FXCM to lower spread

Fxcm announced that they would lower the spread on eight pairs for all accounts starting 11/21.
It's about time!

yupz, finally! hope gbp/usd and usd/chf was included in the 3 pip spread..but it was not so

Hehe.
I hope this spurs other brokers to push down their spreads.
Hehe.
Imagine if Oanda can offer 1 pip spread on all 4 majors ahha.

Yeah,it will be very good to trade with 1 pip spread! Anyway,i think it's not possible that brokers offer only 1 pip spread

New Raw Spreads + Commission Pricing Model

Those comments were made two months before I joined FXCM, and now we’ve introduced new pricing where the average EUR/USD spread is only 0.2 pips. A lot has changed over the past 10 years, and we believe the forex industry pricing model is set for another big change.

Please use this thread as a central location to ask any questions about the new pricing model and leave comments, and I will post new information about the roll-out as I get the new information. Here are some commonly asked questions:

1. What spreads can I expect to see? Here's a look at the weighted average spread between July 2 and July 31 of this year for the most popular currency pairs.

http://i.imgur.com/gk8W0tr.jpg

*In some instances, accounts for clients of certain intermediaries are subject to a markup.

These are the average spreads we've seen. While not typical, the spreads can actually go inverted.

2. What is the commission schedule? The commission is $4 per 100k per side for the most commonly traded currency pairs and $6 per 100k for all others.

http://i.imgur.com/fl5bEM6.jpg

Full commission schedule: http://www.fxcm.com/products/forex/forex-pricing/

3. How does the new spread + commission compare to the old pricing? The trading cost has been cut by over 50% for some major currency pairs. Here's an example of the transaction cost for a 100k EUR/USD trade under the old and new pricing model.

http://i.imgur.com/pDAluMb.jpg

This is the pricing now available with our basic account type. If you trade 50 million notional per month or deposit $150,000 you should speak with our private client group regarding custom commission settings and additional services.

4. What's the catch? No catch. We used to include our compensation in the spread as a mark-up. Typically this was a pip on either side of the spread our liquidity providers streamed directly to us. This means if the best raw spread from our liquidity providers was 0.5 pips, you would see a 2.5 pip spread on the platform. We have decided to make our pricing more transparent by removing the mark-up and charge a separate commission. At the same time we have negotiated better spreads from our liquidity providers. You trade on the exact bid/ask quotes that stream from our liquidity providers, and FXCM's compensation is the commission. We believe the new transparent pricing model is a win/win for us and our traders. Traders save on their transaction costs and trading volume will likely increase.


5. When will I see the lower spreads? It depends which FXCM entity you opened your account through. We've received lots of feedback from traders excited to switch over, but the transition is being done region by region 1) to ensure we follow regulatory requirements for due notice to traders which vary by regulator and 2) ensure an orderly transition within our own system so as not to negatively impact our traders. Here's a look at the regions I can discuss so far:

1. United States and France: If your account is with either one of these locations, your account has already been switched to the new pricing.
2. Germany: You can request to upgrade to the new pricing by completing the online form.
3. UK and Australia: Check the website this weekend for new pricing information, and an email later next week with more information on the upgrade.

If your account hasn't been updated yet, you can register for a demo to see the new pricing: www.fxcm.com/fdemo

Let me know if you have any questions, and stay tuned for more information.

So, there are things that didn't change much in 1 yrs, obviously.
FXCM's old pricing was expensive then, and FXCM's new pricing also will be expensive now, comparing to some other brokers...

Will these spread reductions also happen for Active Trader accounts?

Yes Adal, and in addition to our new pricing, these clients benefit from access to a wide range of relationship managers, service specialists, forex instructors and market analysts on our dedicated service team for Active Trader account holders: http://www.fxcm.com/services/active-...0000000MusRAAS

FXCM clients who trade 50 million notional per month or deposit $150,000 have access to additional services and custom commission settings offered by our Private Client Group. For more information on this, you can email [email protected] or call 1-646-432-2970.

which brokers are cheaper? I have been trading on their new spreads for a few days now. Euro/USD is 0.0, 0.1, 0.2 I even saw negative spreads. I haven't seen that at any other broker.

not the spread the the key itself, but try to factor in the round trip commission 8 or 12$...do your math! I wont write names, not into advertising.

Open your eyes and you will find cheaper brokers!

If you trade xxx Lots or more per month you can ask your broker to get cheaper conditions.

While inverted spreads are not typical, they can definitely occur and are tradeable. An inversion occurs when the bid price is higher than the ask price. If you watch the spreads widget on our website you can see them occur every now and then as shown in this screenshot:

http://i.imgur.com/guHIuD9.jpg

The spreads widget only updates every couple of seconds. A better way to see exactly how often inversions are occurring is by looking at a tick chart. I circled in green each instance of an inversion on the tick chart during this roughly 90 second period. The blue line is the bid and the red line is the ask.

http://i.imgur.com/tF9V14C.jpg

The pricing you see on NDD forex execution is the direct raw pricing being streamed from 10+ liquidity providers. The spread you pay is the cost paid to the liquidity provider and the commission is FXCM's compensation.

Is the 50 mil requirement round-trip?

If I open a 1 mil trade and then close it, is that counted as 1 mil or as 2 mil in regards to the above volume requirement?

has promised to reduce the spread,,, but to increase the Slipp LOL ))
and delays in mt4 !!

excellent advertising tactic for him !!!
you do not have tools to measure Slipp and the time delay
multiplication gains for him

Mate :
the brokers mm ,will always be mm brokers

Maybe you don't. I do.

I have accounts at FXCM, LMAX and Dukascopy and collect live ticks through APIs. So it's very easy to compare market data and executions for me.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...ick_news_1.png

do not see them so '
but in the second when they fall off /disconnect the server
to make slip and delay

http://gyazo.com/91c54def0a9bc8a0a6ec2ebd1e2b002e

you see the time broker stopped , blocked

To the best of my knowledge the Private Client Group counts the round turn volume (opening and closing). That said, if you would like to discuss specifics with our Private Client Group specialists, you can contact them directly at [email protected].

Raw Pricing and Limit Orders

Have you ever had a trade just miss a limit price by a mere fraction of a pip only to then see the market turn against you and result in a loss? Removing the commission mark-up from the spread on our new pricing model means that the market price has to move a shorter distance in your favor to hit your limit since the spread is not increased as a result of the pip mark-up.

Let me show you an actual example from a EUR/JPY trade yesterday. The trade was a long position with a limit order set at the price 137.94. On the new raw spread + commission model, the high of the day ended up being 137.94 and the limit order executed.

http://i.imgur.com/4nzyFY6.jpg

What would have happened if the same trade would have been placed on the old pricing model? Below is a screenshot of the chart on the old price model. Remember that the limit price was 137.94

http://i.imgur.com/IeWqDLL.jpg

The high during the same period was 137.929 due to the pip mark-up added to the spread from the liquidity providers. The pip mark-up expands the spread meaning that the market has to move by the additional pip mark-up amount in order for the limit price to be reached. The limit order would not have executed on the old price model.

Having raw pricing makes a big difference when every pip counts and another advantage of the new price model we're rolling out.

With FXCM, slippage can be either positive or negative. Positive slippage is when an order gets filled at a better price that originally requested. Negative slippage is when an order gets filled at a worse price. Positive slippage is more common with limit orders, while negative slippage is more common with stop orders. That's due to the momentum of price movement when such order types are triggered.

It's worth noting that the Market Range feature on our Trading Station platform and the Enhanced* Maximum Deviation feature on our MT4 platform allow FXCM clients to limit the amount of negative slippage they receive, while still enjoying the full benefits of any positive slippage that's available: http://www.fxcm.com/products/trading...0000000MusRAAS

Furthermore, in accordance with NFA Compliance Rule 2-36 regarding price slippage, FXCM LLC (aka FXCM US) provides daily trade reports to the NFA which monitors and supervises FXCM LLC's activity including information on the price where all client orders are filled and the corresponding price where those orders are offset with our liquidity providers.

All of FXCM's global trading entities including FXCM UK and FXCM Australia execute client rolling spot forex transactions as a riskless principal with FXCM LLC, so the same execution standards are applied for all of our clients worldwide. Below are the data from a total of 43,128,901 trades executed through FXCM over a six month period from August 2013 to January 2014.

1. 73% of all orders had no slippage.
2. 15% of all orders received positive slippage.
3. 12% of all orders received negative slippage.
4. Over 60% of all limit and limit entry orders received positive slippage.
5. 53.32% of all stop and stop entry orders received negative slippage.

In those 6 months alone, FXCM clients benefited from over $15 million in positive slippage: http://www.fxcm.com/advantages/forex...0000000MusRAAS

FXCM offers traders No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution where 10+ liquidity providers compete with each other for the order flow of our clients. That means the sell and buy prices our clients see on their platforms are the best bid and best ask prices being quoted on the NDD feed. Each client order is offset one-for-one with the liquidity providers. That means, FXCM is not making the market, nor do we take the market risk on the other side of clients trades. Therefore, FXCM does not profit from client losses, or lose from client profits on our NDD model.

Lastly, FXCM does not make money from our new FX spreads. Instead, we make our money from the commissions. This transparent pricing model means there are no hidden fees.


* On MT4 platforms with some brokers, the Max Dev feature is unavailable, or if it is available, then it will limit both your negative slippage and your positive slippage equally. By contrast, FXCM enhanced how Max Dev works on our MT4 platform allowing you to limit your negative slippage while still enjoying the full benefits of any positive slippage.

I just wanted to talk about positive slippage. I bought the CAD news on a pending order below, it extended farther than expected so I tightened by target up to 6.5 pips. It snapped back to my target and through - I was filled at 19.6 pips beyond my target. Yes, live account.