A couple of CMC questions. I decided to give the next generation platform a whirl. Main attraction was the £1 per point on things like the Nasdaq, as then I can scale in and out of a position (my previous firm had a £4 per point minimum, which was too expensive for my current level, as I would need to be circa £12 per point to be able to close out 2/3rds and leave a 1/3rd running) anyway I digress.
I have had a play on the platform and generally like it. Can not say I am too keen on the margin requirements:| as 1% seems fairly high on an index such as Dax trading at over 7,000.. especially if a stop in place.. anyway on to my questions:
Firstly some of these questions come about as I am now working in an office where my 3g is non existent and I can not manage my trades efficiently. So I will have to phone deal on some occasions.
Q1) Do 'One Cancel Other' orders exist? I would like to be able to place bracket style orders for breakouts. i.e. in the morning I may wish to enter a long and a short order either side of a range.. on Q&As it says:
"Yes, but we don't call them OCO orders. You can set up Stop Loss and Take Profit orders for every trade, as all orders are automatically linked together. If you close your trade or the Stop Loss or Take Profit order is triggered all other linked orders will be cancelled."
I am sure this will not cover my scenario, as mine would need to be two separate orders with associated limits and stops and the two orders could both get triggered (which I wouldn't want to happen).
Q2) Anyone have experience of the trailing stops on CMC? Previously I am sure I was able to set a trailing stop, which stepped in an increment of my choice. Is is now, simply, if my stop is for example 10 pts.. that for every point the trade goes in my favour the stop follows?
Q3) ideally I would love to be able to place a trade with say a 30pt stop.. but then once the trade was in my favour by say 10pts, I would move stop to b/e and start trailing a stop.. I presume my only option is to place the trade and monitor and if i have no 3g signal to telephone dealing desk and amend stop order (to breakeven, trailing).
Q4) Oh and finally just curious, why does CMC need to close the market so often? I mean specifically in the evenings (from memory the FTSE for example closes several time from 9:15pm onwards for periods of 15mins or more), this did not happen on the large spreadbetting firm I was recently with.. the FTSE market was essentially always open, whether on current price, (or out of hours) on futures price.
Happy if anyone can input, and share their experiences and how they may have got around these issues.:clover:
Thanks
