I’d like to demo a strategy that I’ve been looking at for a few weeks and I can’t find a broker that offers what I’d like. Can anyone point me to a broker that offers [B]ALL [/B]of these things:
Server-side trailing stops (hence a non-MT4 platform)
Leverage of 200:1 or higher
Multiple account support or position-based trading
A decent iphone trading app.
Results of my research so far:
OANDA - really like them, but they can’t do (2)
FXCM - not sure about (3) (anyone help here?) plus (4) seemed pretty dodgy
Various other MT4 brokers - all no to (1)
I’m FXCM’s representative here on BabyPips, so I wanted to follow up regarding your questions. Our platforms do offer functionality for multiple account support and position-based trading. In regards to our mobile app, we recently upgraded it. Was there something in particular you found lacking?
It’s true, I need to be able to walk away from MT4. The thought of leaving my home PC running with MT4 makes me shudder from electricity usage and fire risk. I know it’s probably a little over-cautious but “being careful won’t hurt you”
[B]Jason [/B]- thanks for your response, it looks like I’ll be using FXCM when/if I go live with this strategy. I’ve been demo trading using the web platform and the app for the last few days and my thoughts are:
The app (or is it FXCM in general?) doesn’t allow positions to be more exact than the 1 microlot increments. I know Oanda allows a totally flexible & precise number of units, whereas FXCM starts at 1K then goes up 2K, 3K… and so on. So I can’t get 1600 units for example. As my risk tolerance increases, this won’t be a problem, but for the early stages it means I can’t implement my strategy perfectly when starting out. Not a huge deal though.
The main MT4 app (whilst it isn’t right for me) allows direct querying of the OHLC data of each candle - ie the crosshairs tool. I would like to have this functionality within the FXCM app, so I can know the exact highs and lows (as well as switching from Bid to Ask prices on the chart).
Trade defaults. I will [U]always [/U]want a 20pip trailing stop on every trade I put in place. I’d rather not have to enter it every time, can’t the app just always know that and automatically put it in place for me when I create a new order. Again, not a huge deal.
All my main boxes are ticked though, these are just suggestions.
Thanks for your feedback. Regarding your suggestions:
The minimum trade size on all FXCM platforms including the Trading Station and MT4 is a 1K microlot. If the order size was any smaller, we could not use our No Dealing Desk execution model to immediately offset our client orders with our liquidity providers. When we introduced NDD back in 2007, banks would only offset 10k orders. Then in 2010, they started accepting 1k orders. It’s possible the banks may be able to take smaller orders in the future.
You can get OHLC data on the Trading Station as well. If you left click on a candle, you will see this info pop up. You can click on the “B” and “A” buttons in the chart toolbar to switch between the bid and ask prices as shown above. It’s worth noting that the tick chart will allow you to the bid and ask prices simultaneously. Also, you can right-click on the MarketScope charts and select Chart Mode > Table as shown below. This will display the information as a spreadsheet instead of a chart.
If you click on the Trading Settings button along the top of the Trading Station, you can select One-Click or Double-Click trading. That will allow to set a Trailing Stop at 20 pips as shown below.
Thanks Jason, this is useful for when I’m trading from home. But the mobile app is definitely missing the functionality for 2 and 3 in particular.
They were all minor points though and I think I can make it work with FXCM, so when I get round to going live I will probably take it up with yourselves.
The spread on EUR/USD with NDD bothers me slightly. Is there any likelihood that this will come down?
Otherwise the NDD approach looks pretty good, though there’s no telling how much of an effect it will have on my trading and whether it will be good or bad.
It’s possible get lower spreads on NDD with our Active Trader program (Minimum: $25k deposit or 10M per month in volume).
Alternatively, we offer lower spreads on DD execution. Something that makes our DD execution unique is that it uses the FXCM NDD price feed as a base to derive prices and execute orders. This means that our DD execution shares important features with our NDD execution such as no re-quotes, and no restrictions on stops or limits.
I don’t understand your point no 1… if you right a click on an order in MT4 you can set a trailing stop that will stick even if you close the software… Anyone else can attest ???confused
MT won’t trail your stops if it isn’t open. After all it just modifying the orders stop when certain points have been gained on the position. So if you do set a trailing stop in MT you need it open and running ! Whatever stop is on the order when you close mt4 will be the stop that is still with the broker.
I wish this were the case. The following is taken from the MT4 Help Files:
[I]
“Attention: Trailing Stop works in the client terminal, not in the server (like Stop Loss or Take Profit). This is why it will not work, unlike the above orders, if the terminal is off. In this case, only the Stop Loss level will trigger that has been set by trailing stop.”[/I]
Until MT4 can do this, I’ll probably always be interested in server-side stuff.
