FXCM and "no-slippage"

forex.com doesn't honor the guarantee during FA announcements..check the disclaimer at the bottom of their homepage..

whoa! im tellin ya, this is the wild west!!! you better have your six shooter ready

if you trade with a large account, you should only keep approx. 15% of the cash at the broker to defend against these very incidents.

It's almost scary to the point where you would withdraw all of your money for a few days if you make a hundred thou, just so they won't take it back

FXCM£: We cannot give guarentees if there is no liquidity on this day
FXCM£: So if you want to trade with guarentees, I suggest you dont trade


Please any suggestion how to take advantage over the NFP, or there is nothing to do and I should just sit back, watch the charts, and.. well. . I don't know.

I keep saying to people have a look at options. I used to stress over brokers until I came across them. Its so much easier and calmer because you know all you need is a move, either up or down, or up a bit and down a bit and it doesn't matter when because there are no stops to be hit. And then your hands are free to try to do a manual trade as well so sometimes you can end up with two good makes.

So can you suggest helpful links as to how to learn more about trading options?

Thanks

YS

Aren't currency options very illiquid ? I heard complaints that since they are floor traded the order gets the manana treatment. Pit traders must be the last remnant of the original stock market gravy train gang.
I'm seriously considering sticking to FX futures. From what I've seen of retail FX in my short time it's a crook's paradise. The mere fact that they can quote and refuse freely should scare anyone away.
Comparing EUREX EUR/USD on IB you get :
1. transparent brokerage, the price is the price is the price.
2. Up to 80:1 margin ( if you are mad )
3. Spread of 1 pip
4. $2.60 round trip commission or .2 pips in $ terms
5. Volume on trades
6. All the order types you want

Nuff said. I'm not funding my new FXCM account.

2 questions :
How the hell can FXCM have institutional customers ? Surely they don't let this kind of masquerade ride ?
If FXCM are FSA regulated, surely bucket shopping; that is taking contrary position to your client base is illegal and is only permissible with regulated bookies ?

I don't know about liquidity. Really I don't think it matters because IG make up the prices themselves although they seem to be based on market movements. It seems that proper bank options have to be held until expiry and either you exercise (done automatically if you are in profit it seems) or its a loser and you don't. So it means real options have to be held until 3pm British time. You can get around it by taking a profit by going into the normal fx market and buying or selling the amount the options worth and that will hedge and lock in your profit. Its not quite as simple as at IG where you can just close the bet nice and easy.
Youngstar, I guess go to the library and get a book on financial options. Everything and more will be in there. As for systems, I'm using the copperchip one called how to trade economic data. You can get it on ebay. It tells you what options and strikes you should use for what data and which data to avoid and how to pick market moving data. There is no detail about how options work so if you want that look elsewhere.

Do you have maybe a Instant msg software? I want to talk to you a little bit about options.

I have it but I'm not signed up. I used to have a yahoo account but I ended up talking to people and getting nothing done!

Can you explain exactly how you going to take advantage on the NFP using options?


Do you use one touch? or somrthing similier?

You buy calls and puts together and strikes depend on what data and what currency and where it's trading but the manual looks at only the pound and euro. If you're not sure if its for you best thing to do is sign up with IG and have a look at the platform. Also theres something for US rates covered called binary fx bets. I have done a mixture of some real trading and manual testing on this and it can also be used for nfp but certain events need to happen like eur v pound or eur vs chf need to move first. When the events happen though its a dead cert but you would have to put down the potential loss in order to make a 15-25% return.

Hi Jambo,
How much do you usually loose when the news turn out to be in line with expectations and don't move the market? I assume there is a volatility premium on buying options before a news release, which disappears immediately after the news is released, so this premium is lost when the market doesn't move in response to news.

Thanks,
Bonete

I only ever trade the bigger expected news so if its as expected or whatever you generally get a 20/30 point move one way then it turns and goes the other way. I cover each side of the trade separately that way and get out flat or a few points plus or minus. Even if the news doesn't immediately move the market usually moves eventually one way or the other. Like last friday when I went in thinking Greenspan would say something and move the market. He didn't but the euro still got towards 1.20 later on. The amount you can lose maximum is whatever you pay per point times the value at the time and I usually bet £5 a point. Technically I can lose all my stake and I always think that way to be on the safe side but the two times I've lost it was only £20 each time which is tiny compared to the profits I've had from it.

Option strategies are logical (especially using straddles prior to a number); however, there are many risks to this.

1) The Implied Volatility you pay may be high relative to the announcement (NFP for example)

2) Always calculate your breakeven points (add the total premium to the strike price you purchase)

3) You may end up losing your entire premium or just breaking even if the market move does not cover your premium paid.

4) Depending on when you buy the option (1 week in advance or 1 day in advance) you always have to remember that time works against you in long options.

Try going to our site www.ifsclusa.com and reading about Core Options, our streaming options platform.

Hello everybody! New guy here trying to break into the trading world. I have been researching many different brokers, as I am new, and have found positives and negatives about all of them. Slippage is one concern or mine, I was speaking to a CS rep for GFT a few minutes ago about this very problem, the transcript:

...

you: I have heard that slippage is a concern with your company. How often does slippage occur?

GFTCL15: As always, GFT will attempt to execute your market order at the best price available. Please remember that when trading with market orders, the order will be executed, but the price is not guaranteed. If you would like to control the level of slippage on a trade, you can choose the slippage option on the Direct Deal order type. With this option, a trader can allow for a slippage threshold, so the order can be off the available market and still fill. Please understand that Direct Deal orders with/without a slippage amount defined are not an order with a guarantee of execution, only price.

you: So in other words as long as I utilize the slippage option I will be guaranteed a certain rate as long as it is within a certain range? How often can I expect an order to be made in the value I see on the screen, without slippage?

GFTCL15: I can have a forex specialist contact you on Monday to better assist you with slippage and order execution, when they get into the office, if you would like.

you: Since I am extremely busy during the week, I will have to take a rain check on that. Thanks for the offer though. I hear a lot about troubles trading during news hours. As I am not interested in news trading, it does not matter to me one way or the other, but what is the reliability during these times? Is it true that there are server disconnections during the periods?

GFTCL15: Well there is risk of server congestion at times of high trading periods, but we have a full staffed technical support deparment in the office 24 hours a day during market open.
GFTCL15: To configure issues and such

you: What sort of time frame does "news trading" occur in EST?
you: And I ask this for my reference so that I will know when to expect such congestions.

GFTCL15: Well it depends on the news events that are being addressed, as new events and announcements occur at different times around the world
GFTCL15: You can check out this website:
GFTCL15: http://www.fx360.com/
GFTCL15: Which is a good source to use for when trading news and announcements occur.

you: I see, I will have to give this site a good look. Thank you for this information. I believe that I will be making most of my trades, however, in the evening through the early morning. What sort of connectivity issues, if any, should I expect during the time of 6PM EST to 3AM EST?

GFTCL15: Again Technical Support Department is here 24/7 to overlook the server on any issue that may be affecting your connection.
GFTCL15: Thank you for contacting GFT. Have a wonderful day. Please contact us again.

you: I have more questions though.

GFTCL15: ok

...

you: Okay, I believe that is all I have for now. I appreciate your time, Thank You.

GFTCL15: Your welcome
GFTCL15: Thank you for contacting GFT. Have a wonderful day. Please contact us again.

Does anyone recommend GFT? They seem to get pretty good reviews, but the Customer Support, as you can see, tried to rush me and wasn't much help. She did mention the Slippage Option, which I thought would be relevant to the thread. Is there anyone here that can give me more information about that?

Back to topic, FXCM was one of the brokers I was looking into, however, I came upon some forums about bad trades with them due to issues with slippage etc. What made me not want to use them though was when I looked them up on NFA. It seems they have had a few "mishaps" with them as well. As all of you can see, I am new to FOREX trading, but I am not uneducated. I have been doing my research and still have a lot of learning to do, I am just in the stage of finding which broker is right for me, therefore I am cautious.