It loos like FXCM is charging 5.8 spreads for EUR/USD on my micro account. Any suggestions ?
yes dump them
Most micro accounts charge higher spreads. The more money you have, the better the spreads tend to be.
Hi Rbboynton,
Welcome to the forum 
I notice that you posted this question on a Saturday. Keep in mind that if you’re logged in over the weekend when the trading desk is closed, the spreads you see are not indicative of the spreads that are available when trading is open during the week. While our spreads are variable based on market conditions, the typical spread for EUR/USD is 2.7 pips on No Dealing Desk execution and 1.6 pips on Dealing Desk execution.
If you have any other questions about FXCM, feel free to ask me in the Broker Aid Station.
Jason
Thanks Jason, you are correct.
As an EX-long time user of fxcm I just have a few things to say.
The fxcm micro platform will always be charging high spreads on average (around 1 pip each way) compared to the competition.
HOWEVER,they have very strong and stable servers.
When there is a huge news/spike, many platforms (including my current one) will freeze and crash, so you can’t enter the market at this time.
FXCM however, allows for it (with another increase in spread).
If trading during extremely volatile news time is essential to your trading, then fxcm micro is for you. If its not, practically every other platform will be cheaper. Also their TS2 platform is very user-friendly, but their customer service is so bad that I quit them as my broker. GLGP
Hi Jwlee7ucla,
As you mentioned, 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.
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).
We recommend our No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex 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.
I’m sorry to hear that you were unhappy with our customer service. In the past, all support for FXCM Micro accounts was done by email, but this year we eliminated the distinction between Micro and Standard accounts. Now with a $50 account balance, you can receive the same level of 24 hour live account support by phone and live chat that is available to all Standard account holders.
We even replaced our old King of the Micro trading contest with a new trading contest open to all FXCM clients.
Jason