Good afternoon all, reading Dukascopy’s FAQ, I saw this:
"
Are my trading orders going to the interbank market? Can Dukascopy Bank be the counterparty of my trades?
Notwithstanding the fact that the SWFX – Swiss FX Marketplace is an ECN, Dukascopy Bank is the counterparty of all its clients’ trades executed on the SWFX. Dukascopy Bank sends orders to the interbank market in its own name for its own needs such as hedging exposures and/or testing validity of prices received from liquidity providers. Not all clients’ trades necessarily result in hedging orders sent to the interbank market by Dukascopy Bank. In particular small trades cannot be hedged with external counterparties and therefore could hardly be executed without Dukascopy Bank’s liquidity, since external counterparties may not accept trades under a certain minimum size. Also, to date, trades on binary options cannot be hedged. Dukascopy Bank hedges clients trades fully, partially or not in accordance with its hedging technology, needs and banking regulation.
If Dukascopy Bank is the counterparty of my trades does it mean that there is a conflict of interest and/or a risk of price manipulation to my detriment?
Dukascopy Bank cannot guarantee that no conflict of interest may exist. However, clients of Dukascopy Bank are protected against unfair trading practices by the following protections:
On the SWFX ECN, all traders receive the same price feed and same execution quality whatever the size of their trades;
The fast execution of trading orders and absence of dealing desk exclude any human intervention in the execution process. The execution of orders is made automatically by the SWFX trading system as soon as conditions (prices, maximum slippage, etc.) are met. All order executions or rejections are verifiable and may be explained a posteriori based on objective data;
History of all tick prices are publicly available for verification of order execution. Such transparency excludes possibility of providing different prices to different clients;
the Swiss banking regulation impose proper conduct of business and protection of clients’ interests. "
My question is, does anyone know what the minimum amount is to make sure your order is matched up and not to then have a conflict of interest with Dukascopy(in lots)? I’m asking this even though it seems that if there is, Dukascopy don’t change the price to their advantage.