Ask Bill Your Trading Questions

Hello Traders,

FXDD wants to help you in your trading by answering your trading questions.

Ask us your question and Bill Lawless, Director of Retail Sales, will record a response and publish it on YouTube. We will post all the links to YouTube in this thread so you and other traders can learn and sharpen your skills.

Bill has been in the Forex industry for about 20 years, and behind him are industry experts Greg Michalowski, Jamie Coleman, James Chen, and FXDD’s managerial team. We have the insights, resources, and experience to answer any questions you have about trading.

But first, some of Bill’s ground rules.

· He will not give you direct trading advice. Do not ask him what position you should open. Do not ask him if your current positions are any good.

· He will not answer any questions about our operations. If you do have a question related to how we process trades, please contact FXDD directly, and we will happily answer your question.

· He will not try to solicit accounts through this segment. We just want to answer trading-related questions and build some educational materials for our current clients and followers.

· Keep it Professional. We have frequented these forums from the sidelines and we’re very aware of what goes on in here. At the end of the day, our overall goal is educating you guys.

Some of our fans on Facebook asked us a few pretty basic questions, which can be found here in our Ask Bill YouTube Channel.

We’re looking to you, Forex Factory, to challenge us with some good questions that will benefit you and your fellow traders.

· He will not answer any questions about our operations. If you do have a question related to how we process trades, please contact FXDD directly, and we will happily answer your question.


this is the biggest question traders have and you can't answer so the world can see

"Bill Lawless" - love that name.

Hello PoundTrader,

If you contact our office we will gladly answer any of your questions about our operations, however, the goal of this thread and discussion is to answer questions about the Forex market and provide education to those who want it.

I would have to agree with PoundTrader - In light of the recent asymmetrical slippage NFA complaint against FXDD for upwards of $3m in client funds and the allegations of FXDD's chief compliance officer Jim Green purposely misleading the NFA - this seems like it would be an excellent opportunity to address these issues and re-affirm clients' confidence in FXDD as a brokerage.

Also - a discussion of trading and how the forex market works might be more appropriate in the "Trading Discussion" subforum, less so the broker discussion forum.

1) How are large traders splitting up their big orders so they don't experience too large slippage?
2) Do have prop traders at banks the freedom to chose their own techniques or do they have to stricly follow the banks guidance?
3) Do you see the quantity of retail traders "understanding the game" growing in the future, e.g. more retailers becoming aware of the disadvantages of blindly trading Technical Analysis?
4) Do you think traders will turn more and more to exotic currency pairs or is this just a trend that broker follow to gain more clients?
5) Do you see HFT trading as harmful or useful for providing liquidity?
6) Is tighter regulation for FX getting closer to become reality?

I expect you answering all of those questions.

Thank you.

I can answer that:
I sure hope not, because the quality of technical analysis is very low right now, most people more attuned to indicators and automation as a substitute to in-depth study of the chart.

I used to follow news heavily in another market (stocks),
only I found there was more to be had in doing only TA (forex).

'Course, then my question would be,

"When do you know to switch from demo to real trading?"

Ha-pattern, thanks for sharing your point of view!

Martin- You asked "Do you see the quantity of retail traders "understanding the game" growing in the future, e.g. more retailers becoming aware of the disadvantages of blindly trading Technical Analysis?".

Bill answered, and you can view his response here:



We'll have answers to the rest of your questions soon.

Martin- you asked "Do have prop traders at banks the freedom to chose their own techniques or do they have to strictly follow the banks guidance?"

Bill answered, and you can view his response here:

Any relation to Lucy Lawless? So we are not allowed to ask the questions we want to ask and yet, B.Lawless is going to take a shot..lol
Do have a few queries, but think they were all covered in the initial post - will post later if I can think up a few more..thanks.

Thanks Peter & Bill

I have a question for you Bill... you see a lot of trading activity from retail traders and may be in a position to answer this: What is the relationship between profitability and trade duration? In other words, does a trader with a longer trade duration generally make more money than a trader with a shorter trade duration?

Thanks Goat,

That's a great question. We'll have Bills response for you shortly.

Got to love these kinds of brokers, lol. Do these employees actually due some due diligence on a company/broker before they go to work for them? Or are they just so happy to have a title that they don’t really care who gets hurt/burned in the end.

Hmmm… Interesting… (Just thinking out loud) Don’t mind me… lol

Bill Lawless, please... lol

Good point.

Martin,

You asked "Do you see HFT trading as harmful or useful for providing liquidity?"

Bill answered, and you can view that answer here:

Martin,

You asked "Do you think traders will turn more and more to exotic currency pairs or is this just a trend that broker follow to gain more clients?"

Bill answered, and you can view his answer here:

Peter,

Serious questions:

What trends are you seeing emerge with brokers and their offerings/products?

Where do you see the spot market in 5 years from a brokerage's point of view?



(figure he needs a name aside form Martin pestering him )

Thanks for your questions Jack! We'll get back to you by tomorrow or Thursday with answers.

Forex2k10 and Poundtrader: we appreciate your concern and interest, and wanted to take a moment and use this opportunity to address that particular issue.

FXDD is sensitive to your concerns regarding the BCC action filed by the NFA against the firm. We adjusted our slippage parameters to ensure that orders are executed within symmetrical allowances well over a year ago, and are currently working with the NFA to resolve the other issues set forth in the action. The firm works very diligently to ensure that all our activities comply with all applicable regulations and to maintain our customers’ trust and confidence.

To increase transparency, FXDD is reiterating its trading methodology which combines traditional means of execution with our unique fill or kill- “what you see is what you get”- execution.

Additionally, to be clear, FXDD’s liquidity/risk desk manages an orderly flow of deep competitive liquidity. Further, client orders are filled with no “last look.” That means that your order is filled before it even appears on the firms’ risk monitors. The notion that FXDD ‘trades against customers” is pure folklore promulgated by our less transparent competitors.

CFTC and NFA regulations are intended to provide customer protections and orderly markets. FXDD, like most other firms, works very hard to maintain a trading environment in which customers can trade with confidence and security, and we look forward to maintaining your trust through honesty and transparency.

This question is not how FXDD handles its trade operations but a question about all NFA registered brokers as a whole. Are there any rules or regulations by the NFA or CFTC that forbids brokers marking up the price of an ECN feed without disclosing it to the client?


There is also some confusion due to different brokers using different terminology. Can you please let us know the difference if any between Straight through Processing and an ECN feed? I have heard others explain this but I would like to hear it come directly from the broker if possible. Thanks