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is it true 43 replies

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Is it true that FOREX profits are not taxable until withdrawn from your account? 32 replies

Is this true?

Quoting narafa
So what?? FXCM stopped him from trading because he is trading TOO profitable...So what..?? Are they going to freeze his funds?? I don't think they can do this...He can easily withdraw all his money, close the account and start all over with another market maker or broker...He will probably make a fortune before he is blacklisted in the forex market (If something like that really exists), and when he is blacklisted, he has got his whole family to open accounts under their names

Not really an issue, the broker or market maker doesn't really bring success or failure...He is not successfull because he is trading with FXCM, so he can be successfull and profitable with any other broker or market maker out there, so that's not actually an issue to talk about...


Thanks,

Nader
so true
Pip Goes The Weasel
I began testing a extremely aggressive scalping system with my fxcm mini account. I was really leveraging it and taking a stab at the monthly contest.

Well this morning after taking a 12 pip scalp on 8 standard lots, my trading station started giving the message "waiting for dealer"

Now first of all let me say that I have been with fxcm on this account for about 12 months and love the company, the system, and speed of execution. Needless to say I was EXTREMELY pleased with fxcm. So this is not a bash fxcm message, just a recount of what has happened to me.

Well I spoke with a representative and my IB also called on my behalf. Basically the fxcm rep told me that fxcm takes a position in the market identical to the customers, that way they dont make $$ on the customer, he was really determined to make this point, again, i'm only relaying what he said, I have no idea what the truth is concerning fxcm as the counter party to a trade.

He went on to say that scalpers move in/out of the market so quickly that it tends to throw off the fxcm ledger....who knows if that is the truth....

Basically he said my account will be on manual execution or all orders. I inquired for how long, he said indefinitely. So I'm supposed to check back in a week and see what they think.....after another review of my account and a reduction of my scalping...

Whatever....its really a pain when you click close position, and get stuck with waiting for dealer for 10 seconds per ticket/order....

Handicapped trading for sure... sorry to say, a real dissappointment...

much luck to you all
Vince
Quoting fl_tradin
I began testing a extremely aggressive scalping system with my fxcm mini account. I was really leveraging it and taking a stab at the monthly contest.

Well this morning after taking a 12 pip scalp on 8 standard lots, my trading station started giving the message "waiting for dealer"

Now first of all let me say that I have been with fxcm on this account for about 12 months and love the company, the system, and speed of execution. Needless to say I was EXTREMELY pleased with fxcm. So this is not a bash fxcm message, just a recount of what has happened to me.

Well I spoke with a representative and my IB also called on my behalf. Basically the fxcm rep told me that fxcm takes a position in the market identical to the customers, that way they dont make $$ on the customer, he was really determined to make this point, again, i'm only relaying what he said, I have no idea what the truth is concerning fxcm as the counter party to a trade.

He went on to say that scalpers move in/out of the market so quickly that it tends to throw off the fxcm ledger....who knows if that is the truth....

Basically he said my account will be on manual execution or all orders. I inquired for how long, he said indefinitely. So I'm supposed to check back in a week and see what they think.....after another review of my account and a reduction of my scalping...

Whatever....its really a pain when you click close position, and get stuck with waiting for dealer for 10 seconds per ticket/order....

Handicapped trading for sure... sorry to say, a real dissappointment...

much luck to you all
Vince
Yes, that is real shit ! It does not matter who the brokers are. You are losing your money on the long run. One do not mind the one or two pips they manupulate but by freezing it more than 3 seconds you can't close or attend to your other trades and your winners could turn to be losers for short time trades player. I feel it is often over done. I do not defend my brokers even if I am their IB. Honesty comes first. If FXCM is in Switzerland, the consumer with these kind of complains has a 70% chance of winning in court. Judges here are on the side of consummers when the matters are " gray " It is just a matter of whether you want to spend time in court.
Highway
Quoting smjones
.......

There is no FDIC protection in FOREX, nor should there be.
.......

SMJ

]
forgive the intrusion, but why?
I was here, here I was. Was I here? Yes I was!
The problem is..

How "big" is your friend's account?

My students trade for a bank.. they trade 1 pip = $10,000. So I'm thinking your friend isn't trading that; and so he's probably not denting the forex market..

I'm all about conspiracies, but until you are in the multi-million dollar account phase, you probably aren't a bleep on their radars..
google:
Quoting fl_tradin
I began testing a extremely aggressive scalping system with my fxcm mini account. I was really leveraging it and taking a stab at the monthly contest.

Well this morning after taking a 12 pip scalp on 8 standard lots, my trading station started giving the message "waiting for dealer"

Now first of all let me say that I have been with fxcm on this account for about 12 months and love the company, the system, and speed of execution. Needless to say I was EXTREMELY pleased with fxcm. So this is not a bash fxcm message, just a recount of what has happened to me.

Well I spoke with a representative and my IB also called on my behalf. Basically the fxcm rep told me that fxcm takes a position in the market identical to the customers, that way they dont make $$ on the customer, he was really determined to make this point, again, i'm only relaying what he said, I have no idea what the truth is concerning fxcm as the counter party to a trade.

He went on to say that scalpers move in/out of the market so quickly that it tends to throw off the fxcm ledger....who knows if that is the truth....

Basically he said my account will be on manual execution or all orders. I inquired for how long, he said indefinitely. So I'm supposed to check back in a week and see what they think.....after another review of my account and a reduction of my scalping...

Whatever....its really a pain when you click close position, and get stuck with waiting for dealer for 10 seconds per ticket/order....

Handicapped trading for sure... sorry to say, a real dissappointment...

much luck to you all
Vince

I can tell you one thing for sure. FXCM will never take your account off manual execution. They will give you all this hope about reviewing the situation in the future, but once they have identified you as a scalper, you will remain on manual execution.

You will no longer be able to enter/exit trades freely as all your trades are scrutinised by their dealer and requoted and in fast markets always at worst rates. When they let you in a trade, they may not even let you out until your position has turned into a loss due to 'Waiting for Dealer' requote window.
If you trade 8 standard lots, beware.

I had same experience as you with FXCM. I now trade with another broker.
So good to see there are others also being very unhappy awith FXCM. They ( FXCM ) feel nothing for traders. Just look at their website how they boast about their ability to open new accounts each month . ( 4000 new accounts if i am not wrong). Do you think they will tell how many traders are wiped clean every month??
Here is a portion of a chat between myself and fxcm. Note the Elvis story started by them. This person couldn't help me with my problem and started to joke around with me......


You: I have done 116 transactions with them this past month and 118 the previous month
You: I CANNOT do it with fxcm
FXCM€: That is unfortunate
You: Yes it is
You: Tell your seniors to read the different forex forums. Maybe their eyes will open. FXCM is properly the worst of them all.
FXCM€: we are well aware of what posts say, I've also read on some of them that Elvis is still alive
You: Yes make fun of it

One bad broker! That is all i can say.......
Never Ever Give Up!
Glory Days All Time Return: 196.5%
Cobra,

That was a really crappy thing for the guy to say...

I do have to ask exactly what your issue was...why couldn't you do 118 transactions with them? Was it because of the manual execution thing which means that you COULD have done 118 transactions but your trades wouldn't have entered at the exact levels?

Honestly, I don't see why ANY broker would disallow you from making 118 transactions because it generates revenue for them. I think what you're really saying is that you can't make 118 trades without slippage, right?

Here's my take on why brokers dislike scalpers. Scalpers tend to trade in sub-standard lots (not all, but some). When I sub-standard, I mean < 100K units. Because of this, they either have to hope that multiple clients get in at the same time OR they have to extend you the "credit" to combine your orders with their money and HOPE that you do well enough for them not to eat it. Their only option in that case is to trade directly against you as a hedge.

In case you didn't know, and it sounds like a lot of you didn't really know...to trade with banks (the end-game in this case), you absolutely HAVE to trade 100K lots or more. Banks don't offer anything less without a super huge spread. Therefore, mini-accounts actually are in violation of this. Because of this, brokers and market makers (in this case FXCM) have to either provide you with 1000:1 leverage (internally), thus making your lot a standard, or find a way to pool your lots together. Most of the time, there is enough volume at a particular level so that pooling lots together with multiple clients occurs with decent regularity. However, in the event that they can't pool instantaneously, they have an option to either extend you that credit and hedge or put you on manual execution until multiple orders can be placed.

In MOST cases, people are using market orders which eliminates a good chunk of the problem for brokers because they can be combined with stops to make a standard or super-standard lot. But as you can probably guess that unless there are a lot of clients with a particular market maker, immediate pooling may not necessarily be an option.

Unfortunately, the alternative (not having standard lots) doesn't get you a lot of revenue, and you lose the "insight" generated by stop placement. Brokers would much rather have the stop-placement data because they can tell EXACTLY where support and resistance are without having to watch charts and in some case manipulate the market just enough to touch/trade bottoms and tops.

I'm not saying this is in any way fair, but if you KNOW this information you may be able to use it to your advantage.
Trading is a zero sum game - there's always someone on the other side of your trade. Being on the right side of the market when it's moving is the way traders make profit. If it were true that brokers take the other side of a client's trade, then they would be net zero anyway because there will always be longs and shorts out there . Worrying about what a broker does or doesn't do is self defeating. If your system is good, it should jump over a lot of nonsense that goes on in the market.
If your broker is crappy why on earth does anyone stay with them, it's not like there's a shortage of forex brokers in the world!

If their business model is built on working exactly like that the last thing they're gonna do is change it.

Get better broker take profits enjoy life.
Quoting mrmikal
Cobra,

That was a really crappy thing for the guy to say...

I do have to ask exactly what your issue was...why couldn't you do 118 transactions with them? Was it because of the manual execution thing which means that you COULD have done 118 transactions but your trades wouldn't have entered at the exact levels?

Honestly, I don't see why ANY broker would disallow you from making 118 transactions because it generates revenue for them. I think what you're really saying is that you can't make 118 trades without slippage, right?

Here's my take on why brokers dislike scalpers. Scalpers tend to trade in sub-standard lots (not all, but some). When I sub-standard, I mean < 100K units. Because of this, they either have to hope that multiple clients get in at the same time OR they have to extend you the "credit" to combine your orders with their money and HOPE that you do well enough for them not to eat it. Their only option in that case is to trade directly against you as a hedge.

In case you didn't know, and it sounds like a lot of you didn't really know...to trade with banks (the end-game in this case), you absolutely HAVE to trade 100K lots or more. Banks don't offer anything less without a super huge spread. Therefore, mini-accounts actually are in violation of this. Because of this, brokers and market makers (in this case FXCM) have to either provide you with 1000:1 leverage (internally), thus making your lot a standard, or find a way to pool your lots together. Most of the time, there is enough volume at a particular level so that pooling lots together with multiple clients occurs with decent regularity. However, in the event that they can't pool instantaneously, they have an option to either extend you that credit and hedge or put you on manual execution until multiple orders can be placed.

In MOST cases, people are using market orders which eliminates a good chunk of the problem for brokers because they can be combined with stops to make a standard or super-standard lot. But as you can probably guess that unless there are a lot of clients with a particular market maker, immediate pooling may not necessarily be an option.

Unfortunately, the alternative (not having standard lots) doesn't get you a lot of revenue, and you lose the "insight" generated by stop placement. Brokers would much rather have the stop-placement data because they can tell EXACTLY where support and resistance are without having to watch charts and in some case manipulate the market just enough to touch/trade bottoms and tops.

I'm not saying this is in any way fair, but if you KNOW this information you may be able to use it to your advantage.
mrmikal

First of all i do not trade with stoplosses. I do not belief in that. Now if there is one thing that really upsets brokers then it must be the fact that more and more traders are not trading with visible stoplosses! They also hate scalpers. I also trade with low leverage so that i can do what i was taught never to do, and that is to add to a loosing position. My strategy is to trade long and short on the same currency at all times. This means that i have lots of open positions at any given time. I can not reveal my whole strategy ( i hope you will understand ... ), but as soon as one starts making good profits you run into difficulties with your broker. It is just a fact that my style of trading
puts them off. See "poll on manual execution" and the complaints in that thread.

Cobra
Never Ever Give Up!
Glory Days All Time Return: 196.5%
Quoting Cobra
mrmikal

First of all i do not trade with stoplosses. I do not belief in that. Now if there is one thing that really upsets brokers then it must be the fact that more and more traders are not trading with visible stoplosses! They also hate scalpers. I also trade with low leverage so that i can do what i was taught never to do, and that is to add to a loosing position. My strategy is to trade long and short on the same currency at all times. This means that i have lots of open positions at any given time. I can not reveal my whole strategy ( i hope you will understand ... ), but as soon as one starts making good profits you run into difficulties with your broker. It is just a fact that my style of trading
puts them off. See "poll on manual execution" and the complaints in that thread.

Cobra
I'm with you on the stop-loss thing. It's not so much that I don't believe in them, I just don't place them on the server...I usually have the price alert me within 10 pips or so and that usually gives me enough time to quickly end the trade at my predetermined stop. During news times or accidental high volatility, I either avoid trading (90% of the time) or I live with the slippage.

I don't really care to know the details of your system...I'm sure if it's worth trading, it's probably worth hiding.

Obviously people like to drink different things (per a post on this thread)...I'm not for (or against) FXCM, I'm just one to avoid putting myself in any position that allows the broker to actually damage my trading (ie going with a broker that actually puts you on my manual execution - or trading in a style that lends itself to being hurt greatly by manual execution). For my system, a slippage of 10 pips or so isn't going to hurt the overall expactancy too much. I suspect yours probably does which means that you need to adapt to the market a lot quicker than I have to. That also means that you need to have the proper tools in order to do that, and manual execution would be a great hinderence.
i am not affiliated with any broker...just a little guy having some success at trading forex!

I have been stopped out by 1 pip. no problem.

i have had losing streaks. no problem.

i have tried to get in an order, and got the message, "waiting for order desk".

market moved in my favor, but wasn't in the trade until much later. called FXCM, and kindly asked their auditing dept to review things. they later called back and re-imbursed me 45 pips! they have a record of what you clicked and when. no problem. I'm just a little guy learning to trade well and these guys have been helpful.

btw...prices may be different at various brokers, but this will usually piss off retail scalpers trying to gain 5 or 10 pips. i'm just a newbie, but i believe i am qualified to say you can't win this game trying to target 5 or 10 pips! this is from personal experience 6 mo ago...great learning experience!

dice

may all your stop outs be at b/e!
I believe Merlin's been pretty well on target throughout this thread, and here's why;

If FXCM's business model is dependent upon attracting and churning through 4,000 new accounts (and soon-to-be-losers) every month, they're putting on one of the most costly and elaborate frauds you've ever seen.

I've never bought any of their training materials, such as their Power Course, but I know people who have. They get a lot of follow-up attention from some sharp FXCM reps - who have nothing else to sell - long after the training ended. It's an impressive act if it's just a big fraud.

I use FXCM along with a couple of other brokers and, as Merlin stated, they ALL have different strengths and weaknesses. But I've found FXCM's overall level of quality to be undeniable. And the folks that I know have had similar experiences.

Now I DO wish that their trading platform had a little more flexibility built into it. But that's my biggest complaint.

We get the distinct impression that FXCM would like to have us around for the long-haul, because they go out of their way to create that impression.

Considering the comments from all of the various forums, the bash-FXCM crowd tends to fall into three camps: 1. Newbies and whiners whose own complaints tend to be suspect or lack crediblity; 2. Scalpers who got caught; and 3. The rare high-roller who got too good or too big for FXCM to handle.

Personally, I can't wait to test them on that third point. I promise to let you all know if they ever kick me out. And I'll publish my statements too!

For multiple reasons, I like using multiple brokers. If you don't fall into one of the three categories listed above, FXCM will probably provide you with a fine, qualilty-oriented trading experience.
What is a manual execute I am using FXCM and sometimes it does look weared

MC
Quoting JohnFX
Forget about trying to scalp with FXCM. They'll will put you on "manual" execute.

Yes I agree, they are crooks. That's why it's best to have a true broker without a trading desk.

JohnFX
Quoting brentmack
I believe Merlin's been pretty well on target throughout this thread, and here's why;

If FXCM's business model is dependent upon attracting and churning through 4,000 new accounts (and soon-to-be-losers) every month, they're putting on one of the most costly and elaborate frauds you've ever seen.

I've never bought any of their training materials, such as their Power Course, but I know people who have. They get a lot of follow-up attention from some sharp FXCM reps - who have nothing else to sell - long after the training ended. It's an impressive act if it's just a big fraud.

I use FXCM along with a couple of other brokers and, as Merlin stated, they ALL have different strengths and weaknesses. But I've found FXCM's overall level of quality to be undeniable. And the folks that I know have had similar experiences.

Now I DO wish that their trading platform had a little more flexibility built into it. But that's my biggest complaint.

We get the distinct impression that FXCM would like to have us around for the long-haul, because they go out of their way to create that impression.

Considering the comments from all of the various forums, the bash-FXCM crowd tends to fall into three camps: 1. Newbies and whiners whose own complaints tend to be suspect or lack crediblity; 2. Scalpers who got caught; and 3. The rare high-roller who got too good or too big for FXCM to handle.

Personally, I can't wait to test them on that third point. I promise to let you all know if they ever kick me out. And I'll publish my statements too!

For multiple reasons, I like using multiple brokers. If you don't fall into one of the three categories listed above, FXCM will probably provide you with a fine, qualilty-oriented trading experience.
The name of the game is to make money, why stick with them if you know there is a problem?
I was here, here I was. Was I here? Yes I was!
Quoting SterlingTDR
The name of the game is to make money, why stick with them if you know there is a problem?
There is a difference between knowing there is a problem and thinking there is a problem.

There is a big problem with threads that bash brokers. At some point, we pass the blame off to broker when sometimes (and not all the time) the focus should be on a person's decision to take some sort of action.

In this example, NFP in conjunction with FXCM caused a user to miss out a profit. It's easy to blame FXCM for the entire problem, but the real problem is the choice of the user to trade NFP using a retail broker. Point being, don't trade highly volatile news (and we all agree that NFP is about as volatile as it gets) and expect everything to go smoothly. It has been discussed time and time again why retail brokers can't possibly allow you trade "johnny on the spot" during NFP. Some brokers have less issues than other's sure...but let's face it, if you actually knew how the underlying banks interact with a retail broker or market maker, you'd understand that having FIXED spreads makes it impossible for the "correct" price to ever show during times of high volatility or one sided slides (which happens a lot during NFP). Armed with THAT knowledge, it's easy to make the right decision:

1) don't trade NFP with a retail broker
2) don't trade NFP if you can ONLY trade with a retail broker

While these may not be appealing choices for a lot of people, save yourself the headaches and heed the warning now. You can switch from broker to broker, but more than likely at some point, you'll get hit with a requote and whip yourself into a frenzy about why the broker that you've been using successfully up until that point sucks big donkey butt. You'll probably read many forums and try to get some sort of validation for your thinking when in reality your choice to trade with retail during high volatility was the poor choice.

Obviously this isn't "ideal" but let's face it...if you want to avoid issues during NFP...just don't trade them...
On a positive note. Gain Capital honoured my stop loss yesterday even though price jumped over it, by a LONG shot. Didn't show for a while,but they fixed it a little while later.

Didn't realise it was the 1st Friday. Doh!!
Bundy's status today: "Waiting..."
Traded the NFP at Oanda, eurusd spread 3.5 compared to normal 1.5 pips or even superlow 0.9 pips on the lull before newstime, all went smoothly as usual.

I don't use limit orders because they're useless when the market gaps. If I get the news before a significant market reaction I enter immediately into the direction I perceive as being right. If my news are late and the initial peak happened already, I either fade the initial peak (very risky!) or wait for retractment and enter into direction of the peak, or both.

Sometimes, if I'm feeling sure about the news, I may gamble and open the trade before the news hits, trying to take profit on the immediate reaction. This may work well when there is a strong trend and the expected news would be in the direction of the trend. Unless it's FOMC or NFP which can bend trends, chances are that the trend will continue anyway, so there's no need to take loss should the news hit the wrong way. A contra trend peak can be perceived just as a buying opportunity.
Quoting mrmikal
There is a difference between knowing there is a problem and thinking there is a problem.

There is a big problem with threads that bash brokers. At some point, we pass the blame off to broker when sometimes (and not all the time) the focus should be on a person's decision to take some sort of action.

In this example, NFP in conjunction with FXCM caused a user to miss out a profit. It's easy to blame FXCM for the entire problem, but the real problem is the choice of the user to trade NFP using a retail broker. Point being, don't trade highly volatile news (and we all agree that NFP is about as volatile as it gets) and expect everything to go smoothly. It has been discussed time and time again why retail brokers can't possibly allow you trade "johnny on the spot" during NFP. Some brokers have less issues than other's sure...but let's face it, if you actually knew how the underlying banks interact with a retail broker or market maker, you'd understand that having FIXED spreads makes it impossible for the "correct" price to ever show during times of high volatility or one sided slides (which happens a lot during NFP). Armed with THAT knowledge, it's easy to make the right decision:

1) don't trade NFP with a retail broker
2) don't trade NFP if you can ONLY trade with a retail broker

While these may not be appealing choices for a lot of people, save yourself the headaches and heed the warning now. You can switch from broker to broker, but more than likely at some point, you'll get hit with a requote and whip yourself into a frenzy about why the broker that you've been using successfully up until that point sucks big donkey butt. You'll probably read many forums and try to get some sort of validation for your thinking when in reality your choice to trade with retail during high volatility was the poor choice.

Obviously this isn't "ideal" but let's face it...if you want to avoid issues during NFP...just don't trade them...
You've made some very good points. However, the practices of the broker in question are well documented even by ex-insiders. That said, its hard enough to make money trading without having to play "beat the dealer, (which you can't) why not switch to an ECN or Futures?
The argument could then be tabled; "because you need more money", but it's important to note that if your trying to get started in this game with under $3000, you're undercapitalized. You simply don't have enough cash to see you through the learning curve. While its not true for everyone, for the vast majority of the tiny minority who succeed, it is.
I was here, here I was. Was I here? Yes I was!
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