is available..I love using fib 78.6 for CT trading but somehow missed an earlier trade ...nevermind , let's see if I get one in 15 mins..trade will be based on a close below the HL EDit: short taken

Holy Crap, SL hit..... I shouldn't have fought the market...

I am learning Interactive Brokers TWS.... looks good, feels good....

I think this is one of the most accurate indicators.... A warning to top pickers.

https://www.dailyfx.com/sentiment?ref=SubNav

I also like LMAX team's daily commentary. It's concise and accurate.


I want to be a buyer but will wait until some decent pull-back. Current price is not cheap enough to buy....

I have just added another short based on a quasimodo pattern on H4...let's see

had just taken a short a minute ago....previous shooting star must have caught some shorters as price was pushed up to take out stops

Thank you Eric, I learned new thing! It sounds interesting....
Easy guide to trading the Quasimodo Pattern

this looks like a potential QM except that price has not reached that orange zone

my pleasure..it's one of a few things I use when trying to catch a retracement/reversal when price has gone up/down for sometime..I also use the 1-2-3 pattern as well and the fib 78.6 level to time such entry..They don't work all the time I must say