All Brokers = SCAM

[melisky]

I don’t know why that would happen.

Try this. [B]Reply[/B] to this recent post: 301 Moved Permanently with your question or request.

Well, instead, I just bring a solution to it

Thanks Clint!

[tymen1]

I’ve said it so many times, that I’m tired of saying it — but, due diligence is each trader’s responsibility.
I’ve done mine. You have to do yours.

Clint

[B]I absolutely agree with this.[/B]

Tess told me something some time ago - do your own research and do not be lazy.
That is the only way you develop as a strong trader.

Too much spoon feeding makes the poster giving the info tired and wears him out.
It also encourages the reader to be lazy.

That is why I no longer tell people about brokers.
You do your own research.
You make up your own mind.
You make your own choices.

[NEW_FXer]

a big thanks to Clint who made this thread full of valuable information

[ForexPerson]

ForexPerson,

Be careful taking broker claims of “tight spreads” at face-value. If spreads are fixed at a certain value, they CANNOT be tight. If they vary (along with the Bid/Ask quotes coming in from the interbank network), then they will sometimes be very tight, and sometimes much wider.

An NDD broker who marks up the bank spreads with a single pip might advertise “spreads as low as 1 pip” — which is technically correct, but not often the case. That one-pip spread will only exist when the bank spread momentarily drops to zero; and this is not the usual situation.

Also, accurate trade execution is as important as the spread. If you place a market order when the spread is 2 pips, but your entry price slips 3 pips from where you intended to enter, you have effectively captured a 5-pip spread — which is not what you had in mind.

We would all like constantly tight spreads, and perfect fills. But, in a dynamic market situation, you just can’t have everything so neat, tidy and guaranteed. Consider how many moving targets are in front of you. The market is constantly in motion. The big banks, who are at the top of the food-chain, are constantly widening and narrowing their spreads, depending on their view of market direction, market volatility and their competitive environment. And these fluctuating bank spreads get passed down the food-chain to your broker, who might widen them (mark them up) manually on a deal-desk, or electronically according to some algorithm; but, even if a machine-run algorithm does the mark-up, you (the customer) may still get a variable mark-up, tight when the market is calm, and wide when the market is hectic. Given all that, how can any small retail customer demand a fixed 2-pip spread, or whatever?

As far as broker recommendations are concerned, I’ve already put my two-cents-worth, and more, into this thread. I use FXCM, and I recommend them. And, yes, they have MT4 in their Standard Account, adjusted to accommodate their NDD execution protocol. Is FXCM perfect? No. But, neither is my bank, or the car dealer where I bought my last car. But, all things considered, I have been content with FXCM.

I know that my transaction costs could be cut by 25%, or so, by switching to MB Trading. But, I really don’t like their odd order-types, and they have charting issues (although sometime soon, they say, they will be offering MT4).

I just finished some research on ACM, and liked what I found. ACM may be as good as FXCM, by my standards. But, that doesn’t give me an incentive to switch from FXCM to ACM.

In the final analysis, it will come down to what you are willing to give up in order to shave a pip or two in transaction cost off each trade. If you want tighter spreads at FXCM, then trade through their Micro account; you’ll save about 2 pips on the spread most of the time, but you’ll have to settle for customer service via email, rather than through a real person with a pulse. Oh, and you’ll have to give up MT4. Or, if you have substantial trading funds AND do a lot of trading, you can open an Active Trader account at FXCM, and really get your per-trade transaction costs down.

Most of the people on this forum have switched brokers more than once; I have never switched. So, their perspectives would help you more than mine.

I’ve said it so many times, that I’m tired of saying it — but, due diligence is each trader’s responsibility.
I’ve done mine. You have to do yours.

Good luck with that.

Clint

Thanks Clint for the info. I guess i’ll try out FXCM’s demo for a while, then if everything goes well, i’ll get a live account with FXCM.

[Maple]

Clint,

I’d just like to thank you again for answering all of my questions.

You gave me an excellent foundation on understanding brokers and how they operate.

Your posts are very much appreciated! Thanks a million!

[Clint]

Clint,

I’d just like to thank you again for answering all of my questions…

You’re welcome. Glad to help.

[Christer]

I come not here to argue if my broker ACM is good or bad, personally I am happy. If you take the effort to do [I]proper Due Diligence[/I] then you will find the one for you, they are all different, and with most of the big ones you can make money…if you know how they work, and have good trading strategy.

I just want to tell those asking before about ECN amd MT4, ACM is about to bring it out as well. That is all. Good trading to all.

[gtatix]

Are you kidding me?! Anyone speaking well of FXCM must be either trading a DEMO or working for them.

I will NEVER use them again for a few reasons. One is that the spikes that hit my stops and reversed to where I had predicted are incredible. Triggered trades before the trade was to be triggered - again a spike to the open-trade point then rapidly down to my stop. I had a lot of success with demo accounts and suddenly became - apparently - a lousy trader when I went real. I am talking about EVERY trade I made being hacked down and out.

I used FXCM MICRO and their spreads are very bogus. They advertise low spreads - but these spreads vary dramatically - even when trading is light.

If you need more than my virtually useless opinion just have a look at the charges that have been laid against FXCM at the NFA website.

nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Details.aspx?entityid=0308179&rn=Nhttp://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/CaseInfo.aspx?entityid=0308179&type=reg

[ThePhoenix]

Are you kidding me?! Anyone speaking well of FXCM must be either trading a DEMO or working for them.

I will NEVER use them again for a few reasons. One is that the spikes that hit my stops and reversed to where I had predicted are incredible. Triggered trades before the trade was to be triggered - again a spike to the open-trade point then rapidly down to my stop. I had a lot of success with demo accounts and suddenly became - apparently - a lousy trader when I went real. I am talking about EVERY trade I made being hacked down and out.

I used FXCM MICRO and their spreads are very bogus. They advertise low spreads - but these spreads vary dramatically - even when trading is light.

If you need more than my virtually useless opinion just have a look at the charges that have been laid against FXCM at the NFA website.

nfa.futures.org/basicnet/Details.aspx?entityid=0308179&rn=Nhttp://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/CaseInfo.aspx?entityid=0308179&type=reg

Not saying it didn’t happen, but did you go and check price & charts with other brokers?

When I started there were a couple of weeks where I would have sworn I was being stop hunted and my broker was moving price just to hit my stops, what made it even more suspicious was I had just come off a winning streak. I found though that the other charts were almost identical. So, it was just that my stops were either too tight or in the same spot as all the other noobs.

Even if your broker isn’t stop hunting, larger sharks are. Large finanical institution CAN put enough pressure on price to make it move to where they assume a lot of retails traders stops are at. The tighter the stops the easier it is for them to do.

Most noobs calculate stops on what they want to lose, or if price falls below a trendline or something like that. I’ve found the best is to use part of the daily range, as in nick B’s trading strategy.

[truthseeker]

@Clint

melisky — and others who may be interested,

I’ve been looking into the Swiss broker ACM, and their U.S. subsidiary ACM USA, LLC.

The more I look, the more I like this broker. More on that in a moment.

Not long ago, ACM got some really bad press. It was reported by the blog Swisster, in Switzerland, that the Swiss banking authorities had ordered a police raid on the ACM headquarters in Geneva, that files and documents were seized, and that the CEO was taken in for questioning. All pretty dramatic stuff, and apparently all a mistake based on false charges brought against ACM by a disgruntled former customer in Mexico.

ACM’s side of the story is this: the customer in Mexico was somehow trying to blackmail ACM; ACM then filed a complaint against this customer; and the customer retaliated by making allegations against ACM which resulted in the inquiry by the regulatory authorities, and the police raid. Evidently, the whole episode is over. (Good luck trying to extradite the guy from Mexico.)
Here’s a link to a short blog entry in genevalaunch.com: GenevaLunch � Blog Archive � ACM to open Zurich office

Now that we have that out of the way, here are some of the things I have dug up on ACM.

ACM is Advanced Currency Markets SA, in Geneva, Switzerland — not to be confused with Advanced Markets, LLC,
in Charlotte, N.C., USA.

ACM has offices in Geneva, Zurich, Dubai, Montevideo, and New York.

Here’s a link to the ACM (Geneva) website for non-U.S. customers: ACM | Advanced Currency Markets | Forex broker

Here’s a link to the ACM USA website for U.S. customers: Forex - Currency Trading - Forex Broker - ACM (USA) LLC
(note: there’s nothing on this site except company address and phone number)

ACM has applied to the Swiss banking authorities to become a bank under Swiss law. Evidently, this is a big deal in Switzerland, and (if approved) would indicate that ACM has pretty hefty financial strength.

The genevalaunch.com article refers to ACM as the world’s largest currency trader — but, I haven’t been able to find any other source for this claim.

The size claim is interesting in view of the financial data on ACM USA. The CFTC’s monthly report, Selected FCM Financial Data, shows that ACM USA reported Adjusted Net Capital of $599,981 (versus a CFTC net capital requirement of $500,000). This number makes ACM USA look tiny, but the number is deceiving. ACM USA has the financial backing of ACM (Switzerland) which accounts for the fact that the CFTC requires only $500,000 capital for ACM USA, while requiring independent brokers (such as FXCM) to have $15,000,000 (currently) and $20,000,000 beginning on the 19th of this month.

The site ForexWebShop lists ACM as an NDD (no-dealing-desk) broker. Here’s their list: STP / NDD Forex Brokers

The BabyPips Broker Listing also lists ACM as an NDD broker: Forex Brokers Guide - BabyPips.com

Here on BabyPips, the forum called Rate My Broker has some talk about ACM, and the posts that I have read are all positive. People who trade through ACM, and have posted over there, seem to be very happy with this broker.

The BabyPips Broker Listing for ACM indicates a minimum deposit of $2,000 to open an account, max. leverage of 100:1, and a minimum trade size of 100K (in other words, Standard Lot size, only).

I hope this info is helpful.

Clint

Clint is obviously an employee working for ACM!

they have tried doing the same thing on forexpeacearmy.com and got busted by the FPA administrator! they created several accounts and used them to diss anyone who dared say anything against ACM! read about it here:
A Broker’s Fake Publicity Blitz in the FPA’s Forums - Forex Peace Army Forum
be very careful with this company and any other that uses fraudulous techniques to dupe customers!

by the way, the case agaisnt ACM is far from over, the justice are still questioning people in order to make a reliable decision.

BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN SENDING MONEY TO THEM, YOU MAY NOT GET IT BACK!

[sandpipper]

Clint is obviously an employee working for ACM!

TruthSeeker…seek the truth.

Who should we believe a complete forum newbie or a guy who has made many many valuable posts on a bunch of different subjects. It’s a no brainer really. If you would’ve bothered to read a little further up the thread you would see that Clint doesn’t even use ACM as his broker.

So before you come storming in here making accusations…DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN SENDING MONEY TO THEM, YOU MAY NOT GET IT BACK!

The Truth is…for those of you who might be seeking it…that the above statement applies for ANY broker out there. And it may not be the brokers fault!

[hazelj80]

Mbtrading will be soon offering more beta accounts for live trading sometime Tuesday. they offered them around 2 weeks ago. they are getting very close to lifting the BETA label and going full blown live. i think they will sometime mid summer. I love it here. my scalpers do so much better now because of the spreads i get. and no worries about feed tampering and crazy spreads during the Asian session. the favorite of most scalpers, the eur/gbp is averaging 2 pips most of the time. i have even seen to about .2 pips sometimes!

[gregoris]

It’s important to remember that you need to choose your broker according to how you trade. For fact if you using an expert advisor, scalping strategy or any other profitable strategy you should avoid these “market makers” at all costs. Make sure you choose a REAL STP or ECN broker to guarantee the best execution for your strategy.

There are many aspects to consider and to identify a market maker, check trading conditions, counter-party, stop levels and limits, crazy bonuses that don’t make sense, withdrawal limits, fixed spreads and more are all giveaways that the broker is a market maker.

I personally have been stung by more than one dealing desk broker, refused to pay me and causing me trading manipulations and have spoken to many traders with horrific stories…

I think that the dealing desk/market maker will not survive this “trader education” and very soon, all brokers will be STP/ECN