Trouble With FXCM Servers

I was using an FXCM demo account to forward-test an EA strategy for the last several days. (I also have several hundred dollars sitting in a live account with them, but I'm not doing anything with it at the time being.) This morning at 9:30 I looked at my open positions and all was going well. About 20 minutes later I looked back at the MT4 window and the positions were gone. They weren't stopped out. They weren't listed in my open trades or in my trade history. They were just gone.

I contacted them via chat to ask for help, knowing that they wouldn't want to bother doing anything for a demo account. Normally, I wouldn't even bother complaining about a demo, but when you're in the middle of days' (or weeks') worth of forward testing, it's extremely annoying to see all of your open positions just evaporate as though they never existed. As expected, they told me there's nothing they can do.

I'm glad this happened now because if this is what they do to their demo clients I don't want to do live trading with them. As far as I'm concerned, a "demo" account isn't simply to demonstrate the effectiveness of my trading strategy. It's also to demonstrate the effectiveness of the broker. If they simply nuke open positions, I don't want any part of them.

I am using FXCM and have been getting "trade context", "busy", and "common error" messages. This is at a time when I was getting ready to open a live account. I'm not sure about them now.

A few weeks ago I couldn't close a trade via MT4 because the FXCM servers went down. I ended up closing the trade after the servers came back online hours later ... for a loss rather than a gain. After the fxstatus website and tech support acknowledged the problem ... and after 3 weeks waiting for an "audit review", they said there was no indication of any problem that day and that they would leave the loss on my statement. Of course, I will escalate this issue to their compliance department because the "audit team" is clearly clueless. I've already opened an account at Dukascopy in case it's time to change brokers.

http://www.fxstatus.com/

FXCM servers weren't working with MT4 the last few days of last week ... the notice was posted to their fxstatus website. I had to call their trading desk in order to open and close new positions. I've been happy with FXCM but I'm starting to rethink that because of their weekly server and connectivity problems. It's luck whether you need to trade during those times or not.

Here is a log of disconnections between my MT4 platform and the FXCM servers over the last few weeks. The MT4 platform is running on the Boston Tech VPS ... they claim 100% uptime. Some of these re-connections are quick, others take hours. Ask yourself if you can trade around their constant server outtages.

1-2010.02.09 02:07:00 reconnected
0-2010.02.09 11:36:05 connection lost
1-2010.02.09 11:37:49 reconnected
0-2010.02.10 00:24:01 connection lost
1-2010.02.10 00:24:06 reconnected
0-2010.02.10 06:57:08 connection lost
1-2010.02.10 06:57:10 reconnected
0-2010.02.10 06:57:17 connection lost
1-2010.02.10 06:57:18 reconnected
0-2010.02.10 12:48:45 connection lost
1-2010.02.10 12:50:06 reconnected
0-2010.02.11 00:33:20 connection lost
1-2010.02.11 00:34:00 reconnected
0-2010.02.12 00:40:18 connection lost
1-2010.02.12 00:40:58 reconnected
0-2010.02.12 00:41:59 connection lost
1-2010.02.12 00:43:05 reconnected
0-2010.02.12 18:26:26 connection lost
1-2010.02.12 18:27:42 reconnected
0-2010.02.13 03:18:33 connection lost
1-2010.02.13 03:18:54 reconnected
0-2010.02.14 00:33:24 connection lost
1-2010.02.14 00:33:56 reconnected
0-2010.02.14 00:34:26 connection lost
1-2010.02.14 00:34:26 reconnected
0-2010.02.15 00:33:14 connection lost
1-2010.02.15 00:33:54 reconnected
0-2010.02.15 00:34:40 connection lost
1-2010.02.15 00:35:47 reconnected
0-2010.02.16 00:32:25 connection lost
1-2010.02.16 00:34:46 reconnected
0-2010.02.16 00:34:47 connection lost
1-2010.02.16 00:35:02 reconnected
0-2010.02.16 00:35:09 connection lost
1-2010.02.17 04:00:39 reconnected
0-2010.02.18 00:42:02 connection lost
1-2010.02.18 00:42:39 reconnected
0-2010.02.18 00:43:53 connection lost
1-2010.02.18 00:43:53 reconnected
0-2010.02.18 09:46:05 connection lost
1-2010.02.18 09:46:11 reconnected
0-2010.02.19 09:39:36 connection lost
1-2010.02.19 09:39:37 reconnected
0-2010.02.20 00:32:19 connection lost
1-2010.02.20 00:35:10 reconnected
0-2010.02.22 00:32:21 connection lost
1-2010.02.22 02:58:08 reconnected
0-2010.02.22 04:31:20 connection lost
1-2010.02.22 04:31:24 reconnected
0-2010.02.22 04:31:28 connection lost
1-2010.02.22 04:31:29 reconnected
0-2010.02.22 11:14:23 connection lost
1-2010.02.22 11:14:25 reconnected
0-2010.02.22 11:14:35 connection lost
1-2010.02.22 23:50:52 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 00:54:14 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 00:54:55 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 00:56:03 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 00:57:09 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 02:03:42 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 02:03:42 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 02:03:44 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 02:03:44 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 04:50:15 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 04:51:21 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 04:51:27 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 04:51:27 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 04:55:29 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 04:56:17 reconnected
0-2010.02.23 11:31:57 connection lost
1-2010.02.23 11:31:58 reconnected
0-2010.02.24 00:32:28 connection lost
1-2010.02.24 00:35:40 reconnected
0-2010.02.24 23:47:51 connection lost
1-2010.02.25 01:44:31 reconnected
0-2010.02.25 01:44:37 connection lost
1-2010.02.25 01:44:38 reconnected
0-2010.02.25 08:18:43 connection lost
1-2010.02.25 08:18:46 reconnected
0-2010.02.25 08:18:57 connection lost
1-2010.02.25 08:18:59 reconnected
0-2010.02.26 00:45:51 connection lost
1-2010.02.26 00:49:09 reconnected
0-2010.02.26 17:46:24 connection lost
1-2010.02.26 17:54:43 reconnected
0-2010.02.26 17:54:45 connection lost
1-2010.02.26 17:55:52 reconnected
0-2010.02.26 23:47:28 connection lost
1-2010.02.26 23:48:04 reconnected
0-2010.02.28 00:32:29 connection lost
1-2010.02.28 00:34:54 reconnected
0-2010.03.01 00:32:35 connection lost
1-2010.03.01 02:43:16 reconnected
0-2010.03.01 02:43:17 connection lost
1-2010.03.01 02:43:19 reconnected
0-2010.03.01 06:05:10 connection lost
1-2010.03.01 06:07:21 reconnected
0-2010.03.02 00:42:48 connection lost

Ditto here. Before they simply deleted a big batch of my open demo trades, I was already growing exasperated because my trade requests were constantly getting busy and common-error messages.

I emailed them yesterday morning asking about the problems I was having and have not heard from them yet.

Now, I can't connect at all and when I try, I get "invalid account." What the heck? I have two pending orders at this time and now can not monitor them? Not good. This is really frustrating, since I have been working on a system for over a month now.

Any suggestions for other brokers?

Hi slc12312,

Have you contacted FXCM support by phone or live chat to check on the Invalid Account message? The message typically occurs when the wrong username or password is being entered. I checked and there are currently no technical issues occurring with the MT4 platform.

Jason

Jason,
Yes I did chat today. Had to open a new demo. I also emailed BT and was told that from now on, demo accounts will only last 14 days. Bummer for use that are trying to learn consistency.

I agree, demo accounts that are being used regularly (daily, weekly) should last from 1 to 6 months, if not longer.

On the other hand, demo accounts aren't very reliable (when compared with real accounts) so you'd probably do just as well trading with another broker's demo account.