I had posted this over in the Newbie forums, but it quickly got drowned out by all the other noise. This looks like a more appropriate place to post it:
I have recently started to demo trade using a FXCM metatrader 4 account. I have a few strategies that I use which are all independent of one another. These are all swing/position strategies. The issue I am running into is this: I will place an instant execution order with a certain stop loss, but I may also place a buy/sell stop order as well with a different stop loss (independent strategies). For some reason, when the buy/sell stop order gets filled there is now only one stop loss for both orders…which appears to be which ever one is closer. If I modify one of the order’s stop loss, it changes the other as well. Obviously, I would like to keep two different stop loses for each of the orders. Can anyone let me know what I may be doing wrong? Any input would be great, and thanks for reading.
If you need any clarification, just ask and I’ll do my best.
I think I know what might be happening here. It sounds like you are using one of our US demo accounts. Our US demos have to comply with FIFO (First-In, First-Out) regulations here in the US. Simply put, if there are two trades open in a US account for the same currency pair, then the first trade opened has to be the first one closed. That means stop loss orders don’t get attached to individual trades, but rather to your overall net position in a given currency pair.
If you are a non-US resident, then you could simply open a demo account, and subsequently a live account with one of our international offices. FXCM’s non-US accounts are not subject to FIFO regulations. That means you would be able to attach your stop loss orders to individual trades, and the orders would not get combined.
Alternatively, if you live in the US, you might want to considering running the different strategies in separate accounts, since regulations in the US require all trading accounts to be FIFO compliant. To run multiple copies of MT4 on your computer, you simply have to save them in different folders when you install.
