C
cablemonster
that's about what you should be paying if you are doing any sort of volume. looks a good deal. basically it works out around 0.1tick in commission if you get me. nice.
that's about what you should be paying if you are doing any sort of volume. looks a good deal. basically it works out around 0.1tick in commission if you get me. nice.
C
cablemonster
yup we dont want designer slippage.
;-)
Cheers
random12345
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AA, out of curiosity, why that screenshot? The only 'good' spread on there is the GU spread. I'm sure you could have cherry picked something better
random12345
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This screenshot is ancient CM, we need comparative spreads right now - liquidity is a bit thinner and we're coming into August too.
Having said that, I have noticed LMAX's JPY spreads creeping up too, but then that's no surprise to me given the current market situation, but then if other pairs are affected maybe it's worth keeping an eye on. The real litmus test is not to panic change and see where they stand in October imo.
They are still trying to get referrals from Currenex et al on the basis of competitiveness - I got a few commiss kickbacks for referrals of larger traders and hopefully they have no plans to change the model!
definitely not good.edit - take a look at their own historical spreads chart for cable (blue line) it has risen from around 1.0 to 2.0 in 3 months.
that spike back in March now seems an omen of things to come.
some brokers widen during news time, lmax seems to widen by the month. let's see how this goes.
random12345
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Agree it is slightly strange for a number of reasons:
- why slowly widen the spreads and publicly document it with the spread monitor on their front-page, without really being able to explain the growth? I was told Nomura and Citi came on as LPs recently and to expect tightening when I spoke to the sales dir about this. The opposite has occurred.
- why is Armada (the Estonian outfit who use LMAX's LPs) consistently offering tighter spreads than LMAX (using myfxbook monitor)... I doubt they have many other decent LP arrangements to speak of!?
- for me personally, the UJ has been the worst, previously a micro spread pair (and still is really..), it has widened on LMAX to about 0.8 or more on average. This is more like... a spread better and in fact sometimes worse with commish. The past 2 months have been bad for this cross spread wise and I had to rewrite some of my stuff to cope with the inferior fills I was suffering away from the trade price on regular occasions. Though of course it is uber volatile lately.
- I don't trade the GU so I can't comment on that, but last I did check, the spread was indeed freaking massive. As you can see from AA's post, the interbank rates are still quite steady so what the hell.
Having said all that, I have surprised myself with my loyalty to LMAX. They still haven't offered me the commission rate I was paying at IB and I don't think they ever will. Good customer service and a few decent people must mean more to me than I thought cause I still haven't left this ship and currently intend to give it until 2014...
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cablemonster
Hi mate. Ref armada. They operate a dealer model based on lmax prices so its not an ecn. Shades of grey ....
random12345
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Didn't doubt their dodginess for a minute, but it's an argument I like to use with LMAX themselves
AA, out of curiosity, why that screenshot? The only 'good' spread on there is the GU spread. I'm sure you could have cherry picked something better
I took the snapshot as soon as I logged in, I didn't have time to wait around. I suppose if I waited then it may have been tighter but what I got was decent and better than most people would get
random12345
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I took the snapshot as soon as I logged in, I didn't have time to wait around. I suppose if I waited then it may have been tighter but what I got was decent and better than most people would get
I am tempted to give them a go for a while, but I don't have anything that uses FIX up right now. Would require a few weeks of work or paying for a custom bridge... meh.
Question on your earlier posts though, how's it possible to 'never' miss a set price fill in 14 months?? I assume you mean a stop entry fill within reason rather than a limit entry fill? How can you always fill 5 mill on 5 digits without an avg fill occurring from time to time in 14 months? You gotta be the luckiest man alive if that's so, Institutional liquidity or not.
Is the 10bucks/mi the standard commission before a negotiated rate?
Cheers.
random12345
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Aye, every time I speak to the commissions/sales guy there (Paul) he does stick to the EU headline spread like his life depends on it. Clearly they are committed to keeping that among the top of the leader-boards so maybe I should shift some focus that way for a while.
Guys,
One very important thing you need to keep in mind with LMax's spreads.
Look at the volume available at the top of book.
Their best prices normally have 10 to 50 mini lots; therefore only 1 standard lot to 5 standard lot is available.
Not exactly much liquidity there. For the same price on my Currenex, I am seeing volumes of 30 to 50 standard lots.
You have to go down LMax's book to get better volumes but the price widens substantially. Depth of liquidity is not good, unless you trade very small sizes (but not regularly)
One very important thing you need to keep in mind with LMax's spreads.
Look at the volume available at the top of book.
Their best prices normally have 10 to 50 mini lots; therefore only 1 standard lot to 5 standard lot is available.
Not exactly much liquidity there. For the same price on my Currenex, I am seeing volumes of 30 to 50 standard lots.
You have to go down LMax's book to get better volumes but the price widens substantially. Depth of liquidity is not good, unless you trade very small sizes (but not regularly)
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Shakone
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Yeah this used to be better too, 10 (100 in the picture) standard lots on either side was pretty much the minimum, and 10 million either side for a spread of less than a pip.
But it's not usually as bad as your picture makes out. If it doesn't improve in August/September, then I'll look elsewhere, but I'm not reading too much into lunchtime in July. I mean even in your pic, you can buy 6.5million for 0.8 pip spread.
The spread on GBPUSD and whether the trend of widening spread and lower liquidity continues is a bit more concerning.
But it's not usually as bad as your picture makes out. If it doesn't improve in August/September, then I'll look elsewhere, but I'm not reading too much into lunchtime in July. I mean even in your pic, you can buy 6.5million for 0.8 pip spread.
The spread on GBPUSD and whether the trend of widening spread and lower liquidity continues is a bit more concerning.
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Good point. Just took a screenshot of the live EURUSD depth. I think they are artificially narrowing the spread to show better results for websites that keep track like fxintel.com/live
10 standard (mini?) lots but the proper liquidity is much wider and almost double the artificial spread.
This is scary because now I am worried that LP's might have actually withdrawn from LMAX en mass. Could it because they are worried about counterparty risk with LMAX being the clearer for all trades and with $8 billion daily turnover I wonder if LMAX is capitalized enough? I think I am going to withdraw half my account today as a precaution.
random12345
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Shakone, are you using MC right now or custom with FIX? Or discretionary even?
I agree with you re August/September. August is extremely difficult to judge as regard expected profit and I wouldn't want to incur the cost of transferring to the likes of CapMar while experiencing a flat August to boot, would be extremely depressing. Might ride out August with LMAX then have a few conversations.
random12345
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Thanks, appreciate your time - didn't know they did demo accts - do you know their basic commission offer structure at this point?
