Spread betting at FXCM

[Jason Rogers]

UKOil Expiration

For anyone trading UKOil, please be aware that the current contract will expire tomorrow (Sept 14th). This means any open positions at 5:15pm ET in UKOil will be closed at the bid/offer.

Here's the UKOil expiration calendar for the remainder of this year:

 

[FX Bandit]

Hey Bandit,

Thanks for the post, and sorry about the delay in getting back to you.

Whenever you load a Marketscope chart, it will display 300 periods worth of information but you can do increase the amount of data being displayed on the chart from there. To view more data, you'll need to scroll back or compress the chart.

At the bottom of the chart, there is a ruler area. See the image below. I highlighted the area and drew an arrow to it. If you left click on this area, and drag your mouse to the right it will compress the chart showing more data and ticks. In the chart below, I dragged the chart back by 5000 ticks.

We're also working to have 1 million+ ticks available in historical format for automated trading platform Strategy Trader; however, it is not yet available.

Thanks for the feedback on the charts, and let me know if you have any additional questions!

-Jason

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the reply, sorry I didn't make myself clear. When I said "2000 ticks " I meant how do you get it to display each bar/candle as 2000 ticks, ie, instead of each bar being 15 minutes, 1 hour etc, each bar would instead be formed every 2000 ticks.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks again.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for the reply, sorry I didn't make myself clear. When I said "2000 ticks " I meant how do you get it to display each bar/candle as 2000 ticks, ie, instead of each bar being 15 minutes, 1 hour etc, each bar would instead be formed every 2000 ticks.

Hope this makes sense. Thanks again.

Makes sense . I misunderstood your question. The Marketscope platform doesn't have this option, but I'll definitely give this suggestion to the developers. I would recommend using the Strategy Trader platform instead. It has the most advanced charting out of all of our platforms and includes the ability to create customized tick charts, i.e. 2000 tick bars. See the image below, I highlighted where to find the menu for tick bars. If you don't see the number you want (such as 2,000 ticks), you can enter it into the platform at the top right. There's a field that says "Type a symbol/interval". You can type "2000 ticks" and a 2,000 tick bar chart will appear.

 

[FX Bandit]

Thanks Jason .

 

[jd1888]

Hi Jason

I was looking at this theard and was wondering if your index bets are hedged as well or is it just the forex bets?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason

I was looking at this theard and was wondering if your index bets are hedged as well or is it just the forex bets?

Thanks in advance.

Hi jd,

Thanks for the post and sorry about the delayed reply. I was away from the office earlier this week, but my response time should be back to normal now!

For the stock indices, gold, silver, and oil CFD's FXCM is making a market; however, there are no re-quotes when trading the CFD products. The forex transactions use No Dealing Desk execution so each order is hedged immediately with another bank or financial institution.

-Jason

 

[jd1888]

Its ok about the delayed reply. Thanks for replying anyway.

So FXCM take the other side of the trade?
Are the indices and commodities available on the spread betting platform yet?
Also did you get my email about that I sent regarding the indicators?

Thanks again.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Its ok about the delayed reply. Thanks for replying anyway.

So FXCM take the other side of the trade?
Are the indices and commodities available on the spread betting platform yet?
Also did you get my email about that I sent regarding the indicators?

Thanks again.

Hi JD,

For gold, silver, oil, and stock indices, FXCM is making a market for those products. So even though there are no re-quotes, FXCM is taking the other side of the position and then manage that risk. The forex transactions executed by No Dealing Desk, every trade is offset immediately with another bank or financial institution.

The indices and commodities are available on the spreadbet platform.

I didn't see your email come through. Can you try resending to [email protected]?

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Earlier this year, we had a discussion about pip values for FXCM accounts since the pip value is not equal to exactly £1 per point. We created a calculator which you can use to calculate how many lots you need to trade based on how many pounds you want each point to be worth. Here's where to find it on the ODL website: http://www.odlmarkets.com/calculator/calculator.php

Below is a screenshot of the page with short description how to use it:

After you press calculate, it will show you what you need to enter in the AMT field of the FX Trading Station II platform. In the example above, if you want each point to be worth roughly £10, you need to enter 160(k) into the AMT (Amount) field when placing the trade.

 

[Vaco]

Hi Jason,

Wonder if you can clarify for me, I understand that the min stake on the spreadbet account is 10k units but after that is it possible to increase size by less then 10k units or does the next increase in size have to be 20k units. The demo allows me to enter any value I like but one of your sales guys told me you have to step up by 10k.

Thanks

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason,

Wonder if you can clarify for me, I understand that the min stake on the spreadbet account is 10k units but after that is it possible to increase size by less then 10k units or does the next increase in size have to be 20k units. The demo allows me to enter any value I like but one of your sales guys told me you have to step up by 10k.

Thanks

Hi Vaco,

That is true...the spreadbet account trades in increments of 10k. It won't be possible to go from 10k to 11k for example, only 10k to 20k, etc.

In order to trade in smaller increments you would have to go with the micro account which trades in 1k lot sizes. The micro account it's not available in the spreadbet setup, so you would lose the preferential tax treatment on any gains .

-Jason

 

[jd1888]

Hi Jason

Thanks for the above reply. I have another question for you sorry if you have answered this before, I recently download a demo MT4 with an FXCM demo account, I am wondering if the MT4 platform is available for spread betting or not.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason

Thanks for the above reply. I have another question for you sorry if you have answered this before, I recently download a demo MT4 with an FXCM demo account, I am wondering if the MT4 platform is available for spread betting or not.

Thanks in advance.

Hi jd,

The MT4 platform is not available for spreadbet accounts. The MT4 account is setup as a regular forex & CFD account without the preferential tax treatment the spreadbet account offers.

What you could use instead is the Strategy Trader platform. If you're used MT4, then Strategy Trader should be easy to use IMO. Any account using the FX Trading Station II (such as the spreadbet accounts) can use Strategy Trader as long as you first disable hedging through www.myfxcm.com. A screenshot of the platform is attached.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Jason

 

[Vaco]

Hi Jason,

On the trading station is it possibe to set up a hot key to close half of a position?

If it is how do I do it?

Thanks

VAco

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason,

On the trading station is it possibe to set up a hot key to close half of a position?

If it is how do I do it?

Thanks

VAco

Hi Vaco,

There's a hotkey for the close position window (SHIFT+C) but you would have to enter the amount to close. The amount will auto-populate with the default 10k position or the last position size you closed.

I'll check to see if Strategy Trader has anything similar to what you're looking for.

-Jason

 

[Jason Rogers]

Here's a video we put together visually explaining how FXCM's NDD forex execution works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkeqcfvojHA​

 

[jd1888]

Hi Jason

I have a little question for you.

I would like to spread bet via the FXCM platform but I would like to take signals from a MT4 platform.

Would the price be the same on both platforms or is there likely to be marginal differences in the price?

Thanks

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Jason

I have a little question for you.

I would like to spread bet via the FXCM platform but I would like to take signals from a MT4 platform.

Would the price be the same on both platforms or is there likely to be marginal differences in the price?

Thanks

Hi jd,

Both use the same price feed, but on MT4 there is a 1/10th of a pip mark-up added to the spread which is compensation for the technology provider for the MT4 platform. So this would make a small difference if you compared each trade.

-Jason

 

[Hotch]

So it would actually turn out better for him ;-)

 

[Jason Rogers]

New Demo Expiration Time-frame

The demo expiration settings have also been updated for FXCM demo accounts. Previously, demo accounts would expire every 30 days. This has been changed. Demo accounts will now only expire if inactive for 30 days. So as long as you login every 30 days, the demo will not expire.