What�s that company that your talking about? Can you tell me a little about their spreads? You�ll see, the thing is that I�m usually a scalper so I�m looking for really low spreads. I thought that my broker Tradeview�s spreads where the best, but I think that at times of the day I can find something better.
I hope you’re not going to Oanda. I had a very bad experience with them with my USDHUF trade. I’m sure they hunted my stop loss. Why? I had a same pair with CitiFX and at the exact time it was never lower than 198. But Oanda stopped loss me at 196. That’s too much difference! I lost quite a bit of money there. I closed my account. Now I trade with FXCM for the majors and CitiFX for my exotics.
Hmmm…
For Oanda, - No, I checked them out and created a demo account, for my currecy pair that I like USD/TRY the problem was that they only allow trading during certian times of the day that do not work for me. Also, I reeeeaaallly didn’t like their trading platform.
WhiteKnight -However, for a much better currency spread, I found Tadawulfx to have a much better spread for me on that pair - 15 pips compaired to the 30 I’m currently dealing with. BUT the problem with Tadawulfx is that they use the MT4 platform - which is excellent, but I exclusively use a “Tick by Tick” chart for my style of scalping. The little tick chart to the left of the main chart isn’t really up to par for me.
I know its probably a dorky platform, but its the one that in the lower right hand corner of the screen says, “Powerd by ActForex 2008”. That platform right there is freaking AWESOME for my scalping style - Its just “get in and out-bam!” Maybe its cause I’m new and don’t know any better…but for now its my favorite.
To give you an idea of all the crap & brokers I’ve tried, this is a list of what I’ve got loaded on my system as of RIGHT now:
[ul]
[li]Best Direct 8
[/li][li]Rumus2
[/li][li]Citibank ( Slick…real professional feel i think )
[/li][li]Interbank FX Trader 4
[/li][li]NJB Futures
[/li][li]Tadawulfx Trader 4
[/li][li]OperaPro2 - GFS Forex (I like this one too, Pull the trigger style, great ticks, quick easy in & out)
[/li][li]FXDD Trader 3.7.5
[/li][li]MBT Navigator
[/li][li]eToro ( I can’t believe people actually use this one…what the hell)
[/li][li]ACM USA Forex Trading ( Pretty cool )
[/li][li]GFX GlobalTrader
[/li][li]G.T.S. Pro
[/li][li]ForexTrader
[/li][li]FXCM Micro Trading Station ( I think I can make it work for me, just need more time)
[/li][/ul]
Slippage: ForexYard
The one broker I’m using now ( the one im requesting a withdraw from ) is ForexYard - been doing great. In the beginning I would place my order, set my stops and then my limits. As soon as it reached my limit Bam! Order was closed and I made my profits - However, the further along I went, I began to notice that the SLIPS became more and more and more frequent. It became so frequent that I began to document them.
Here is a screenshot example of just one: ( I am documeting every single problem with them)
Basically what happened in just this one incident ( cause there were ALOT more of this the more successful I became) is that I placed a SELL/SHORT order for USD/TRY pair at 1.7293 - it declined to 1.7173 - I stepped away from the computer for a few minutes - the currency stagnated at 1.7173 for a good 1-3 minutes(hence NOT “volitile”, SLIPPED and then shot back up. So, I lost my trade.
I have other screenshorts that show 3 consecutive Slips on my orders- had I not walked away from my computer to take a leak, I could have pulled the trigger manually.
Basically at this point, I never, never, never place an order that I know is going to slip without me being there attending the system so I can execute it manually. Its sad, I will sit there, watch it move and think to myself, “look at that, its not executing…what bulls&#^T, then I do it myself.” I can’t trust it anymore.
THe more I read about other people experiencing Slippage, I am really beginning to think that it might just be one of those things where you say," If you want to get it done Right, you just have to do it yourself" - kinda thing. Maybe people that use an ECN have ZERO slips, I have no earthly idea.
Incorrect Orders: - Has ANYONE had this happen to them??
You place an BUY/LONG order for any currency pair for 1.5669 - as soon as the order is entered into the system, you do not get 1.5669 - INSTEAD you get locked into the BUY/LONG position of 1.5699
Anyone??? I have contacted them, gave them a call, the employee there named “Pabel” said they would have a manager contact me.
However that was on Wed, November 26th - Haven’t heard one word from them, and for some reason, I don’t expect to hear back from them.
Because of all of the little problems I have had, I document and take screen shots of everything in case they do not honor their end of the agreement.
My regular day job is a Google, MSN & Yahoo Search engine optimization specialist, and I will make damn sure that if they do not honor their policy, be HONEST, NICE and take care of their cusomters (me), I will make them extremely popular on the internt Keywords/SERPS. Its just a CYA measure for me. Nobody likes to get punked, played, given the “runaround” or be treated unfairly.
The new broker that I am going to try is located in the US, they are regulated. Also I can get in my truck, drive to the office and in 5 hours drive time put my hands on the nice man that I speak to on the phone. 
-Much better than dealing with some outfit in Cyprus.
However I must say that I still have my ForexYard account and am still using them until I cannot get my money -the request is in, i still have a few more hours to go until it should be processed. I just like to have a backup plan and don’t like to not have any options.
Dustin82 - It think it depends on your currency preference - I happen to like the exotics myself, Tadawulfx has some good spreads on them, but you might not like them.
Hi guys and gals. I am a newbie (one month). I was a little ispired by Se7en’s post. I did some scalping with my demo with those exotic pairs. Made a whopping $132,000,000.00 in four hours! You read right; one hundred and thirty two MILLION dollars!! I told my forex teacher (from MTI) and he said that was impossible. Showed him the reports and he was taken aback.
So guess who opened a live account! Ha, was I in for a bitter surprise when I found out that demo exotic pairs and real exotic pairs behave totally different (go figure). I kept switching from demo to real to see if the pairs would ever behave the same. NEVER did. You do not collect $132,000,000.00! Go straight to jail!
So I had to do what I was taught; trade with diligence, less emotions (yeah, right) and always ALWAYS put in a stop loss. Ok, so I got greedy (there oes the emotions) and then fearful…and BURNT! I’ve almost wiped out my account.
Believe me though…I have learnt a lot more wiping out my account than I did in class (ha ha ha). Better equity management is keeping me from total wipe-out.
Se7en: would like to learn your technique. Exotic pairs don’t work for me in the real. Will look at the pair you mentioned earlier.
Later newbies…be wise! Stick to the rules and always keep educating yourselves!
I know what you mean, but what is crazy is that what I started to do in Demo accounts, I’ve applied to a real account - with the exact same result.
Often times we ( what I mean is ME) are more wrong that we are right -very seldom do I ever do something well consistantly. That goes for almost everything…it seems that murphys law is really real.
I had major losses with most pairs,(demo) fooled around a bit with some exotics and thought i found something special. I put it to the test for a few months in a demo account and did the same thing with a few other brokers to make sure I wasn’t being “played”. That is why i have a demo account with practically every Forex broker available.
Then I opened a real account and applied what I had been doing to a real account, and sure enough, over time, it was working - same thing, except with real money. Sure there are some losses, but the importat thing is that your wins exceed your losses.
Not being greedy or excited - learn when to STOP and call it a day. do the same thing tomorrow if the pair still exhibits the same behavior you can exploit.
it means spreads and everything will change once I open my live account? I have to check it out because it doesn�t make sense. I guess there are regulators in each financial market then forex may not be the exception. Let�s try with our brokers, by the way, this may be also a good way testing them out. Jess
Se7en, reading your thread was very inspiring and interesting. Which broker(s) if you may, recommend to start a mini account using the technique of scalping and also less slippage? Basically the overall best one you’d recommend? Any other inputs from the experience traders would be appreciated as well. $250-500 starting
For example, I was researching into Interbank Fx Trader 4.0, however they do have good spreads, but they are not NFA, CFTC regulated. I’d prefer a service provider to be regulated either one. The same with Forex Yard, and Ninja Trader.
Se7en,
I, like you, have experienced a degree of success with what I have been doing so far. I started a mini account with $250, made my first trade on December 10, and right now my balance is $685. I’ve only traded the EUR/USD pair so far. I chose that pair because it had the tightest spread of the pairs I looked at. My trading style would be defined as scalping, as I am only usually in a trade a few minutes. I’ve had to sit on an occasional trade a few hours, either when I had to leave the computer & set profit stops, or when the trade initially went against me, and I had to wait for it to come back to a point of profit for me. I only demo traded long enough to get the hang of how it was done (about a week), then I decided to open a real account with money that I wouldn’t be afraid to lose.
Now, I have a few questions: (1) I use Forex.com (Gain Capital). Does anyone know if they are one of the brokers that does not allow scalping? I have not found any reference to scalping, one way or the other, on their website. (2) I have found that due to the volatility of the market, it is extremely difficult for me to determine where to set my loss stops. I’ve been in a situation where I was down a few hundred dollars on a trade, and since I only had so much in the market, I decided not to exit the trade. I decided that I was either going to be liquidated and lose everything, or the trade was going to return to my favor. Fortunately for me, it came back, and I got out with a profit. Had I set a loss stop, I would have been stopped out long before, with at least a 200 pip loss. I definitely do not plan to trade this way for the long haul, though. Any suggestions from anyone? Any input? (3) Due to the same market volatility I referred to, I also find it very difficult to sit on a profitable trade. Thus, I exit most of my trades far ahead of the profit point I could have realized. Yesterday, I exited a trade with a $5 gain that would have been a $55 gain, had I stayed in 30 more minutes. I did the same thing an hour later. I exited with a $7.70 gain that would have been $27.70. I’m afraid of trailing stops, for the very same reason that I cited in question #2. I’m considering adding 10 pip trailing stops after I get at least a 20 pip profit, but I find it sooooo hard to sit on a trade waiting on it to move 20 pips in my favor. I usually pull the trigger long before that point! Anybody out there experiencing this also? Any input would be appreciated regarding how you deal with this…
What I’m currently doing is resulting in 10-20 trades per day, with 98% of trades ending profitably. But they are small profits that in about 75% of cases, would have turned out to be much larger profits.
Good luck, and please share any suggestions you may have!
what you should be looking at whiteknight, is the DIFFERENCE in prices as reflected by a spread difference or just where they consider “done” before you blame oanda that quickly — there is NO doubt you had different prices between CitiFX and Oanda, and two pips would place that into the “normal” differences between brokers, with some being outrageously different (i get my data feeds from 2 Interbanks and one liquidity provider, and there ARE definite differences with the broker, but its all within a few pips !)
just pointing out that ive not heard much bad about Oanda for many many years now, and feel that youve just missed a price difference between the two brokers !
enjoy and trade well
mp
mp6140,
The difference between 198 and 196 is 200 pips, not 2 pips. I understand that’s an exotic pair, and being what it is, the spread is usually 50 to 80 pips, but 200 pips is a bit too much for me to be convinced. I looked at Oanda’s own chart, and the wick of the candle did not touch 196 (it came very close but did not touch). Well, they came up with their explanation, but there is no way I am going to buy that.
I don’t think Oanda, or any other large brokers, even FXCM, will hunt your stop loss if you’re trading a major pair and if your volume is not unusually large, but given I was trading the Hungarian dollar, and that the market price did go down to 198 that single night (and then came back up to 200 the next morning, and then over 210 over the next week or so), the situation was like to hang a fish in front of a cat and expect it to stay still. No matter how many people say good things about Oanda, I’m not going back!
Happy trading and thanks for the reply.
Piplady,
a very short period of time in the market and a short amount of experience to go with it !
proceed as you are and it will all come to you with each day bringing you closer to that one mind boggling, body shaking BLAST (NO, not that type of blast !) where you reach understanding !
If it were really simple, thered be a whole lot more multi millionaires, so just give it time, turn that account into the thousands and “go girl !”
congrats – u doing VERY well by golly
mp
DUHHHHHHHH — you mean theres a period and then some zeros after those numbers ---- nice to be reminded im human after all these years of thinking im a god !
what was their explanation please ?
mp
They said their prices came from several banks and different banks have different prices.
Well for a scalping friendly broker that has good spreads - I think that kinda what we are all looking for. I am told to go with an ECN for that - executions are quick, no dealing desk to screw up or “delay” your orders.
I am currently looking at a few brokers: TadawulFX, InterBankFX & HotSpot ECN. - Hence my delimma on getting a *&$%#ing tick-by-tick chart that is similar to the tick chart offered by ForexYard and I-TradeFX’s WinTrader platform. I am currenclt talking to some individuals that will modify some of the simple Tick Indicators for me. (unless someone here is willing to give me a hand with it.) 
I will tell you this based from my personal experience: If you are looking to scalp, I would personally not recommend I-TradeFX on the non-majors. It seems that most, if not all orders are up for dealer approval/review/whatever the &^#$%@ message is that pops up on your trading platform - which BIG TIME delays your trades = you lose. Of course, then they whip out the volitile risk disclosure agreement on you and you just have to sit back and take it. Yeah- volitile risk for THAT broker, while you ( or Me in this case ) make 80% successful trades with another broker in the same volitile risky currency pair, without the teeth-gnashing feeling of watching your order open and close with gutwrenching delays.
For myself, quickly scalping a tick chart is absolute key for me and my style - the tick chart that is on the WinTrader platform produced by ActForex ( which is used by ForexYard & I-TradeFX) helps me win most of my trades.
I really, really, really want to get an MT4 tick chart Indicator similar to the one that is featured on the ForexYard platform so that I can duplicate my methods with a different broker that offers a smaller spread.
When I trade, I only make a bout 1-4 trades per evening & only when the currency pair is giving me the tell-tale behavior signals that I can identify ONLY from a good tick chart. If I cannot see the behavior, I simply do not trade and will wait till the next day ( my personal trading discipline: do not force a trade unless the currency pair behavior is ready for it )
[B]Question:[/B]
[ul]
[/ul]Perhapse someone out there will know the answer to this question: Is there a broker/ECN that will allow you to create and trade your own currency pairs?For example, you want to trade MXN/ZAR ( Odd, yes I know) - Is there such an ECN that will allow you to do that? Specifically, [B]I am looking for CAD/MXN and USD/TRY.[/B]
[B]Slippage:[/B]
On the slippage issue, it seems to me that when you start a new account you ( or me in this case ) encounter very little to no slippage. Smooth sailing… As your trading success with a regular broker (non-ECN) progresses, you ( or me again ) begin to notice slippage to the point to where you really want to keep your finger on the trigger cause’ you just can’t trust it anymore. What you can trust is the dependability of it slipping.
Have ya’ll ever had that trading day when you open a position, maybe with a much larger lot size than usual - you look at it, wait for the empending swing, (cause you know your position is good) set your stops and limits - THEN you say/think to yourself, " I bet you a million buck this trade WILL slip", then the swing occurs and sure enough it slips…the price dwells, spends a few extra 30-90 seconds beyond the Slipped limits…you look at…( think to yourself WTF!!!) it and then manually close the position.
WHen it comes to Oanda - I can’t say anything about them because I don’t have any real experience in dealing with them. I can say that I personally do not like the feel of their trading platform - it just doesnt feel right for me personally.
Also, when it comes to trading a Demo account - Look, if you get a demo account with ANY broker and you manage to earn $1,000,000.00 in 30 minutes, - something isnt right and you should question the integrity of the broker’s demo account.
I will say this, the demo account on ForexYard is based on a real account - With reference to my experience, they give you a real demo ( unlike I-TradeFX which is a complete joke) The guys a ForexYard have a good demo and it is based on the real deal. - The downside to them is that it is against company policy to open/close trades that last LESS than 2 minutes. Meaning, they do not approve of scalping trades that last less than 2 minutes. This, of course is a problem for me since alot of my trades last seconds. ( Hence, someone please help me get a good modified tick-chart for the MT4 platform )
Se7en,
Forex.com’s platform has a tick chart. I can’t speak for it’s usefulness for your purpose, as I’m not sure how you use it.
Yeah there are a few- one broker had a tick chart on the USD/TRY pair, but they only allowed trading during certian and inconvenient hours. It was based on some funky Java code design…I couldn’t get used to it.
I recommend sticking to just 1 or maybe 2 currency pairs and watch the behavior during the day and compair it to how it behaves at night, if you can swing it.
I’m really happy that you are doing good. It seems that alot of people here overly complicate this whole trading process with tons and tons of technical crap, EA’s, Indicators, etc… I know he isn’t very popular around this forum, but there is a guy called TRO or The Rumpled One that has a very different spin on the trading scene. I admire his approach on a few things, but then again im a just learning still like you guys with the exception of having consistantly great results. I don’t use MACD’s, Bollinger bands, etc… I keep it pretty simple for my pair and it is working well on my exotics. It just based on the unique behavior of the currency pair based on the time of day/night.
I do feel however that perhapse there is some creedence in applying a few of the more complicated approach to some of the major pairs - I just don’t have the savvy to catch onto it just yet.
Seven,
humor me here (most people laugh at me anyway)
while a tick chart is nice, and it give one bragging rights and all that, i trade the one minute using MT4 regular candles and cant say that i ever miss a beat.
I have tick charts on my quotetracker program, with data feeds from barclays, tullet and fxcm and while they are impressive and cute, i dont make a cent more using them than regular candles.
scalping is part instinct and part indicators and the shape or speed of the candle has little bearing once you have your support and resistance points on your chart, cause THATS where the price is heading and the price dont care what it looks like getting there !
you “might” think theyre giving you some advantage that i havent a clue about, but having used them for years, I now find myself faster and more accurate using just plain jane MT4 candle stuff !
i must state that i have NEVER had a slippage problem with a limit order on an exit — manually doing a market order entry does sometimes spank me badly, but its my fault for trying to grab those few pips from my broker, and his way of reminding me that i cant always win (so i go to a higher timeframe and usually win anyway)
enjoy and trade well
mp
MP,
No problem, no offense taken. Not sure what to tell you about the 1 minute chart and your experience - I only know what works for me based on my experience.
For me, from what I have been able to gather, within that 1 minute time frame and depending on your currency pair, there is alot of volitility jumping around in which the currency will dwell for maybe 4 seconds, 8 seconds, etc… just long enough for me to enter & exit a trade. Whereas if I can see it, get a good graphical representation of what its doing, then execute my trades.
As far as a 1 minute chart, I cannot seem to get my head wrapped around making it work for me with the same ammount of success I am having. I can’t seem to duplicate that on non-tick charts.
I do like to keep things simple - if ticks work and work well - keep using it. If not, keep hacking your system till you find out what it best suited for the individual.
7
WAIT A MINUTE -------- duhhhhhhhhh !
when using MT4 you can produce TWO tick charts — one is right before you on the order ticket and you can have one alongside your regular charts by using the “market watch” panel and clicking the “tick charts” tab.
time to go to sleep cause the brain has obviously slipped an awful amount
mp
hehe, yeah i have at least 10 different tick Indicators which all behave in the same manner - missing pip value detail to the right of the chart between each movement while excluding horizontal lines similar to a M1 chart, which for me is pretty important so i can get a visual of how far the pips are traveling. The tick indicator built into MT4 is incredibly small ( unfriendly for me)
7:)