francisfinley
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yeah legitimate shouldnt be a word used anywhere near the city. but thats off topic. slm seem fairly open.
instead of being client side just be a broker - seems a lot easier if you ask me?
yeah legitimate shouldnt be a word used anywhere near the city. but thats off topic. slm seem fairly open.
instead of being client side just be a broker - seems a lot easier if you ask me?
SLM seem a refreshing change from those SBs that still try to make us believe that they only make profit from the spread.
francisfinley
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sure which in the long run is a better business model if the bucket shops bloody stuck to it. they just cant operate on low spreads.
im starting to get the jist you need a trading account in excess of 500k to live normally and have a decent broker.
Hi
Well I am sure that's fine.
With respect, you are the one who used the words "scalping to death", and that paints a different picture.
Anyway, that killed an hour... 2 more to go
Paul
Paul,
You've brought up a fair few points in the the last trail of messages which I'd like to discuss further.
1. STP on spreadbetting...personally I think this is the future / next step for spreadbetting firms in order to attract the serious traders.
Market makers are fine for beginners IMO but the serious trader will always prefer STP or equiavlent IMO and in doing this spreabetting firms will attract FX traders who do not currently spreadbet...I for one moved from 'traditional' FX trading to spreadbetting (firstly mainly for tax reasons...though I think this i a bit of a myth as the typical spreads you get on a typical spreadbetting firm for a range of FX majors negate any tax advantage compared to using an ECN FX broker - I say this from my own analysis on my own style of trading - short term intraday based on 1HR and 4HR charts) and actually used your platform for a while as MT4 is the platform of choice for a large quantity of retail FX traders but I found the spreads to be too high across the range of majors I trade (your spreads are some of the best amongst your fellow market makers though from the research I did).
I don't understand what you mean by the fact spreads would be higher for STP? Are you talking across all your FX pairs or just for the currently really tight ones like EU? Obvioulsy STP means variable spreads but the avantage with STP is obviously the likley faster execution and lack of re-quotes but also on average in normal market conditions the spreads are normally tighter on STP / DMA brokers compared to the tradtional market makers as obviously al you are doing as adding a fixed spread to the underlying liquidity providers spread. So for example you would expect spreads on the likes of GCHF, GJ, EAUD to be much tighter on an STP broker than the fixed spreads you currently provide (on average)...maybe you were talking about EU as your spreads are already very tight on this pair?
From my research there are only 2 other spreadbetting brokers I could find that offer STP or equivalent for FX and on both of these as you'd expect the spreads are much more competitive than the traditional spreads you'd obtain on a market maker across a basket of the major pairs...of course there are anomalies like at news time, illiquid market periods or other brokers unique promotions etc...but on average in 'normal' market conditions the average spreads on these 2 brokers are much better than all other non-STP spreabetting brokers (I personally SB with one of them as their spreads are extremely good and very nearly as a good as on a true ECN broker and with the tax advantage of SB this makes it very attractive).
2. The issue of scalping
This is an interesting topic as perceptions are that brokers dont like scalpers, i.e. traders being in and out of the market very quckly taking a few pips each trade.
Obviously I understand for market makers lke yourselves who offer low fixed sreads on the likes of EU and a very low minimum trade size you can't auomatically hedge each individual trade cos you cant hedge 0.10 lots in the underlying market lol and you need time to be able to hedge your net exposure and thus a scalper can be unattractive business to a market maker for this reason.
Of course as you have rightly pointed out for an STP broker this same problem has essentially passed from the broker to the underlying liquidity providers and if they keep getting stung for a few pips constantly from that broker they will widen spreads or stop dealing with that broker. At the end of the day if one trader is very succesful and dealing in large lots then someone is gonna take the hit somewhere down the line and with an STP broker its gonna be the liquidity providers...of course as you state being smart about it is wise...playing the game so to speak...but surely the size of bets and winnings have to be pretty big before this becomes an issue?
For me there is a clear difference between scalping (as I defined above) and taking advantage of different price feeds amongst brokers / lag etc. But I am slightly concerned that you seem to be implying that scalping and trading on brokers different price feed are one and the same thing? Scalping is a legitaate form of trading and is no easier than any other form of trading - in fact I would argue that it's mentally tougher than longer time frame trading (no I'm not a scalper!)
Are you suggesting that having an EA that scalps 5-10 pips (obviosly at times this could take seconds other times a good many minutes) on certain defined indicator led entry conditions (i.e. its not in the market 24/5) is not welcome? Im not implying that you are but it does come across that you are inferring that scalping is somewhat a lesser discpline and is having someone over etc? Or are you implying that this applies to dealing over improper prices / broker differences / price lags...i.e. taking advantage of this rather than proper trading?
Is there not a fine line (in terms of STP) between having traders who trade many short trades and thus you make a lot of profit from the spreads (and obviously this is the only way you make money...higher bet size and frequency = more profit for the broker) and keeping the banks happy (not that many people care about this lol!)...but surely the bets have to be pretty big for the banks to start getting pissed off...of course they'll be traders taking opposite positions too? For a market maker is the issue purely the ability to hedge (and obviously the cost of hedging is not cheap either so a trader that trades high frequency is clearly not an ideal client to a market maker?) instead a client that trades frequenty but keeps there trades for more than say 5mins on average is more ideal?
Personally I think scalping is the hardest form of trading, I think it takes a lot of discpline and mental toughness to be able to scalp successfully compared to trading over a longer time period.
3. Requotes
Requotes are one of the most annoying things for traders...realibale and fast execution are the two of the most important things for any trader (or should be!) IMO. What I've never fully understood is why a market maker will requote a client. Is it because the market is moving too fast, is too illiquid, the size is too large all meaning the broker cant hedge quickly enough?
Personally I've found SLM to have relaible / fast execution...in fact I think brokers (I'm talking market makers) outside of SB are worse for requoting than SB firms (and the biggest culprits IMO are one of the most popular UK retail FX brokers who I won't name - again all from my own personal experience only!). I think SB firms get an unfair reputation for this IMO - but I also feel the tac advantag is completely overhyped too as unless you are a longer term trader then IMO the tax advantage is negligible using a market maker.
Thanks for the spending the time answering questions on the forum, I think it is greatly appreciated and it's very intruiging to be able to converse with someone with vast broker experience.
IMO it's best to have a basket of brokers when your account is above a certain level...that way you can:
a) ensure you can get your bet on at the price you want.
b) take advantage of the fact some brokers will be better on some pairs than others in tems of spreads...each broker has their niche.
c) have a backup in case your broker experiences problems...e.g. IT problems etc (think flash crash!) and thus can hedge your net exposure elsewhere
d) can split you bets up amongst brokers if size becomes an issue
jonobrienuk
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You have to login on the website into your account and enable Expert Advisor's, then they will send you and email confirming.
I got it within an hour or so.
Thanks zorba_g, a phone call did the trick.
Apparently when I went to the website to request activation of EA's, because I had a trade open they couldn't do it immediately, and by the time I closed the trade they were onto something else, hence the delay.
Sorted now, I'll see if it all works tomorrow.
Apparently when I went to the website to request activation of EA's, because I had a trade open they couldn't do it immediately, and by the time I closed the trade they were onto something else, hence the delay.
Sorted now, I'll see if it all works tomorrow.
Smart Live Markets
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Hello
With reference to Expert advisors.
These are enabled on ALL demo accounts.
For a live account you need to request activation by going onto the Secure Client Area of our website and clicking on settings.
I think it says this may take a week (this is going to be changed) but it should take a few minutes, as long as you have no open positions.
The reason for this (and it is nothing sinister), is that we have to moniter journal entries made by people who are running EAs. Meta Trader has a limit to the number of full journal entries (for queries etc) it stores in a day, and we have twice had one client who wrote his own EA and it went potty. It posted 18,500 journal entires per hour. So we had to call him and ask him to look into it or we would have to deactivate his EA.
It is all very straight forward.
Regards
SLM
Smart Live Markets
Active member
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Hello,
If you are experiencing problems of any sort then please let us know directly so we can help sort them. If this is still an issue then can you either give us a ring or drop us an email to [email protected].
Many thanks.
Regards
SLM
Can SLM provide me with a on your side working buy/sell script? If so, feel free to PM me.
Smart Live Markets
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Hi,
Regretably not.
Not because we don't want to but because we are not experts in that field.
May I suggest an acquaintance of mine called Jim Hunt at trading-gurus.com.
Drop him a line on his forum.
He is very helpful and knowledgeable.
Regards
Paul
SLM