Jason, I tried the FXCM web chat and actually called and spoke with someone on the phone, but I was hoping you might understand my problem better.
I have had accounts both demo and real with FXCM for several years. I just opened up a new MT4 account. [B]The reason I opened and MT4 account rather than a Trading Station account is because I need to be able to mirror my account to several social trading sites including ZuluTrade. These sites require that trade signals come from an MT4 account.
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I actually like to use Trading Station much more, so when I am making my actual trades I have been using Trading Station. Here is my problem:
My strategy requires me to either open two or three pending order trades at the same time with the same stop loss, but different take profits, or open one trade and then partially close the trade at different levels. As an example, I might put in a pending order to buy 2 micro lots of EURUSD with a stop loss of 100 pips and a take profit of 100 pips and also have an identical pending order to buy 1 micro lot of EURUSD with the same stop loss of 100 pips, but with a take profit of 150 pips. In the past with Trading Station I have not had a problem doing this either with a demo account or a real account, but when I try to do this with the MT4 account using Trading Station to place the trade, it looks like it is going to work, but when my first take profit gets hit nothing happens. The whole trade seems to work like one 3 micro lot trade with only the largest take profit.
After this happened I tried a different method. I placed one pending order for a buy trade of 3 micro lots with a stop loss of 100 pips. I then placed a pending order to sell 2 micro lots 100 pips above my entry and then another pending order to sell 1 micro lot 150 pips above my entry. This method also looked like it would work except when the first sell pending order was hit, nothing happened.
Is there any way to get around this apparent MT4 limitation while still using Trading Station/Marketscope to actually place my trades? Your counterparts had me download the multiple stops and take profits app to install in MT4, but to make use of this I would actually have to make my trades in MT4. Is there any way you can think of to accomplish my multiple trades using the Trading Station platform with my MT4 account?
My first thought would have been to suggest the Multiple Stops and Limits script from FXCMapps.com as my colleagues did. Since you mentioned you prefer to trade entirely from Trading Station, I would need to know more details about your trading. First, is your account with FXCM US or FXCM UK? (US accounts are required to comply with FIFO regulations set by the CFTC.) Second, is your strategy automated, or you do you place each order manually? Third, have you already tried the Trading Station version of the Multiple Stops and Limits app? My colleagues might have referred you to the MT4 version.
My account is FXCM US, but FIFO has not caused a problem with my strategy in the past. My trades are all placed manually. I have not tried the Trading Station version of Multiple Stops and Limits. I have not had any problems having multiple trades with different Take Profits using Trading Station, so I am not sure exactly what it does or why it would be needed. Using Trading Station I simply place pending order number one with a fixed stop loss and fixed take profit. Then I place a second or sometimes third pending order at the same value with the same stop loss, but the second and third take profits are larger than the previous. (That may be why FIFO does not come into play. The second and third take profits are always farther away than the first.) The idea of my strategy is to basically have an R and R of 1 with my first trade. Once the first take profit is hit I bank that profit and then move my stop losses to break even. After that I let the other positions continue on based on support and resistance areas until their take profits or the stop losses now set at breakeven are hit.
So in other words I do not think the problem has anything to do with US laws or Trading Station, it has only been a problem when using my MT4 account.
I really don’t want to have to switch over to using the MT4 Platform to place my trades, because it is so easy and visual using Marketscope. I don’t even have to make calculations for my stop losses and take profits.
I believe you are correct. Our Trading Station platform was developed in house by FXCM’s developers. That means we updated it ourselves to comply with FIFO regulations when they became a requirement in the US. By contrast, MT4 is a third party platform, so any such updates have to be made by the developer. All we can do as the broker is make sure non-FIFO orders are never executed on US accounts. This may be resulting in the restrictions you find when trying to place orders via Trading Station on your MT4 account.
There might be another solution. You mentioned you are trying to use an MT4 account to share your trades. Could you accomplish this with an FXCM UK MT4 demo? That would not be limited by FIFO restrictions. You could continue to place your live trades on a real FXCM US Trading Station account, and then replicate them on a demo FXCM UK MT4 account by placing trades via Trading Station.
Jason I have tried the UK version of MT4 and from what I can tell it is working. I am waiting for a couple of trades to close to know for sure. But assuming that does work, it looks like I still have a problem. Even though I am entering my trades for my real account using Trading Station, my actual account is still MT4 so it is only allowing one take profit and will not let me close partial positions same as when I was coping the trades before. I guess my new questions is, do you know of any way to mirror trade or copy trade from a Trading Station account to an MT4 account? I never used to have this problem at all even with a US account when I was using Trading Station only. I am thinking if there is a way, I would open a new real trading station US account and then copy trade to the UK MT4 account to send my social trading site signals.
In order to place trades on your real account via Trading Station as you have in the past, it will have to be converted back from an MT4 account into a Trading Station account. Note that your current account is technically still an MT4 account, and your are simply connecting to it via Trading Station. Order placement rules are governed by how the MT4 platform (a third party platform) handles US FIFO regulations which is slightly different from how Trading Station (which FXCM developed in house) handles FIFO.
FXCM US accounts cannot send trading signals to FXCM UK accounts, because an account manager and the account being managed must be under the same regulations. If you place your trades manually, you will have to do so twice: once on your FXCM US Trading Station account, and once on your FXCM UK MT4 account via Trading Station.