Thanks for the info. I think guitars themselves are currently having their own 'fifteen minutes of fame.' I got in on the bull run spurred by pop punk & mainstream metal, Jack Black, & Guitar Hero in '03, so to speak. You didn't hear it from me..... but I've recently become contrarian in my stance & I'm short, haha.

Thus, the devotion of my time to the FX market.

Is it just me, or did you also get sick of looking at hundreds of little 5m candles in a row and then three 75 pippers that happened while you were in the bathroom? I'm on the Daily's for strategy now, and leave the 5m charts up solely so I can see what's happening from across the room... I'll let the people with black boxes & crazy automated algorithms do the scalping...

I haven’t seen micro NDD being a make or break deal for a whole lot of traders, but NDD overall is just a better setup for our traders. I used to trade currencies before working at FXCM and traded with a dealing desk (won’t say who ), and had the full fledged experience of re-quotes and dealer intervention. It simply isn’t compatible with a scalping or short term strategy and becomes extremely frustrating. Second, any mismanagement of risk by the broker can be catastrophic. It’s like Ocean’s 13 if you’ve ever watched that movie. What happens if everybody wins? And to make matters worse, they win on leverage!?!? Ask Lehman Brothers how that one turned out... I was reading an article today that Lehman was leveraged 35:1 when they went bankrupt.

Just about everyone you speak with at FXCM is trading either in a live or demo, not always successfully . I've been trading for over 5 years now. Looking back, my first year was probably just luck. But I survived!

Really? That sounds like a good idea. Is NDD becoming a frequent request? What's your thoughts on that, do you really think it makes a huge difference from your perspective? How long have you been trading yourself? Do a lot of employees trade their own accounts as well?

Yep it does keep things exciting. We recently release oil, gold, silver, and stock indices through our UK branch, so a whole new other area of trading to explore now. Though not available to US traders unfortuantely.

I have to admit I have no idea how to play guitar.

I find the natural progression of traders going from initial scalper to swing trader quite common. It happened to me.

I've traded with multiple brokers myself and could understand the need to trade smaller sizes due to risk management or limited capital. I doubt we would ever go to nano sized lots any time soon. It would have to happen on the micro accounts through the dealing desk if it were going to, but the micro accounts are going in the direction of NDD execution.

Same company, but I work at a store here in CT. Started on the sales floor & have dabbled with sales & asst. mgr positions as well since. I've been with GC for about the same amount of time you've been with FXCM. It's been fun working for a company on the cutting edge, as I'm sure you've found as well.

Recently pulled back my hours to concentrate on currencies (it's hard work!) and I've been having a blast.

I hear you on the JPY crosses as of late. I've kept my size small, so the losses have been negligible, but the psychological drawdown's been a bit frustrating. Nothing against FXCM, but I've been considering Oanda since they have the flexible 'nano' style lots. I'm thinking it may help me fine tune my position sizing, and allow me to be able to execute more ideas simultaneously. My style's quickly adapted away from the initial scalper I thought I was. Small stops just aren't practical for me, I've found.

Thoughts?

Yep, living in the city in the UWS, and our office is downtown near water and wall st. Is this guitar center in the city on 14th st? It just now struck me that you're in the tri-state area after seeing Connecticut listed in your blog, hahah.

I've been with FXCM for almost 5 years now. Was with our sales and support team previously before filling this role, and helped launch our metatrader 4 platform. Exciting times, and lots more stuff to come.

The JPY cross currencies haven't been working too well for me lately. Been following USD/CHF and USD/JPY past week. I jump around from currency pair to currency pair a lot. When one stops working just move on to the next...

Sounds like a lot of fun. I know my company, Guitar Center, has a similar position which monitors online commentary. I used to see the updates all the time in our mgmt. emails.

Do you live in the city? How long have you been with the company?

Trading's been fun, as always, lately. Despite some frustration, the fact that I'm still able to show up & 'play' each day means I'm doing ok.

hey zeke, I act as an official ambassador for FXCM to all social websites helping answer FXCM related questions or just talking about the market in general. I worked previously in our customer support department so the role was a natural due to my knowledge of FXCM, the forex market and trading. Plus, it's fun talking about trading all day

How has the trading been coming along recently?

What's your position there?

Hey zekelogan, Yes I do.