Smart Live Markets - Spread Bet on MT4

[alan5616]

Just closed my SLM account.

Going with Alpari Pro for prices trading through ProSpreads.

SML are just out to grab your money, requotes so they can get you late in positions and then take the opposite side. It's a joke. Move away form spreadbetting and go DMA and pay the commission least you get to trade reall prices from the market and not made up prices like SML.

The problem with spot forex is that we are trading in an unregulated market. I feel that the FSA could do a lot more to protect the interests of retail traders but, don't show any inclination to do so. Everybody knows that market makers and SB companies trade against their clients and a thorough investigation, by the FSA, is long overdue.

 

[chrismidnite]

If your going for instant execution or are scalping, dont bother with SLM, they arent even that good for swing trading as even pending orders get slipped but are a bit more reliable on the fill price. at least you get filled, most of the time when trying to enter a position i get at least one, if not 2 invalid price messages, on live and more worryingly on demo, which makes me think that they just cant handle orders well at all. Will be moving to an ECN broker asap, the tax free advantage of SB'ing really isnt worth the extra risk that trading with these bookies brings, i'd much rather have small spreads +commission and not worry about my broker trying to bum me stupid.
Maybe SLM are trying to be a decent provider but the platform is letting them down a lot. Ive had enough of MT4, even for charting, think its back to Ninja trader for me.

 

[Ross Spur]

If your going for instant execution or are scalping, dont bother with SLM, they arent even that good for swing trading as even pending orders get slipped but are a bit more reliable on the fill price. at least you get filled, most of the time when trying to enter a position i get at least one, if not 2 invalid price messages, on live and more worryingly on demo, which makes me think that they just cant handle orders well at all. Will be moving to an ECN broker asap, the tax free advantage of SB'ing really isnt worth the extra risk that trading with these bookies brings, i'd much rather have small spreads +commission and not worry about my broker trying to bum me stupid.
Maybe SLM are trying to be a decent provider but the platform is letting them down a lot. Ive had enough of MT4, even for charting, think its back to Ninja trader for me.

Have to agree. Narrow spreads on shares a plus point, but endless rejections on FX and indices, even with small stakes and when the market is hardly moving. It does seem that you only get filled now if the price immediately goes against you. They also tend to have spikes that don't exist on the underlying market.

 

[Black Swan]

It is not "the platform letting them down" it's what they do behind the wizard of Oz curtain with your trade, they're letting themselves down...

 

[jimmc]

Just noticed the following disclaimer you have to 'accept' when you log onto SLM account now:

"Expert Advisors (EA's) and Indicators Disclaimer

It is accepted by the end user (the client of SLM) that they take sole responsibility for any third party applications that they may install either directly or indirectly on their Meta Trader platform, and also the use of any software provided on MT4 when downloaded.

These may include robotic trading tools, known as Expert Advisors, which can be set up to automatically trade on a client's account or indicators which allegedly show beneficial times to trade.

It is the clients sole responsibility to do due diligence on the respective software and then decide if they are willing to take the risk of installing and using it on their account(s) with SLM.

SLM is not responsible in any capacity for decisions, trades or signals generated by the use of EA's or indicators or the client's use of them or with for the resulting profits or losses generated by them.

Some EA's may generate a high number of trades and at times leverage a client to their maximum possible exposure to a market given their available funds. It is the client's sole responsibility to monitor these trades and/or orders and the profit and loss generated by them, as it is at all times on their account.

SLM at all times reserves the rights to disable the use of EA's from a clients account.

[SLM is the trading name of Smart Live Financial Services Ltd.]"

 

[Mata Nui]

EAs are a pretty good tool for checking how reliable the fills are with a broker. They will trade within milliseconds of the criteria being met (usually on the first tick of a new bar). I am testing a couple now on a demo account. In my case they are trading off renko bars so i know in advance what price the bar will close at (by that i mean the possible top and bottom values as each bar is exactly 10 points). I am regularly (about 50% or the time) being slipped by more than 2 points and often between 3.5 and 5.5 points.

Obviosly that first tick wont be dead on the close price of the last bar but its not going to be over 3 points away unless there is news.

 

[Black Swan]

EAs are a pretty good tool for checking how reliable the fills are with a broker. They will trade within milliseconds of the criteria being met (usually on the first tick of a new bar). I am testing a couple now on a demo account. In my case they are trading off renko bars so i know in advance what price the bar will close at (by that i mean the possible top and bottom values as each bar is exactly 10 points). I am regularly (about 50% or the time) being slipped by more than 2 points and often between 3.5 and 5.5 points.

Obviosly that first tick wont be dead on the close price of the last bar but its not going to be over 3 points away unless there is news.

EA working off Renko? Difficult..?

 

[Mata Nui]

EA working off Renko? Difficult..?

Running live (or demo) is easy. Its impossible to backtest though. I open a 1min EURUSD chart and apply an EA to it that creates an offline renko chart (You can also get scripts that do this part).

The chart i use is 10 point bricks and it creates an offline chart under the m2 timeframe (of course its not really m2 but MT4 needs to title the charts by timeframe). I keep this m1 chart open as it constantly feeds the m2 with data. I can then open the m2 (renko) offline chart and use it as normal (apply a template, indicators and even an EA). As long as the m1 is open and feeding the m2 everything just works.

In the past i have had both on screen and watched the ticks and the delay between the m1 and m2 is negligable. I am really starting to like renko. Entries are easy, keeping the profit and getting a good exit is another matter entirely.

 

[Mata Nui]

I should say that the charts i posted are from my laptop that i manual trade from. The EA i am testing is based on these indicators in pic 2 and to run it all i would do is atatch it to the chart like the indicators are and it just works as normal. I test EAs from a server that runs 24/7.

 

[Mata Nui]

EURUSD - just been slipped by 6 points on entry on the demo platform.

 

[Black Swan]

Running live (or demo) is easy. Its impossible to backtest though. I open a 1min EURUSD chart and apply an EA to it that creates an offline renko chart (You can also get scripts that do this part).

The chart i use is 10 point bricks and it creates an offline chart under the m2 timeframe (of course its not really m2 but MT4 needs to title the charts by timeframe). I keep this m1 chart open as it constantly feeds the m2 with data. I can then open the m2 (renko) offline chart and use it as normal (apply a template, indicators and even an EA). As long as the m1 is open and feeding the m2 everything just works.

In the past i have had both on screen and watched the ticks and the delay between the m1 and m2 is negligable. I am really starting to like renko. Entries are easy, keeping the profit and getting a good exit is another matter entirely.

I'll have a look at that, thanks.

 

[Black Swan]

EURUSD - just been slipped by 6 points on entry on the demo platform.

actually the market moved a bit quick there..

 

[Pi3141]

Running live (or demo) is easy. Its impossible to backtest though. I open a 1min EURUSD chart and apply an EA to it that creates an offline renko chart (You can also get scripts that do this part).

The chart i use is 10 point bricks and it creates an offline chart under the m2 timeframe (of course its not really m2 but MT4 needs to title the charts by timeframe). I keep this m1 chart open as it constantly feeds the m2 with data. I can then open the m2 (renko) offline chart and use it as normal (apply a template, indicators and even an EA). As long as the m1 is open and feeding the m2 everything just works.

In the past i have had both on screen and watched the ticks and the delay between the m1 and m2 is negligable. I am really starting to like renko. Entries are easy, keeping the profit and getting a good exit is another matter entirely.

I use the same Renko EA as you! Except I use 5pt bars instead of 10. I find Renko bars so much better than normal time bars because it filters out a lot of noise. Great minds think alike eh ... ... 'cept I'm not profitable yet .. *sigh*..

 

[Mata Nui]

actually the market moved a bit quick there..

To be fair to SLM in this case it did move quite fast.

 

[Mata Nui]

I use the same Renko EA as you! Except I use 5pt bars instead of 10. I find Renko bars so much better than normal time bars because it filters out a lot of noise. Great minds think alike eh ... ... 'cept I'm not profitable yet .. *sigh*..

Same here (although demo up 15% this week). I cant seem to find a good exit strategy without giving way too much back to the markets.

 

[Ross Spur]

To be fair to SLM in this case it did move quite fast.

Hopeless today. Five to ten goes to open or close a trade on US30, even when it wasn't moving much.

 

[Pi3141]

Same here (although demo up 15% this week). I cant seem to find a good exit strategy without giving way too much back to the markets.

Yea, I suppose one of the disadvantages of using Renko is that the bars have to move 2 blocks in the opposite direction to paint a reversal bar, which potentially means giving up 20pts in your case. Maybe scale out your positions?

 

[Mata Nui]

Hopeless today. Five to ten goes to open or close a trade on US30, even when it wasn't moving much.

Yes, today has been very bad. In fact i want to take back my 'To be fair to SLM' comment. I have been out and just checked my demo charts. Slipped on almost every order and not by a little. Worst of the day was 7.5 points on EURUSD. Twice between 6 and 7 points and a few others as well.

Yesterday was a lot better. A few around 2 points but nothing like today.

 

[peter5433]

I may be fortunate but I have had no problems in the past six months (I'm using a VPS).
I usually have three or four trades/day

Interesting comments - I have been trading ( very profitably) with slm for nearly a year now with no execution issues at all, using a uk vps and several bots, trading various spot forex pairs; which makes the many poor service comments here rather puzzling. I am aware that one bot, which always trades at the same time of day , had a major issue when all the traders were caught out by a platform freeze over about 30 minutes; so multiply that by 30-50 traders and its add up to a lot of complaints..

On thing to note - they do widen the spreads on certain pair(s) considerably during the Asian session, so you just avoid those and trading during that time. They used to offer tight fixed spreads, which was a major money spinner for many Asian traders, which came to an end in February with the move to variable spreads.

I do agree that trading with market maker brokers will never leave a comfortable feeling when trading longer term; and that ecn's are by far the best choice. However you then have the double ( or triple whamy if converting to foreign trading currencies) of tax and commission payments. As with any business, which I view this as when trading forex, you have to keep your trading costs as low as possible, and for the moment slm allows me to do that..

 

[francisfinley]

I'll have a look at that, thanks.

ive had a fair bit of experience with renko.

i don't use it so read into that what you will.

you should look for

EA 3.2 (3.3 is hardly any different)
para renko by jake
range bars