Best Thread CMC Markets owner answers your questions

[gle101]

I think he is doing quite well. He shares a lot of information, and this makes me believe CMC is finally opening up. A little bit of fighting on this thread is OK, as long as one stay away from insulting people and using a bad language. Quite an interesting thread I must say.

 

[x4x]

I think he is doing quite well. He shares a lot of information, and this makes me believe CMC is finally opening up. A little bit of fighting on this thread is OK, as long as one stay away from insulting people and using a bad language. Quite an interesting thread I must say.

I was trying to be helpful and felt my reply was met with sarcasm - either way let's hope they are improving, I'm very happy with IG but would still like an alternative as they don't like scalpers, of which I am one, occasionally.

 

[gle101]

I was trying to be helpful and felt my reply was met with sarcasm - either way let's hope they are improving, I'm very happy with IG but would still like an alternative as they don't like scalpers, of which I am one, occasionally.

Yes I understand, but I feel he is starting to reflect more on the posts we are throwing at him. I come to think about Simon from Capitalspreads, he endured hardship on this forum for many years with very bad language, he sure had a lot of guts for staying on. Suddenly about a year ago, things started to improve dramatically on this forum. The moderator have really done a great job on improving the overall discussion climate I would say.

 

[6am]

Here is an important question.
Let the instument minimum bet size be 1 pound per point.
I am going to place a trade, but think that 1 pound per point is too low and 2 pounds per point is too much. I would like to place a trade at 1.6180339887 pounds per point (Fibonacci fans should be familiar with this number ).
- Is it possible to place a trade at 1.6180339887 pounds per point?
- If not is it possible to place a trade at 1.62 pounds per point (i.e. 1 pound and 62 pence per point)?
- Is it possible to place a bet with a fractional bet size?
- If not why not?

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Was good question.

Thanks, a good answer.

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

hi 6am
just trying to make life easier for everybody. There is nothing to be gained in letting clients go over drawn, losing all their money and more and then chasing them for money. it does no body any good. whatever we can do to help clients trade through margin stop losses, charts, education, 24 hour service we will do.

thanks peter

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your clarification. I think that ability to have margin stop losses is a good thing. I am glad that you mentioned that this feature also helps you to protect yourself from chasing clients for money.

IGIndex shows the margin required, but trader must calculate the stop himself (which is quite easy to do, divide margin by bet size).

Regards,

6am

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

hi x4x
sorry if I came across annoyed. I have had busy day all round and probably just fired off quick response. if you follow my 50 pages of blogs you will see I am not here to do battle and trying to answer questions as quickly and honestly as I can. I appreciate you taking the time to blog.
tks peter

I'm getting the feeling you are becoming quite irritated by our questions and comments - I'm really not here to do battle with you and your reply didn't warrant the sarcasm. If I was mistaken by Geko offering the same type of auto stops as you it was genuine - not written to wind you up. I've never used auto stops or margin stops and never would - IMHO stops should be placed at logical price points, not based on margin.

I tried CMC some years ago and didn't like the platform at all - I thought I would consider having another go with your company - despite CMC having the worst reputation around (perhaps along with FXCM) - if you've come here to do battle with people it won't help your cause.

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

hI gle101
blimey that is compliment coming from you because you have been very tough and asked some really important and tough questions. really appreciate your comments bad as well as good.
you are right. I have no hidden agenda. I work really hard on this blog. Yes I am a bit quick some times but this is not the only thing I do all day so have to really push it into my schedule but I really enjoy it honestly.
it is good for me to stay in touch with what is going on in outside world. I want to see what is out there and this is one of the best ways to do it.
thanks have a good weekend.
peter

cheers have good weekend.

I think he is doing quite well. He shares a lot of information, and this makes me believe CMC is finally opening up. A little bit of fighting on this thread is OK, as long as one stay away from insulting people and using a bad language. Quite an interesting thread I must say.

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

hi 4x4 give us a try and let me know what you think. you can even start with demo system.
no sarcasm intended and thanks for blogging.

cheers pc

I was trying to be helpful and felt my reply was met with sarcasm - either way let's hope they are improving, I'm very happy with IG but would still like an alternative as they don't like scalpers, of which I am one, occasionally.

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

hi 6am
not idea what you are going on about.
you can trade £1 per point, it is fractional pricing. just look at the enlarged figure to trade on and accept the extra fractions as a good thing overall.

It is Friday, I am tired, my team lost to Ipswich and there are too many numbers in your blog, it is giving me headache. lets finish the week on nice simple question please

thanks pc

Here is an important question.
Let the instument minimum bet size be 1 pound per point.
I am going to place a trade, but think that 1 pound per point is too low and 2 pounds per point is too much. I would like to place a trade at 1.6180339887 pounds per point (Fibonacci fans should be familiar with this number ).
- Is it possible to place a trade at 1.6180339887 pounds per point?
- If not is it possible to place a trade at 1.62 pounds per point (i.e. 1 pound and 62 pence per point)?
- Is it possible to place a bet with a fractional bet size?
- If not why not?

 

[6am]

hi 6am
not idea what you are going on about.
you can trade £1 per point, it is fractional pricing.

I know you support fractional pricing, but do you support fractional bet size?
I can bet at £1 per point, or £2 per point, but can I bet at £1.62 per point for example?

I.e bet £1.62 on gold to rise and if the price rises 20 points I made (£1.62 x 20) = £32.4

P.S. Sorry about your headache I do not mind if you answer later

 

[Ross Spur]

There are far more important things to worry about than margin stops. SBs should just automatically liquidate positions as necessary when an account reaches zero. If a market gaps, theoretically leaving a client owing them money, that's just tough luck.

 

[x4x]

hi 4x4 give us a try and let me know what you think. you can even start with demo system.
no sarcasm intended and thanks for blogging.

cheers pc

Cheers, I will have a look at your demo.

 

[gle101]

hI gle101
blimey that is compliment coming from you because you have been very tough and asked some really important and tough questions. really appreciate your comments bad as well as good.
you are right. I have no hidden agenda. I work really hard on this blog. Yes I am a bit quick some times but this is not the only thing I do all day so have to really push it into my schedule but I really enjoy it honestly.
it is good for me to stay in touch with what is going on in outside world. I want to see what is out there and this is one of the best ways to do it.
thanks have a good weekend.
peter

cheers have good weekend.

Thanks a lot. Honestly, you are doing quite well and I enjoy very much reading your posts, keep it up.

 

[XEC10]

I use CMC for trading US stocks and I use the Marketmaker platform.

I find that the CMC charts are lacking information that I need, namely:

$TICK
NYSE composite index
Volume
Volume at Price

I prefer to use bar charts rather than candles, but on Marketmaker the bars are too thin and need to be made thicker to be more visible. As a result I use candles on charts when using Marketmaker.

Also the option to display mid price on a chart seems to result in displaying the offer price, at least for US stocks. Why can't the mid price be displayed?

Is it possible to provide these features please.

Because these features are not available from CMC I use FreeStockCharts on another monitor alongside Marketmaker, unfortunately though $TICK and NYSE composite index are delayed.

 

[jesteruk]

Hi again Peter

Thank you for the reply the other day. Been playing around with the demo account and really enjoying it. I have one more question. Is there anywhere I can view the contract specifications for individual instruments? What I'm really looking for is what price movement your betting on. For example on Gold if you bet £1 per point it means per full dollar move not per cent move. But if you place a £1 bet on White Sugar it is per penny move.
Is there a quick way of telling this before placing a trade? I can't seem to find this information in the details panel for each instrument

Thanks for your time

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi Jesteruk

Couple of points here.
Firstly you always trade on the enlarged figure within the quote. This is the easy and quick way to see what price you are betting on.
if you look at the demo price you will see one number bigger than the others. this may not be the last number but for example gold might be
1382.25 the 2 after the 8 will be the enlarged number so you will be trading bucks for £1 it is just that we give you fractions of the dollar price to make it more accurate and more beneficial to you especially when it comes to stops etc. so if you bet to buy £1 at 1382.25 you need the price to go to 1383.25 to make £1. if it goes to 1383.00 you make 0.75p


For product information always look for the chevron button within price windows or charts etc this gives you lots of information easily to find.

The fractional pricing does take a little bit of time to get used to but it is not there for our benefit it is there for your benefit. we want to give a more accurate price to our clients. Normally the under line market has fractional pricing, in the past spread bet firms have not passed this on. Thery have rounded the price up and down. we are not doing that we are giving a more transparent pricing picture.

once you get your head around it you will never go back to the old way of pricing.

thanks Peter
ps see even top dogs work on a Sunday.

Hi again Peter

Thank you for the reply the other day. Been playing around with the demo account and really enjoying it. I have one more question. Is there anywhere I can view the contract specifications for individual instruments? What I'm really looking for is what price movement your betting on. For example on Gold if you bet £1 per point it means per full dollar move not per cent move. But if you place a £1 bet on White Sugar it is per penny move.
Is there a quick way of telling this before placing a trade? I can't seem to find this information in the details panel for each instrument

Thanks for your time

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Hi Xec10

Welcome to this site, I see you are a newbie. Thanks for taking the time to blog.
We are not going to upgrade market maker charts because all of our time effort and energy is going into Next generation technology and we will be releasing more and more upgrades to this. Firstly can I ask you to open demo account on spread bet system on www.cmcmarkets.co.uk. all you need to do is give email address and password. Then please check the next gen charting on our demo platform and let me know what you think. If this is improvement or not.
There are still some improvements coming for next gen charting but would be interested to see if you find next gen charting better for you

thanks peter

I use CMC for trading US stocks and I use the Marketmaker platform.

I find that the CMC charts are lacking information that I need, namely:

$TICK
NYSE composite index
Volume
Volume at Price

I prefer to use bar charts rather than candles, but on Marketmaker the bars are too thin and need to be made thicker to be more visible. As a result I use candles on charts when using Marketmaker.

Also the option to display mid price on a chart seems to result in displaying the offer price, at least for US stocks. Why can't the mid price be displayed?

Is it possible to provide these features please.

Because these features are not available from CMC I use FreeStockCharts on another monitor alongside Marketmaker, unfortunately though $TICK and NYSE composite index are delayed.

 

[jesteruk]

Hi Peter. thank you for the quick reply! do you ever switch off?

That really clarifies things. I trade shares conventionally on a medium term basis but cannot go short. Quite interested in spread betting but its a bit hard to get used to using it instead of the real market. With a conventional bookie on sports etc.. they simply will not let you win on the long term if you really found a way to beet them. Can you assure me that no matter how much money you make from spread betting you won't limit or close accounts? I know you hedge your risk so it should not be a problem but I have never met anyone who makes serious money from spread betting. Do you really have people on your books who clearly use it instead of trading the real market and consistently make large sums of money from you?

Also what sort of security do you have on deposits in your accounts? Are they insured or covered by the FSA £50000 rebate like bank accounts? In the case of CMC running into trouble are clients funds completely separate and untouchable by administrators?

Again thanks for your time in answering my questions

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Thanks very much appreciated.
but dont go soft on me need your good questions and pressurised questions. it is good for me, good for CMC Markets and good for the industry.

I believe it is about time that the spread bet industry stood up to be counted. I am truly sick and tired of stupid promotions, head line spreads. I believe spread betting to be the ultimate way to trade the financial markets. Why?
Because NOW you can execute trades on precision pricing, real time across most asset classes.
there is no cgt
there is no stamp duty.
you can trade fractions of a contract, eg £1 per point on FTSE when under line futures contract is approx. £58 per tick.
you can go long and short.
you receive dividends and corporate actions on share bets.
So much to offer and yet the financial spread bet industry has been borne out of a book making mentaility when it should have been borne of our a dealing mentality.
if you look now most major UK banks offer financial spread betting. The industry is changing and I want spread betting to be perceived as a strong financial product and the ultimate way to trade financial markets. To do that bets have to be executed as a financial product. I believe next gen does that with no fill or kill, precision pricing, price is good for an amount, no requotes, no ticket time out and no dealer referrals. I am ex trader from a bank and that is my mentality. quote the price, let the client trade and hedge the flows. That is what next gen does.

The journey has begun.
tks pc

Thanks a lot. Honestly, you are doing quite well and I enjoy very much reading your posts, keep it up.