I’m new to this, have a demo account with IBFX, and noticed that spreads within the last few hours (10pm to 2am GMT) have shown huge variation. Everything up to 10-15 pips on the EUR/GBP, EUR/CHF and GBP/CHF. Now I can imagine that it would be nearly impossible to take home any pips of my own with these spreads.:mad:
I looked at MB Trading (it looks like EFX is part of MB) and they have very tight spreads (at least on their real-time quotes on the site). It also looks like they charge a small fee $.50 per 10,000.
Can anyone comment on how this ends up working out in live trading?
Jeff,
you have to appreciate that spreads reflect participation, volumes & activity.
you�re not going to attract playable spreads on those cross pairs at that time of the day. Even on the Inter-bank (wholesale) market you�d be lucky to receive a decent price (spread) to transact business outside of the key London trading shift.
the high activity turnover on FX, & especially the cross instrument pairings, is generated when London opens up for the day around 7.00-8.00am GMT.
you�ll notice a pick up in activity (on the crosses) as the fix approaches (3 per day at: midday�13.30 & 16.00 London) where spreads will usually tighten up, but they can still be quite illiquid during the trading day if volumes on the majors are low.
