Hi to all
I want to try trading with live account. Till now i was trying on fxcm demo and i m satisfied. Can anyone give me green light for FXCM and tell me if the trading is the same on live as it is onDEMO. Im from Slovenia and im using Europe(UK) DEMO mini account. I would like to start live micro with 200 €…
LP Dani
Hi Dani,
It’s great to hear you’re considering FXCM now that you’re ready to begin trading live. You may be interested in this recent discussion I had with another trader about making the transition from demo to live: 301 Moved Permanently
To clarify, FXCM lets you choose between three account types: Mini (50€ minimum opening balance), Standard (5K minimum) and Active Trader (25K). All of our account types let you trade micro lots (1000 units or 1K of base currency, allowing you to risk 10 cents per pip).
For the amount you are looking to start with, you can open a Mini account. Please let me know if you have any questions about the account opening process.
H Dani 
I have no experience with either Demo or Live FXCM account but I believe that in general it is not possible to get exactly the same results on live account as those you get on demo, mainly because DEMO trades don’t get executed on the real market., e.g. there should be impossible slippage to occur = once you go on the real market you should be prepare to sometimes receive slippage (usually both positive and negative when using a true STP/DMA broker) by the execution.
On the other hand as far as I read on the FXCM homepage the suggested to you Mini account is with Dealing Desk execution. Maybe this thread would be helpful to you too.
Cheers
Thanks Eyefondue, you make several great points.
To expand on what you said regarding demo vs. live trading:
Investopedia defines liquidity as follows: [I]The degree to which an asset or security can be bought or sold in the market without affecting the asset’s price. Liquidity is characterized by a high level of trading activity. Assets that can be easily bought or sold are known as liquid assets.[/I]
For example, EUR/USD is the most liquid financial instrument in the world, but even for that most liquid currency pair, the liquidity will drop during news events. If your demo strategy is longer term and doesn’t place trades during news events, then your results on a live account with the same trades would likely be comparable.
However, if your demo strategy relies on getting filled at the exact price you requested during news events, you may find that such a strategy will not perform as well in the real market. That’s because no demo can replicate the liquidity or lack thereof during major news events. That means your real market orders could be more prone to slippage.
Slippage is when your order is filled at a different price than you requested. The good news with FXCM is that slippage can be positive as well as negative. Positive slippage is when your order gets filled at a better price than you requested. Below are the stats from over 127 million live trades executed through FXCM between January 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016:
[ul]
[li]78.71% of all orders had no slippage.[/li][li]12.77% of all orders received positive slippage.[/li][li]8.52% of all orders received negative slippage.[/li][li]50.2% of all limit and limit entry orders received positive slippage.[/li][li]39.9% of all stop and stop entry orders received negative slippage.[/li][/ul]
Note that positive slippage is more likely to occur with limit (take profit) orders, while negative slippage is more likely to occur with stop orders. That’s due to the momentum of price movement when those particular order types are triggered.
It’s also worth noting that for market orders, Trading Station has a feature called Market Range (and a similar feature for pending orders called Range Entry) that allows you to specify how much negative slippage you’re willing to accept on an order if any. For example, if you set your Market Range to 3 then you market order will only be filled if the best available price in the market is within 3 pips of the price you clicked on. Otherwise, your market order gets cancelled. Note that this feature only limits you’re negative slippage. You’re still able to benefit from any positive slippage even if it’s greater than 3 pips. The video below has more info on how you can use the Market Range feature.
HI
i fill the form for LIVE account and deposited. my balance is still 0 trading station…how much time take to be my account credited? Margin is higher than on DEMO.Is that OK?
LP Daniel
Hi Daniel,
The time it takes for your funds to appear in your trading account depends on the deposit method you choose. FXCM accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and ACH electronic cheque deposits on MyFXCM.com, our secure client-service portal. All FXCM clients have access to the portal through their live trading account credentials.
The fastest way to fund your account is with a credit or debit card. Funds deposited in this way typically appear in your trading account in seconds. Bank wire deposits take approximately one to two business days (domestic) and three to five business days (international), often less, to arrive and process into your trading account.
Please explain in more detail what you mean when you say “Margin is higher than on DEMO”.
On DEMO is EUR/JPN margin 2,5€ on live is i think 5€…
lp Daniel
From what you have described, it seems your Mini demo account is set to 400:1 leverage (0.25% margin requirement), while your Mini live account is set to 200:1 leverage (0.5% margin requirement). Do you need higher leverage (lower margin requirement) for your trading?