Is it a fair business ?

[CTGJr]

what do you think of this firm

eLocal Access

they claim to provide "actual bank market" quotes

small spread (2 pips of EURUSD) + $15 per roundturn

is this something truly different or just the same re-packaged?

I know nothing else about eLocal -- just discovered them through
LBR

[CTGJr]

eLocal appears to have a clean record with the NFA

but their FCM, Rosenthal Collins, seem to have had a lot of NFA activity

NFA

[PittsburghFX]

All marke makers, no matter who must always stay at Interbank prices. The only different is adding 2 pips or so to the spread, thats it. People have to understand, quick searching for something that is right in front of you. When I traded Interbank prices, all it was tighter spread and more slippage. If any market maker is off the market by 10 pips, there will be millions among millions traded on 1 click, because they are lagging in time. You can also compare Broker to broker. I have demo accounts of all other brokers while I trade my account. You can see who is the slow guy. They get nailed. Technically, thats when you are also put on manual execution after a few times. When the brokers P/L is printed everyday, if not by every hour, they look and see who is nailing them. IF it is very quick and fast, and they go back and double check the market prices and they were off market, thats when I called you and had a talk. That was the part of the job I hated. I didn't make any friends anytime there.

But in summary. We are looking at Interbank prices, period. Just different spreads. IF a broker is off market they will get killed, plain and simple.

[activefxtrader]

"You are trading with the market maker and the market maker is trading with the Interbank. The market maker is not just going like a Walmart to a supplier, that is not the case at all. They are trading just the same to do their best to be flat. Market Makers will sometimes gain and sometime lose when the market ripps. It doesn't matter if the client loses or wins, because odds are MM's can match it up internally or have a big lot trading or offsetting."

Questions :

a- An amateur Fx trader or a new client of that MM's know that they are trading against their broker ? Or they dont know exactly what the interbank is and what the MM's job ? Traders are simply cheated by mass media or it is a really fair business for both sides. MM's are friends of all account holders or an enemy of the account holders ?

b-If they know the exact condition (trading against their platform supplier and spread maker), simply say trading against their brokerage firm , do you think MM's still boost their new mini-account applications or will it give some question marks on new Fx traders mind and some problems about getting new mini-account or standard account applications for the MM's ?

[PittsburghFX]

Originally posted by activefxtrader
"You are trading with the market maker and the market maker is trading with the Interbank. The market maker is not just going like a Walmart to a supplier, that is not the case at all. They are trading just the same to do their best to be flat. Market Makers will sometimes gain and sometime lose when the market ripps. It doesn't matter if the client loses or wins, because odds are MM's can match it up internally or have a big lot trading or offsetting."

Questions :

a- An amateur Fx trader or a new client of that MM's know that they are trading against their broker ? Or they dont know exactly what the interbank is and what the MM's job ? Traders are simply cheated by mass media or it is a really fair business for both sides. MM's are friends of all account holders or an enemy of the account holders ?

b-If they know the exact condition (trading against their platform supplier and spread maker), simply say trading against their brokerage firm , do you think MM's still boost their new mini-account applications or will it give some question marks on new Fx traders mind and some problems about getting new mini-account or standard account applications for the MM's ?

Wow, your making me work for this one.

A. As far as I feel, it doesn't matter who you are trading against as long as your not being shaded or slipped on execution. There are always a few right clients every time. When you have a great feeling ona buy and everything goes with nice execution, does it matter who holds the opposite position? As long as everything trades through correctly, it doesn't matter.

B. I remember the first few times last year when Non Farms started ripping 200 pips at a time, literally in a few minutes. Thats when we signed up applications, tons of them. IT wasn't the matter of people winning or losing, but the fact that there was something that EVERYBODY knew at the first Friday of every month at 8:30 EST ODDS WERE A 200 PIP MOVE IN EITHER DRECTION. So the mass of people said to their friends about NFP. Most people were trying to straddle the market and we as a company were getting killed because we were filling people on off market prices and Disney world had to stop.

But we signed up accounts because of the market conditions, not the actual business practices per say. If the stock market had tons of high flyers with good trends, than people might move to trade stocks until that dies down. But the fact remains, that stocks are dead and FX is simply the more efficient market.

I hope that helps.

[Agisthos]

I have noticed that people can no longer use the market straddle technique cause they changed the rules e.t.c

It would be easy to just have two differing brokers, and use each to take a trade in either direction.

then we could never get accused of straddling.

Which brokers besides fxcm have auto fills at a certain price?

[PittsburghFX]

Well everyone out there no longer guarantees stops for this exact reason during volitile market conditions. If the market price never traded there, how do you expect to be executed?

[jasperforex]

Originally posted by Agisthos
I have noticed that people can no longer use the market straddle technique cause they changed the rules e.t.c

It would be easy to just have two differing brokers, and use each to take a trade in either direction.

then we could never get accused of straddling.

Which brokers besides fxcm have auto fills at a certain price?

Try using options instead. You do need to do some homework and work out which data is likely to move the market, but after that there's no problems with slippage or anything.