Smart Live Markets - Spread Bet on MT4

[pineappleman]

Paul (and all the guys/gals at SLM)

Can I just say (at the risk of people laughing or being sh*tty) a big thanks for all of your efforts to actually give us all a (long overdue) great retail trading platform.

The whole MT4 thing is great, it's better than any of that browser-based cr*p SB companies have plugged to us before. Your customer service is great and your spreads/financing are great. In fact, for smaller starter clients up to £50 per point type trading, you probably are the best out there. It's an industry littered with holes which will never be perfect but you guys, I feel, are really trying.

You (Paul) must be congratulated in your efforts to come onto these forums to gracefully and honestly defend the company against all the negative (and no doubt often losing) retail traders (cue the backlash from insulted wannabe traders).

I wish you all at SLM well in the future and may SLM go on to be bigger and better. I for one am grateful for your efforts.

Pine

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Yup me me too. Claimed £272 last Thursday, credited within 10 minutes. I was nearing the end of the one month claiming period at break even so took a coin toss trade on some news with a £300 S/L, obviously tails would have been a better outcome.

Wit all due respect, I think that illustrates why these sort of offers encourage the wrong sort of attitude, i.e. a losing attitude.

At least funding-matching offers require you to at least make some commitment, and then there is a pretty good incentive to win, think like a winner, and carry on winning.

 

[zorba_g]

Hi
For the record I am pretty sure I did NOT say that novices could not trade themselves out of a paper bag. It was in fact a reference to those serial and experienced individuals who do nothing else but try and deal on a latent or 'too good' a price compared to the real underlying market.

We are here 100% to help novices and experienced traders. Please see my other comments further down.

We have not pooled you or anyone in as 'abusers' or anything else, and I am sorry if you got that vibe from my reply.

We have reduced over 50 spreads. This is as a result of moving to variable spreads. The EurUsd is going up a fraction. We could have kept the spreads fixed and just widend the EurUsd to say 1.5, which incidentally it has been on our MT4 FX/CFD platform for over six months.

But we decided that this would be a better and long term more sustainable move.
If we are wrong then we could always revert back to fixed spreads or maybe introduce fixed spreads for those with smaller accounts if they think that would be of benefit to them.

As I keep saying, please just wait and see. Personally I honestly do not think you will notice much of a change.

Regards
Paul
SLM

Paul - thanks for your reply. It's a sign of my naiveté that I didn't know there was a 'latency' or an 'underlying market'. I learn something new everyday and am starting to understand who you are aiming at. I thought it was EA users myself - I'm a bit paranoid like that.

I guess the source of some of my complaining is that you've come into the market with a 'too good' platform and are making it seem 'less good'. If you had started with variable spreads no one would bat an eyelid as we're thankful for MT4 spreadbetting.

For the record, I have to second the comments about SLM service on here - I was paid the £300 loss offer without quibble or delay, also any referral fees I've generated, and queries are dealt with quickly and well. Also I think Paul has set a gold standard in coming on to forums and dealing with questions in a level-headed and (mostly) clear way. I'm not rushing off to another broker yet but will see what happens with the new spreads.

 

[Ross Spur]

I guess the source of some of my complaining is that you've come into the market with a 'too good' platform and are making it seem 'less good'. If you had started with variable spreads no one would bat an eyelid as we're thankful for MT4 spreadbetting.

Yes, but fewer people would have signed up in the first place if the spreads had been wider and/or variable.

 

[Capstan]

Paul (and all the guys/gals at SLM)
You (Paul) must be congratulated in your efforts to come onto these forums to gracefully and honestly defend the company against all the negative (and no doubt often losing) retail traders (cue the backlash from insulted wannabe traders).
Pine

Well said Pineappleman. Yes, good on SLM for having the guts to come on here and take occasional flak from contributors, whether justified or not, unlike the other SB companies, none of whom have dared to rear their ugly heads in recent years to my knowledge.:clap:

 

[Smart Live Markets]

I can confirm that i claimed just over a week a go under this & my account was credited within an hour.
I dont know if this offer is still available as its off thier website (but it was when i opened my account) so fair play to them for honouring my request.

Hello
Ths offer is still available for new spread bet accounts opened.
It is on our .co.uk website. Just wait for the banners to rotate at the top.

Regards
SLM

 

[Mornington Crescent]

Paul

SLM is doing just fine

it would seem some of our posters just like sounding off

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Well said Pineappleman. Yes, good on SLM for having the guts to come on here and take occasional flak from contributors, whether justified or not, unlike the other SB companies, none of whom have dared to rear their ugly heads in recent years to my knowledge.:clap:

To be fair, CMC have been very active here. CS less so in recent months, but certainly have been here "in recent years". Prospreads were here last year. Not seen them recently. Those are the ones I can think of off-hand. Shorts and Longs used to get on here, but been quiet lately. Oh yes, one must mention FXCM, but spread-betting is only part of what they do, and mostly I think they talk about their other platforms, but if you ask Jason a spread-betting question, I am sure he will answer it.

 

[t.ph]

Yes, but fewer people would have signed up in the first place if the spreads had been wider and/or variable.

No one signs up for anything, you open an account & are free to close it when you want.
Regardless of what they did or what they now offer, if you dont like it then you dont use them. Name one company that hasnt changed or continues to change parts of their terms & conditions. If they are being screwed over with thier current business module in parts then they are gonna change just the same as anyone else would. We are all free to choose who we use & if, as you seem to think that everything that SLM do is wrong & others agree then these disgruntled punters will flood out of there doors in there droves. Every broker is different & all have there plusses & minuses.

Oh btw might be new on here but have 30 years experience of winning & losing plenty of money & have never paid a penny in tax in the last 26 years full time (answering earlier posts about tax situation NO INCOME TAX or CGT IS PAYABLE ON GAMBLING INCLUDING SPREADBETTING FULLSTOP If anyone has ever paid tax on these winning they are an idiot first off & secondly should ask for a rebate immediatley THE TAX RULES ARE CRYSTAL CLEAR).

 

[easytimes]

Looking at the announcement again you can see a lot of FX pairs have much reduced spreads with the changes like AUDUSD, USDCAD, USDCHF, it's only 0.5 pip extra on EURUSD. It seems a lot of people here just trade EURUSD with the comments, well 1.5 pips target spread is still competitive imo.

The only bit that could be an issue is "There may, however, be times when during high volatility these spreads become wider than the target spread." so it's a case of wait and see on that one with the definition of 'there may'. It certainly isn't unusual for that to happen on FOMC or NFP from my experience those news releases have been the cause of a few phone calls over the years with different providers. I think it could be worth SLM giving some idea of a maximum though so that there is a way of gauging the upper limits of spreads in extreme conditions as this bit is currently open ended. If you have an EA with tight stops you could come home and find a list of positions that opened then got immediately stopped because of the spread. I think that area would be worth addressing.

I've been using SLM on a live account for about 2 months now so far so good.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

The only bit that could be an issue is "There may, however, be times when during high volatility these spreads become wider than the target spread." so it's a case of wait and see on that one with the definition of 'there may'. It certainly isn't unusual for that to happen on FOMC or NFP from my experience those news releases have been the cause of a few phone calls over the years with different providers.

Fair comment. It's just a bit unfortunate that in that article that someone quoted, SLM specifically used the NFP as as example of when they wouldn't widen the spread! I suspect that privately, they probably regret making that statement in public.


That doesn't put me off trading live with them. Clearly one should act with caution around news, whoever you are trading with.

 

[andycon]

Hi, has anyone seen a company called Smart Live Markets is now offering spreadbetting on MT4? Anyone know what they are like? Demo looks OK!

I currently use Finspreads for spreadbetting and Alpari MT4 for my charts and analysis, although I don't use EA's I was thinking of switching to Smart Live for the convenience of not having to switch between windows. I have tried the demo account and they seem ok. Can you open a position both long and short on the same instrument?

 

[Mornington Crescent]

andy

the short answer is yes but you will pay the spread on both of course

 

[Jaroon]

Wit all due respect, I think that illustrates why these sort of offers encourage the wrong sort of attitude, i.e. a losing attitude.

At least funding-matching offers require you to at least make some commitment, and then there is a pretty good incentive to win, think like a winner, and carry on winning.

Fair enough monty, I still think the offer is great for newbies as I traded for a whole month with out pressure and sticking to max 2% risk. Come the end of the offer period if I could had seen a nice set up I would have taken it but strategically a no risk of loss coin flip that might add 30% to my account in minutes seemed ok.

Rest assured I wont trade like this again and I got a free lesson in the dangers of trading the news

One unfilled sell order today, on reaplying I got a better price

 

[andycon]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Here is an exclusive for you guys..... we have launched an iPhone App for MT4.
So you can now spread bet anywhere using MT4.

Just go to the App store and search for Smart Live...the app is free.
We need to make a couple of small changes to it, but it works very well.

Your views would be appreciated as always.

Regards
SLM

Any chance of getting an app for blackberry?

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Can you open a position both long and short on the same instrument?

I believe the answer to this is no, actually. Or rather you can, but the 2nd will close the first, if they are for the same amount, or if the 2nd is greater than the first.

 

[andycon]

I believe the answer to this is no, actually. Or rather you can, but the 2nd will close the first, if they are for the same amount, or if the 2nd is greater than the first.

Just tried it on their demo platform, it works ok on that.

 

[francisfinley]

I believe the answer to this is no, actually. Or rather you can, but the 2nd will close the first, if they are for the same amount, or if the 2nd is greater than the first.

have you actually tried?

no you haven't.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

have you actually tried?

no you haven't.

No I haven't. I emailed to ask them if it was possible at some point and they told me the answer was no. As I had no reason to doubt them, and no reason to try it in practice, I just assumed that this was the case.

Have you actually tried? Actually tried on the live platform that is?



EDIT: I looked for the email and couldn't find it. I then looked again at the website, and found this:

"To close an open position on MetaTrader you must either attach an order to the position to do this for you or right click on the position viewable in you ‘Trades’ tab and then choose the ‘close order’ option and then click the yellow close button. If you simply do a bet of equal and opposite value then this will not close the position but leave you both long and short."

at: http://www.smartlivemarkets.co.uk/pages/education/sb-tutorial.aspx

So I was wrong. Sorry. The email I was thinking of must have been to/from another company.

Happy to have been corrected, and sorry for having given misleading information before.


I don't think i will be using that very often, but it's good to have that flexibility. On the other hand, some people may prefer to be able to switch that facility off (as I think you can do with FXCM).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was looking at some reviews of a particular US Forex broker today, and it seems that brokers there have been forbidden from allowing this now by the regulatory authorities. This seems to have caused a bit of a rumpus among some of its customers, even if they only seem to be obeying the rules.

 

[francisfinley]

No I haven't. I emailed to ask them if it was possible at some point and they told me the answer was no. As I had no reason to doubt them, and no reason to try it in practice, I just assumed that this was the case.

Have you actually tried? Actually tried on the live platform that is?



EDIT: I looked for the email and couldn't find it. I then looked again at the website, and found this:


at: http://www.smartlivemarkets.co.uk/pages/education/sb-tutorial.aspx

So I was wrong. Sorry. The email I was thinking of must have been to/from another company.

Happy to have been corrected, and sorry for having given misleading information before.


I don't think i will be using that very often, but it's good to have that flexibility. On the other hand, some people may prefer to be able to switch that facility off (as I think you can do with FXCM).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was looking at some reviews of a particular US Forex broker today, and it seems that brokers there have been forbidden from allowing this now by the regulatory authorities. This seems to have caused a bit of a rumpus among some of its customers, even if they only seem to be obeying the rules.

thanks for the correction. We all make mistakes.