A question about Forex Arcades

[tommog]

Hi,

I am a successful Spot Forex trader trading from home.
But to be honest i really miss the buzz of an office, having people to interact with/ a divide between home and work etc
Nearly every trading arcade trades futures it seems, I have looked into futures and it just doesnt compare to the spot market. I suppose we all carve out a niche for ourselves and mine is spot forex and just doesnt make sense to start trading a new product that i may not be successful in just to get out of the house.
I was wondering if anyone knows of trading arcades that allow you to trade currencies, either on your own funds or the firms for a profit split?

Thanks

Tom

 

[Directional]

have you not looked at currency futures? tighter spread and cheaper to trade than spot, especially with pro commissions

 

[Parky]

Hi,

I am a successful Spot Forex trader trading from home.
But to be honest i really miss the buzz of an office, having people to interact with/ a divide between home and work etc
Nearly every trading arcade trades futures it seems, I have looked into futures and it just doesnt compare to the spot market. I suppose we all carve out a niche for ourselves and mine is spot forex and just doesnt make sense to start trading a new product that i may not be successful in just to get out of the house.
I was wondering if anyone knows of trading arcades that allow you to trade currencies, either on your own funds or the firms for a profit split?

Thanks

Tom

Tom,
The answer is yes but it will depend on the front end trading system you want to use. I know of an arcade trading spot forex using the Saxo Bank trading system. If thats of any interest then let me know and I will give you the details.

 

[tommog]

thanks Arbitrageur,

I have looked into it, i trade eurodollar and currently have 1-1.5 point spread (with no commission on top of that). This combined with 24 hour liquidity and none of the risks involved with gapping up/down, I am hesitant to leave, i feel i have it pretty sweet at the moment, however that isnt to say i wouldnt reconsider if that is the only way one can trade from an arcade.

Tom

 

[tommog]

Hi Parky,

If you could PM me when you get a moment with the details i would be interested in looking over them,

many thanks,

Tom

 

[dwaddell]

tommog,

who are you using to get 1-1.5 point spread?

Dave

 

[tommog]

Hi dwaddell,

Im with Oanda

Tom

 

[dwaddell]

Thanks,

Maybe I'm getting something wrong here, and apologies for asking what may be a dum question, brokers like fxtrade, cmsforex etc offer spreads of 3-4 pips on EUR/USD, how can OANDA offer 1.5 to 2.0?

 

[tommog]

Hi dwaddell,

You're opening up a can of worms there ;-), the interbank market (the real market) is typically 1 pip spread on most majors. When you trade with cmc, FXCM etc you aren't really trading the "real" market, the broker quotes you a price derived from the interbank market and adds their extra few pips spread so they make money from your trades, their fee, (that isn't to mention some brokers will also make money from your losses, i dont have evidence for that but it wouldnt suprise me).

The interbank market is made up of mutiple quotes and a good broker will take prices from various dealers, i.e the bid from one dealer offer from another and this way they can ensure spreads are consistently tight. Although when liquidity drops spreads do widen at oanda but this is only on the weekends and straight after major news such as NFP when most traders wouldnt dream of trading anyway.

Although with oanda you arent trading straight into the market as is the case with cmc etc oanda execute your orders in the interbank market on your behalf, so you basically pay interbank quotes from a retail broker.

Tom

 

[JonnyT]

IB do 1-2 pips on EUR/USD aswell

JonnyT

 

[dwaddell]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for that explanation, I've been reviewing the OANDA website and it all seems very impressive for a relative newcomer to FX like myself.

I've been paper trading and small stakes trading EURUSD for the past 3 months now and am ready to move into it further. Small stakes has been Capital Spreads spread bets to date, but I would like to move to a platform that offers greater flexibility, better spreads and increased trading hours.

I had been using the demo accounts with FXCM and CMS and found them excellent, then seen your post relating to lower spreads.

Would I, in your opinion, be losing anything by using OANDA over CMS/CS/FXCM...

Cheers,

Dave.

 

[tommog]

FXCM has a great squawk box giving you up to date market commentry, but apart from that oanda beats the rest of them hands down. Just get a demo with FXCM, or a small account and use their news feed but trade with oanda

tom

 

[dwaddell]

Thanks again Tom.

David

 

[dwaddell]

Sorry, one question after looking at their FXGame platform...can I not have a 4hour chart?!?!?!

Does the Live version offer other timeframes...

dave

 

[tommog]

No but it has a 3hr, but i recommened downloading metatrader for your charting needs, far more detailed than most brokers supply and its free,

tom

 

[dwaddell]

Hi,

So run Metacharts with a demo account through them for purely charting and carry out the trades through OANDA...I assume the prices are near as near can be.

I'd prefer a provider who could give you it all in one nice package, the spread, the charts and the flexibile times, but then, you cannot have everything I suppose!

Dave

 

[martin brown]

have you not looked at currency futures? tighter spread and cheaper to trade than spot, especially with pro commissions

Arbitrageur,

how much are "pro" commissions (re: currency futures) at an arcade?

thanks in advance.

 

[Directional]

CME currency futures were from 0.68c a side for low volume down to 0.55c a side if you were doing 40,000+ lots when I was at Refco/marex, might be different now.

 

[martin brown]

CME currency futures were from 0.68c a side for low volume down to 0.55c a side if you were doing 40,000+ lots when I was at Refco/marex, might be different now.

really?

i guess these figures posted by rog1111 have improved alot.

---------------------------------

CME Currency Futures

lots rate per lot in USD
0 10,000 2.05
10,001 40,000 2.00
40,001 90,000 1.95
90,000 0 1.90

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=9166

 

[Directional]

yep, those rates are from back in 2004. Refco rates were always pretty tight, but most arcades comm rates came down drastically earlier in 2005 when the TCA was first launched at Fortis.

The Refco comm scale i'm looking at includes exchange, globex and NFA fees at $0.46 a side, and then the arcade clearing fee ranges from 0.22c down to 0.09c a side on top, depending on volume.