Going offshore to escape the CFTC

[Clint]

Trump is appointing Giancarlo as the new chair of the CTFC. Do you think this will make a difference?

I hope so, but it’s too early to tell.

I like the things I’ve heard him say, so far, but I’ve only heard general comments about his attitude toward markets and competition, and his approach to regulation. I haven’t heard him say anything specific about the currency market in general, or retail forex trading in particular. So, we’ll just have to watch and listen carefully.

Also, in a short interview after the NGFA national convention (video titled “Giancarlo speaks with NGFA” for those interested to view it) …

I know you’re not yet able to post links, so I’ll do it for you — THIS is the video you referred to.

… Giancarlo mentioned that “Dodd-Frank assigned to the CTFC responsibility to a large portion of the [swaps] market”. My understanding is forex part of the swaps market. Wouldn’t that mean that a repeal of Dodd-Frank could potentially make the CTFC more chill?

Actually, it’s the other way around: swaps are part of the forex market (broadly defined).

The forex market (broadly defined) comprises all of the worldwide foreign exchange market(s), including:

• spot forex (that’s our little corner of the market)
• outright forwards
• foreign exchange swaps
• currency swaps
• options
• other products

Spot forex (which includes both retail and institutional trading) is part of “the forex market”, and swaps are part of “the forex market”. But, spot forex is not part of the swaps market, or vice versa.

Swaps (being a type of foreign exchange derivative) come under the Dodd-Frank law, but spot forex does not. However, spot forex was placed under CFTC regulation by laws which pre-date Dodd-Frank. So, in my opinion, even a total repeal of Dodd-Frank would not get spot forex out from under the thumb of the CFTC.

If the new regime in the White House, and the new regime at the CFTC, take a more moderate approach to regulation generally, then maybe the CFTC will lighten up in its oppression of spot forex, and especially retail spot forex.

•

Here is a presentation which Christopher Giancarlo gave to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute last September. The presentation was long, and got off to a slow start. But, if you stick with it, I think you will get some insight into the thinking of the new CFTC chairman.

Welcome to this forum, by the way!

.

[rkinman]

Are you sure you’re comparing swap rates for equivalent position sizes?

.

All swaps I made sure we’re quoted at 1lot or 100,000 units

[MorpheusZ]

Here is a presentation which Christopher Giancarlo gave to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute last September. The presentation was long, and got off to a slow start. But, if you stick with it, I think you will get some insight into the thinking of the new CFTC chairman.

.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! His views definitely look more on the moderate side. Statements like “we should be trying to understand the business and adapt our rules, not the other way around” are reassuring. I’m also hoping that FIFO and No Hedging won’t survive the scrutiny of the “we need to change our strategies to cope with the digital age and algorithmic trading” part that he repeated 100 times.

[MarkMcCoskey]

I’m part of the FXCM fallout, as I was for GFT as well a few years back.

Being a US based trader, it’s my understanding that we now have Oanda, Gain, TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, and the 12 off-shore brokers listed as “Trusted Brokers” from post #7?

Edited because my above statement was wrong. Corrected below. Thanks Clint!

Being a US based trader, it’s my understanding that we now have Oanda, Gain, TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, and the 2 off-shore brokers ([B]Trader’s Way[/B] & [B]FX Choice[/B]) listed as “Trusted Brokers” from post #1?

Sort of sounds like FX Choice is the favorite?

Thanks!

[Clint]

Being a US based trader, it’s my understanding that we now have Oanda, Gain, TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, and the 12 off-shore brokers listed as “Trusted Brokers” from post #7 ?

Currently, there are only [I][B]two[/B][/I] Trusted Brokers (not 12) in our Offshore Broker List.

Post #1 is the primary list.

The 12 offshore brokers listed there basically have 2 things in common:

B[/B] they all accept U.S. clients, and

B[/B] they all look reasonably sound and reliable, and therefore appear to be worth further
examination and careful vetting by interested traders.

The links in post #7 connect to comments, both pro and con, regarding the 12 listed brokers.

Two of the 12 listed brokers have been singled out for special notice as Trusted Brokers:

[B]Trader’s Way[/B] in Dominica, and [B]FX Choice[/B] in Belize.

.

[Shatners_Last_Stand]

Interesting article about IFSC (Belize) increasing capital requirements for FOREX brokers:

Exclusive: Belize IFSC Begins Enforcement of New Capital Requirements | Finance Magnates

I trade with [B]FX Choice[/B]. Never experienced problems with them, though I was a bit surprised a couple of months ago when they eliminated many of their derivatives offerings, citing lack of trading activity. Based on this, maybe they also needed to cut some expenses to shore up capital.

[Clint]

Interesting article about IFSC (Belize) increasing capital requirements for FOREX brokers:

I saw that article, Shatner. Thanks for posting the link.

.

[typcorn]

Trader’s Way accepts US citizens. Someone has an account with them.

[MarcinFX]

Hi

This happens on FX Choice demo and live accounts and also on my friend’s account. You can just run a demo account and watch MT4 when the market has a lot of activity such as after news. The charts on the FX Choice MetaTrader application will all freeze for 5 - 30 seconds at various times when the market is very busy. Other brokers I am using with MT4 do not have this, just wider spreads. Then I found a site that mentions FX Choice implements 5 pip freeze (see this here listed as a Con for FX Choice: https://www.forexbrokerz.com/brokers/fxchoice) so it sounds like FX Choice freezes when the pip spread is > 5. Other brokers are not doing this. This is a problem with EA because EAs run on each tick of the market. If FX Choice is freezing at times of high activity, the EA can’t do anything while on other brokers the EA can determine not to trade or make decisions when the spread widens.

If you want, my friend can create a youtube video showing how FX Choice markets freeze during high activity compared to other brokers. It’s not a specific account problem. You can even replicate this by using a demo FX Choice MT4 ECN account. I also emailed Stephen Mater this concern, but did not receive a response.

HI

Can anyone also confirm it, so we can go to the bottom of this. Mr FxChoice rep. never responded to the above. If you do not trade around the news, i guess this is not applying to you.
I took my money and ran. I have just opened account with Tradersway and my EA works great.
Fxchoice cheats around the news. They might not be ECN STP broker.

[vk79]

HI

Can anyone also confirm it, so we can go to the bottom of this. Mr FxChoice rep. never responded to the above. If you do not trade around the news, i guess this is not applying to you.
I took my money and ran. I have just opened account with Tradersway and my EA works great.
Fxchoice cheats around the news. They might not be ECN STP broker.

I only have demo account but yes I have seen it happen.

[MarcinFX]

I only have demo account but yes I have seen it happen.

Thanks for confirming that.

I actually traded few times during the freezes. Myfxchoice holds your order for few seconds and then they fill it. Its ridicules, this is the broker that we designated to be a trusted broker.

THIS IS NOT STP ECN BROKER.

Please watch this video, this is not an advertisement.

It seems to me, this is what they do.

This does not happen with Tallinex or Tradersway.

Anybody else can confirm it.

Thanks.

[HyperScalper]

Thanks for confirming that.

I actually traded few times during the freezes. Myfxchoice holds your order for few seconds and then they fill it. Its ridicules, this is the broker that we designated to be a trusted broker.

THIS IS NOT STP ECN BROKER.

It seems to me, this is what they do.

This does not happen with Tallinex or Tradersway.

Anybody else can confirm it.

Thanks.

Well, to me, it’s just the broker trying to be a bit more efficient / profitable, and there is
some logic to it. When MT4 sizes of 0.01 are permitted, it’s clear that the large
liquidity providers simply don’t deal in anything less than 1.00 or higher lot sizes.

Therefore, there appears to be a a need for an “aggregator” which assists in
accumulating larger sizes which will be executable at the inter-bank liquidity
level. At some stage, clearly this has to happen.

I discussed a 700 millisecond Order turn around time with one of the brokers on
our list. This was explained to me, and they could bypass this aggregation
function. That immediately resulted in execution times down in the sub-200 millisecond range.

We are locating VPS’s in Amsterdam, and this greatly decreases the latency to
many brokers’ backends as well… About 1 millisecond ping time.

But let’s not expect too much from a retail low cost platform such as MT4. If you
trade in the Big Leagues, and depending upon your Strategy, there are significant
differences among brokers.

Further details, I can’t really discuss due to confidentiality… But I’ve said before that
if execution speed and consistency are important for your trading plan, that you can
request the broker provide you with better connectivity…

After all, very few traders are Primarily dependent on execution latency and consistency.
We ain’t doing “arbitrage” on a low cost MT4 retail platform, right ??? Evaluate your
trading approach, and be honest how much of your plan depends upon "sheer speed"
anyway (within reason) ?? JUST A THOUGHT.

If you don’t ask, you won’t get ??..

hyperscalper

[MarcinFX]

Well, to me, it’s just the broker trying to be a bit more efficient / profitable, and there is
some logic to it. When MT4 sizes of 0.01 are permitted, it’s clear that the large
liquidity providers simply don’t deal in anything less than 1.00 or higher lot sizes.

Therefore, there appears to be a a need for an “aggregator” which assists in
accumulating larger sizes which will be executable at the inter-bank liquidity
level. At some stage, clearly this has to happen.

I discussed a 700 millisecond Order turn around time with one of the brokers on
our list. This was explained to me, and they could bypass this aggregation
function. That immediately resulted in execution times down in the sub-200 millisecond range.

We are locating VPS’s in Amsterdam, and this greatly decreases the latency to
many brokers’ backends as well… About 1 millisecond ping time.

But let’s not expect too much from a retail low cost platform such as MT4. If you
trade in the Big Leagues, and depending upon your Strategy, there are significant
differences among brokers.

Further details, I can’t really discuss due to confidentiality… But I’ve said before that
if execution speed and consistency are important for your trading plan, that you can
request the broker provide you with better connectivity…

After all, very few traders are Primarily dependent on execution latency and consistency.
We ain’t doing “arbitrage” on a low cost MT4 retail platform, right ??? Evaluate your
trading approach, and be honest how much of your plan depends upon "sheer speed"
anyway (within reason) ?? JUST A THOUGHT.

If you don’t ask, you won’t get ??..

hyperscalper

You are talking about 700ms, I am saying 7-10sec or longer freezes. When you pull a 1 min chart,
you can see gaps.
The last US UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBER, Fxchoice froze for over 10 sec or longer.
I wish I recorded a video. I have never seen it that bad.

With TradersWay we get around 10ms ping, end everything works great.

[HyperScalper]

@MarcinFX

You are talking about 700ms, I am saying 7-10sec or longer freezes. When you pull a 1 min chart,
you can see gaps.
The last US UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBER, Fxchoice froze for over 10 sec or longer.
I wish I recorded a video. I have never seen it that bad.

With TradersWay we get around 10ms ping, end everything works great.

OK, yes, that is completely unacceptable; assuming it is not something wrong on your
ISP end of the internet or equipment ! There are a lot of links in the chain, you
know. But if a broker freezes consistently like that, then that is a major problem.

It’s President’s Day so not much happening in Forex right now, but here is an idea
of the difference between data flow rates (tick rates) of Tradersway.com versus FinProTrading.com.
The latter pushes maybe 4x - 7x more ticks to the client platform. This data is from a VPS in
Amsterdam 1 millisecond from their backend data centers .

Anyway, I have never observed “freezing” from either one. If you’re using MT4, seeing “gaps”
in your backfill data; maybe that’s a client-side issue. This is just a random link on the subject
https://pepperstone.com/en/support/metatrader-4/resetting-your-mt4-chart-data and perhaps
you could check to see whether gaps disappear after some “reset” on the client side cache.
If so, then maybe the network saturates with a “bottleneck” during News Event times, in the
path to your local client system ? NOT MINIMIZING YOUR CLAIM, just suggesting some ideas.
What do the FXChoice support people say about it ?

Another idea would be not to have the full range of instruments selected in the Market Watch
window. Instead, build yourself some profiles, and greatly limit the number of symbols whose
data is being streamed your way at any time. Even to the point of having just one,
e.g. EURUSD as the only one selected. See whether that fixes the issue?

In my case, my interest is only Forex. Therefore, my software automatically disables ALL of
the non-Forex symbols incoming ! Why burden the network with things you don’t care about?

Maybe the data rates from FXChoice are unusually high, and that shows up at News Events ??
[ haha I had to edit the data which was generating “smiley” emoticons… ]

Tradersway.com MT4 ECN counts of ticks over a 5 minute period:
<code>
Symbol USDCADi tickCount: 44
Symbol AUDUSDi tickCount: 65
Symbol NZDCADi tickCount: 66
Symbol AUDCADi tickCount: 67
Symbol AUDNZDi tickCount: 72
Symbol GBPNZDi tickCount: 83
Symbol NZDCHFi tickCount: 94
Symbol CADCHFi tickCount: 98
Symbol GBPCADi tickCount: 122
Symbol AUDCHFi tickCount: 126
Symbol NZDUSDi tickCount: 131
Symbol USDCHFi tickCount: 141
Symbol EURUSDi tickCount: 159
Symbol GBPAUDi tickCount: 160
Symbol NZDJPYi tickCount: 172
Symbol EURAUDi tickCount: 175
Symbol EURGBPi tickCount: 175
Symbol GBPUSDi tickCount: 177
Symbol CADJPYi tickCount: 188
Symbol EURNZDi tickCount: 195
Symbol GBPCHFi tickCount: 200
Symbol EURCADi tickCount: 203
Symbol USDJPYi tickCount: 206
Symbol AUDJPYi tickCount: 208
Symbol EURCHFi tickCount: 215
Symbol GBPJPYi tickCount: 250
Symbol CHFJPYi tickCount: 274
Symbol EURJPYi tickCount: 314
</code>
FinProTrading.com MT4 ECN counts of ticks over a comparable 5 minute period:
<code>
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol USDJPY_ tickCount: 278
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDUSD_ tickCount: 325
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDUSD_ tickCount: 331
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol CADJPY_ tickCount: 332
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDCAD_ tickCount: 339
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDJPY_ tickCount: 402
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol USDCAD_ tickCount: 405
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDCAD_ tickCount: 415
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDCHF_ tickCount: 418
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDNZD_ tickCount: 432
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDJPY_ tickCount: 440
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDCHF_ tickCount: 445
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol CADCHF_ tickCount: 461
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol USDCHF_ tickCount: 520
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol CHFJPY_ tickCount: 623
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURNZD_ tickCount: 735
-18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPNZD_ tickCount: 764
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPCHF_ tickCount: 809
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPAUD_ tickCount: 838
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURCHF_ tickCount: 871
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPJPY_ tickCount: 920
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPCAD_ tickCount: 956
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURUSD_ tickCount: 979
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURAUD_ tickCount: 986
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURCAD_ tickCount: 1016
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURJPY_ tickCount: 1030
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURGBP_ tickCount: 1044
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPUSD_ tickCount: 1385
</code>

hyperscalper

[MarcinFX]

@HyperScalper

OK, yes, that is completely unacceptable; assuming it is not something wrong on your
ISP end of the internet or equipment ! There are a lot of links in the chain, you
know. But if a broker freezes consistently like that, then that is a major problem.

It’s President’s Day so not much happening in Forex right now, but here is an idea
of the difference between data flow rates (tick rates) of Tradersway.com versus FinProTrading.com.
The latter pushes maybe 4x - 7x more ticks to the client platform. This data is from a VPS in
Amsterdam 1 millisecond from their backend data centers .

Anyway, I have never observed “freezing” from either one. If you’re using MT4, seeing “gaps”
in your backfill data; maybe that’s a client-side issue. This is just a random link on the subject
https://pepperstone.com/en/support/metatrader-4/resetting-your-mt4-chart-data and perhaps
you could check to see whether gaps disappear after some “reset” on the client side cache.
If so, then maybe the network saturates with a “bottleneck” during News Event times, in the
path to your local client system ? NOT MINIMIZING YOUR CLAIM, just suggesting some ideas.
What do the FXChoice support people say about it ?

Another idea would be not to have the full range of instruments selected in the Market Watch
window. Instead, build yourself some profiles, and greatly limit the number of symbols whose
data is being streamed your way at any time. Even to the point of having just one,
e.g. EURUSD as the only one selected. See whether that fixes the issue?

In my case, my interest is only Forex. Therefore, my software automatically disables ALL of
the non-Forex symbols incoming ! Why burden the network with things you don’t care about?

Maybe the data rates from FXChoice are unusually high, and that shows up at News Events ??
[ haha I had to edit the data which was generating “smiley” emoticons… ]

Tradersway.com MT4 ECN counts of ticks over a 5 minute period:
<code>
Symbol USDCADi tickCount: 44
Symbol AUDUSDi tickCount: 65
Symbol NZDCADi tickCount: 66
Symbol AUDCADi tickCount: 67
Symbol AUDNZDi tickCount: 72
Symbol GBPNZDi tickCount: 83
Symbol NZDCHFi tickCount: 94
Symbol CADCHFi tickCount: 98
Symbol GBPCADi tickCount: 122
Symbol AUDCHFi tickCount: 126
Symbol NZDUSDi tickCount: 131
Symbol USDCHFi tickCount: 141
Symbol EURUSDi tickCount: 159
Symbol GBPAUDi tickCount: 160
Symbol NZDJPYi tickCount: 172
Symbol EURAUDi tickCount: 175
Symbol EURGBPi tickCount: 175
Symbol GBPUSDi tickCount: 177
Symbol CADJPYi tickCount: 188
Symbol EURNZDi tickCount: 195
Symbol GBPCHFi tickCount: 200
Symbol EURCADi tickCount: 203
Symbol USDJPYi tickCount: 206
Symbol AUDJPYi tickCount: 208
Symbol EURCHFi tickCount: 215
Symbol GBPJPYi tickCount: 250
Symbol CHFJPYi tickCount: 274
Symbol EURJPYi tickCount: 314
</code>
FinProTrading.com MT4 ECN counts of ticks over a comparable 5 minute period:
<code>
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol USDJPY_ tickCount: 278
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDUSD_ tickCount: 325
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDUSD_ tickCount: 331
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol CADJPY_ tickCount: 332
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDCAD_ tickCount: 339
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDJPY_ tickCount: 402
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol USDCAD_ tickCount: 405
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDCAD_ tickCount: 415
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDCHF_ tickCount: 418
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol AUDNZD_ tickCount: 432
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDJPY_ tickCount: 440
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol NZDCHF_ tickCount: 445
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol CADCHF_ tickCount: 461
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol USDCHF_ tickCount: 520
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol CHFJPY_ tickCount: 623
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURNZD_ tickCount: 735
-18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPNZD_ tickCount: 764
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPCHF_ tickCount: 809
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPAUD_ tickCount: 838
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURCHF_ tickCount: 871
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPJPY_ tickCount: 920
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPCAD_ tickCount: 956
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURUSD_ tickCount: 979
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURAUD_ tickCount: 986
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURCAD_ tickCount: 1016
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURJPY_ tickCount: 1030
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol EURGBP_ tickCount: 1044
18:00:46.411(GMT)] Symbol GBPUSD_ tickCount: 1385
</code>

hyperscalper

These freezes on Fxchoice MT4 happen everywhere. On my computer, my friend’s computer and on our VPS too. We use BEEKSFX. Our EA trades during the news, and we have been using Tallinex for a few years actually since we got transferred from FINFX. We still have accounts with Tallinex, but since they discontinued accepting new US clients, their spreads widen a little so we started to look for other alternatives.

One thing, I agree with you, is that TradersWay is solid. We get around 10ms ping using BEEKSFX, and we do not experience any freezes. Our Ea works great.

We brought up this up to Stephen Mater, I believe he is like top manager for Fxchoice, but we never heard back from him or anybody else. At that time, we stopped wasting our time and we switched to TradersWay.

Then I found a site that mentions FX Choice implements 5 pip freeze so it sounds like FX Choice freezes when the pip spread is > 5.

[nureigroup]

Hi Clint,

Appreciate all you do with updating these brokerage list.

I see you have these two as the trusted and honest brokerage to deal with:
Trader’s Way (Dominica) — TRUSTED BROKER
FX Choice (Belize) — TRUSTED BROKER

If you had to pick 5 of the top TRUSTED and Honest brokerage for US client, who would you say it be now (Feb 21, 2017).

Thank you
nick

[Clint]

Hi Clint,

I see you have these two as the trusted and honest brokerage to deal with:
Trader’s Way (Dominica) — TRUSTED BROKER
FX Choice (Belize) — TRUSTED BROKER

If you had to pick 5 of the top TRUSTED and Honest brokerage for US client, who would you say …

If it were entirely up to me, I would retain Trader’s Way (Dominica) and FX Choice (Belize). Then, I would add FinproTrading (UK) and LMFX (Macedonia). I would leave the 5th spot vacant, at the present time.

But, it isn’t up to me.

Regarding our List – [I]and especially regarding the brokers designated as Trusted Brokers --[/I] we try to base decisions on a [I]consensus[/I] of participating members.

Recently, I asked for suggestions regarding additions to our Trusted Brokers. But, there was no interest among thread participants. So, the matter is tabled for now.

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to this thread, Nick.

.

[HyperScalper]

@Clint

If it were entirely up to me, I would retain Trader’s Way (Dominica) and FX Choice (Belize). Then, I would add Finpro Trading (UK) and LMFX (Macedonia). I would leave the 5th spot vacant, at the present time.

But, it isn’t up to me.

Regarding our List – and especially regarding the brokers designated as Trusted Brokers – we try to base decisions on a consensus of participating members.

Recently, I asked for suggestion regarding additions to our Trusted Brokers. But, there was no interest among thread participants. So, the matter is tabled for now.

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to this thread, Nick.

.

When it comes to pure Forex, the 28 major pairs; I can tell you that FinProTrading.com
is likely to be the “king of performance”. Their support is also responsive, although I haven’t
needed much of it.

If you are a fast scalper, and you want to be able to execute in <100 msecs reliably, then
FinProTrading.com (aka TurnkeyFX) is for you.

However, as I’ve said earlier, then will swamp you with high rates of market data, and you
will also find (perhaps unexpectedly) that their Spreads can be worse than those of TradersWay.com
but that’s because their spreads are just more “raw”.

I think FinProTrading.com should be a Trusted Broker, so I agree with you Clint. I can speak only
for the Forex symbols on FinProTrading; I don’t have any experience with any of the other markets…

[20170221-19:08:16.802(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 156 msec
[20170221-19:22:31.587(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 71
[20170221-19:22:31.587(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 76
[20170221-19:22:31.619(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 97
[20170221-19:22:31.650(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 57
[20170221-19:22:31.666(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 69
[20170221-19:22:31.712(GMT)] OrderOp elapsed: 193

I think I mentioned before that FinProTrading’s MT4 Tick stream appears to be able to tell
you market trend direction. You won’t see this with other brokers. When the BID is really
“jagged” and the ASK is less so, the market is RISING (pushing or preparing to push up).
And when the ASK is showing these “spikes” but the BID is not; then the market is
FALLING (or preparing to fall). If you are a short term scalper, for fairly short target
distances, this could be of value to you. I plan to quantify this as a predictor; but the
tick rates are so high, I need to figure out the best way to do it. If I can focus on just
one symbol’s tick stream, I think I could make an indicator. I think a specialized server
instance would be able to capture this fast enough… but I digress, as usual

hyperscalper

[whywescalp]

Recently, I asked for suggestion regarding additions to our Trusted Brokers. But, there was no interest among thread participants. So, the matter is tabled for now.

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to this thread, Nick.

.

Hello Clint,

Much appreciate the democracy of this thread, indeed thats why your thread got over a million views

I would like to add my few cents to this list.

I think the two brokers that totally deserve the title of “Trusted Brokers” are

1. FinPro Trading
2. Trader’s Way

As all the thread members have voted TraderWay as trusted broker, I will not make my inputs redundant. For FinPro I see a lot of reasons why it should indeed be a trusted broker as well. One they have an amazing client support, always available always helpful, second their execution quality is FAR FAR FAR better than majority of other brokers that I have seen. Here is a link that I found online from a trader who posted their live spreads on the day of BREXIT and it by far outblows my mind. Link ( disq.us/p/19fj9n9 )

To top it, I was trading with them during GBP flash crash (along with one more bigger broker) and FinPro DID NOT HIT MY MARGIN while the other broker killed my account into negative, Both the accounts had same positions and similar margin usage.
Now I can not expect a broker to help me make money or help me reach the moon, all I can expect that the broker is honest, provides real ECN quality execution and gives me withdrawals on time. If that is a criteria to judge by, then FinPro and TraderWay are my top choice.

So whenever you next consider to upvote FinPro, do count my vote in.

And all the traders who are reading my post, consider contributing to this thread with your respective experience. I know this thread has been a darling of almost all babypips readers (includingmyself) for so long and all credit goes to Clint for being so diligent and democratic about this approach

[FXChoice_Rep]

Hi

This happens on FX Choice demo and live accounts and also on my friend’s account. You can just run a demo account and watch MT4 when the market has a lot of activity such as after news. The charts on the FX Choice MetaTrader application will all freeze for 5 - 30 seconds at various times when the market is very busy. Other brokers I am using with MT4 do not have this, just wider spreads. Then I found a site that mentions FX Choice implements 5 pip freeze (see this here listed as a Con for FX Choice: https://www.forexbrokerz.com/brokers/fxchoice) so it sounds like FX Choice freezes when the pip spread is > 5. Other brokers are not doing this. This is a problem with EA because EAs run on each tick of the market. If FX Choice is freezing at times of high activity, the EA can’t do anything while on other brokers the EA can determine not to trade or make decisions when the spread widens.

If you want, my friend can create a youtube video showing how FX Choice markets freeze during high activity compared to other brokers. It’s not a specific account problem. You can even replicate this by using a demo FX Choice MT4 ECN account. I also emailed Stephen Mater this concern, but did not receive a response.

Dear MarcinFX,

We have thoroughly investigated this problem and we would like to extend our thanks to you for noticing this glitch. We have made a few changes in our system and this matter should now be resolved.

We would like to stress that the issue only affected a tiny amount of traders. We also stress that the “5-pip freeze level” you have quoted is from a long-outdated article - we do not operate any freeze level now.

We continue to remain vigilant, but if you should notice anything like this happening again, please get in touch with us via our Live Chat.

FXChoice