Best Thread CMC Markets owner answers your questions

[tar]

Depends what you mean by 'reasonable'. Trading the future, you can also effectively get zero spread with buy/sell at bid/ask, and the commission can be less than half a point on YM.
I reckon SBs can offer 1pt spread partly because the client has to buy or sell at the quoted 'house' price, and has no option to back out, partly because the majority will lose, anyway, whether the spread is 5pt or 0pt.

The commission is more than 3 $ RT which is 0.6 of a point , also buying YM at the bid and selling at the Ask , most of the time it will not work . It is not reasonable for them to hedge , imagine if many clients hit their bid with the same tight spread , it will be costly for the SB broker to hedge that way , the YM is not liquid enough at 1 point spread , ie :if CMC wants to hedge 300 pounds / point = near 500 $ / point = 100 contract on the YM , which is not available at the underlying market even with 2 points spread , ofcourse if they dont hedge and they trade against the client then yeah they can offer 0 spreads ...

 

[gle101]

The commission is more than 3 $ RT which is 0.6 of a point , also buying YM at the bid and selling at the Ask , most of the time it will not work . It is not reasonable for them to hedge , imagine if many clients hit their bid with the same tight spread , it will be costly for the SB broker to hedge that way , the YM is not liquid enough at 1 point spread , ie :if CMC wants to hedge 300 pounds / point = near 500 $ / point = 100 contract on the YM , which is not available at the underlying market even with 2 points spread , ofcourse if they dont hedge and they trade against the client then yeah they can offer 0 spreads ...

I agree, 1 point spread on the Dow future is dirt cheap, that is why I trade with a competitor to CMC.:cheesy:

 

[tar]

I agree, 1 point spread on the Dow future is dirt cheap, that is why I trade with a competitor to CMC.:cheesy:

who wants to pay more ?!

 

[gle101]

Hi Uchiki

Thanks for this post. As your query involves your personal account I have sent you a private email.

Many thanks Peter

What is this Peter, a bad review and you don't post any general comment on your spread policy in reference to the underlying market.

 

[gle101]

who wants to pay more ?!

Yes right, no reason whatsoever to pay more, if the price tag comes with a good service.

 

[GramTrader]

Just got MM working with Android. Anyone want the app to run private message me. Not sound but can look at charts.. quotes.. and order button but not sure if you want to press it... Maybe I should have stuck with programming.. Anyway of course you can just run the marketmaker web version from your Android browser but why would you want to do that?? Happy days..

 

[uchiki]

Thanks for your reply Peter,

I don't have a problem with the forum seeing it, so I have included it below.
As I said in my original post, I don't have an issue with having been stopped out. I was just concerned about the wide spread. I have gone back and checked the GFT chart, and they had a low at 1435.55. I suspect that I would have got that price if the trade had been with GFT. So on a positive note, your price 1435.93 was a bit tighter.

It is an important point that you make about the spread charts showing your closing bid/ask for the time interval. This means that they will not reliably show spikes up/down. This tendency will be reinforced as you expand the time interval eg from 1 sec to 1 hour. My charting is normally at 15min interval or above, so I would miss a lot of spike info. GFT's chart shows their bid price and does retain spikes up/down (I've checked this particular spike on 15min and 2hr). This is very useful for setting stops and target exits when you're long.

If you want to add to the list of tasks for your programmers (!), two additional nice chart types would be a chart of your bid price and a separate chart of your ask price. The ask price chart would be useful for short trades and estimating likely buy prices for long trades at spike lows. Both should retain spike low/high info in all time intervals. To my mind, these would be very useful additions and could replace the spread chart, which now seems of very limited value.

I appreciate that the forum is not really the place to raise questions about individual trades, it just seemed appropriate in this case as it touched upon 2 specific points I'd made in an earlier post.

In summary, my feeling is that your execution price for this stock are still likely tighter than the competition I have tried, but the spread charts hold less promise than seemed to be the case.




-----
Hi Uchiki

Thanks for your posting yesterday. I felt that because your post was about one of your trades I could not post the answer for the forum to see. This is confidential but if you want to post my reply that is your choice and I have no problem with that.


I have had a dealer check your execution and I can confirm that 1435.93 was the first available price once your stop was triggered. The dealer did check the level independently of our platform and he/we are happy that your trade was executed correctly.

Our charts do not currently enable users to see every tick published by CMC and therefore should only be used as a guide to where a product traded. The Spread charts will use the closing price on the interval specified, so unless the high or low point happens to fall exactly on one of the data points selected you will be unable to see the full range of price movements. Candle and OHLC Charts use the Mid prices to create a view of price movement within the selected interval.

Hope that clarifies the situation.

Regards Peter

Hi Uchiki

Thanks for this post. As your query involves your personal account I have sent you a private email.

Many thanks Peter

 

[tar]

CMC cable spread kept fluctuating and reached 24 pips after the news didnt last long , IG reached 6 pips for seconds only then maintained the usual spread ... Oanda reached 30 pips ...

ps. the time displaying at IG price ticket is stuck @ 11:52:13

BTW the 5 seconds spread chart doesnt show these spread fluctuations ...

 

[Ross Spur]

If you want to add to the list of tasks for your programmers (!), two additional nice chart types would be a chart of your bid price and a separate chart of your ask price. The ask price chart would be useful for short trades and estimating likely buy prices for long trades at spike lows. Both should retain spike low/high info in all time intervals. To my mind, these would be very useful additions and could replace the spread chart, which now seems of very limited value.


In summary, my feeling is that your execution price for this stock are still likely tighter than the competition I have tried, but the spread charts hold less promise than seemed to be the case.

That's very disappointing. SBs are all far better than they used to be, but we still have this problem of a stop being hit, even though the chart supplied might show otherwise.
As you say, CMC spread chart would seem to be of limited use unless it shows buy and sell ticks.

re. you actual trade, if SBs are obliged to give you the best price, did this include Plus markets?

 

[uchiki]

Interesting post tar, the stability of the spread relative to the underlying market during these swings in the underlying market is important. Not 100% sure about it's accuracy, but the interactivebrokers 1min chart showed a spread of 2.5 pips for the 12:00 to 12:01 bar, which seems to be based around the average (1.60298) of that tall bar. Without having watched the action at the time, it's difficult to say whether this spread varied during that minute.
(Their normal spread is 1 to 1.5 pips).

CMC cable spread kept fluctuating and reached 24 pips after the news didnt last long , IG reached 6 pips for seconds only then maintained the usual spread ... Oanda reached 30 pips ...

ps. the time displaying at IG price ticket is stuck @ 11:52:13

BTW the 5 seconds spread chart doesnt show these spread fluctuations ...

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

hi gle101
as per usual you jump to the wrong conclusion without the facts. Please read uchiki's posting of my reply.

have a nice day

pc

What is this Peter, a bad review and you don't post any general comment on your spread policy in reference to the underlying market.

 

[gle101]

hi gle101
as per usual you jump to the wrong conclusion without the facts. Please read uchiki's posting of my reply.

have a nice day

pc

Not at all, I think you are a bit on the defensive side and way to sensitive about what we as members have got to say on this thread. There is no need to be if you got a excellent platform and good service. I am eager to follow up on the live reports, because these are the ones interesting to read, and will give a fair and overall picture of CMC's service. I am not trying to view CMC service in a negative light, on the contrary, I will salute you if things prove to support CMC aim with the nextgen platform. You have to remember, you are the one that have come out with industry changing statement, these I will follow up to find out if they hold to be true.

 

[Ross Spur]

Not at all, I think you are a bit on the defensive side and way to sensitive about what we as members have got to say on this thread. There is no need to be if you got a excellent platform and good service. I am eager to follow up on the live reports, because these are the ones interesting to read, and will give a fair and overall picture of CMC's service. I am not trying to view CMC service in a negative light, on the contrary, I will salute you if things prove to support CMC aim with the nextgen platform. You have to remember, you are the one that have come out with industry changing statement, these I will follow up to find out if they hold to be true.

Yeah, whatever happened to 'the customer is always right'?

 

[Black Swan]

Yeah, whatever happened to 'the customer is always right'?

A friend of mine, a fine and reputable second hand car dealer in Cheshire, categorises his customers into two distinct groups; "cuzzies and scuzzies..." It's always the scuzzies who cause the most problems, and they are never "right"..

 

[Ross Spur]

A friend of mine, a fine and reputable second hand car dealer in Cheshire, categorises his customers into two distinct groups; "cuzzies and scuzzies..." It's always the scuzzies who cause the most problems, and they are never "right"..

Had a spell in the horseless carriage trade myself, and it was a general rule that the 'best dressed' customers, ie, the ones wearing suits and ties, were the most difficult, rude and dishonest.

To return to next gen, can I make a few hopefully constructive observations, PC?

When a market is added to watchlist, the +/- % column disappears.

Extra places of decimals when setting stops is inconvenient and unnecessary.

Why 2.1pt spread on US30 all day when nearly every other SB narrows it when Dow is trading and future is more liquid?

Can't open a trade using a trailed stop.

Quite often the facility to move orders on chart by clicking on position triangle just doesn't work.

Platform is slow when opening boxes/windows.

Watchlist fails to select/appear when clicking on icon

 

[Black Swan]

Had a spell in the horseless carriage trade myself, and it was a general rule that the 'best dressed' customers, ie, the ones wearing suits and ties, were the most difficult, rude and dishonest.

Really? Me too...can't agree with your observations, but heh ho..let's keep this on thread, back to charts/platforms questions...

 

[scose-no-doubt]

Just had a goose at those charts.

Is there no way to overlay another instrument etc

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

Thanks Ross points passed on.
regards Peter

Had a spell in the horseless carriage trade myself, and it was a general rule that the 'best dressed' customers, ie, the ones wearing suits and ties, were the most difficult, rude and dishonest.

To return to next gen, can I make a few hopefully constructive observations, PC?

When a market is added to watchlist, the +/- % column disappears.

Extra places of decimals when setting stops is inconvenient and unnecessary.

Why 2.1pt spread on US30 all day when nearly every other SB narrows it when Dow is trading and future is more liquid?

Can't open a trade using a trailed stop.

Quite often the facility to move orders on chart by clicking on position triangle just doesn't work.

Platform is slow when opening boxes/windows.

Watchlist fails to select/appear when clicking on icon

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

coming your way soon.
doing lot of stuff with the charts
pc

Just had a goose at those charts.

Is there no way to overlay another instrument etc

 

[PC at CMC Markets]

are you sure the price wasnt stuck as well

CMC cable spread kept fluctuating and reached 24 pips after the news didnt last long , IG reached 6 pips for seconds only then maintained the usual spread ... Oanda reached 30 pips ...

ps. the time displaying at IG price ticket is stuck @ 11:52:13

BTW the 5 seconds spread chart doesnt show these spread fluctuations ...