Ok so I’ll keep it simple.
Would someone please tell me what the deal is with MB Trading. I have been demo trading with various brokers for nearly a year, learning (new to this market). After exhaustive research of many brokers (im in the US), I decided that in January I will open a live account with MBT. The pros include: spread, platform(s), pay for limits, and they also have terrific commissions on equities and options (although I understand there is an inter-account transfer fee).
I have read many great reviews of MB Trading on this forum and also on FPA which I also trust. However, recently, while performing deeper research, I am learning that there are some serious “cons” with this company. I have read stories of stops not being filled, positions closed on platform remaining open to lose money, connectivity problems, liquidity issues / slippage, etc. One customer calling them “crooks”! Now the choice doesn’t seem so clear.
So what’s up with MBT? I am excited about them but not sure now.
I have read stories of stops not being filled, positions closed on platform remaining open to lose money, connectivity problems, liquidity issues / slippage, etc.
First off this can happen and does happen at every broker. ( I think) Its how the broker deals with the issues. On line broker reviews are not worth much. I would say the best thing to do is start a real account with a broker your interested in. make a few small trades, contact customer support ask some questions, and make a withdraw.
I have used 3 brokers 2 get pretty good ratings on review sites. One has bad customer support and has expensive money transfer costs, one has technical problems quite often. The third has many more bad reviews. Customer service has fixed every problem I have had, disconnects are very rare and money moves into and out of my account for next to no costs and is fast. Guess who has my biggest account.
I have no personal experience with MBT.
Things like tight spreads and sign up bonuses are way overrated. What you want is good service, reliability and liquidity. A few requotes and disconnects can wipe out any bonus. Poor service is not to be tolerated. I don’t know the details of MBT, but if they are not one of the 10 biggest brokers - avoid. There is a reason the big brokers are big - think about it.
Thanks Shr1k!
I understand a little slippage is part of trading (I’ve traded options for years), but these guys are talking like 20 pips slippage! And customer service is apparently nonexistent.
I’ve had good demo success, scalping 5-10 pips (whatever market is giving me) at a time. Anything more than a few pips would necessarily make these methods a waste of time.
I appreciate your sound advice. This post is one of the final steps in my decision making process. Just want to be sure before I go all in and move my equity and option accounts there and end up hating it.
And thank you as well, codemeister!
I am going to try a tiny ($1000) forex account with MB Trading to start next month. In the past, with stocks, I have used strict limit orders to prevent bad fills and so hopefully I can do the same with currency. Since MBT basically offsets the commission when they pay for limits, this seems like its worth a try.
[U]What I won’t tolerate is an order clearly being [B]closed[/B] on my desktop and waking up the next morning to find that it was [B]open[/B] all night! [/U]
Just hoping I can trust these guys. Have considered FXCM but they seem no better, with a recent ruling against them for slippage manipulation.
As “Shr1k” said the reviews online don’t worth anything.
but you can ask people in forums after talking to them a while, people in forums usually don’t have any motive to lie.
I newer than you in this, right now I am trying to pick a nice demo platform, I tried etoro for a while and I didn’t really liked it.
do you have any suggestion of a comfortable demo platform? with a nice candles chart?
I like Mb Trading’s protrader platform in the demo. The best 3rd party demo platform I’ve found is Trade Interceptor by far! It is loaded!
Right now trade interceptor only dels with swissquote dukascopy and fxcm. They have data from mb trading but no account support (yet).
Ive tried mt4 demo’s on 4 different brokers and it just sucks because it never seems to work right.
I have a friend who trades with them.I asked him about requotes he says about 1 out of 6 trades he will get a requote but not a 20 pip discrepency maybe 1-2 pips.He also hates mt4 as you do for what reason i have not asked?
Thanks for your input! I can deal with 1-2 pip slip well enough, but more than that would kick my butt. I’m not really a mt4 “hater”, I have used it but it just doesn’t suit my needs. Connectivity issues will not be tolerated.
so basically bbulpett, you recommend dukascopy and fxcm?
I like fxcm too, I think its because I read good reviews about them in some forex reviews site I found.
In the case of MBT, stops are not stored on their servers. They are kept in the terminal until the price is hit then become market orders. In other words - I dare you to set a stop and shut down MT4
They use partial fills as any ECN does and this has blown out a few EAs and led to complaints. MT4 switches ticket numbers on partial closes, and can sometimes generate two or more tickets on partial opens - not brokers fault - they can’t modify MT4 source code to work with the ECN model.
They also have 5 minutes (but some were upto 15) downtime on the NY close to reconcile swaps/open positions - this has caught out many who signed up without reading small print. Sitting duck time when this happens and your in a position.
Also, ECN straight-out-to-the-market semantics only kick in once u begin trading 1 full standard $100,000 lot. Below that you’re caught up in smart routing and position bundling/matching which can affect slippage due to latency - again it’s all in the small print.
I was happy enough with them before deciding to abandon MQL (and so MT4) for C++/Java and FIX but found them
to be a lot better than Alpari or Fx Pro.
Better offerings exist outside MT4 in my view but ultimately, most problems in the space relate to faulty strategies not broker nuances. MB also have their own Desktop Pro software which isn’t MT4 but it works right and has its own API (language for writing robots).
Alright and all jokes aside if I MAY try to help you out.
You are one of the FEW it would seem that have no problem with Dodd-Frank of the CFTC or the NFA or the SEC (which believe me is a GOOD thing but we’ll not have that argument over here i.e. it’s already ‘on the go’ somewhere else). Not to mention that you must have a decent amount of capital which is ALSO a VERY could thing because you’re not going to be under capitalised and therefore you’re going to be able to manage your risk adequately. So you’ve ALREADY got TWO THINGS going for you the way I see it.
So here’s my help (taken from another post of mine from another forum on the very same topic would you believe):
[I]“There is a download link, in the Downloads Forum, in the ‘E-books for Trading Systems’ thread, to FuturesMag December 2011 (currently the last entry):
[/I]
[I]Technical Trading Systems at TechTraderCentral - Home
[/I]
[I]YES: it is hosted on my forums and YES registration is required for downloads but that is ONLY so that ‘casual Joe’ doesn’t go downloading stuff ‘for fun’. I’m in South Africa and unlike you ‘lucky lot’ we PAY for bandwidth!!! I’m not in the business of collecting email addresses and I guarantee you that you’re not going to get spammed with all sorts of ‘inane advertising’ (and if you do: let me know)!!! The only reason I’ve not uploaded the document HERE is because there is an upload size limitation (I’ve tried to extract the relevant pages but FuturesMag now ‘encrypts’ their .PDFs and no longer allows you to extract ‘partial content’ otherwise it would not have been a problem).
[/I]
[I]Anyway (and after that LONG ‘preamble’): there is an article, on page 54 of this month’s issue, entitled ‘Top 50 Brokers’ (although they omit to say that it’s a list of the ‘Top 50 Brokers’ in the USA). I think that the article ‘speaks for itself’. You’ll note that a) TradeStation Securities is listed and b) a lot of the ‘believed to be reputable, regulated, and honest’ brokers within the USA that ‘do the rounds’ on these and other forums (let’s call them ‘the more popular and well known ones’) are NOT on the list. MB Trading is NOT on the list!!!”
[/I]
And, well, here is a ‘cheap shot’ link to another post of mine on another thread:
Bottom line really: if you are not trying to ‘escape’ the US Regulations (which you shouldn’t be trying to do in my opinion because they serve a very good purpose) then TradeStation Securities would be my recommendation.
And in case anybody is wondering: NO I DO NOT work for, nor am I affiliated with, TradeStation Securities. I just know OF their reputation, I ‘know’ a few people that trade with them (one personally), and have noticed that most of the well known ‘big boy’ traders trade Futures with them.
If you WERE trying to ‘escape’ the US Regulations then UNFORTUNATELY I couldn’t help you at all so my point is that if you cannot be in OUR ‘good hands’ then you may as well be in OTHER ‘good hands’. If you WERE trying to ‘escape’ the US Regulations and I COULD help you: HELL I’d take you out to lunch and for a few drinks!!! Now how is THAT for ‘solicitation’!!! LOL!!!
Regards,
Dale.
Edit:
To answer one or more other questions that you may have:
