I have been trading on Nadex for a number of years. I make money sometimes but most of the time I lose. Many times, I have noticed that when trades are going in the direction of chart analysis, just 5-10 minutes before expiry, the trades go the wrong way and close out of the money. A few minutes later, the trade goes according to chart analysis. I am not a professional trader, just a regular guy trying to make some money. So I started wondering, “Who are Market Makers” and what do they do? I couldn’t find much information about what I was asking. Finally, I gathered courage and called Nadex. The same guy answered both time. He could not let me ask my questions. He made me feel like I didn’t have any question–get me? I followed that with an email with questions. I got a general link about Nadex MMs. Still my questions were not answered. Lastly, I chatted with one of their “experts.” This person was really nice and after chatting, I concluded that the questions I had about Market Makers cannot be answered. They have CFTC protection in this protection of MMs. It’s a big dark secret as to what MMs do and the company policy cannot tell anybody who they are, what they do, whether they make a profit, whether what they do benefits Nadex financially, whether they can see all the contracts on the platform, or whether they can open or close trades any time they choose. All I was I told is that they provide liquidity in Nadex, just like everywhere else. Yet, when I read in one CFTC review of Nadex that MMs control 99% of trade flows on Nadex, I was shocked. All along, I thought that trades bet against other traders and Nadex has nothing to do with those transactions. Can someone who knows how MMs work enlighten me on this matter. To me, it appears as if these brokerage firms are just gambling casinos, where the general public is betting against the house. I grant that Nadex is not a non-profit company and have not fiduciary obligations. I am not going to stop trading because of this discovery, but I will continue trading knowing that for most part, short–less than 4 hour trades are never safe. MMs can manipulate these, as opposed to 4hr+ trades. Just my 2-cents. Any thoughts?
Had to do a little digging, but I got this from one of there legal submittals to the regulatory authorities:
ICE Data® Connectivity and Feeds, Inc.
“IDCF is part of the Intercontinental Exchange group of entities of which actionable currencies are obtained from 19 well known established banking institutions from around the globe.”
They also use Scila to conduct surveillance.
If you want to do more homework on how market makers work, they both have an Internet presence.