Please Share your Experience with Thinkforex ECN Broker? Are they ECN and Reputable?

[moyes]

Thinkforex isn't a real ECN.
It is shame that brokers now class themselves as an ECN model when clearly they are not.
I am from Dubai and I only trade with UK brokers. However all of them are doing the same.
From my research and experience (I have accounts with so many brokers) I have found only 4 in the UK that are actual ECN brokers.
So even in a country where there is so much regulation and the rules are upheld strictly, companies can still get away with offering a service that they clearly are not.
Even those calling themselves an Exchange (LMAX) claim to be ECN. How can they be when some of their liquidity providers are market markers! Smilies

FXCM claim to offer their retail liquidity into their ECN. So how is still an ECN?!
This industry has become more confusing than ever.

Rant over, sorry.

I use 2 main companies, one runs an high frequency algo (similar to scalping) and both companies have been very good.

Please be careful who you trade with, end of the day, it is your money at risk

Thanks for the rant

What brokers would you recommend from Australia? or any for that matter that are reputable and NOT bucketshops?

Thanks.

 

[Jason Rogers]

FXCM claim to offer their retail liquidity into their ECN. So how is still an ECN?!

Hi AARasheed,

Two things to note. FXCM offers NDD forex execution, also known as straight through processing (STP). Second, NDD forex execution is comprised of 10+ liquidity providers of which FXCM is not one of them so not sure where you may have heard this claim. Do you have a source for where this was claimed incorrectly?

Jason

 

[AARasheed]

Hi AARasheed,

Two things to note. FXCM offers NDD forex execution, also known as straight through processing (STP). Second, NDD forex execution is comprised of 10+ liquidity providers of which FXCM is not one of them so not sure where you may have heard this claim. Do you have a source for where this was claimed incorrectly?

Jason

Hello Jason,
A FXCM representative told me on the phone. Your retail feed is injected into the ECN stream to 'boost' the liquidity pool. Hmmmm.... now that opens up some doors...

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hello Jason,
A FXCM representative told me on the phone. Your retail feed is injected into the ECN stream to 'boost' the liquidity pool. Hmmmm.... now that opens up some doors...

Hi AARasheed,

There seems to be some confusion here, because what you've said is not correct. Actually, our Active Trader accounts use the same NDD price feed as our standard accounts. The only difference is that standard FXCM accounts have a pip markup on the spread, while Active Trader accounts have a commission instead with lower transaction costs overall.

Jason

 

[AARasheed]

Hi AARasheed,

There seems to be some confusion here, because what you've said is not correct. Actually, our Active Trader accounts use the same NDD price feed as our standard accounts. The only difference is that standard FXCM accounts have a pip markup on the spread, while Active Trader accounts have a commission instead with lower transaction costs overall.

Jason

What I said is not incorrect, it's what the FXCM representative has told me that is incorrect.

 

[AARasheed]

FXCM told me that there are over 12 price providers + Client to client matching + $20B daily retail flow into the FXCMPRO system. This is an ECN model then?

 

[FringFX]

What I said is not incorrect, it's what the FXCM representative has told me that is incorrect.

Hey that's interesting. when did you make this call? and which FXCM branch did you call, by the way?

 

[AARasheed]

Hey that's interesting. when did you make this call? and which FXCM branch did you call, by the way?

UK office, I think it was start of the year

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hello Jason,
A FXCM representative told me on the phone. Your retail feed is injected into the ECN stream to 'boost' the liquidity pool. Hmmmm.... now that opens up some doors...

Hi AARasheed,

There seems to be some confusion here, because what you've said is not correct. Actually, our Active Trader accounts use the same NDD price feed as our standard accounts. The only difference is that standard FXCM accounts have a pip markup on the spread, while Active Trader accounts have a commission instead with lower transaction costs overall.

Jason

What I said is not incorrect, it's what the FXCM representative has told me that is incorrect.

FXCM told me that there are over 12 price providers + Client to client matching + $20B daily retail flow into the FXCMPRO system. This is an ECN model then?

Hi AARasheed,

Thanks for clarifying. It turns out that you and I were actually talking about two different account types.

FXCM Pro is our institutional trading arm geared towards banks, hedge funds and the like. The representative you spoke with in our FXCM Pro division was most likely referring to how banks and hedge funds on our FastMatch platform have the ability to post bids and offers into the system and display them to our retail clients along with other market participants.

Active Trader accounts are designed for individuals who trade more than 10 million notional per month or deposit more than $25,000. The pricing structure on these accounts is designed to reward active traders by having commission fees reduce as trading volumes rise.

Jason

 

[mohdfaiad]

Very Bad broker, please stay away.
My initial deposit has been stolen and they are keep saying your deposit under review.
think of withdrwal , it will never happen.

 

[JustTrying]

I would NOT recommend them!!!!!!!

I am currently using the demo on Thinkforex as they claim to be ECN for scalping purposes. The only issue is at times it takes about 5 seconds for an order to go through.So far they seem alright but I would like to hear from someone that has a live account with them to share their experience.

Please also recommend any other broker that is good for scalping?

I did trade with them until Wednesday. I'm currently logging a complaint to the Regulating Body in Australia. They spike their spread from 5 pips to 18, for a fraction of a second to take wack your trades, then immediately return to the normal. I've also noticed when the price reach very close to your profit limit, the spread widen and widen, not take your Profit target, the opposite when your stop are nearing.

I have proof. In numerous request to provide tick by tick spread, to see where they got their prices, they decline.

If you choose to trade with them, good luck. I can pull my hair out that I decided to trade with them. I think they are stop hunting galore. Don't worry about withdrawals, there won't be any...... cause they will do their utter best to screw you.

Regards

 

[fxways]

As far as I have heared FXCM is known for their server interruptions... Even though they are regulated and listed they don't seem to have many fans.

 

[JustTrying]

@JustTrying: how do you actually file such a complaint?

I will disclose after I gave the company in question a decent time to sort it out. I collected data on spreads from all the liquidity providers (there's still a few short). Collected data from other brokerages which utilize the same liquidity providers. I also log every tick with Bid and Offer on my own MT4 platforms.

Hope this will give you an idea, hell of a job. But I will not let this go.

 

[JustTrying]

Thanks for the info. But what does that actually help? As long as they are complying to their contracts they can always claim lacking liquidity... Probably your positions were b-booked and therefore manually executed. Hard to prove, I guess. I have had that several times but figured that my chances were minimal to actually get money or the position back.

Yes, I know. It is very hard to proof. The only way I hope to be successful is that they publicly claim that they DO NOT HAVE a b-book, and they use multiple liquidity providers to prices, they say that they execute to the best possible price available. A few other discrepancies are also stated on various forums by their representatives. I collected all of them and is really building a case. In my situation I was margin called by a price that was never quoted on my platform. I also need to state that I was 100% hedged, had money in equity, which they widened the spread to diminish.

Its going to be a tough battle, but maybe, we can settle the dispute. I also have logs of their support personnel stating that what happened won't happened.

We'll see. They claim to be transparent in everything, until you ask for data, then it is not possible to provide, but their snr sales manager states on this form, data will be given with a vlick of a button..............

The mentioned spread jumped from 7 to 19 in a single tick, back to 2.3 pips. Strange hey?

Send me a pm, I'll discuss and show you what I have.

 

[Jason Rogers]

As far as I have heared FXCM is known for their server interruptions... Even though they are regulated and listed they don't seem to have many fans.

Over 190,000 retail tradable accounts and $1.245 billion in client funds as of the latest publicly available data are proof of FXCM's popularity. Furthermore, our industry leading trading volume means that FXCM platforms have been battle tested over many years across all market conditions.

It's important to keep in mind that on FXCM's No Dealing Desk forex execution model, we have nothing to gain from you losing out on a trade due to server interruptions. That's because we offset all client orders one-for-one with our 10+ liquidity providers. We're don't take the risk on the other side of your trade, so we make the same amount of money from your trading volume whether you win or lose on your trades. We do this by applying a fixed pip markup to the best bid and ask prices we receive from our competing liquidity providers and that markup acts as a commission. That's why we don't have to resort to deliberate server interruptions such as you're suggesting.

That said, tech issues can sometimes occur with any broker or exchange in any financial market. If one of our clients believes they were negatively impacted due to a tech issue on our part, they can request an audit of the trades in question. The Trade Services Team will perform a thorough investigation of what happened and make the appropriate correction to the account when needed.

 

[Alifx]

My friend calls them stink forex- i wont risk

 

[billyjean]

my current ECN account are with Armada markets, 0.01 starting lot, deposit minimum are 300 usd for ecn type. what i do like from them is the low spread given, typically 0.7 - 0.8 pips on EURUSD including commision, if you prefer on gold trading, their spread are also 10 pips low. wont said raw spread, but a low fee mark up, and yet for a deal minimum 300 usd, i've got execution quality on ECN account type.

 

[gerryg]

my current ECN account are with Armada markets, 0.01 starting lot, deposit minimum are 300 usd for ecn type. what i do like from them is the low spread given, typically 0.7 - 0.8 pips on EURUSD including commision, if you prefer on gold trading, their spread are also 10 pips low. wont said raw spread, but a low fee mark up, and yet for a deal minimum 300 usd, i've got execution quality on ECN account type.

Good one. But i was discontented with ECN execution as it seems it has some type of in-house execution practices. I know maybe it even can't impede traders results but I prefer true STP execution and believe that found it on Hot forex..

 

[moka2]

Good one. But i was discontented with ECN execution as it seems it has some type of in-house execution practices. I know maybe it even can't impede traders results but I prefer true STP execution and believe that found it on Hot forex..

What is the diff? between STP and ECN or you just want to promote Hot forex no matter what!

 

[moyes]

IC Markets?

I did trade with them until Wednesday. I'm currently logging a complaint to the Regulating Body in Australia. They spike their spread from 5 pips to 18, for a fraction of a second to take wack your trades, then immediately return to the normal. I've also noticed when the price reach very close to your profit limit, the spread widen and widen, not take your Profit target, the opposite when your stop are nearing.

I have proof. In numerous request to provide tick by tick spread, to see where they got their prices, they decline.

If you choose to trade with them, good luck. I can pull my hair out that I decided to trade with them. I think they are stop hunting galore. Don't worry about withdrawals, there won't be any...... cause they will do their utter best to screw you.

Regards

Sounds like they are truly a bucket shop broker. I never got around to using them. I used Axitrader in Aus and they were ok. I am going to try IC Markets soon and DriectFX...Maybe try those. Thinkforex has had numerous complaints..