I get the email about ECP for trading FOREX, Essentially, they are pushing people away from trading FOREX using their platform… I wonder what would be other good alternatives? FXCM? OANDA??? seems the contract for C2 with FXCM are not fixed yet…
Yeap, Got a email. Need to find some Forex Broker. Can anyone share their experience with FXCM or OANDA?
I’ve had a good experience with FXCM. Good trading, customer service, and they have some decent customer-only features. There’s a section of their website with a lot of useful information. I trade them with MT4, but I also have their trading terminal setup because there are unique tools for it. I really like their SSI, and in their terminal, it can be placed right on the charts. Some of these tools cost, but they give you something like $100 credit to spend on them. The only thing I don’t like about FXCM is the extremely limited number of pairs. FXCM says they only go after negative balances if you’re over $50k in debt to them.
Forex.com is even better in my opinion, with plenty of pairs. Forex.com says they reserve the right to go after negative balances, but that it isn’t their practice unless the amount is exceptional… they don’t define the dollar amount. This is their only drawback I’ve found.
OANDA … I don’t think I’ll ever trade with them. They can’t even keep trades straight on a demo account. They’re not smart enough to see stops being ignored on numerous pairs. They blame it on you and send template emails telling you tough luck. At least this was my experience, and it was only a demo. If they can’t handle stops on a demo, I sure won’t trust them with real money.
C2 is indeed waiting for FXCM USA to give us a green light so we can restart trading there, but we still support FXCM UK (i.e. non-USA clients) and GAIN Forex (a.k.a. forex.com)
I actually have been trying to apply auto trading on FXCM for months already… Is it going to take forever?..
Francis, Is there any expected date for FXCM.USA integration? Is Forex.com the only option for US users for now? what about other brokers? thank you.
Can you guys speed-up on FXCM? IB limit is going to impact a lot of users.
Hi,
We don’t have an ETA because we don’t control FXCM. They have a process to put in place (it’s not just for us) and that takes time. We’re telling them today there is some urgency because of IB and hopefully that will speed them up but it’s a public company and things move slower in that world.
As of today the only other option is GAIN.
GAIN is the really bad in terms of spread… totally incomparable to IB/FXCM…
WenxuanHuang Thanks!
Have to wait till FXCM is available for US users.
I read that it’s not IB that pushes normal customers away, but its the new regulations which will have a major impact on US residents. Wouldn’t that affect all brokers / broker accounts in the US? Can someone shed some light here what the options are end of August? Thanks.
FXCM is available for US residents. The problem, we can not do autotrade with them at this moment, their representative will keep in touch with C2. We do not have to be as a qualified customer to do forex. My biggest concern, forex is not the only trading vehicles to make money in investment, there are so many other trading vehicles or strategy that we can use. I am not comfortable to split capitals into different brokerage such as one in IB and the other one in FXCM.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=603038 here is some review from different brokers for forex
Thanks Sam. I guess you have a good point here. Managing the trades can be real difficult and managing different account puts another layer on top of this.
The whole thing reminds me of when they implemented “Pattern Day Trader” rules to “protect” retail from the evils of day trading.
Thinking more about this. Transition to FXCM is ok… Although the spread+commision for IB is much more superior over FXCM (when we trade large)… FXCM’s charge is still reasonable, and FXCM don’t charge margin interest (if I dont understand wrongly) whereas IB has the fee called “Margin fee”/ “Margin interest”… Which until now, I am not sure how they charge it…
I checked that the margin interest is 1~2%… Suppose I have $1 equity, I leverage it to trade $50 contract, assume no price movement at all, does it mean I end up paying $50*(1%~2%)= $0.5~$1, corresponding to 50%~100% draw down? If so, I shall have used FXCM much earlier…
Agreed. Seems like a weird move by IB. Guess it’s risk-motivated.
Actually, I did some digging and discovered that its not a move by IB at all. The SEC/Dodd Frank act has prohibited broker-dealers from offerring FX to retail clients (hence IB still offers FX to Eligible Contract Participants"/$10mm+ assets threshold). I’m pretty annoyed that we’re being restricted from accessing the broker that offers the best liquidity and spreads under the guise of protecting us from ourselves…
As I understand it, the decision does not apply to companies that do not offer a retail brokerage business, so Gain, FXCM, Oanda should be unaffected. As best as I can tell, IB is the only broker affected…
