Discuss Fxcm.com

[Jason Rogers]

Updated USD Margin Requirements: This information was sent to all FXCM US and FXCM UK accounts denominated in USD. Please be aware in case you have not read the email (We know how distracting the Royal Wedding can be). Margin requirements for USD denominated accounts will be adjusted at market close on Friday, April 29th due to recent price fluctuations in the US Dollar. It is important to monitor your usable margin closely, making sure it does not fall below zero. Here is a table of the new margin requirements for accounts on 200:1 leverage with FXCM UK when trading a mini lot of 10k for the specified currency pair:

If your account is with FXCM US, multiply the amount by 4 to get the margin requirement for a 10k lot at 50:1 leverage. As of last weekend (April 24, 2011) micro lots are automatically available for all new standard 10k accounts setup with FXCM US. If you have an existing standard 10k account with FXCM US and would like the ability to trade micro lots, please contact client services[/URL] with the request.

At present, FXCM does not anticipate that margin requirements will have to be changed more than once a month. Up-to-date margin requirements are and will continue to be displayed in the “Simple Dealing Rates” window of the trading platform, by currency pair.

 

[Jason Rogers]

FXCM Forex Trading Expo: Sept 9-11, 2011

FXCM is hosting a forex trading expo in Las Vegas on Sept 9-11, 2011. Over 60 workshops are currently schedule and the complete schedule can be found here , and the schedule can be found here About FXCM Expo | FXCM Digital Expo . If you're in the Vegas area or are just looking to make a trip, we would love to see you there. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Jason

 

[Myles]

Yikes!

NFA levies $2,000,000 monetary sanction against FXCM and orders refunds to customers.

 

[Jason Rogers]

NFA levies $2,000,000 monetary sanction against FXCM and orders refunds to customers.

Hi Myles,

Friday's action from the NFA primarily concerns positive slippage, and I would like to shed more light on how positive slippage with FXCM's NDD forex execution system used to work prior to August 2010 and how it has worked since then.

FXCM’s platforms display the best bid/ask spread streamed from the firm’s liquidity providers plus FXCM’s mark-up. Every FXCM NDD forex trade is automatically offset in a two-step process, designed to ensure that FXCM does not profit from a trader’s losses. In the first step of the execution process, a trader clicks on the price and the order is sent to FXCM. In the second step, FXCM automatically sends the client’s order to one of its liquidity providers to offset the trade.

FXCM’s execution system prior to August 2010 only offered price improvements to clients in the first step of the process. If a better price became available on FXCM’s platform in the fraction of a second after the client submitted the order but before the order was received by FXCM, the client would benefit from the price improvement. However, FXCM’s previous execution system did not provide clients with price improvements in the second step of the execution process, even if FXCM was able to offset the order at a better price, excluding FXCM’s markup. FXCM enhanced the execution system in 2010 so that clients now benefit from price improvements in both steps of a transaction for all order types.

It is important to note: By the end of 2010 FXCM enhanced its execution system to offer price improvements on all trades. You may remember from my forum posts last August that I announced positive slippage for limit and limit entry orders on this thread. All orders now eligible to receive positive slippage, and all price improvements are subject to available liquidity.

The settlement amount and the client price improvement credit will have no negative impact on FXCM's financial balance sheet because several founding partners of FXCM have reimbursed the company for the credit and the fines. As of June 30, 2011, FXCM Inc. had over $200 million in cash and no debt.

FXCM's goal is to have a fair and transparent system, and we are proud to offer an execution system that passes on any price improvements. FXCM has compiled statistics from July 1, 2010 until now to display the percentage of orders positive slipped and negatively slipped, and which orders most frequently experience each. The percentage of orders between positive and negative slippage has been roughly equal.

And we have broken this down even further to display the number of orders on a monthly basis positively and negatively slipped:

Limit and limit entry orders are the most likely to experience positive slippage which is why we highlight using limit and limit entry orders in the execution center on our website. You can find even more data on slippage broken down per order type in the complete report here: Slippage Statistics

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I will do my best to answer them as thoroughly as possible.

Jason
FXCM

 

[Kelvin Rice]

FXCM Fine and their website

I have a live account with FXCM. (It is basically unfunded at this time.) One of the main problems that I had was that I was running demo accounts and my live account simultaneously, using an EA(s) with the same settings. There was always a major discrepancy between the live accounts and the demo accounts. There were no cases where the live account made more money than the demo account. I got about 25 different answers from their support team about this. Mainly that the demo servers were not as accurate as the live servers. The strange thing is that I did not have this problem with some of the other brokers where I have live and demo accounts. Particularly, Smarttradefx and FXDD.

Because of the NFA fine, I may or may not be entitled to a refund, but a search of FXCM's website did not provide any link that even mentioned the fine or where one could lodge a complaint? There may be some mention, somewhere on their website, but I could not find this. In view of the seriousness of their infringement, I think that FPA moderators or others should make a point of publicizing this.

What surprises me is that the NFA do not have a rule that any infringement of their rules be notified to clients of the offending broker. A similar case was in 2009, where Interbank were fined by the NFA and there is nothing, either then or now on their website!

 

[Jason Rogers]

Because of the NFA fine, I may or may not be entitled to a refund, but a search of FXCM's website did not provide any link that even mentioned the fine or where one could lodge a complaint?

Hi Kelvin,

The accounts receiving price improvement credits were contacted in previous weeks, and the credits have been made to all accounts in question. If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact client services Contact FXCM.

Regarding demo vs. live accounts, a demo uses the same price feed as the live account, but the demo cannot simulate live account execution such as slippage since the orders are practice demo orders are not executed against actual liquidity in the market. Trading during periods of increased market volatility, such as news events, could increase the slippage on a live account since liquidity tends to be lower (which is why the market becomes so volatile). A demo is good for testing strategies and learning how the platform works, but there are limitations with any broker in how execution can be simulated since the orders are not filled against actual market liquidity.

-Jason

 

[Irmantas.p]

Another surprize from fxcm. If your account is inactive 1 year or more you are charged for the dormancy fee (50 USD). When I ask support where I can find this rules I not get any answer. On webpage also no info about charges and fee. One day they will charge on 1000 USD for one day account inactivity.

 

[Jason Rogers]

Another surprize from fxcm. If your account is inactive 1 year or more you are charged for the dormancy fee (50 USD). When I ask support where I can find this rules I not get any answer. On webpage also no info about charges and fee. One day they will charge on 1000 USD for one day account inactivity.

Hi Irmantas,

FXCM will notify traders in advance if an account is subject to a dormant account fee. Dormant fees may occur after a long period of inactivity because of laws in multiple different jurisdictions regarding dormant accounts. We would rather our traders either trade the account or return the funds to their own bank account if they plan on being inactive for years at a time.

When we contact clients to let them know about an upcoming dormant account fee, we provide several options to avoid the fee including:

1. place a trade before a specific date.
2. Deposit funds.
3. Withdraw existing funds.
4. Do nothing and any accounts with a balance below $50 will be closed.

Again, charging a dormant account fee isn’t done for the sake of charging a fee. We would prefer that there be an open and funded account waiting for you when you prefer to return back to trading, even if it is multiple years from now. But laws in the different jurisdictions where our traders are located would create an administrative headache and increased costs for both FXCM and our traders.

Please let me know if you have any questions.


- Jason
FXCM

 

[Irmantas.p]

And where I can find this rule in agreement? Or on website? May be today fee is 1000USD?

Hi Irmantas,

FXCM will notify traders in advance if an account is subject to a dormant account fee. Dormant fees may occur after a long period of inactivity because of laws in multiple different jurisdictions regarding dormant accounts. We would rather our traders either trade the account or return the funds to their own bank account if they plan on being inactive for years at a time.

When we contact clients to let them know about an upcoming dormant account fee, we provide several options to avoid the fee including:

1. place a trade before a specific date.
2. Deposit funds.
3. Withdraw existing funds.
4. Do nothing and any accounts with a balance below $50 will be closed.

Again, charging a dormant account fee isn’t done for the sake of charging a fee. We would prefer that there be an open and funded account waiting for you when you prefer to return back to trading, even if it is multiple years from now. But laws in the different jurisdictions where our traders are located would create an administrative headache and increased costs for both FXCM and our traders.

Please let me know if you have any questions.


- Jason
FXCM

 

[Jason Rogers]

And where I can find this rule in agreement? Or on website? May be today fee is 1000USD?

Hi Irmantas,

You can find this rule on page 11, section 8.6 of the FXCM UK Terms of Business. The current Terms of Business are available at http://docs.fxcorporate.com/tob_ltd_en.pdf.

Let me know if you have more questions!


- Jason