Brokers who let you trade more than one pair on a position? | Forex Factory

Options

Permalinks
Print Thread

Similar Threads

Price info indicator needed - one pair's price x another pair 5 replies

How do you let profit run... Position management 6 replies

FXCM wont let you close your position! 30 replies

Making sure only one position open per currency pair: Coding help 0 replies

How to run one on more than one pair and time Frame at the same time? 1 reply

Brokers who let you trade more than one pair on a position?

  • #1
  • First Post: Apr 21, 2010 3:34am Apr 21, 2010 3:34am
Every Retail broker, that I know of, lets you open a position on one pair and you can only close it on the same pair.

E.g. If I go long on EUR/USD, then I can only close this position by going back short on the same trade.

Is it possible to place trades with any one retail broker, such that I go Long on EUR/USD, and then the amount of EUR I hold, I can convert that into CHF by going short on EUR/CHF, and then converting my CHF holdings back to USD by going long on USD/CHF?

Should it be possible to do that as I'm only converting one currency to another?

Why is it that most of the retail brokers won't allow such trades?

P.S. for those who might be wondering... I'm not trying to arb the market or broker by running Triangular Arbitrage.
  • #2
  • Apr 21, 2010 4:14am Apr 21, 2010 4:14am
Hi there,

All brokers let you do that, or have I missed something? You have simply opened a triangular hedge(assuming you got the correct lot sizing). Whats the problem?
  • #3
  • Apr 21, 2010 4:21am Apr 21, 2010 4:21am
Quoting Svm
Why is it that most of the retail brokers won't allow such trades?
Most retail brokers are not sophisticated enough to handle this.

The only broker I'm aware of that will let you do exactly what you describe is InteractiveBrokers.


Quoting kennyhubbard
All brokers let you do that, or have I missed something?
You missed something.
  • #4
  • Apr 21, 2010 5:19pm Apr 21, 2010 5:19pm
Quoting kennyhubbard
Hi there,

All brokers let you do that, or have I missed something? You have simply opened a triangular hedge(assuming you got the correct lot sizing). Whats the problem?
No, you totally, missed it.

Suppose EUR/USD is trading at 1.3338/40 right now. So I go long on it with 10 lots. Now I'm holding

$100,000/1.3440 = 74,962.52 Euros

Now, tomorrow if I want to close that trade, EUR/USD might be trading at 1.3448/50. However, instead of converting my Euro holding back to USD, I might want to convert them to CHF. So I go short on EUR/CHF @ 1.4327/32. which gives me 107,436.28 Swiss Francs.

And the day after I wanna convert my CHF back to USD 1.0702/04. So I can convert 107436.28 CHF to USD, which gives 100370.21

Now The numbers might be a little off but does the example make more sense now? Also, if I'm trading like this, I'm not trading standard lots. I'm trading non-standard amount. e.g. converting my CHF to USD, in the above example, I'm trading non-standard amount and not 10 lots of USD.


Is there any broker that lets us convert one holding currency into any other currency of our choice? (assuming they offer it).
  • #5
  • Apr 21, 2010 5:27pm Apr 21, 2010 5:27pm
Quoting Trader KGB
Most retail brokers are not sophisticated enough to handle this.

The only broker I'm aware of that will let you do exactly what you describe is InteractiveBrokers.
Thanks Trader KGB. Are you sure about it though? Have you traded with IB ever? I wonder if you need to be a sophisticated institutional investor to do that.

Also, do you know if they ( or any other retial broker) lets you trade non-standard amounts? i.e. instead of trading 10 lots, what if I want to place a trade of $101,289.30
  • #6
  • Apr 21, 2010 5:27pm Apr 21, 2010 5:27pm
Quoting Trader KGB
Most retail brokers are not sophisticated enough to handle this.

The only broker I'm aware of that will let you do exactly what you describe is InteractiveBrokers.
Thanks Trader KGB. Are you sure about it though? Have you traded with IB ever? I wonder if you need to be a sophisticated institutional investor to do that.

Also, do you know if they ( or any other retial broker) lets you trade non-standard amounts? i.e. instead of trading 10 lots, what if I want to place a trade of $101,289.30 ?
  • #7
  • Apr 21, 2010 5:38pm Apr 21, 2010 5:38pm
Quoting Svm
Thanks Trader KGB. Are you sure about it though? Have you traded with IB ever? I wonder if you need to be a sophisticated institutional investor to do that.

Also, do you know if they ( or any other retial broker) lets you trade non-standard amounts? i.e. instead of trading 10 lots, what if I want to place a trade of $101,289.30
I do trade with them, IB will let you do both.
  • #8
  • Apr 21, 2010 6:09pm Apr 21, 2010 6:09pm
Yes, with IB you can do both.
And if you build a synthetic pair, you will not be charged any more margin than you already had for your original trade.

Margin is only needed to cover negative balance in a particular currency within
your account.

For example, if you go short 100k EUR/USD you need margin to cover your negative balance in EUR. If you use these USDs to buy AUD, you can do it without additional margin, because you are having a positive USD balance.
Now you can use this newly bought AUD amount to buy anything else, still without any need for additional margin.

You can continue with this ad infinitum.
  • #9
  • Apr 22, 2010 9:53pm Apr 22, 2010 9:53pm
Quoting pescador
Yes, with IB you can do both.
And if you build a synthetic pair, you will not be charged any more margin than you already had for your original trade.

Margin is only needed to cover negative balance in a particular currency within
your account.

For example, if you go short 100k EUR/USD you need margin to cover your negative balance in EUR. If you use these USDs to buy AUD, you can do it without additional margin, because you are having a positive USD balance.
Now you can use this newly bought AUD amount to buy anything else, still without any...
Thanks a lot for your input guys.

Pescador, are you sure I can continue this at infinitium? What if I was going from one currency to another over hours (as oppose to days)? What if I was doing that in matter of minutes?

I've just heard a lot of bad things about their CS. I'm wondering if their execution through API is fast enough and dealing with them won't be a very big problem. Has anyone traded with them through API?

For Forex, I beleive they charge you $2.5 for every trade (upto $120,000 of trade). Is that correct?

The good thing with them is that I get access to all the options and other asset classes. I've also hears that their platform SUPER SUX!
  • #10
  • May 2, 2010 1:56am May 2, 2010 1:56am
Quoting Trader KGB
I do trade with them, IB will let you do both.

Does anyone know if ATC Brokers let you do that?
  • #11
  • Edited 12:00pm May 2, 2010 11:14am | Edited 12:00pm
Quoting Svm
Does anyone know if ATC Brokers let you do that?
No. ATC is just an introducing broker for FXCM. FXCM will not allow you to trade synthetic pairs or non-lot sized positions.
  • #12
  • May 3, 2010 8:41pm May 3, 2010 8:41pm
Quoting Trader KGB
No. ATC is just an introducing broker for FXCM. FXCM will not allow you to trade synthetic pairs or non-lot sized positions.

Do you know if they let you trade trade synthetic pairs and non-lot sized positions on Currenex or EBS?

I guess big interbank market should be able to accommodate such orders.
  • #13
  • Last Post: May 3, 2010 10:01pm May 3, 2010 10:01pm
Quoting Svm
Do you know if they let you trade trade synthetic pairs and non-lot sized positions on Currenex or EBS?

I guess big interbank market should be able to accommodate such orders.
I've used Currenex and am not aware of such an offering. That being said, it's likely that certain prime brokers (via which one would trade on Currenex or EBS) may offer it (especially the bigger primes).
0 traders viewing now