Thank you very much for your reply. Another reason could be that as far as I know ATC is only offering introducing service for non dealing desk accounts on FXCM and not the market maker accounts, which will probably have many issues which do not apply to the NDD accounts.
Welcome to the forum, Corni
Pharaoh hit the nail on the head. It's worth keeping in mind that the vast majority of FXCM clients are pleased with our service and execution. In fact, the latest CFTC data show traders have more money on deposit with FXCM than any other US-regulated forex broker.
Also worth considering is the fact that we've been in business since 1999 making us one of the oldest firms in what is still a relatively young industry. If less than 1% of our clients past or present express a grievance about something, it may seem like a large number of traders compared to other brokers, because we are bigger. However, it's not as large relatively speaking when you consider the percentages.
That's not to say that we don't take such client feedback seriously. My primary goal on forums such as Forex Peace Army is to answer questions about FXCM and address any potential concerns. However, if you see my other forum posts, you will find that I don't simply promote our firm. I actively contribute to discussions to provide service and education to traders.
This also highlights how FXCM dedicates a greater amount of resources to educating new traders than many other brokers. That means more novice traders choose to begin their forex journey with us. The flip side of this is that when they misunderstand something about how the market works or how to use the software, they sometimes blame us.
From those reviews I would conclude that there is nothing "wrong" with going for FXCM with NDD account. I will analyze slippage anyway.
That is a correct conclusion. We take great pride in offer No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution to Standard accounts (5k minimum) and Active Trader accounts (25k minimum). On the NDD model, FXCM offsets each client order one for one with the best prices from
competing liquidity providers.
With the NDD model, FXCM doesn't take the market risk on the other side of client trades, so we don't profit from client losses, or lose from client profits. Instead, FXCM makes money from client trading volume. We even offer commission discounts to high volume traders.
That said, there is nothing wrong with the DD execution we provide to Mini account ($50 minimum).
On the DD model, we will face market risk as a result of entering into trades with clients. Because of this risk, FXCM needs to implement certain restrictions during news events. The typical 2-5 pip minimum distance from current market rate for stop and limit orders on DD accounts could increase to upwards of 10 pips. Note that No Dealing Desk (NDD) accounts with FXCM have no such restrictions regarding order placement.
Additionally, we may take steps to mitigate the risk arising from market making more effectively by transferring your underlying account to our NDD offering. For example, Mini accounts with equity greater than 20k are automatically converted to Standard accounts with NDD execution.
That means, we don't have to resort to the dealer intervention practices (re-quotes and excessive spread widening particularly during news events) which can occur with DD-only brokers, and you can have confidence in trading your FXCM account regardless of the account type you choose.
I will analyze slippage anyway.
According to the
latest execution statistics for FXCM:
- 78.71% of all orders had NO SLIPPAGE.
- 12.77% of all orders received positive slippage.
- 8.52% of all orders received negative slippage.
- 50.02% of all limit and limit entry orders received positive slippage.
- 39.9% of all stop and stop entry orders received negative slippage.
Furthermore the Market Range feature for market orders, and Range Entry feature for entry orders allow you to specify how much negative slippage you are willing to accept on an order.
If the order cannot be filled within your slippage tolerance, then the order will be canceled to protect you from unwanted negative slippage. Note these tools only limit your negative slippage, not your positive slippage.