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MB Trading Futures - Introduction

  • #761
  • Jun 14, 2007 11:55am Jun 14, 2007 11:55am
Quoting Numb3rs
Justin;
How can we avoid this sort of thing? From the post it looks like he got filled beyond his set stops by a large amount. Just because of maintenanace? Don't the stop orders remain durring maintenance? Does'nt EFX have a backup server to run so orders don't get missed durring down time?

Am I missing something? This just does'nt seem right there has got to be a better way.
I sort of agree, tommsus USD/JPY stop must have been hit at 0:18 EST according to my data i collect from EFX. Thats the first occurance of 122.15 on that day. The website says maintainance is from 11:58 p.m. - 12:03 a.m., so this time it apparently was like 20 minutes long. At 12:03, the normal time the server comes back from maintainance, as advertised on the website, the stop would have hit at 121.90 at 12:04.

Looks like a combination of unusual vola (market is normally very quiet during this time) and prolonged maintainance (im sure theres something in the fineprint that excludes compensation for that) to me.
  • #762
  • Jun 14, 2007 12:57pm Jun 14, 2007 12:57pm
It strikes me as rather strange as to why any broker would want to do regular maintenance in the middle of the Asian session.

Surely the period between rollover and the start of the Asian session would be more suitable.
  • #763
  • Jun 14, 2007 1:58pm Jun 14, 2007 1:58pm
I looked at it also some time ago. The answer to your question is yes and no. They used to support it but not for FX and now they don't. I posted a question on their forums and was told that they are "testing" it. When you actually look into installation directory of SmarQuant you will see MBT dlls are all there, but last time I played with OpenQuant there was no way to connect to MBT via their UI.


Quoting TickJob
Hi Justin,

can your platform work with this software?
http://www.smartquant.com which has MB Trading interface.
  • #764
  • Edited 2:32pm Jun 14, 2007 2:05pm | Edited 2:32pm
The same thing that happened to tommsu happened to me, however I was going the other way (my TP wasn't triggered), so I was a little more fortunate than tommsu.

However, it's still quite unnerving to see your TP hit and then the maintenance is still going on (and extended even). Also, when the server was finally back up and running, it took what seemed forever for the Open Orders to go from "Suspended" to "Accepted". It was taking so long to be accepted, that I could see my profit going down and down, so I tried to remove the TTO Open Order on my position so that I could close my position manually, thus save whatever profit I had gained, but the system wouldn't let me.

This has happened twice so far with maintenance times. This time I was fortunate that my TP was still hit, but the previous time after my TP was reached it went back down quite a bit before the maintenance was over. I ended up manually exiting that trade to not lose any more profit once the server went back online.

Anyway, this is pretty hairy to see happening even with a TP, but I can imagine how much worse it is (like for tommsu) when it's happening to your SL

It would be REALLY good to have a backup/mirrored server to kick in when the other server is undergoing maintenance, so that Open Orders are still triggered regardless of maintenances
  • #765
  • Jun 14, 2007 2:50pm Jun 14, 2007 2:50pm
I can understand ones frustration(and can understand people suggesting a change), but when they openly announce maintenance then you have to assume responsibility and know the risks(which means don't come bitching like they are robbing you blind, close your trade, leave your trade, or find a new broker if 12 is your time to be trading). If they did random maintenance and said any time b/w 10-1am or something, then these complaints could be warranted. So come on, please.
  • #766
  • Jun 14, 2007 3:02pm Jun 14, 2007 3:02pm
Quoting mbqb11
I can understand ones frustration(and can understand people suggesting a change), but when they openly announce maintenance then you have to assume responsibility and know the risks(which means don't come bitching like they are robbing you blind, close your trade, leave your trade, or find a new broker if 12 is your time to be trading). If they did random maintenance and said any time b/w 10-1am or something, then these complaints could be warranted. So come on, please.
LOL, calm down, calm down, you don't have to be so hostile

I wasn't complaining, I totally understand that maintenance is important and has to happen. I was merely reporting what had happened to me, and making a suggestion (don't you see the little smiley guy at the end of my post? lol) that it would be great to have a backup/mirrored server

Mirrored servers are quite a wonderful thing to have, you know (I have a mirrored backup on my own computer, and it's great to have with web/server hosting, as well)
  • #767
  • Jun 14, 2007 3:06pm Jun 14, 2007 3:06pm
Quoting leighsww
LOL, calm down, calm down, you don't have to be so hostile

I wasn't complaining, I totally understand that maintenance is important and has to happen. I was merely reporting what had happened to me, and making a suggestion (don't you see the little smiley guy at the end of my post? lol) that it would be great to have a backup/mirrored server

Mirrored servers are quite a wonderful thing to have, you know (I have a mirrored backup on my own computer, and it's great to have with web/server hosting, as well)

wasn't directed at you as you were the one who just made the suggestion, was directed at those complaining, and once again proving why most people lose money in forex...believe me I'm not mad, because it isn't me who is losing money lol
  • #768
  • Jun 14, 2007 3:07pm Jun 14, 2007 3:07pm
LOL love your avitar!

My main question is why can't orders that are already placed before maintinance be backed up on another server? This would save alot of headakes.

For now I guess we are forced to close all orders by 11:45 or so and then open them once maintinace is done. This seems a little crazy. Well if we all do that it would mean more commisions to be payed to the broker.
I am sure there must be a better way!

Quoting mbqb11
I can understand ones frustration(and can understand people suggesting a change), but when they openly announce maintenance then you have to assume responsibility and know the risks(which means don't come bitching like they are robbing you blind, close your trade, leave your trade, or find a new broker if 12 is your time to be trading). If they did random maintenance and said any time b/w 10-1am or something, then these complaints could be warranted. So come on, please.
Could it be Man is trying to be something without knowing they're complete?
  • #769
  • Jun 14, 2007 3:09pm Jun 14, 2007 3:09pm
Quoting Numb3rs
LOL love your avitar!

My main question is why can't orders that are already placed before maintinance be backed up on another server? This would save alot of headakes.

For now I guess we are forced to close all orders by 11:45 or so and then open them once maintinace is done. This seems a little crazy. Well if we all do that it would mean more commisions to be payed to the broker.
I am sure there must be a better way!
exactly, when people ask questions/make suggestion in a calm manner it makes sense, but to come on this forum asking for your money back like you got robbed, is ludacris

take care,
mike
  • #770
  • Edited 6:15pm Jun 14, 2007 6:01pm | Edited 6:15pm
I am a potential customer, and have read the maintenance time problem.....

Can a trader call the dealing desk and have them manually close the trades during maintenance?

Why are there no backup servers in place to take orders during maintanence? This is not an attack, but a legitimate question.

Also, why can't maintenance be done on the weekend when no trading is done?

Thanks.
  • #771
  • Jun 14, 2007 7:23pm Jun 14, 2007 7:23pm
While this won't help you with with already active trades, you should always use the stop/limit order when entering the market. That way, if prices jump past your stop due to maintenance or news, your trade is simply not activated. That's the #1 reason I moved over to EFX, because most FX brokers do not offer the stop/limit option. I would never leave an open trade overnight without using a stop/limit order.
  • #772
  • Jun 15, 2007 2:29am Jun 15, 2007 2:29am
Which automatic trading software can work with your platform?


Quoting fiberangel
I looked at it also some time ago. The answer to your question is yes and no. They used to support it but not for FX and now they don't. I posted a question on their forums and was told that they are "testing" it. When you actually look into installation directory of SmarQuant you will see MBT dlls are all there, but last time I played with OpenQuant there was no way to connect to MBT via their UI.
  • #773
  • Jun 15, 2007 6:33am Jun 15, 2007 6:33am
Quoting jleblang
Paul-


And consider this, which is another factor in why we do it this way. Our platform goes down to the micro-mini, which means you can trade .1 lots, which equals 1000 units (instead of 1 lot = the traditional mini or 10 = the traditional full lot). So on the EURUSD, you can buy .1 and buy 1000 EURUSD using about $13 of your account and risking $0.10 per pip. So you can open up a live account with as little as you want down to our minimum and trade micros and be actually using the live environment with very little risk on a trade and see how it works. That’s supposed to be the beauty of trading forex, especially in the true interbank market system…it’s all scalable right down to the point that you can trade live with an amount so small that it won’t hurt you, but you can really see how the platform works.

I hope this helps - regards
The following quote came from the FAQ's on EFXGroup.com. Please claify the descrepency. This market is difficult enough without adding the pressure of substantial losses right out of the 'starting gate'.
P.S.
EFX has the best combination of order types available. If you can combine that with a tolerable learning curve, count me in!

"Q. What is the Minimum trade size?

The minimum trade size is 1 lot (1 lot = 10K)"
  • #774
  • Jun 15, 2007 6:39am Jun 15, 2007 6:39am
Quoting TickJob
Which automatic trading software can work with your platform?
Neoticker does work good with EFX. I dont use it to autotrade tho, just for charting. An alternative, if you have codeing skills, is to write your system in vb.net or C# using their (free) API.
  • #775
  • Jun 15, 2007 12:21pm Jun 15, 2007 12:21pm
Hey Guys -

I’m going to address a few questions all at once;

Tdion ~

You asked; “Can a trader call the dealing desk and have them manually close the trades during maintenance?”

 No, not during maintenance, as all servers are down and offline. Remember, we park your orders on our servers so that they remain anonymous and hiding from the market to avoid stop hunting and erroneous fills, this is a benefit to you. The only small negative to this is that during this short period of maintenance each day those orders will go offline. Now in the past couple years, there has only been a couple times where the market was moving during maintenance time and trader’s stops were not filled, one of those few times just the other day. Traders are always complaining about brokers being down all the time during the morning, afternoons….for hours at time and how they hate it so much.

We never go down like that. Why? Because, we do maintenance.

TickJob ~

You asked; “Which automatic trading software can work with your platform?”

 I’m sure we work with many I don’t even know about, but here is a few I do know of for certain;

  1. NeoTicker – www.neoticker.com
  2. TradeBullet – www.tradebullet.com

Again, I’m sure many more exist, I just am not informed of each and every group that links to our API.

Micro-MiniMe ~

Thank you for the comments!

With regards to minimum trade size, you may place a trade as low as .1 lot or 1000 currency units on the EFX Navigator, all execution is the same.

I believe that is most of everything for now….let me know if anyone needs anything else.

Have a great weekend.

  • #776
  • Jun 15, 2007 3:00pm Jun 15, 2007 3:00pm
As Justin said, there are many different platforms that use MBT API, go to mbtrading site and there is a list of them.
Personally, I don't feel like paying over $1K for NeoTicker (I hear it's one of the best) if I can do the same thing myself for free (I'm not pricing my own time in this case) in .NET.

And another thought about MBT/EFX going offline in the maintenance period. I've been with MBT for a while now and can only count couple of times when their servers went offline outside of regular maintenance timeframe. My other broker (Oanda) freezes up whenever it feels like it (just happens to coinside with news releases ). All taken into consideration, as a retail broker with such small min deposit requirement MBT/EFX are the best. All those arguments about charting, maintenance, commissions, etc. are useless if you consider competition in retail space.

BTW, as Justin mentioned earlier, if you do GOOD ENOUGH volume with them, they will be willing to negotiate the commissions with you on a case by case basis. Justin, it would be great if you could maybe hint a ballpark volume.

Quoting TickJob
Which automatic trading software can work with your platform?
  • #777
  • Jun 15, 2007 5:49pm Jun 15, 2007 5:49pm
Quoting Micro-MiniMe
The following quote came from the FAQ's on EFXGroup.com. Please claify the descrepency. This market is difficult enough without adding the pressure of substantial losses right out of the 'starting gate'.
P.S.
EFX has the best combination of order types available. If you can combine that with a tolerable learning curve, count me in!

"Q. What is the Minimum trade size?

The minimum trade size is 1 lot (1 lot = 10K)"
u can trade .1 lots (1k) but execution is NOT the same as someone has to agree to take the other side of your .1 increments (everything less than 10k appears as 0 on level 2).
Many times i had the 1st order in the Q for less than 10k and it traded through me for the same price (ie, best bid was mine at 1.3310 (1st there) and it traded there without filling me).
  • #778
  • Jun 16, 2007 7:29am Jun 16, 2007 7:29am
That explains the descrepency. I've been at this FX thing long enough to realize how essential money management is to ones survival. The only profitable systems I've seen require the use of multiple lot entries.
1% risk * $500 account balance = $5 which buys ~0.05~ lots. ???
Too bad I didn't know about Forex Factory three years ago when I started
dumping a few hundred $ here and there into accounts every time I felt the need to try a new strategy. Now that I have a good system - no much money left, yada yada yada.
Does anyone know of a good support group i.e. Forex-Aholics Annonymous?
Trade long and prosper!
  • #779
  • Jun 16, 2007 7:53am Jun 16, 2007 7:53am
Everyday at 700am EST the quote server freezes for one minute. In the alerts section of the platform I get a (prc114) dissconnect from quote server. and a (prc114) reconnected to Quote server. I was asked to give Jason my acc. info and location which I did , All I got back was a Thank you email from Jason, but no info. The original post had a reply from a man in Hawaii which said he was the same thing happen.. Can everyone that uses the platform check their alerts section of the platform and see if you are getting the same log entry. Or just watch the FX board at the stated time, and see if what I am saying, is happening to you. This can be a busy trading time with news releases, so I would like to know if the quote server is down for that minute, if I can open and close positions during that minute.. Thank YOU
  • #780
  • Jun 17, 2007 12:05am Jun 17, 2007 12:05am
I go to MBT website, SmartQuant is listed there. Not sure why Justin said not supported?
I tried to install NeoTicker in 4 computers, all crashed after a few seconds. I doubt it is the best. SmartQuant is much better.


Quoting fiberangel
As Justin said, there are many different platforms that use MBT API, go to mbtrading site and there is a list of them.
Personally, I don't feel like paying over $1K for NeoTicker (I hear it's one of the best) if I can do the same thing myself for free (I'm not pricing my own time in this case) in .NET.

And another thought about MBT/EFX going offline in the maintenance period. I've been with MBT for a while now and can only count couple of times when their servers went offline outside of regular maintenance timeframe. My other broker (Oanda) freezes up whenever it feels like it (just happens to coinside with news releases ). All taken into consideration, as a retail broker with such small min deposit requirement MBT/EFX are the best. All those arguments about charting, maintenance, commissions, etc. are useless if you consider competition in retail space.

BTW, as Justin mentioned earlier, if you do GOOD ENOUGH volume with them, they will be willing to negotiate the commissions with you on a case by case basis. Justin, it would be great if you could maybe hint a ballpark volume.
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