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FXCM's Suhail Afzal and Brad Gleason - Ask Me Anything (AMA)


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FXCM's Suhail Afzal and Brad Gleason - Ask Me Anything (AMA)

  #91 (permalink)
 
FXCM Suhail's Avatar
 FXCM Suhail 
Dallas, Texas, USA
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Trading Station
Trading: Forex
Posts: 13 since Mar 2013
Thanks Given: 3
Thanks Received: 18


bp2012 View Post
Hello,

I have the FXCM Historical Data Downloader and have a quick question regarding the UTC offset. If I want to download a year's worth of 1M data in EST format, do I need to split it into three downloads to handle daylight savings time? Or is there an easier approach?

For example, for 2014,
-- Jan 1st through Mar 8th is non-dst and as such would have a utc offset of -5.
-- Mar 9th through Nov 1st is dst and should use an offset of -4, and
-- Nov 2nd through Dec 31 is non-dst so back to utc -5.

Its an important question for me since I generate daily bars using EST 5pm as the boundary.

If you could let me know if the above is the correct approach I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
bp

Hi BP,

You are correct that if you want generate bars in New York Time (Eastern Standard Time in the winter, and Eastern Daylight Time in the summer) then you have to adjust your UTC offset accordingly as you have shown in yor example. For this reason, traders who want to use data for longer time periods might find it easier to simply keep everying in UTC with an offset of zero. However, your approach is correct, if you want everything in New York Time.

If you have any questions about the products or services provided by FXCM, please send me a Private Message or use the BMT " Ask Me Anything" thread
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  #92 (permalink)
 
FXCM Suhail's Avatar
 FXCM Suhail 
Dallas, Texas, USA
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Trading Station
Trading: Forex
Posts: 13 since Mar 2013
Thanks Given: 3
Thanks Received: 18


chr1s View Post
Hi Suhail,

I was browsing FXCM website, which is obsolete in some areas especially when it comes to UK spread betting. After 2 independent conversations with your consultants I had 2 different answers about spread betting account and Ninja Trader platform. As I said some information is not updated so on some pages it says it's not available and when one tries to open an account this option is available.

So my question would be is spread betting available on NT7?

An excerpt from the conversation:


Also pricing mode hasn't changed for SB accounts:


Can you please confirm that is the case and what are current spreads and session times please?

Thank you,
Chris

Hi Chris,

I apologize for any confusion. FXCM does indeed offer spread bettting accounts on NinjaTrader. You can confirm this on the online application page, if you select the United Kingdom as your country of residence, NinjaTrader as your preferred platform and tick the box to select a spread betting account.

Spread betting accounts can now benefit from FXCM's new pricing. Note that as part of the special tax-free status of this account type for UK and Ireland residents, we can't charge a separate commission on your spread betting trades. Therefore, instead of a commission, we include an equivalent markup in the spread. However, your total transaction costs (spread with markup) are still comparable to those of non-spread betting account (spread plus commission). You can view the spreads on a spread betting demo.

You asked about session times. The trading hours are the same for both spread betting and non-spread betting accounts. Forex trades 24 hours a day from 5pm Sunday to 5pm Friday New York Time. You can view the trading hours for all other markets in the CFD Product Guide.

If you have any questions about the products or services provided by FXCM, please send me a Private Message or use the BMT " Ask Me Anything" thread
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  #93 (permalink)
 
chr1s's Avatar
 chr1s 
London, England
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NT, TOS, MT4
Broker: TOS, CQG (NT), FXCM
Trading: ES, 6E
Posts: 435 since Sep 2014
Thanks Given: 1,716
Thanks Received: 670


Thank you for your detailed response @Suhail

Consistency over time
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  #94 (permalink)
 jonc 
australia
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NinjaTrader
Trading: -
Posts: 303 since Sep 2010
Thanks Given: 123
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Do fxcm prefer longer time frame traders over short time frame scalpers?

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  #95 (permalink)
 
FXCM Suhail's Avatar
 FXCM Suhail 
Dallas, Texas, USA
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Trading Station
Trading: Forex
Posts: 13 since Mar 2013
Thanks Given: 3
Thanks Received: 18


jonc View Post
Do fxcm prefer longer time frame traders over short time frame scalpers?

Hi Jonc,

If anything, it's the opposite. FXCM provides traders with No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution. That means we make money off client volume, not client losses. Therefore, scalpers are some of our best clients, because of the trading volume they generate.

That said, we also welcome long term traders. While a lot of volume is best for us, a little volume is better than none . Furthermore, we don't lose money when you make money, because we offset each client order one-for-one with the best prices from 10+ competing liquidity providers. By contrast, a dealing desk broker could be taking the market risk on the other side of your trades which would present a conflict of interest if you are profitable.

Besides NDD execution, another factor to consider is the safety of your funds. It's no secret that the brokerage industry has been in the midst of a price war for the past few years. That combined with lower trading volumes over the past couple of years have caused many brokers to struggle. In recent times, we have seen brokers that have gone bankrupt in Europe, the US and Australia.

How can you know whether the broker you choose is a safe place to keep your money? Are they profitable, or are they barely staying afloat? Unfortunately, the vast majority of forex brokers are privately-held companies, so it's hard to know the state of their finances. That's why all traders need to ask brokers the following questions regarding their financial stability.
  1. What are your revenues?
  2. How profitable is your firm?
  3. Do you have a top-tier third-party accounting firm auditing your financials?
Unlike most retail forex brokers, we are a publicly-traded company (NYSE ticker: FXCM), so information regarding our financials is readily available. That's why traders around the world entrust FXCM with $1.332 billion in client funds.

If you have any questions about the products or services provided by FXCM, please send me a Private Message or use the BMT " Ask Me Anything" thread
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  #96 (permalink)
 SARdynamite 
Belgium
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: SaxoTrader
Broker: SaxoBank
Trading: ESTX
Posts: 289 since Dec 2009
Thanks Given: 243
Thanks Received: 110

Regarding The FXCM-NinjaTrader connection,

From your website, a minimum distance is mentionned to place stoploss orders on CFD indices. However, from playing wih the NinjaTrader FXCM demo account, stoploss orders can be placed anywhere, including below the supposed minimum distance...
What about LIVE Ninja accounts then ? I've got different replies from the sales team, hence I'm asking for a confirmation here. Are minimum distance for stoplosses bypassed under NinjaTrader or not ?

The following user says Thank You to SARdynamite for this post:
  #97 (permalink)
 
chr1s's Avatar
 chr1s 
London, England
 
Experience: Beginner
Platform: NT, TOS, MT4
Broker: TOS, CQG (NT), FXCM
Trading: ES, 6E
Posts: 435 since Sep 2014
Thanks Given: 1,716
Thanks Received: 670

Hi

I would like to know how spread, commissions and tick size differ for spreadbetting and CFD on NinjaTrader platform for instrument like eg. DAX and EURUSD.

Currently spread betting (DAX/GER30):
  • spread: 1point
  • commission: 0
  • tick size: 1point

As spread betting has not been upgrated to the new pricing model


Thank you,
Chris

Consistency over time
Visit my NexusFi Trade Journal
  #98 (permalink)
sharpshoota
Bodoe , Norway
 
Posts: 143 since Jun 2014
Thanks Given: 846
Thanks Received: 129

I think their new pricing is only for forex , CFD's pricing is still the same.
But you will get all the information you need if you mail or ask questions in their chat service @ Contact Us - FXCM UK

  #99 (permalink)
 
pvlee's Avatar
 pvlee 
Hertfordshire England
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NT
Trading: DAX
Posts: 96 since May 2011
Thanks Given: 96
Thanks Received: 165

I have recently opened a live account (September 2014) and have had good execution and usually a 1 tick spread on the DAX. I have no complaints so far. I have previously traded FDAX and CL futures through US brokers and have not noticed any difference in execution through the spread betting account. The FXCM account is 'no dealing desk' which is comforting and is exactly the same feed as the non spreadbetting acccounts, according to FXCM. I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary on slippage so far.

In fact my experience with FXCM's spreadbetting account has exceeded my expectations so far and I will be increasing my lot size soon hoping for no out of the ordinary slippage issues.

The lack of access to accurate volume is a slight issue for me but so far, so good :-) 9 out of 10

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  #100 (permalink)
 
lrfsdad's Avatar
 lrfsdad 
milwaukee,wi, usa
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: Mobile TWS & mobile TOS. Dough.com
Broker: IB, TOS, FXCM
Trading: futures and options. looking into forex
Posts: 186 since Nov 2012
Thanks Given: 302
Thanks Received: 161


@FXCM Suhail I trade mostly from my mobile phone. I don't see Russian Ruble as a tradeable product, yet alot of my twitter news feeds were mentioning RUB this am due to the continuing oil slide and excessive spreads due to volatility. Can I trade RUB with fxcm?

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