Hi…I am a newbie,am in South Africa. I have been demo trading for 3 months now and am seeing progress. My question is what is the minimum amount required in opening an account with FXCM? I don’t have much capital,I just want to attach my emotions with real money to prepare myself psychologically…
I am sure Jason will give you more detail, but in the meantime you can check their UK web page:
There it states a mini account starts with £50 (Note: that’s a dealing desk execution account).
If you don’t mind me asking, if you have a demo account already, why not open an account with that same company? Are their minimum balances too high?
Hi SeeSawSin,
Welcome to the forum and to forex trading.
I want you to know we continue to stand by the quality of our trade execution in general and our No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex pricing in particular. The results of our recent execution study explain why.
FXCM recently completed a study that examined the quality of execution for FXCM LTD client orders on No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution versus the three largest FX trading venues globally, venues widely considered to represent the benchmark for reliable FX pricing. The results of this study show FXCM LTD retail client order prices to be better than the Futures Market and Interbank Market prices for FX (1).
FXCM LTD was equal to or better than the quoted futures price 81.34% of the time compared to the spot equivalent quoted futures prices on the CME leading to potential savings of $42,529,156 for FXCM LTD clients.
FXCM LTD was equal to or better than the quoted interbank market price 94.83% of the time compared to the spot equivalent quoted interbank market price leading to potential savings of $114,588,455 for FXCM LTD clients.
You can find further details in the full presentation of the study and the in-depth FAQ.
We’re proud to service over 129,000 active accounts as of our latest metrics release from April 2017, and our clients will continue to receive the same level quality of execution, products, and customer support they have come to expect over the years.
Jason
I The study does not in away way attempt to represent that FXCM maintains a particular capacity or performance level. The figures in this study are provided for information purposes only, and are not intended for trading purposes or advice. FXCM is not liable for any information errors, incompleteness, or delays, or for any actions taken in reliance on information contained herein. Past results are not indicative of future performance.
Material Assumptions
FXCM’s Retail Clients are defined as individual, joint, and corporate accounts trading on our retail price stream.
The comparison to each of the Futures and Interbank data is made at the time that the FXCM client order is executed. Normal market slippage and slippage due to rejections by liquidity providers are already included by the time the FXCM client order is executed. However, there is an assumption that there is no slippage on the Futures or Interbank market data.
In order to maintain consistency, Futures Market data and Interbank data used the same acceptable ranges in market trades. The summary of findings is based on the assumption that the maximum acceptable difference between the FXCM price and the Interbank/Futures market price is 5 pips in either direction.
Fees that a participant would pay on the Futures or Interbank market, such as CME Exchange Fees, FCM Fees, Clearing Fees, and other commissions, were excluded from the study. Similarly, FXCM Commissions are excluded from the study.[/I]
On a positive note, good to see we’re still the first broker traders think about 
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Hi Piporex,
Welcome to the forum Piporex! 
And great to hear you are seeing progress.
Manxx is correct, you can start with as little as £50 (or $50) in the mini account. In case you’re not aware, we also have a local affiliate office in Johannesburg with on-site seminars (in Johannesburg and Pretoria) you’re welcome to attend if you’re nearby. The South Africa website is https://www.fxcm.za.com
Please note that you should not speculate with capital that you cannot afford to lose.
Jason
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Hello Jason,
Does the same apply (opening a mini account for $50) in Europe? Specifically Belgium and Poland.
Thanks in advance
Hello Jason,
Does the same apply (opening a mini account for $50) in Europe? Specifically Belgium and Poland.
Thanks in advance
Hi oceanmen,
Yes, the same applies in Europe, including Belgium and Poland. The minimum deposit for opening the mini account is 50 units of the currency your account is denominated in. Accounts can be denominated in USD, EUR, GBP, or CHF, and you can select the account’s currency denomination when completing the account application.
Jason
Hello Everyone,
FXCM’s quarterly spreads data was released yesterday, and for Q1 2017 EUR/USD and USD/JPY had an average spread of 0.2 and 0.4 pips respectively during peak trading hours on standard accounts with No Dealing Desk execution. 70% of EUR/USD and 61% of USD/JPY volume occurred during peak hours which are from 6 am to 6 pm GMT.
You can find the full report listing spread data for all forex pairs and CFDs by clicking on the following link
FXCM_spreads-report_ltd_2017Q1.pdf (135.6 KB)
The report compiles trading data from FXCMs Standard accounts for Q1 2017.
Jason
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Disclaimer: The information provided is historical in nature and does not imply that FXCM maintains a particular capacity or performance level. Past results are not indicative of future performance. The price at which an order is executed does not negate the high level of risk involved with forex trading. Trading could result in losses regardless of the pricing quality of opening or closing transactions. Spreads Data comes from all available liquidity providers liquidity providers subject to change.
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Please note the holiday hours for certain CFD products on July 3 and 4. All times are in GMT.
There are no changes to forex trading hours.
Have a great weekend!
Jason
Hi Everyone,
An update to Trading Station Desktop was released last weekend adding some very useful functions that we hope will improve your trading experience. Here’s a highlight of a few of the new features:
New Contingent Orders
A Contingent order is an order that contains two (or more) entry orders linked together by a certain condition of their execution. Previously, we only had OCO orders available in Trading Station Desktop. The recent update makes available the following additional contingent orders:
- OTO (One-Triggers-the-Other)
- OTOCO (One-Triggers-One-Cancels-the-Other)
- If-Then
- If-Then OCO
You can create contingent orders by right clicking on a symbol and selecting “Create Contingent Order” from the menu. You can also press Alt+E on your keyboard. The online user guide has more information on how each order type works.
Improved Reports
A new Statement Summary Report is now available. This new report is designed to give you a summary of all products traded over a specified period along with volume, gross P/L, commission, rollover, net P/L, and open/close date.
The previous Combined Account Statement Report is still available which will give details on every trade for the specified period of time.
You will also notice when selecting the report type you also have the option for ‘Account Analytics’. This option will take you to the Trading Analytics app where you can run detailed analysis of your trading history such as profitability by symbol, profitability by time of day, average gain per trade, average loss per trade, and much more.
Marketscope Price Panels
The Bid/Ask price panel is now available directly on the chart for trading. Previously, you could trade from the chart by clicking on the price on the right hand axis. The price panel now gives you an additional method to place trades, plus a drop down menu for you to select the amount to trade if you have the platform set to one-click trading as I have done in the screenshot.
Let me know if you have any questions, and as always we appreciate any feedback you have about the update.
Jason
These are great additions, Jason. I still find MS2 to be the most flexible, comprehensive and trader-friendly platform (and by far!) that I have ever used (which admittedly is not many!) I really like the new price panel on the MS2, it is very useful - but it could be like on MT4 and offer the choice of toggling it on and off. Actually, I still like the fact that you can drag/drop the price panel from the Tradestation and then it is always “on top” even when one is working on other things like spreadsheets. That enables you to keep one eye on prices at the same time as doing other things.
The only thing I would like to see that would improve chart visibility would be to have an option to colour the candle outlines separate to the body colours. E.g. a black outline with, say, green and red bodies - but I guess that is a bit picky!!! 
Hey Manxx,
Happy to hear you are enjoying using our Marketscope platform. That’s a great suggestion about the candlestick outline and I’ll give this feedback to the development team. Technically, it is possible to change the outlines if you would like to create a custom indicator.
The price panels can be removed from either all charts or just some. If you right click on the price panel, you can deselect “Show Price Panel” for each chart individually. You can also remove the price panels completely by going to the top of your Trading Station 2 and selecting System > Options > Marketscope 2.0 > Chart View Options > Show Price Panel > No. 
Jason
Great! Thanks Jason for your quick and detailed reply! 
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FXCM Group, the two remaining forex, CFD and spread betting units of Global Brokerage, announced it is terminating the Management agreement with Global Brokerage Holdings, LLC (GLBR).
According to FXCM’s statement, the termination was mutually agreed by the parties and reflects the continuing separation of FXCM from Global Brokerage.
GLBR came into existence earlier this year, after FXCM Inc. was transformed into Global Brokerage Holdings. The change was in order to prevent customer confusion after the US subsidiary shut down.
Tuesday we held part 1 of our 3 part webinar series on Algo Trading. If you’re new to algorithmic trading and looking to automate a trading strategy, this is a good way to get started.
Part 1 discusses the following topics:
- Python for data analysis
- Pandas for time series management
- Accessing and using tick data
- Visualizing tick data statically and interactively
Great learning material for the weekend while trading is closed 
Tis the season 
Normally, the forex market trades 24 hours a day, 5 days a week without interruption even during major holidays around the world, and FXCM provides live customer support 24 hours a day even on weekends and holidays.
However, Christmas and New Years are the two exceptions. Here is a link to FXCM’s holiday hours for trading and customer support during these holidays.
I’ll be out of the office until January 3rd and will respond to any posts or private messages when I return.
Happy Holidays!
Jason
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Please note the February holiday hours for CFD products. All times are in GMT. There are no changes to forex trading hours.
Jason
*This product is at its initial launch phase and currently only available to accounts held with FXCM Markets and FXCM Australia under certain servers.
When will FXCM launch crypto CFDs?
Hi Cryptopotamus,
Thanks for the question. I know everyone has been eager to trade crypto CFDs. We don’t have any information to share at the moment, but I will let you know if and when that changes.
Jason
That didn’t sound like a “no” to me. 