Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Thanks for sharing your concerns about the spot forex market. While I won't speak for other forex brokers, I would like to address your comments as they apply to the industry in general and FXCM specifically, since you posted in our thread.
While your expertise is in advertising, your comments about spot forex ignore the size and diversity of this market. The latest industry report for Q2 of 2016 by Finance Magnates shows daily retail forex volume to be $335 billion (to say nothing of the over $5 trillion per day traded in OTC spot FX overall according to the latest BIS survey). Even if you exclude the trading volume of smaller, less-regulated brokers, the same report shows the combined daily retail forex volume of the 20 largest forex brokers in the world is still greater than the $210 billion per day volume in FX futures on the CME.
In major financial centers around the world, retail forex is regulated by many of the same government bodies that oversee other financial markets. For example, in the US, we are regulated by the CFTC and NFA, the same two bodies that oversee futures trading on the CME. Also, in compliance with rules regarding price slippage and price re-quoting that were finalized in 2012, retail forex brokers in the US provide daily trade reports to the NFA which monitors and supervises our activity including information on the price where all client orders are filled and the corresponding price where those orders are offset with our liquidity providers.
To be fair, you could probably perform a search like this for almost any industry and find similar results. Furthermore, in 2006, FXCM introduced No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution, and we continue to offer this to all Standard accounts. With the NDD model, we offset each client order one-for-one with the best prices sourced from multiple liquidity providers. This provides you with two key benefits as a trader. First, NDD means FXCM does not profit from your losses or lose from your profits. Instead, we make money from your trading volume. Therefore, FXCM wants you to be profitable, so you can trade more!
Second, NDD means competitive prices. FXCM takes the best available bid and ask prices from our liquidity providers — global banks, financial institutions and other market makers — and stream those prices to your platform. This large, diverse group of liquidity providers makes this model special: The more advantageous the prices, the more order flow the provider receives. Through competition, NDD ensures prices are market-driven and fair.
FXCM also provides Mini accounts with a dealing desk (DD) offering in which we act as the liquidity provider. This execution option is offered on smaller accounts in order to manage the risk. It's worth noting the base price used for DD execution on Mini accounts before adding the spread markup is the same base price used for NDD forex execution with the spread + commission pricing model. That's a key reason you can have confidence trading with FXCM regardless of the account type you choose.
Speaking of which, your forum profile mentions your futures experience is at the beginner level. Therefore, it's worth mentioning how the trading environment and market participants can be very different when comparing the futures market to FXCM's NDD execution and how that could impact your trading.
Market participants in futures such as high frequency trading and similar highly sophisticated market makers are acting as both price makers and price takers. This can negatively impact quality of execution for a retail trader. That's because it's a speed race at the institutional level. If you break up the trading steps, at a very basic level, from receiving market data, making a trading decision and then placing the trade, institutional participants are trading in speeds measured in microseconds and even nanoseconds compared to a retail trader making trading decisions that take at least a few seconds.
HFTs on exchange spend millions of dollars on the fastest access to market data, customized computer systems for fast algo processing, and collocated servers to transmit trades as quickly as possible. You can read about the lengths institutional participants will go to by reading Flash Boys by Michael Lewis or take a look at the amounts of money being spent on telecommunications and collocation services by publicly traded market making firms such as Virtu. Institutional participants at the futures level put such a high priority on speed because in a trading venue filled with these super‐fast traders, the slowest person loses the race to be the first to trade.
Therefore, a safer route for institutional liquidity providers to take is to quote smaller sizes at wider prices to minimize margin of error of being picked off. Mistakes are very costly. If your algorithm is wrong, it's better to be wrong at a smaller amount and wider price. The risks involved make market making a fishing expedition based on speed where quality pricing and liquidity could be punished. The competition in the highly sophisticated institutional market is too great to provide the best pricing possible along with deep liquidity if the institution is exposed to the risk of being picked off by other fast and sophisticated market participants.
So if you're the average retail trader likely receiving information from a website or TV channel, over a regular cable internet line, manually placing trades from your average desktop computer, back over our internet connection with any latency involved, do you think you're going to beat the Virtu's of the world for the best price available?
How is FXCM's trading environment different?
On our NDD model for Standard and Active Trader accounts, liquidity providers are only allowed to be price makers and not price takers. Only retail clients are allowed to take pricing. The liquidity providers do not have to constantly watch their back, worrying about predatory high frequency trading because the liquidity providers are only allowed to be price makers for our retail clients. They know that liquidity provider A (who may be a predatory liquidity provider on the futures market) is not allowed to crossover and take a price from liquidity provider B. This gives our liquidity providers the ability to make a market based on quality of price and liquidity rather than speed to protect against being picked off by predatory trading from other liquidity providers.
If you have questions about our services at FXCM please send me a Private Message.
Finally FXCM has completed the work on their side for us to offer our new connection model to FXCM which has no minimum account balance requirements and uses a central FIX connection.
Advantages:
-No minimum account balance with FXCM required
-Long-term order fill history maintained
-Server-side OCO and Bracket orders
-Very simplified connection to FXCM
Can you confirm this ? Will FXCM be offering SC as a regular platform soon ?
The information Sierra Charts provided you is accurate. Their website can provide you with more details on how to set up your FXCM account to use with their platform.
If you have questions about our services at FXCM please send me a Private Message.
FXCM US Reaches Settlement with NFA and CFTC
FXCM to Exit the U.S.
Sells Accounts to GAIN
FXCM to Pay down Loan
NEW YORK, February 6, 2017-- FXCM Inc. (NASDAQ:FXCM) (“FXCM”) today announced simultaneous regulatory settlements with the National Futures Association ("NFA") and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) against its U.S. subsidiary, Forex Capital Markets LLC and certain of its principals. FXCM Holdings, LLC was also named in the CFTC settlement. The named FXCM entities and principals neither admit nor deny the allegations associated with the settlements. The NFA settlement has no monetary fine, and the CFTC settlement has a $7 million fine.
FXCM will be withdrawing from business in the U.S. and has signed a non-binding letter of intent with GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. (“GAIN”) under which GAIN would purchase FXCM’s U.S. customer accounts. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and a definitive agreement. FXCM and GAIN are working to determine the timing for the account transfer and expect to provide further information in that regard in the coming days. In 2016, FXCM’s U.S. business had unaudited net revenues of approximately $48 million and generated an EBITDA loss, but the costs associated with the business will not be transferring to GAIN. There will be no changes to FXCM customers outside of the United States.
Withdrawing from this business will free approximately $52 million in capital. Proceeds from the account sale and the release of capital will go toward the further repaying of FXCM’s loan from Leucadia National Corporation.
FXCM will for the interim period continue to service its U.S. customers and to provide top quality trade execution pending the customer-account sale and business withdrawal. FXCM will also be working diligently to be sure that an account transition to GAIN’s retail brand, FOREX.com, will be orderly, expeditious and seamless. FXCM wants to express its most sincere thanks to those U.S. customers who have been with FXCM over the years and wish you all the best of luck following this transition.
FXCM wants to stress that these settlements have no impact on any customer of FXCM’s global businesses. FXCM and its global subsidiaries will continue to provide excellent execution and competitive pricing to its customers overseas through its award-winning technology, customer service and trading tools.
Disclosure Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
In addition to historical information, this release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and/or the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which reflect FXCM's current views with respect to, among other things, its operations and financial performance in the future. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts and are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about FXCM's industry, business plans, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and beyond our control. Accordingly, readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict including, without limitation, risks associated with FXCM’s plans to shut down its US subsidiary and a potential sale of its US customer accounts, risks associated with FXCM’s strategy to focus on its operations outside the United States, risks associated with the events that took place in the currency markets on January 15, 2015 and their impact on FXCM's capital structure, risks associated with FXCM's ability to recover all or a portion of any capital losses, risks relating to the ability of FXCM to satisfy the terms and conditions of or make payments pursuant to the terms of the finance agreements with Leucadia, as well as risks associated with FXCM’s obligations under its other financing agreements, risks related to FXCM's dependence on FX market makers, market conditions, risks associated with FXCM’s litigation with the National Futures Association or any other potential litigation or regulatory inquiries to which FXCM may become subject, risks associated with potential reputational damage to FXCM resulting from FXCM’s plans to shut down its US subsidiary, and those other risks described under "Risk Factors" in FXCM Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K, FXCM Inc.'s latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and other reports or documents FXCM files with, or furnishes to, the SEC from time to time, which are accessible on the SEC website at sec.gov. This information should also be read in conjunction with FXCM's Consolidated Financial Statements and the Notes thereto contained in FXCM's Annual Report on Form 10-K, FXCM Inc.'s latest Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, and in other reports or documents FXCM files with, or furnishes to, the SEC from time to time, which are accessible on the SEC website at sec.gov.
These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this release and in our SEC filings. FXCM Inc. undertakes no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.
About FXCM Inc.
FXCM Inc. (NASDAQ:FXCM) is a publicly traded company which owns 50.1% of FXCM Group, LLC (FXCM Group).
FXCM Group is a holding company of Forex Capital Markets LLC, (FXCM US), Forex Capital Markets Limited, inclusive of all EU branches (FXCM UK), FXCM Australia Pty. Limited, (FXCM AU), and all affiliates of aforementioned firms, or other firms under the FXCM group of companies [collectively "FXCM"]. FXCM Group is owned and operated by FXCM Inc. (NASDAQ:FXCM) and Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE:LUK). Leucadia National Corporation is a multi-billion dollar diversified holding company engaged through its consolidated subsidiaries in a variety of businesses.
FXCM is a leading provider of online foreign exchange (FX) trading, CFD trading, spread betting and related services. The company's mission is to provide global traders with access to the world's largest and most liquid market by offering innovative trading tools, hiring excellent trading educators, meeting strict financial standards and striving for the best online trading experience in the market. Clients have the advantage of mobile trading, one-click order execution and trading from real-time charts. In addition, FXCM offers educational courses on FX trading and provides trading tools proprietary data and premium resources. FXCM Pro provides retail brokers, small hedge funds and emerging market banks access to wholesale execution and liquidity, while providing high and medium frequency funds access to prime brokerage services via FXCM Prime.
Trading foreign exchange and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk, which may result in losses that could exceed your deposits, therefore may not be suitable for all investors.
Since you live in the US, it's important to note that part of our settlement with the NFA and CFTC was to close our US subsidiary. FXCM has signed a non-binding letter of intent with GAIN Capital Holdings, Inc. (“GAIN”) under which GAIN would purchase FXCM's US customer accounts. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and a definitive agreement. FXCM and GAIN are working to determine the timing for the account transfer and expect to provide further information in that regard in the coming days.
We will for the interim period continue to service our US customers and to provide top quality trade execution pending the customer-account sale and business withdrawal. FXCM will also be working diligently to be sure that an account transition to GAIN’s retail brand, FOREX.com, will be orderly, expeditious and seamless. We want to express our most sincere thanks to all our US customers like you who have been with us over the years and wish you all the best following this transition.
That said, there will be no changes for clients outside of the US, and I will continue to be available on this forum to you and other traders who have questions about FXCM. Since our US entity has not been a contributor to overall profits for the firm over the past few years, FXCM will target significant cost cutting by closing FXCM US. Specifically, withdrawing from this business will free approximately $52 million in capital. We will use the proceeds from any sale of the US accounts, as well as the large amount of regulatory capital currently tied up, to reduce the balance of our loan from Leucadia.
With the reduction of this loan balance, along with sales of non-core assets that were previously announced, FXCM could be in a position to fully pay off the Leucadia loan before the end of this year. As a result, we will be in a better position to service our international customers and focus on our profitable subsidiaries. Our full financials can be found here and we will announce our Q4 and full year 2016 financials in the next few weeks.
If you have questions about our services at FXCM please send me a Private Message.