Best Thread Capital Spreads

Simon, apologies if I didn't clearly phrase my asterisked points as questions but please can you address them as best as possible.

Kind regards

Abob
 
Simon

Quoting you:

'In the end of course a delayed fill (no matter how honestly we try to fill trades) must work slightly in our favour.. I would be a fool to say otherwise..."

You are no fool (!). You must feel like a casino owner, as the edge is stacked slightly (!) in your favour.

How much do you think you increase your take by delaying execution and filtering ? (in percentage terms).

As I said before it is probably not worth your while to change this edge.

The gain must be much higher than the loss of your customers who figure this out.

If you really think that the Internet speed is the issue, though it does not effect your competitors execution times, why not add a cancel button, so the client can choose to cancel the order, if it does not get filled in reasonable time ? Most clients who prefer to work with you in real time not delayed.

Who are Spreading Betting companies regulated by in the UK ?
 
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abob

Trailing Stops
unfortunately this is not in production at the moment..it is not a hugely requested product and we are concentrating on 24hr FX and systems processing at the moment. (plus some other projects)
Statements
downloadable statements are in design and should be available soon
kill or fill
this is unlikely to ever be applied to SB (because we are in effect the market maker) but I would be interested in a more detailed description. Maybe we could add this function to a deal ticket.?
quarterly fixed income
will look at liquidity over the next few days and see whether they are good enough to use.

cooltrader
hah !! wish it was that easy

we just quote prices we dont tell clients what to do or encourage them to trade or give advice in any fashion whatsoever. The odd missed fill may cost a few pips but if a dealer is disiplined that is all.

As an exercise for a magazine I was ask to compare our spreads in Quarterly FTSE 100 shares vs our competitors (IG City Cantors Fins etc fortunately for some reason CMC were not in the survey, not sure if they quote quarterlies). I was pretty shocked when I had finished. in some cases the spreads were over 400% wider than ours. In not one were we even near to being matched (let alone beaten). I was wondering why our share trading had increased in recent months! I was actually tempted to widen our prices!! (just kidding).

spunkoid
as peto has mentioned we have risk parameters above which we hedge every thing and below which we hedge nothing. This avoids the problems of overtrading on our dealing desk.

Simon
 
microsoft

Spread Betting is probably the most regulated trading market in the world. The FSA hover over our shoulder at every point..

You are wrong in your contention that we are not looking to upgrade our trading platform .. we are working on it every day ... in reality we have far more compliments on our platform than complaints (far more) .. occasionally (very occasionally) a deal is rejected but as one of the commentators on the thread mentioned clients also get fills when the market has moved in their direction as well. We fill trades so long as the traded price is within the current spread on our live hedge platform. so if Cable is at 1.7235-38 and a client has sold at 37 (and even 38 sometimes) he should usually get the fill (not always of course but usually).

Good trading

Simon
 
To bury this issue about not getting fills, you should sort out the execution speeds, as a priority, then the issue would go away, as a higher percentage of trades woulfd still be in the spread.

I don't think you can lay any blame on the Internet, when as Microsoft says, it does not seem to be an issue with your competitors, at least not the ones I also have an account with (CMC, Finspreads) or indeed AC Markets, Oanda or IB. I know the later 3 are not SB's though the technology must be identical.

CMC is more or less WYSIWYG. There are very few requotes. Please let us know when there is an improvement in the reduction of 'Price Expired" tickets.

Spread
 
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Thanks Simon, look fwd to being able to download complete statements and 24hr FX.

I've always thought trailing stops would be easy to implement? Anyway, perhaps one day, when you have more resource, you can look in to this. Bear in mind that even if most of your clients wouldn't use this function, the people who would appreciate it and use it would likely be the frequent traders that give you the bulk of your turnover (just a guess). Also, by adding function you gain a smart edge over the competition.

Keep up the good work and thanks again participating in this public forum and not evading questions!

: )
 
Just realised I had one last question:

earlier you said:

"We try to get the trades and orders away as fast as possible but (and its a big but) there is a small delay on confirms. We try to be reasonable about it and my instructions to the dealers is to allow trades through so long as the trade is not too out of line. "

is it possible to clarify was it 'too out of line', does it relate to size or filling away from the current spot, or both? if it relates to size is there a particular size in FX I should be aware of that may reduce the probability of my order going through, or are all orders - £150 a point and £1 a point - treated equally?
 
microsoft said:
Simon
...
If you really think that the Internet speed is the issue, though it does not effect your competitors execution times, why not add a cancel button, so the client can choose to cancel the order, if it does not get filled in reasonable time ? Most clients who prefer to work with you in real time not delayed.
...

I would definitely like to see that!
 
Post #1771

Simon says:

"I would generally say that longer than 25 secs is too long but under that is (just about) acceptable."

I don't think many professionals / experienced traders would agree with that. More likely they would run with shock horror.
 
capitalspreads said:
abob



As an exercise for a magazine I was ask to compare our spreads in Quarterly FTSE 100 shares vs our competitors (IG City Cantors Fins etc fortunately for some reason CMC were not in the survey, not sure if they quote quarterlies). I was pretty shocked when I had finished. in some cases the spreads were over 400% wider than ours. In not one were we even near to being matched (let alone beaten). I was wondering why our share trading had increased in recent months! I was actually tempted to widen our prices!! (just kidding).



Simon


I use yourself, Finspreads, IG and CMC.

To clarify - I agree that your spreads are less than IG and Fins, though generally by around 0.2% on quarterlies. However, If like me you deal with wide stops, the effect of the lost interest" on the margin tied up with CS significantly negates this - compared to a credit account with the others.

CMC do deal in quarterlies - near quarter only - though they roll without charge, unlike the others and yourself(?).

Unlike yourself, Fins and IG, CMC don't offer a fixed % spread - they alter their spreads depending on their order-book, as they are a market maker. Other SB firms add a fixed % on top of market spread, though as (almost) market-makers themselves it's not clear why the market spread always need apply.

As such, the tightest spreads (by far) are potentially with CMC on quarterlies - with the caveat that this spread isn't guaranteed - they can widen there own spreads based on their level of business. I have dealt with them at the same spread as the market, though I've rejected deals where there spread wasn't competitive. Also, they charge 5% margin which isn't effected by your stop position - which gives them another advantage over you (for me) on Quarterlies.

All the above is from my experience only,

I maintain a spreadsheet of the costs for my own benefit - I will share with anyone interested.

Cheers,
UTB
 
What a wonderfull business to be in............Spread Betting.

A nice delay on execution, which the vast majority do not understand the significance of, then very calmly accept only trades which are at entry price or in the houses favour. Skim the rest.

The odds shift dramatically in the houses favour.

Why not change the name to "The Golden Nugget" or "Belaggio" and also offer Black Jack and Craps ?
 
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I agree with Microsoft.

Delaying fills is a deliberate ploy and effectively widens the spread aswell as allowing the House to only take trades that go against the punter.

Either Capital produce fast automated fills or its likely there will be continual bad publicity on here from disgruntled soon to be ex-customers.

JonnyT
 
I have a feeling the shift in edge by this business model and the financial result outways even the loss of those customers who figure out what is going on.

The professional and or experienced client is likely to favour a non SB entry into the market. The worrying thought is the amount of newbies, who favour spread betting, the most of whom would not figure out what is going on regarding this extremely unfair manipulation.

For all his wonderfull PR exercise here, I doubt that Simon, would have any motivation to fix this issue.

=========================================================================
"I would generally say that longer than 25 secs is too long but under that is (just about) acceptable."
=========================================================================

Don't blame it on the piano player...................................or the Internet.
 
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Is it me or has the capitalspreads site become sooo sllloooowww??

time to change provider I guess?
 
microsoft said:
=========================================================================
"I would generally say that longer than 25 secs is too long but under that is (just about) acceptable."
=========================================================================

Don't blame it on the piano player...................................or the Internet.

25 seconds, hmm what can be done in 25 seconds.........

quick jimmy
swift brew
check whats on the telly,
make a sandwich. (and some in that same time, even consume it)
phone a mate, say get stuffed and put the phone down..
leisurely round trip scalp trade or 2 on a decent platform.
:p
etc..
 
karmit said:
Is it me or has the capitalspreads site become sooo sllloooowww??

time to change provider I guess?

I had the same problem today. I just worked with it like that. not very nice
 
fxmarkets said:
25 seconds, hmm what can be done in 25 seconds.........

quick jimmy
swift brew
check whats on the telly,
make a sandwich. (and some in that same time, even consume it)
phone a mate, say get stuffed and put the phone down..
leisurely round trip scalp trade or 2 on a decent platform.
:p
etc..

That is a very long delay. Profit can be lost because of it.
 
OK - what can you do during the 25 seconds ?

Best answer gets to have a few hours chat with Jesse Livermore, who will rise from his grave.

2nd gets a Capital Spreads T Shirt with their "Price Expired" ticket on the front.

If anyone from Capital Spreads wins we will upgrade their dial up connection, as a bonus.

Competition closes after Non Farm Pay Rolls on Friday.
 
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