Rollover for USD/HKD

Because of the political turmoil in Hong Kong, USD/HKD has been whipsawing quite a bit, causing my dynamic stop loss order to take me out of the trade. I decided to re-enter the trade. When I did, I noticed that my 0.01 positive daily roll had actually become -0.01. One of the original reasons I chose a long position on this pair was for the positive roll.

Since I’m a noob in currencies, I was wondering how frequently roll changes. And why does roll change? It doesn’t appear that the central bank in either country changed its interest rate, so I was surprised to see the change in roll. Is the political turmoil one reason why the roll changed?

BTW, I’m really enjoying my FXCM account and I like the new commission structure, although I wish ACH was faster. :35:

Hi RisingSun,

Consider using fixed trailing stops instead of dynamic trailing stops. While dynamic trailing stops adjust each time the price moves in favor of your trade, fixed trailing stops only adjust after the price has moved a fixed amount in favor of your trade such as 10, 50 or 100 pips.

While central banks set target interest rates for currencies, the actual rates are determined by market forces. Banks decide what rates they are willing to lend and borrow money, and this interbank trading determines the rollover rates you see on your platform. Here’s an example from earlier this year of how interbank trading affected rollover rates even though there was no change in central bank target rates: 301 Moved Permanently

Rollover rates can remain unchanged for several months, but during times of political or economic uncertainty banks and even central banks may affect these rates. The good news is that the FXCM Trading Station shows the latest rates every day, so you always know the rollover rate that you can earn or pay for holding a trade open through 5pm New York Time.

I’m glad you like our new pricing. In regards to ACH withdrawals, how many have you made?

I make regular ACH withdrawals whenever my accounts end the week above a certain equity threshold. In my personal experience, the first time I make an ACH withdrawal to a particular bank account, it can take up to 5 days for the funds to reach that account. However, when I make ACH withdrawals to the same bank account in the future, the withdrawals usually appear in the account in just 1 or 2 days.

Thanks for your response Jason. It helps me better understand what I’m doing.

Even better would be to eliminate the buy-sell spread altogether on the retail side, and go straight to commission per trade, just as in stocks.

I have made one ACH deposit and one withdrawal, each taking about a week. I will try again in the future.

It’s my pleasure. :50:

There is a spread in every market, including the stock market. This spread is based on where the market is willing to buy from you (AKA the bid price or sell price on your platform) or sell to you (AKA the ask price or buy price on your platform).

The advantage of FXCM’s new pricing model is that you can see the commissions that we charge you, and the sell and buy prices you see on Trading Station are the exact forex quotes we receive from the 10+ liquidity providers on our NDD feed. That means FXCM does not make money from these spreads, only from the commissions.

In addition, FXCM’s raw FX spreads have the added benefit that the market does not have to move as much in your favor to fill your limit (take profit) orders, because there is no pip markup to the bid and ask prices displayed on your platform. For the same reason, the market would have to move about a pip further in order to trigger your stop orders.

If your experience is like mine, then you will find that future ACH transfers go through faster. I think it’s just something about how the ACH transfer process works.

Hi RisingSun,

As a follow up to our earlier discussion, I thought you might be interested in this article: Is Hong Kong heading for meltdown? | LeapRate