This is another curious topic especially for me. I agree wholeheartedly wesmip1, regulated brokers are the ones to consider, if they are an option for your country.
Another thing for me(and I’m sure this has been handled in similar topics before, but…) is this: Does the fact that a broker is regulated by an agency concern me, if I do not live in the country of this regulatory agency? Am I in a lesser position to make complaints or reports of the broker than a citizen of the country in which the regulatory agency operates?
Actually it is not the case. Regulations are exceptional prerogative right of a governement, not some private concern. Being doubtful of regulator means discreditation of the state as a whole :). Of course lodging a complaint internationally is not plain sailing but it’ll be considerated along with domestic one.And you are at equal to assert your rights even you are not a citizen of the country where your broker is based.
While I’m glad you found a platform you like, just to clarify, it’s possible to display the time zone of your choice on most of the platforms FXCM offers including Trading Station and MT4.
On Trading Station, you can display your local time in the UK by going to System > Options > Time zone > Local from the menu bar at the top right.
Jason, while you dish out adivices right and left could you kindly explain why FXCM got two blows from US CFTC? As I suppose itsn’t some sluggish fresh hand burned his fingers and filing a claim, problems of that kind is much more serious.
“…According to the CFTC order, from at least June 18, 2008 until December 17, 2010, FXCM failed to supervise diligently the handling of customer accounts traded on the FXCM platforms by its officers, employees, and agents with respect to changes in price between order placement and execution on both market orders and margin liquidation orders. The order finds that FXCM’s failure prevented its customers from receiving the benefit of price movements in customers’ favor, but allowed its customers to suffer detrimental price movements.”
It is far from innocent reason of getting fined, isn’t it…?
FXCM should have passed on positive slippage to our clients from the beginning. As part of our settlements with the CFTC and other regulators, we reimbursed traders for any positive slippage they should have received prior to 2010. That same year, we updated our execution system to pass on positive slippage to our clients whenever it’s available.
FXCM LLC (our US-regulated entity) now provides daily trade reports to the NFA which monitors and supervises FXCM LLC’s activity including information on the price where client orders are filled and the corresponding price where those orders are offset with our liquidity providers. All of FXCM’s global trading entities including FXCM UK, FXCM Japan and FXCM Australia execute client rolling spot forex transactions as a riskless principal with FXCM LLC, so the same execution standards are applied for all FXCM clients worldwide.
Below are some highlights from a detailed study of FXCM’s trade execution analyzing a total of 43,128,901 trades placed over a six month period from August 2013 to January 2014:
[ul]
[li]73% of all orders had no slippage.
[/li][li]15% of all orders received positive slippage. (AKA price improvements)
[/li][li]12% of all orders received negative slippage.
[/li][li]Over 60% of all limit and limit entry orders received positive slippage.
[/li][li]53.32% of all stop and stop entry orders received negative slippage.
[/li][/ul]
The same study showed that:
[ul]
[li]Limit and limit entry orders are most likely to receive positive slippage
[/li][li]Stop and stop entry orders are most likely to receive negative slippage
[/li][li]The Market Range feature on Trading Station can help traders by limiting their negative slippage without limiting their positive slippage.
[/li][/ul]
As a result of the changes we have made, FXCM is now one of the only firms in the industry to pass on positive slippage on all order types including market and limit orders. By contrast, some forex brokers will re-quote their clients rather than let them benefit from price improvements. There are no re-quotes with FXCM.
The quality of our trade execution along with our commitment to customer service are key reasons why traders entrust FXCM with $1.245 billion in client funds.
Citi, HSBC, and some big banks were fined too for illegal funds. Some big institutions were even fined for FX and interest rates rigging. I rather bank on firms that are being watched and fined than go for those that are too clean.
could you kindly explain why FXCM got two blows from US CFTC? As I suppose itsn’t some sluggish fresh hand burned his fingers and filing a claim, problems of that kind is much more serious.