FXCM is a true ECN broker?

I don't know if the allegations are true. However, I have been using FXCM for a few weeks now, and the slippage during news announcements seems crazy (+/- 15 pips is common).
Will I find that kind of slippage across all brokers during news announcements or are there better brokers to use for a 'trading the news' approach?
Thank you.

Look elsewhere I would say, from what i've heard slippage around news is bad with FXCM.

Hi All,

I am sure all are aware that this broker has huge advertising monies invested in their marketing. There is a current class action suit here http://forexmagnates.com/fxcm-slappe...-racketeering/


I have friends who use them and have complained about the large news slippage during NFP. If you stay away from news trades you will most likely be fine with this broker. I want to also mention that my friends had the monies placed back into their accounts by FXCM so they so have decent customer support. Beyond this I can comment as I dont use them as my prime broker.

Regards
Gary

what is slippage? ???

Hi sdsander,

Slippage is when an order fills at a different price than the requested price.

Why would an order not be filled at your price? Your order may not fill at the price you requested if liquidity is no longer available at that price or the market never quoted your price due to a market gap. At each price point, there is a finite amount of liquidity. Meaning only so many orders can be filled at that price. FXCM’s NDD forex execution receives prices from 10+ liquidity providers which stream quotes and offer a certain amount of liquidity at each price. For example, the current EUR/USD quote may be 1.3781 and the bank offering to sell at that price is offering a volume of 1,000,000. If traders send an order(s) for 2,000,000 at that price, there’s not enough liquidity to fill all those orders since the bank is only offering to sell half of that amount. Therefore 1,000,000 will be filled at the quoted price, and the remainder will have to filled at another price or cancelled depending on how the trader has setup the order. Second, prices do not always move 1/10th of a pip at a time from 1.37810 to 1.37811 to 1.37812…. If you have ever traded during a news event such as NFP, the price can could jump from one tick to the next by 2, 5, 10 pips etc. If you have an order to buy EUR/USD at 1.3781 and the market moves from 1.3780 to 1.3782 in one tick, your order will be filled at 1.3782 (assuming your order type allows for slippage). FXCM’s active trader platform actually shows you the liquidity being provided by liquidity providers http://www.fxcm.com/active-trader.jsp

Slippage with NDD forex execution is not controlled by FXCM but rather dependent on liquidity. When forex traders mention slippage, they normally are talking about negative slippage where the order is filled at a less favorable price than the original price when the order was placed. At FXCM, slippage can be positive as well. FXCM recommends using Limit and Limit Entry orders because you can only receive your requested price or better with these order types.

FXCM's goal is to have a fair and transparent system, and we are proud to offer an execution system that passes on any price improvements. Slippage data is publicly available from our slippage statistics website including details on the numbers of orders experiencing positive and negative slippage with NDD (No Dealing Desk) forex execution: http://docs.fxcorporate.com/faq/slippage-statistics.pdf

Let me know if you have more questions.


- Jason

Jason. How you explain this?


Used FXCM and did not know customers big problems with this company. In google found there dirty tricks.

Hi freemen,

As explained last year, the technical issue was caused due to a new version of Adobe Flash being released that was not compatible with the platform. The issue was resolved and any traders with trades negatively impacted were reviewed as done with any technical issue.

-Jason

Traders,

This is exactly how FXCM operates. They have a huge number of clients trading with them, they regularly run checks on all open positions on their platform and they can see all stops on their system, then if for example the price of GBP/USD is 1.6092 and they have thousands of open positions with stops from 1.6110 to 1.6150 they just shoot the price to 1.6162 taking out all the stop loss falsely. At this point thousands of accounts have been affected and believe me 95% of these accounts are stupid newbies who dont even know how to compare chart talk less of monitor their positions. They know that the very experienced traders will complain and they just sit and wait for these once who they immediately rectify their loses, but the other tens of thousands who don have a clue about trading that wount complain, thats millions of dollars in profit for fxcm. very simple, its a game of numbers

I do not know guys but how this broker "survived" if they really have such problems???

If you ask me, ill say its the 8th wonder of the world. Its a combination of a whole lot of things. Very aggressive and misleading marketing targeted at a greedy and clueless audience.

I know a friend who attended a seminar organized by one of these shady brokers and believe me, this guy went and opened a $50,000 account with same broker 2weeks later believing he has uncovered the secret to instant riches, He lost everything 4days later.
I dont know if youve heard this saying that "fools and idiots are born every second" Even if you run an advert on national television and newpaper that people should stay from certain fraudulent brokers, you will still hear later of millions rushing to sign up. These guys know the numbers!

From hearing all this bad stuff about FXCM I'm considering switching to another broker. I have noticed some times my stops get hit in a split second then the price moves the other way. Really irritating..

Hi Makavelli,

Your post is false and incorrect.

FXCM uses NDD (STP) forex execution and the pricing on the platform is set by price competition from 10+ liquidity providers. Traders see the best bid/ask price being offered from the liquidity providers and FXCM has no control over price movement.

Second, resting orders -- such as stops, limits and entry orders -- are anonymous and hidden from the liquidity providers, since they rest on our server. Only when the best bid/ask price reaches the orders are they transmitted to the liquidity providers for execution.

I agree with you that a dealing desk broker making the market presents a conflict of interest since the broker has the ability to control pricing and can see the location of all resting orders including stops. If your stop loss order is hit, the loss resulting from the stop being hit could result in the broker’s profit. It’s a subject I’ve discussed many times over the past 3 years, and one we go into in detail on our website where we take you through the NDD forex execution from pricing to order execution showing you how it works.

I wrote a detailed post about NDD forex execution and how it works 2 years ago that you can find here, and please feel free to join us in the FXCM Discussion thread as well if you would like to discuss.

Jason

Yeah right!!! tell that to stupid newbies, you got a lot of them trading with you

It sure do sound like you're one of those that give FXCM those juicy profits they publish every year

Fxcm do pull some good scams.

1) I notice that as I close a position out the price 90% of the time ticks against me by a pip or 2, do this with 10,000 accounts and you can see why it is profitable.
2) I never had any problem with FXCM until I started making money, then I could not log into the platform, my feed would disappear, freeze.
3) I tried to log in via their web platform, no chance then I tried via my phone again blocked on all three access points.

I was using another brokers feed and that stayed rock solid all the way through, so it was not my internet connection. However I am going to continue trading with them so that I can take money off them. My account grew 300% in two weeks so I guess some alarm bells started flashing. I will update you in the next 2 weeks to say how its going.

Well, everybody says we are an ECN nowadays

I do not know what ECN means anymore...

It seems that there is always a dealig desk of last resort...

take care

Just do your homework on FXCM before you place your acc with them.....

They are the masters of scamming you out of your money. The oldest in the business of taking your money.

They have invented the latest and greatest of plug- ins to seperate you from your money.

There is no trick in the book they haven't mastered.

They are the only broker with a dedicated person who's sole job is to explain to you why your acc is running dry.
Jason is so good in what he does he will actually make you feel good about your losses.

Be warned!