Is this normal or is my dealer screwing me?

[chirules54]

I have a mini account with forex.com that I opened with $250. I was long one micro lot (10,000) USD/JPY today and my position rolled over at 5PM EST, and instead of the deal rate going down, it went up! I bought it at 117.85 and the deal rate is now 117.87, so effectively I lost 2 pips. I thouht USD/JPY had a positive rollover rate. I read the broker's FAQ and it says this about rollover:

Accounts on 2% margin or higher will receive cost of carry.

Rollover credits or debits are reflected in the unrealized P&L of the open position, and a rollover report (available in the "Reports" tab of the trading platform) provides additional detail of rollover activity.


Is the reason I'm paying for rollover instead of receiving interest because my account balance is only $250 and my margin is higher than 2%? I don't get it.

[n_aftab]

Your right, you should recieve the interest on a long position, if i've ever had a problem with my broker i've asked them directly, which i advise you do.

Somebody on this forum may use them and be able to explain,

I'd just re read the terms and check they are not charging you for having a small account, although i shouldnt think this should be the case.

And finally has the actual position moved in your favour?

[chirules54]

Yeah, I've checked my entire rollover report from the past few weeks and all my other trades are the same. I went long usd/chf and they charged me, and I went long nzd/jpy last week and they charged me for that too. And to answer your question, yes I should be up 5 pips on the usd/jpy trade right now, but I am only up 3.4 pips because they adjusted the deal rate up by 1.6 pips at 5pm EST yesterday. When it says on their site that trades with 2% margin or higher receive cost of carry, to me that means that trades at 50:1 or higher get charged, and all of these trades were higher than 50:1 I believe, so maybe they don't pay interest unless my account balance is higher. Maybe I should switch to oanda, I've heard a lot of good things about them.

[n_aftab]

there is that, from some of the people on this forum the rate oanda as one of the better brokers, i cant personally say either way i dont use them, i use saxobank - never been screwed yet.

Regards

N

[ForexNinja]

Make sure the leverage on your account is set to 50:1 (2% margin) or lower. Most mini accounts are set to 200:1 (.5% margin) by default unless you explicitly request to change it.

What I'm wondering is "Why are you trading a mini account with only $250?!!!!"

Please read our lesson on The Number One Cause of Death of Forex Traders.

[chirules54]

Yeah, I just checked and my account is set to 200:1...and I have to apply to my dealer for a different margin requirement, I can choose 100:1 or 50:1. I think I'm going to wait until I have around $1,000 and then switch to oanda, they actually have a link that shows their rollover rates daily.

[rhodytrader]

Originally Posted by chirules54

I think I'm going to wait until I have around $1,000 and then switch to oanda...

Is there a particular reason for waiting until you have $1000? Oanda has no account minimum and no minimum trade size.

[bazooko]

I think that everyone here is missing the obvious. Why don't you call forex adn ask them? I have the # of a good rep there. I'll give it to you if you want, he is the only reason I'm still at forex.com. But that won't last vary long. My advice is to GET OUT NOW switch to someone more reliable. The platform is too confusing to use, setting trailing stops is a crap shoot. and watch out for trailing stops with them if you close your order befor you are stopped out you still have to close the trailing stop or you will enter another position.

[chirules54]

Yeah, I actually used their live chat thing today and the guy basically told me that if you are leveraged 50:1 or higher that you pay interest no matter what. I'm in the process of switching to oanda, just need to get to a fax machine for my id confirmation. I never noticed that there is no minimum deposit with them, I think I'm going to start out depositing $100 and just doing 10 cent pips or something until I get better. I think I'm going to start trading the 4hr and daily charts.. seems like there's less fakeouts and such, so easier for a beginner perhaps?

[genghisclown]

I'm using Oanda myself, but just a demo account. I plan on using them when I start trading real money, too. My idea is similar... start out small and make sure things still work the way the did when I was demo trading, then go from there.

Just a heads-up, though. Oanda doesn't have 4 hour charts. They use 3 hour charts. This annoys some people to no end, but it isn't an issue for me, because I've never traded with anyone besides them and haven't grown to depend on 4 hour chart intervals.