Cmc markets are in Australia. I just got a phone call 5 minutes ago from them saying my trading strategy was "incompatible" with their service and I have been given notice my account is being shut down. Good thing I'm heavily in profit with them or I might be quite angry. I'm in New Zealand.
You might want to avoid those guys.
*edit: nearly two years of trading with those guys.
Totally serious. I'm a news trader. Note, I'm not a time delay trader or a 'shark' like that, nor am I a scalper. That wouldn't work anyhow with the snail pace execution and requote service cmc provided.
I'm now on the search for a new broker also. Australia is quite close so I'm interested in decent brokers over there too.
Cmc markets are in Australia. I just got a phone call 5 minutes ago from them saying my trading strategy was "incompatible" with their service and I have been given notice my account is being shut down. Good thing I'm heavily in profit with them or I might be quite angry. I'm in New Zealand.
You might want to avoid those guys.
*edit: nearly two years of trading with those guys.
Ignored
Geez, that's just typical. As soon as you do well, they close their doors on you. It's a pity that guys like this are actually allowed to do business. There should be a law against it, or at least some sort of ombudsman that you can complain to. Bloody disgusting. They'll also probably try and hit you with a whole lot of "charges" before they hand over your profits.
Geez, that's just typical. As soon as you do well, they close their doors on you. It's a pity that guys like this are actually allowed to do business. There should be a law against it, or at least some sort of ombudsman that you can complain to. Bloody disgusting. They'll also probably try and hit you with a whole lot of "charges" before they hand over your profits.
I'll stay away from them. Thanks for the warning.
Ignored
One thing I have to say in CMC's defense is that while their service ground down steadily and generally became shockingly abysmal (in contrast with how it started), they didn't do anything dishonest in terms of price feeds, altering order records and so on.
Funnily enough, I was recently elevated to their invitation only "advantage pro" service for high volume traders where I was invited to a bar for an information evening. However, I put that down to their right hand not knowing what the left is doing because it wasn't long before I received this account closure notification.
These guys have put me through so much 'sweating blood' moments though; I think it's a good thing to move on. I have been absolutely livid with them on many an occasion, frustrated and enraged.
I don't think there are any ecn's in Aussie but if there are any other honest brokers I'm still interested.
Does anyone know of any brokers based in Australia, that are worth looking at? I'm in Melbourne.
Thanks.
Ignored
Tricom based in Sydney are a white label for Saxobank. Saxobank is in the process of taking a major shareholding position and renaming the business .....
If interested do a search on Google News "saxo tricom"
I was investigating tricom and gft forex but after reading all the bad publicity tricom has received regarding its impending doom and likely rescue by saxo bank, I'm not to sure about it. As for gft forex, I have heard they aren't above manipulating trade records. A fellow cmc trader mentioned this activity when he traded with gft and I have no reason to disbelieve him because he also pointed out cmc's lethargic service and other notable points that lined up with what I had experienced.
For the time being I have nearly finished setting up an account with local fx firm latitude fx. There is no information about them anywhere as they were only recently incorporated in 2007. My research on their directors, and so on, didn't bring up any red flags and they appear legitimate. Latitude FX seems to cater for NZ exclusively but might also allow Australians. However, there's no way I'm going to trust them with much to begin with, I'll let time tell. My account with cmc will be terminated this Friday 4th June 08.
The Halifax online broker looks interesting. I'd be interested to know how fast their execution is.
Actually I found this quote from their site "in periods of volatile markets, the spread may be increased and autoexecution disabled." http://halifax.iitech.dk/Forex_sc.asp#
In other words, trading during volatility will get you burned badly if you ever attempt it with these guys.
OANDA is your best bet. I've been with OANDA for more than two years and never thought about other guys (not to mention unregulated LatitudeFX).
Good luck to your move!
A Auckland Man
Ignored
Cheers Auckland man. Yeah I'm not at all confident about Latitude, my account should be going live with them tomorrow and I'm sure I'll find out soon enough what sort of business they are running. I think if I were to launch an account overseas I'd pick an ecn business such as hotspotfxr because I'm thoroughly disillusioned with dealing desk meddlers. One thing that caught my attention with Latitude is a statement that -
"Our trading system is 100% automated - from provision of wholesale liquidity through to execution and confirmation."
I'm not naive, I know I'm taking a risk with these guys which I believe is calculated - through research into the directors and a small initial deposit to test the waters.
Technically, LatitiudeFx is trying to mimic the success of OANDA:
no trade size limit (starting from 1 unit (1 lot=100,000 units)), no dealing desk, very low spread, fast execution. To succeed this way, a large client base is the key as orders are matched internally first. orders which can't be matched internally need to be combined in lots then feed to providers. that is why oanda has no trade size limit with extremely low spread. I myself hope Latitude can succeed the same way, which would be a huge benefit for locals like us. but that is long long way....
From "Cognotec RealStream Rate Manager" PDF
"Be able to act fast to leverage the dealers experience
• Hit Protection – means that trading activity which transgresses maximum configured dealing parameters will be referred
for dealer intervention.
• Rate Protection and Safeguards Based on Time of Day ‐ for each currency pair the bank can set up different rate
protection controls which can vary throughout the trading day.
• Reflect Market Dynamics ‐ as market conditions change traders can be confident that they can still quote rates
automatically based on pre‐set market conditions spreads/adjustments. Traders can monitor their contributed rates and, at
the touch of a button, switch between the pre‐set rate management configurations.
• Manually Price Rates ‐ control is essential so that at any time the traders can withdraw an automatic rate and price it
manually, using the arrow keys to widen the spread or skew the rates.
• Rate Control ‐ at the touch of a button the traders can withdraw individual rates or all rates."
From "Cognotec RealStream Rate Manager" PDF
"Be able to act fast to leverage the dealers experience
• Hit Protection – means that trading activity which transgresses maximum configured dealing parameters will be referred
for dealer intervention.
• Rate Protection and Safeguards Based on Time of Day ‐ for each currency pair the bank can set up different rate
protection controls which can vary throughout the trading day.
• Reflect Market Dynamics ‐ as market conditions change traders can be confident that they can still quote rates
automatically based on pre‐set market conditions spreads/adjustments. Traders can monitor their contributed rates and, at
the touch of a button, switch between the pre‐set rate management configurations.
• Manually Price Rates ‐ control is essential so that at any time the traders can withdraw an automatic rate and price it
manually, using the arrow keys to widen the spread or skew the rates.
• Rate Control ‐ at the touch of a button the traders can withdraw individual rates or all rates."
Good or bad?
Ignored
When I first read that I was thought "oooerr, that sounds dodgy". However I did a bit of looking and correct me if I'm wrong somebody, but a rate manager is basically what banks and stock exchanges use to monitor all the buying and selling and produce a buy and sell price for an instrument.
Even the 'Reuter's electronic trading trade rates manager' which, they say, is "used by many of the world’s largest banks and forms the heart of the Reuters Electronic Trading service" has the ability to "Skew dealing prices for spot and outrights – with the ability to tighten, widen and override rates ‘on the fly’"
Sounds nasty huh, see the pictures in the reuter's pdf showing little up and down arrows to manually widen the spreads. I dunno why they can't just let the price do it's thing. I suppose they are willing to manipulate prices to ensure some lucky guy doesn't accidently get in on a non-market price, thus saving the bank the unpopular task of altering the trade record afterward.
I'm pretty sure the people controlling the rate manager would be Latitude's liquidity provider macquarie bank, as any divergence in rates from what the bank is offering would result in a mess and trade record alteration after the mistake. That sort of activity would be easy to pick up as a trader. I'm thinking that manually manipulating spreads is a standard function of rate manager software.
I've never seen that page. I was using the launch from their website for my demo account. Good to see the info is transparent.