I queried this on the phone and they waffled a bit and weren’t clear but tried to tell me that trades go straight through usually.
I also spoke to their customer support (very impressed) who said that orders should go straight through, but he wasn’t sure if very large orders might sometimes go through a staff member.
other posts that you are in the UK,
I do not care how long it takes a demo to process my order, they
are software based on a server & have little or nothing to do with
real trading.
Plus a person on the end of a phone attempting to sell their company
means nothing.
I do not live trade Alpari & my questions were to find out how
others found them. The response as you can see was not overwhelming.
My original post was on 29th August, Xaron posted on the 23rd September,
giving me plenty of time to look elsewhere for any answers I required.
I was interested to find out the ease of depositing money, as you have
noticed I am UK based but use Oanda which is US based, at the time
this suited my circumstances, but factors change so therefore a need
for a certain amount of flexibility is required.
So in any case, spread betting agencies would seem to be the tax free way to trade, rather than a broker like Alpari.
While reading through forums etc. these are also the kind of remarks
which make one question all the different criteria involved.
The problem with using a demo is that it’s not really a true reflection of their pricing etc, it only shows functionality. I took an Alpari demo and opened a live account with them. The difference was big. Same with FXCM demo/live accounts.
What size will you be trading? This will matter because the broker will take other side of trade so if your sizes are too big then fills will require a dealer intervention (which delays execution). Normally below 5 standard lots will not be a problem but anything above will put you onto the dealer’s radar (That’s what levels I was being watched at). They also look at how long you hold; if you’re scalping then forget it.
I want to address some misconceptions you have regarding FXCM’s trade execution. To begin with, we offer our clients a choice between either No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution or dealing desk execution. While FXCM believes that NDD execution provides the best all-around trading experience, we also offer dealing desk execution as an option for traders whose primary concern is low spreads.
On NDD execution, FXCM does not take the other side of client trades. Instead, we offset client orders one-to-one with our 10+ liquidity providers. We make our money off client trading volume by applying a fixed pip markup to each transaction. Scalpers are some of our best clients because of the trading volume they can generate. We even provide additional benefits including lower spreads for high volume traders through our Active Trader program.
Even on our dealing desk execution, there is no dealer intervention delaying execution by way of requotes or restrictions on stops and limits. Furthermore, the max trade size on our retail platform on either execution model is 50 million per order (500 standard lots). Anyone who’s interested in placing larger orders can send me a private message to arrange a follow up from our institutional department.
Finally, in regards to your comment that demos do not always reflect the price you can get on a live account, you are correct. While FXCM’s demo accounts show our live market prices, no demo can replicate the liquidity or lack of liquidity in the market during different market conditions. In the live market, if you place an order for a specific price and that price is no longer available, your order could be filled at a different price. That is called slippage.
The important thing to keep in mind is that with FXCM, slippage can be either positive or negative. Positive slippage is when your order is filled at a better price than you specified. That is also known as a price improvement. The stats below show that on our platform, traders receive price improvements just as frequently as negative slippage. The only difference is that positive slippage is most common with limit orders, while negative slippage is most common with stop orders.
Hello Jason,
Thank you for replying and giving the information, very much appreciated.
Your spreads are indeed good.
Though I do have some questions to ask you.
Your counterparties, are they banks or other brokers (especially market makers)?
Does FXCM own any of them?
Can you send me a Currenex demo account showing your LP names (LCG and Capmar are able to do this)?
So if I want a proper ECN service, I have to pay a massive spread (so you’re taking large sums of money from me anyway) otherwise for tight spreads (that real ECN brokers out there are offering anyway on a NDD level) I have to go up against your dealing desk (so you take large sums of money from me anyways), correct?
How do you know what the slippage is for stops and limits, are you watching/monitoring/profiling the clients?
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
PS, any news of taking over any other brokers?
On FXCM’s No Dealing Desk forex execution, there are 10+ liquidity providers which are not owned by FXCM. Non-disclosure agreements prohibit usme from listing them by name, but they include global banks, financial institutions, and other market makers. This large, diverse group of liquidity providers is one of the things that make the NDD model special. Our 2010 Annual Report had information on liquidity providers. See page 11.
It’s no secret that the brokerage industry, for both forex and futures trading, has been in the midst of a price war for the past couple of years. That combined with lower trading volumes last year have caused many brokers to struggle. There was even a broker in Europe that went bankrupt after trying to entice clients with 0 pip spreads. Last year also saw the failure of a US broker that had previously touted their razor thin spreads. We’ve had other brokers have to pull out of the US after being unable to meet regulatory capital requirements.
If recent events have taught us anything, it’s that the financial stability of the broker you choose can have far greater implications than we previously thought. Unfortunately, the vast majority of these brokers are privately held companies, so it’s hard to know the state of their finances. Are they profitable, or are they barely staying afloat? How can you know whether they are safe place to keep your money?
FXCM is a publicly-traded company (NYSE ticker: FXCM), so information regarding our financial data is readily available. This is one of the reasons why traders have entrusted us with $1.190 billion in client funds (as of our latest publicly available data).
Spreads are important, but they are just one factor out of many to consider when choosing a broker along with 24 hour customer support, trading platforms offered, education, resources, etc. We seek to provide competitive spreads while also delivering great execution and a safe place for you to hold your funds. We recommend NDD execution because we believe it provides our best all-around trading experience. FXCM also offers a Dealing Desk execution option for traders whose primary concern is low spreads.
Because we can create the prices on which you trade, FXCM’s dealing desk execution option is able to offer spreads for FXCM’s 12 most popular currency pairs that may be up to one pip lower than those provided by the No Dealing Desk (NDD) model. Dealing Desk execution is used by many brokers in the forex industry. However, FXCM’s Dealing Desk execution offering is unique because it shares important features with our No Dealing Desk (NDD) execution, such as no requotes, and no restrictions on stops and limits.
Since we’re a publicly-traded company, regulations prohibit me from discussing such topics. However, you can visit our Investor Relations page to get the latest publicly available information.
