Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Thanks for that @HyperScalper - I’ve nicked this for my thread "Bitcoin to fall off a cliff ? " - hope you don’t mnd

atb

F
https://forums.babypips.com/t/bitcoin-to-fall-off-cliff/117389/137

FINPRO LIQUIDITY PROVIDERS MIS-BEHAVING

On a very regular basis, FinProTrading’s Market Makers
are seriously mis-behaving in GBP/NZD specifically…

When I get around to it, I’ll try and bring it to their attention…
They “spike” the BID downwards erratically…
If I showed you a screen shot of the BID it’s embarrassing…
Mostly during the Asian session.

[EDIT2] OK, I submitted a Support Ticket to FinPro pointing out that the GBP/NZD
pair is consistently and significantly misbehaving. We’ll see what they say…

[EDIT] I’ll post the image anyway; a picture worth 1k words…

symbol min , avg , max spread pips
AUDCAD, 0.8 , 1.0 , 4.1 #
AUDCHF, 1.3 , 1.4 , 1.8 #
AUDJPY, 0.6 , 0.7 , 0.9 #
AUDNZD, 0.7 , 1.2 , 1.8 #
AUDUSD, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.4
CADCHF, 1.3 , 1.7 , 3.5 ##
CADJPY, 0.7 , 0.8 , 1.0 #
CHFJPY, 1.5 , 1.6 , 3.1 ##
EURAUD, 0.5 , 0.9 , 1.4 #
EURCAD, 1.0 , 1.2 , 1.3 #
EURCHF, 0.9 , 1.1 , 1.3 #
EURGBP, 0.5 , 0.7 , 1.0 #
EURJPY, 0.2 , 0.4 , 0.6
EURNZD, 1.9 , 2.8 , 3.4 ###
EURUSD, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.5
GBPAUD, 1.6 , 2.3 , 2.9 ##
GBPCAD, 1.9 , 2.2 , 2.7 ##
GBPCHF, 1.4 , 1.7 , 3.0 ##
GBPJPY, 0.2 , 0.6 , 1.1 #
GBPNZD, 15.5 , 18.5 , 24.8 ##################
GBPUSD, 0.4 , 0.6 , 0.9 #
NZDCAD, 1.2 , 1.8 , 2.1 ##
NZDCHF, 1.2 , 1.6 , 1.9 ##
NZDJPY, 0.8 , 1.2 , 1.6 #
NZDUSD, 0.3 , 0.8 , 1.2 #
USDCAD, 0.4 , 0.5 , 0.8 #
USDCHF, 0.6 , 0.8 , 1.0 #
USDJPY, 0.1 , 0.2 , 0.4

hyperscalper

I think this is “normal” behavior for most brokers during low liquidity hours. If you stick to the H1 / M30 during London hours when the liquidity is higher, you don’t get these kind of wonky spreads.

If you want to see something really interesting… watch the gbp/nzd tick chart (market watch box) during a news release. Then you’ll really see the spreads widen.

Best of luck to you. :slight_smile:

sknight1,

Thanks for that, but I disagree that it’s “normal”. I watch this stuff all the time, and FinProTrading claims that they pride themselves on their Liquidity Providers’ behavior, etc. So let’s see whether they care enough to fix this… And of course I know about News Release related spread behavior as well… That’s why I get in BEFORE the News Event. Thanks again !!

hyperscalper

1 Like

SIMPLEFX SPREADS VERSUS EVOLVE.MARKETS

Both of these brokers have about 500:1 leverage on the
native BIT denominated accounts. However, the Bid/Ask
spread pricing on SimpleFX is about 35% or so WIDER
than pricing at Evolve.Markets. Just FYI so I use Evolve.Markets
by preference.

I’m currently pushing some BTC from SimpleFX to Evolve
and timing the transaction. Who knows? Could be like 24 hours
with the BitCoin logjam right now…

[EDIT] Evolve credited the BTC amount 2 hours 45 mins later.
Not bad !.. I believe they require only 1 transaction verification
before they will credit…

hyperscalper

1 Like

it took my friend over 30 days to get $500 out, you should go on forex peace army and file a complaint, this broker is not to be trusted

FINPROTRADING’S REPLY TO COMPLAINT ABOUT GBP/NZD PAIR

Hey, maybe it will result in an improvement; but it’s not exactly an urgent commitment :slight_smile:

Hi Hyperscalper,

Thanks for getting in touch.

The erratic movement was due to thin liquidity around the Sunday open. This is expected in the lead up to the Christmas holiday. We’d like to add that we are actively speaking to our LPs to improve pricing during these periods.
If you require any assistance or have any questions, please feel free to contact us any time via Live Chat, email ( [email protected]) or call +44 20 3289 3467.

Kind Regards,

FinPro Trading

EVOLVE.MARKETS CHANGES BTCUSD PAIR LOT SIZE

Due to the price increase of BTCUSD and the overwhelming popularity of our BTCUSDmicro contract, we have decided to discontinue the larger BTCUSD contract (100 BTC per lot) and rename BTCUSDmicro (1 BTC per lot) to BTCUSD. This will take place in the below steps.

  1. On Thursday , December 21st at 16:00 Server Time, BTCUSD and BTCUSDmicro trading will be halted for approximately 15 minutes.
  2. BTCUSD contract will change from 100 BTC per MT4 lot to 1 BTC per MT4 lot.
  3. All open BTCUSD orders will have their MT4 volume adjusted by 100x. For example, a trade of 0.05 Lots would become 5.00 Lots(5 BTC) however the order will have the same exact value as before (5 BTC).
  4. All open BTCUSDmicro orders will have the suffix “micro” removed.
    Please feel free to contact us should you require further details or assistance.

end quote
hyperscalper

INSTAFOREX SITE POPUP NO US RESIDENTS

This is so depressing to see this, just hopped a link from
Twitter, landed here and got this reminder that U.S. “residents”
are not allowed to use the site.

It’s a one-time banner on the site, so I had to clear my cookies
to see it again…

hyperscalper

I am a US resident and have used TradersWay for years off and an and I have never had any issues with them. They have good spreads and have never had any funny business to deal with as far as crazy wide 40-60 pip spreads on news like I have always had with Oanda. Having said that their overnight swaps on many pairs is just horrendous for a longer term trader. Any recommendations?

Hi billko1997,

Well, FinProTrading has killer commissions (I mean good…)
but there are times when the Spreads are a bit wider than
I would like but generally not that bad… Fast, stable execution
tight spreads (mostly) and good commissions.

If you are trading at times when spreads are THAT WIDE, maybe
you are “chasing” a News Event while it’s happening, and that’s
not really a recommended way to trade the News, not in a
"reactive" manner. Instead, you should enter a market BEFORE
the News takes place. Or be Bidding or Offering slightly outside
the market on the news.

But the best thing is to formulate a view where a Currency will
be moving, and get in BEFORE the News Event, choosing a
secondary Currency to form the Pair. If CAD is high, and JPY
is low; then SELL the CAD/JPY pair slightly ahead of the
News Event.

But to do that, you have to have Currency Trend Analysis, so
you can see what each of the individual Currencies is doing.
For me, a News Event marks a change of trend in the dominant
Currency’s trend which can be seen days or weeks prior to the
major Calendar News Events regarding Interest Rates, GBP
or major Economic Data disclosures, most of which are
on the Calendars…

hyperscalper

FinPro’s spreads at this very moment are:
symbol min , avg , max spread pips
AUDCAD, 0.6 , 1.0 , 1.4 #
AUDCHF, 0.5 , 0.7 , 0.9 #
AUDJPY, 0.4 , 0.8 , 1.2 #
AUDNZD, 0.9 , 1.4 , 1.9 #
AUDUSD, 0.1 , 0.2 , 0.4
CADCHF, 0.9 , 1.1 , 1.2 #
CADJPY, 0.3 , 0.8 , 1.1 #
CHFJPY, 1.8 , 2.0 , 3.0 ##
EURAUD, 0.3 , 0.6 , 0.8 #
EURCAD, 1.1 , 1.3 , 1.4 #
EURCHF, 0.4 , 0.6 , 0.7 #
EURGBP, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.5
EURJPY, 0.3 , 0.4 , 0.6
EURNZD, 1.0 , 2.4 , 11.6 ##
EURUSD, 0.1 , 0.1 , 0.3
GBPAUD, 0.5 , 1.1 , 1.4 #
GBPCAD, 1.7 , 1.9 , 2.2 ##
GBPCHF, 0.5 , 0.8 , 1.0 #
GBPJPY, 1.4 , 1.7 , 2.1 ##
GBPNZD, 2.4 , 2.7 , 4.7 ###
GBPUSD, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.6
NZDCAD, 1.1 , 1.4 , 2.6 #
NZDCHF, 0.6 , 1.5 , 7.5 ##
NZDJPY, 1.3 , 2.7 , 4.4 ###
NZDUSD, 0.1 , 0.4 , 0.6
USDCAD, 0.1 , 0.4 , 0.8
USDCHF, 0.3 , 0.5 , 0.7
USDJPY, 0.1 , 0.2 , 0.3

I appreciate your response but Im in no way “chasing news”. Thats for newbs and gamblers and I am neither. For example today the CAD data came out at 8:30 est. I was short USDCAD since yesterday morning from 1.28777. News came out and price was 1.2800 before it hit. My target was 1.2686 and it was triggered at 8:30:32 est and I was filled at 1.2837. Yes, you read that right, Price was over 60 pips from my target when it triggered and then i was filled 80 pips ABOVE price. So in total my limit filled 140 pips from my actual target. This is an extreme example but its a re-occuring theme with Oanda. Crazy huge spread for milliseconds and then filled at some random price in the middle of nowhere. The only reason I came back AGAIN to Oanda is I get paranoid having too much money in an offshore account. The swaps suck with TradersWay but I could deal with it since I have never had a similar issue with them, ever. Just wish the US Gov. would get their shit together and do something to allow some broker competition. The spreads are fine at TradersWay and they appear to be at FinPro too, just wonder how they deal with swaps. Thanks

OK,

Glad you are a “wise trader”. In general you will get high
precision fills at FinProTrading, so … go for it ?

[EDIT] I must say I really don’t know that much about swaps
since I don’t hold for that long. I did notice some swap
charge yesterday, and realized I need to factor in not only
commission, but swap into my Net Profit calculations.

[EDIT2] You should get FinPro’s “Pure ECN” account, last
time I checked. Anyway, it should be variable spread plus
commmission type of account. Don’t get anything where
commish is paid for by the spread…

hyperscalper

Wisdom comes from getting your ass handed too you, repeatedly, so I guess I may qualify… lol. Looked at FinPro and the swaps are pretty similar to TradersWay. To be honest I would rather deal with the swaps and be more picky about which pairs I hold longer term and just go back to TradersWay than deal with Oanda’s “glitches”. So far I have never had any issues with execution at TW and at least there I can leverage up and keep the bulk of my trading capital in my bank and add if needed. The spreads and commissions seam similar as well between TW and FP too so at least I have history with TW. Its just a shame that by trying to “save us from ourselves” the govt. has actually put all of us who trade FX in the states at greater risk, simply by leaving us with little to no respectable options to trade with. I appreciate your reply’s.

Well, considerations of Commission rates are more
important if you are doing closer scalping at times,
where the commissions can be a larger percentage
of Profits or Losses.

Tradersway is a good brokerage, offering perhaps the
highest leverages available. Their pricing is much more
stable that what you describe at Oanda or others,
I’d say… and the higher leverages do make it possible
to have far less money “at risk” if you see offshoring
as a significant risk…

hyperscalper

The Nanny State in Japan

We have known for years that Japan is the largest retail spot forex market in the world. And recently we’ve seen that Japan is the largest bitcoin market in the world. Now we learn that Japanese regulators are shocked – SHOCKED! – that there’s large-scale trading going on in these markets.

And these regulators (who hate not being in control of everything that goes on in Japan) are worried that something huge (and out of their control) might happen in these huge markets. So they’re determined to cut these markets down to size – starting with forex leverage, which they want to crush down to 10:1.

Needless to say, traders and brokers in Japan are not happy with this regulatory overreach.

Well, Japan, welcome to the club.

Regulators everywhere want to control other people’s lives. That’s what regulators do. And it’s not just the agencies, themselves – CFTC, NFA, SEC, FINRA, FSA, FCA, BaFin, ASIC, CySec, FSMA, IIROC, BCSC, OSC, AMF, ISA, FSA-Japan, etc., etc., etc. – it’s also the bureaucratic grunts who work for these agencies.

All of these people derive their sense of self-worth from controlling other people. These sneaky regulators are a dangerous bunch, and their control tactics tend to metastasize from one agency to the next, and from one country to the next.

Accordingly, the control freaks in Japan are looking at the draconian measures implemented in the United States, and in other jurisdictions, and they’re saying, “We could use those same measures – or even harsher measures – to restrict our own markets.”

You can read about the debate currently going on in Japan in this Finance Magnates article –

In that debate, an issue frequently raised is the “threat” that will be posed to Japan’s domestic brokerage industry by offshore forex brokers – who offer more reasonable terms than Japan’s regulators will allow Japan’s domestic brokers to offer. Sound familiar?

I couldn’t resist posting the following –

A message to Japanese traders from your Regulator

This image was adapted from a popular meme that developed from the Japanese arcade video game Zero Wing. If you’re not familiar with that meme, you can read about it here – All your base are belong to us - Wikipedia



The list of regulatory agencies in the fourth paragraph above is a partial list. For a more complete list see – Forex Regulation - Forex Regulatory Organizations and Agencies

2 Likes

REGULATORY OVER-REACH

IN SOLIDARITY WITH CLINT, AND EVERYONE IN
THIS THREAD, HERE IS THE ORIGINAL VIDEO
WHICH YOU MAY ENJOY WATCHING, AND STUDYING…

"All Your Base Are Belong To Us (Original) "

I keep a link to this on my website to remind everyone
that there is one truth:

[EDIT] For background understanding of this meme’s origin,

“All your Base are Belong to US”

hyperscalper

1 Like

A NEW YEARS GOAL – FIND SOME MORE GOOD BROKERS OFFSHORE

Your Mission, should you accept it, is to find a new offshore broker in January who works
with U.S. persons, and who has quality technicals and reputation.

It may be that they do not “solicit” U.S. persons, but they will accept unsolicited
applications from U.S. persons.

Go forth and find those new quality brokerages !!! You have your Mission !

hyperscalper

A NEW BROKERAGE I FOUND IS “FXTSWISS.COM” , BUT HAS
SOME QUALITY ISSUES…

So, http://FXTSwiss.com is a broker who apparently accepts U.S. persons,
although I do not know for sure. For me, one immediate strike against them
is that they appear to offer FIXED SPREAD accounts only, so far as I know at this
time. My preference is Variable Spread plus Commission.

At least their “open a real account” did not immediately reject the choice of
both U.S. citizenship, and U.S. residence. (Could be rejection further down
the line, I don’t know…)

Other than that, although I have not made an application, and know nothing
else, it appears they will deal with U.S. persons. They also offer a
MetaTrader 4 interface, which is a requirement for me.

Further investigation may prove me wrong, but that’s the result of 10 minutes
of searching. GO FORTH AND SEARCH FOR OFFSHORE BROKER
OPPORTUNITIES, and do better than I have by finding higher quality
brokers…

[EDIT] I sent them a message inquiring whether they could provision Variable
Spread accounts plus Commission with MetaTrader 4 and, also, whether they
are able to accept both U.S. citizens and residents. Will let you know their
response.

hyperscalper

1 Like

it means TW sucks :Þ
and they have crappy swap!