Hello again.
I cannot say ‘good morning’ because it’s not i.e. this weekend I’ve been a a bit of ‘bender’ let me tell and I ‘paying’ for it today BIG TIME!!! WHEN am I going to LEARN??? LOL!!!
And then, in spite of the above, I get to this rather alarming post!!! LOL!!!
I DO know that this last week there have been ‘issues’ with Deltastock’s MetaTrader Demo Accounts (well: the only reason I know this is because I have new client or ‘cyberfriend’ in Cape Town and he had problem this week with a Deltastock MetaTrader Demo account but Delta Trading was fine i.e. I checked myself on two occasions and he was right. But the problem was not pricing i.e. it was just VERY slow so this is something new which Ill have to take up with ‘the powers that be’ on Monday).
That being said I though: I did my own bit of investigating for you and here are three MetaTrader charts (GBP/USD M1 which, as far as I can tell anyway, is the pair and timeframe you’re showing). The FXDD and IBFX are live account (opened sometime a LONG LONG time ago but still have access them thank goodness) and, of course, for good meausure, I included a Deltastock MetaTrader chart too (only a demo like yours though i.e. I only trade with Delta Trading).
Long story short: ‘take your pick’!!! LOL!!!
FXDD:
IBFX:
Deltastock MetaTrader:
Put it this way: not any one of these charts are IDENTICAL although the differences are slight (well the word ‘slight’ is of course subjective) but all three are WAY different from your Max Rich chart so I have to make the assumption that something ‘strange’ is going at with this Max Rich crowd (and I have to be honest to you: with a name like that I’d be ‘wondering’ and no offense meant of course).
BUT: WELCOME to the world of FOREX!!! LOL!! This an OLD argument of mine i.e. this thing of no two brokers showing the exact same FOREX price or charts!!! And I must admit that I’ve learned something myself this week i.e. I always thought that in the case of MetaTrader: MetaQuotes (who develops and sells MetaTrader) themselves hosts the data and therefore, theoretically, any MetaTrader chart should display the same price and chart for any timeframe up to the 1 hour timeframe but this is obviously not the case. The reason I say this is because this last week, when there was a problem the Deltastock MetaTrader demo accounts, there was not a problem with any other MetaTrader (demo or live) accounts so logically then it means (to me anyway) that a MetaTrader broker hosts the software themselves but this actually is somethig that I need (and want to) investigate further myself and will do so tomorrow. Of course: the only conceivable reason, to my mind anyway, why there can be different prices and price movements between the brokers would be depent on their liquidity provider(s). Come to think of it the guy in Cape Town did indeed ask me why in some cases Deltastock’s MetaTrader demo price for a given pair, not sure at this time which one, was a pip or two different from whatever other broker’s demo account he was comparing it with. I know that with Delta Trading: Deltastock allows you to choose one of five different liquidty providers OTHER than themselves in order for you to get the ‘best’ price (FXCM, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Interactive Brokers, and Dukascopy Bank) so I guess that statement in and of itself means (logically speaking) that there will be different FOREX prices and price movements depending on the liquidty provider not so??? I guess it could be explained away in these terms: it would be the same as getting quoted an entire range of different prices when exchanging CASH foreign currency depending on which bank you went to. So I’ve probably answered my own (and hopefully yours to) question come to think of it.
And you’ll note that I said that the charts should be the same (or at very least very similar) up to and including the 1 hour timeframe. The higher timeframes will be different (4 hour and daily) and in SOME cases the weekly and monthly charts may differ slightly at the beginning and end of the week. The reason for this being that it depends in which timezone the broker is situation and on which time they base their charts. IBFX I know for a fact closes their daily charts right on midnight GMT and, what’s more, for some reason or the other, IBFX opens trading one hour later on a Sunday than any of the other brokers that I know of (I’ve never bothered to find out why this is the case). I’m not sure on what time FXDD’s charts are based or at what time they close their daily charts. Deltastock closes their daily charts at GMT+2 (unless DST is in effect, as is currently the case, at GMT+1). The bottom line is that for all of the above reasons the charts will differ between brokers. As I said: ‘welcome to the world of FOREX’ i.e. is just ONE reason that I’m no FOREX ‘fan’. It doesn’t matter on which website I look or at which brokers chart I look: at any given point in time the price of the Dow (as but one example) IS ‘X’ and that’s it. There’s (99% of the time anyway) no two different prices for the Dow or S&P 500 or the NASDAQ ANYWHERE and not to mentiont the fact that they have opening and closing times (the cash indexes anyway) so that means that any trader anywhere in the world is seeing the exact same price and chart and this, to me anyway, goes a long way to gauging market sentiment and I don’t believe that this is possible in FOREX given that there are as many different brokers in as many different timezones with as many different daily opening and closing prices and that, to me anyway, is a HUGE issue (especially if you’re trading ‘naked’ i.e. using price action or candlesticks or chart patterns to trade). I know there are quite a few people that will disagree with me on this but ‘it is what it is’ and, again, is but one (and a very IMPORTANT one) reason for my favouring equities and commodities vs. FOREX trading (and hence my forums which I see you have joined. Thanks. If nothing else it pushes the rather tiny membership number up a bit)!!! LOL!!!
All things being equal (which, as I’ve noted above, and as you have seen for yourself already, is not the case) and as you will have noted on my forumsL I don’t advocate trading any timeframe shorter that the 1 hour timeframe (and you’ll not that almost 99% of the time my trades are based on the 4 hour and longer timeframes). Then again: I’m a long term (sometimes VERY L-O-N-G term) trader and not a scalper or ‘shooting’ for 15 or 20 points (or pips) per trade which, for some reason or the other, seems to be the ‘norm’ around here (at least for most when they start trading because they somehow from somewhere got the notion, probably from all the advertising ‘bunk’, that they should be trading and making money every second of every day). In my opinion (based only on my personal experience) this simply leads to you EVENTUALLY (albeit slowly although in cases is can also be very quickly) ‘bleeding’ your account ‘dry’. Put it this way: I’ve only ever lost money on the short(er) timeframes. Yes: it could very well be the trading systems and trading methodology that I use or it could be than I’m an inept trader on the shorter timeframes (or both really). So if you’re asking ME which timeframe is ‘best’: my answer is that any timeframe from 1 hour and longer is ‘best’ (and the longer the timeframe the better). The fact of the matter is that almost all (and quite possibly all) indicators are more reliable and give stronger signals on the longer timeframes (if you’re using trading systems that rely on indicators of course that is and which is what most of my trading systems are based on anyway). It’s just a fact that there is market ‘noise’ on the shorter timeframes and this market ‘noise’ is one of the main reasons why trades get stopped out so often (especially in the case of a new trader). And what a lot of people for some reason or the other seem to disregard is the importance of the DAILY CLOSING PRICE of an instrument (and this is PARTICULARLY true in the case of equities and commodities trading i.e. how important is in in FOREX trading is debateable). One thing there seems to be much disagreement on, ONLY in the FOREX ‘land’, is which is the ‘correct’ or ‘best’ daily closing price to use when, for example, calculating pivot levels for the next trading day. Some say (and I personally believe this to be true) is to use the daily closing price at 17h00 in New York (which is when the banks close or ‘settle’). It just so happens that is in (within and hour depending on whether DST is in effect or not) Deltastock’s daily charts close. Other say to use the daily closing price of midnight GMT (which IBFX’s theory). But here gain we’re now back to this thing of different brokers in different timezones all closing the daily charts at different times!!! And once again: this is not something that you have to worry about with equities and commodities i.e. the opeing and closing times (and prices) are identical nobody where you look or where in the world you just happen to be trading!!! And this again is the reason why ONE MetaTrader EA, for example, may be profitable at ONE broker while losing money at another. As a matter of fact: last year (or maybe the year before) three of us were doing some tests. EVEN MORE frightening: the three of us (me in South Africa, another in Finland, and another in Italy) using the SAME broker (demo accounts) using the SAME EA, on the SAME timeframes, got three different results when testing the EA with MetaTrader’s Strategy Tester (it had something to do with the ‘modelling quality’ or whatever the hell it’s called). And as if THAT’S not bad enough: a week later we did exactly the same tests but using the same data period and got STILL DIFFERENT results from our original (although different) results a week later!!! ‘Scary stuff’ let me tell you!!! And this again is one of the reasons why I cannot understand why everybody is so ‘hell bent’ on trading with MetaTrader. They just done a damn fine job of marketing is all and, unfortunatey, really do have market share!!!
And if you REALLY want to get frightened just take a look at this link:
Click on the ‘FCM, FDM, & Broker Dealers’ tab and take a look at the list of ‘Features’. The one that ‘kills’ me is this ‘feature’: “Configure the platform for your firm’s specific business model with over 150 system rules”. You can just ‘bet your bottom dollar’ that those ‘over 150 system rules’ are NOT customisable in the trader’s favour!!! It’s actually quite a nice trading platform really and if I PERSONALLY had to make the choice between it and MetaTrader my choice would most certainly NOT be MetaTrader!!! Unfortunately: the only brokers that I know of or have (bitter) experience with that offer that platform are KNOW ‘bucket shop brokers’ (GCI Trading and AVAFX to name but two). But that trading platform is growing in popularity slowly but surely and they’ve done a WHOLE lot of work on it in the past year or so and I wish them well to be honest). And let me tell you that their are the same ‘tools’ available to brokers offering MetaTrader too!!! There is one piece of software that MetaQuotes TO THIS DAY denies exists and whenever and as far as possible: any references to the said software they have deleted and when this has on occasion been queried they simply have never responded. From what I gather this piece of software allows the broker to control the execution speed of trades, ENSURE a MINIMUM slippage level, and can even be set to shut the platform down (disconnect) at various times (and you can be sure that if a broker is using this piece of software those times would probably be set at or around the time of news data releases)!!! If I’m not mistaken this piece of software was ineed dicussed somewhere on one of these very forums some years back and I know there are one or two threads about it on Forex Factory’s forums too (if they’ve not been deleted yet that is).
So there you have some of the ‘low down’ (as if it’s not difficult enough when beginning to trade and learn and be profitable WITHOUT having to ‘contend’ with a particular broker)!!! And unfortunately: it’s these types of brokers that give this business such a bad reputation.
WOW!!! That’s ‘taken it out of me’ now i.e. I think I need to go back to bed!!! LOL!!!
Any more questions: feel free to ask.
Regards,
Dale.