Has anyone noticed recently how much the spreads on FXCM seem to be fluctuating.
I like to trade the opening of the London market and today when I went to enter a trade on the GBP/USD currency pair I noticed before I pulled the trigger that the spread was at 6.2 pips. Thinking that was rather high I waited a couple of minutes to see if it would settle down. Within a period of 3 minutes the spread went as high as 8.4 pips - to me that’s just ridiculous for a major currency pair.
Anyone else been noticing this. I use FXCM because I really like the TradingStation platform but if the spreads don’t settle down I’m going to have to move to another broker.
for the other Currency pairs, the FXCM spreads at approximately 7:55am London Time were:
GBP/JPY : 8.9 pips
EUR/USD : 3.8 pips (did hit 4.2 as I typed)
USD/CAD : 5.4 pips
EUR/GBP : 4.9 pips
They just seem way too high - though the EUR/USD isn’t too bad I guess
Take a look at your calendar. There was a major news release coming out at 8:00’ AM British time Thursday morning. The spread has been somewhere around 2.7 and 3.3 all night long Thursday Eastern Time in the U.S. Just observe what will be happening on Friday afternoon 5 minutes before 1:30’ PM British time when the Non-farm payrolls is released. That will give you an idea.
The spreads on FXCM’s platform will vary depending on the best bid/ask prices being streamed from the multiple banks streaming prices. The best spreads available to FXCM are streamed to you with a small markup, which is generally one pip for major currency pairs.
The spreads offered by the banks are dependent on market volatility and liquidity. As the market becomes more volatile or liquidity decreases, you will often see spreads widen. This happens often during news events as there is much more risk, and the banks manage their risk by increasing the spread. I would recommend bookmarking the BabyPips economic calendar so you’re familiar when important news events are being released: Forex Calendar: Economic Calendar for FX Trading News & Event Risk
Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
I’ve Picked up on that too lately, so Ive been opening demo accounts with other brokers to see there spreads.
I think the spreads on FXCM are a bit to much too…