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MC offers free forex data, though we do get that from IB for free as well. My main concern is that we won't have StratOp WFP. As difficult as the program can be, it provides us the best results with respect to optimization. We'll figure it out.
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,049 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,388
Thanks Received: 10,207
If your holding positions over the swap/roll/finance time line - whatever they call it - be careful - they might have great bid-ask spreads but they have some awfully unfriendly interest/swap rates.
Thanks for the info. Their 'pro' pricing is better than their 'lite', but we don't know what tier we are going to select. We will probably start with lite, just for proof of concept of our strategies and execution. Depending upon our volume, we may need to shop around. Oanda is also an option for us.
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,049 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,388
Thanks Received: 10,207
Take for example USD:EUR
If you buy USD sell EUR they pay you 0% on the USD balance and charge you 1.5% Pro or 2.5% Lite on the USD Balance. So you lose 1.5%/2.5% in financing charges.
Now if you sell USD buy EUR they pay you 0% on the EUR balance and charge you 1.55% Pro or 2.55% Lite on the USD Balance. So you lose 1.55%/2.55% in financing charges.
So doesn't matter whether you buy or sell their bid-ask on interest rates is so high that your paying a 1.5% (pro) or 2.5% (lite) financing charge.
The worst example is USD:INR (Pro Rates only)
If you buy USD sell INR they pay you 0% on the USD balance and charge you 12.5% on the INR Balance. So you lose 12.5% in financing charges.
Now if you sell USD buy INR they pay you 0% on the INR balance and charge you 1.55% on the USD Balance. So you also lose 1.55% in financing charges.
Thanks! So it seems like they don't do normal rollovers like other brokers? They do not have any information, so I understand it as you describe it.
We have found calculating our estimated costs (with any broker) exceedingly difficult, regardless. We are new in forex, though we have been in futures for a very long time and know that cost is only one part of the broker equation. If you have any suggestions around forex broker selection, I'm all ears (eyes).
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,049 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,388
Thanks Received: 10,207
I've never traded forex with IB or anybody else, my only experience is with futures. I'd love to try and build a non-correlated carry portfolio but it's not possible if all the FX brokers interest rates are so skewed. (INR lend at 12.5% but pay 0% on deposits!). In theory what IB does (charge margin rates and pay deposit rates) should have the same effect as a broker doing a rollover. The difference being IB does it on a portfolio basis while rollovers are currency pair specific. So theoretically if you bought USD sold EUR, and sold EUR bought GBP, and sold GBP bought USD, at IB your positions would net out and there would be no charges, but at a typical FX broker they would view that as 3 pairs and charge you rollover on each.
StratOpt WFP is TradeStation only and the license is tied to the customer number. In other words, you cannot run StratOpt WFP without TradeStation. We could, in theory, do the optimization in TS and then move the code to MultiCharts, but instinct tells me we would get different results based on platform difference. However, you make an excellent point and we may look into this. We are in our infancy with MC, so I will add this to things we want to consider.
(I just realized that I have misspelled StratOpt WFP. Oops... my bad.)
