def, You probably are right that IB does not trade against it's clients and if someone wants to trade Forex I would probably only recommend you and one other broker. You also allow clients to trade futures and stocks and options. The problem was a long time ago when I traded Forex, everything I said was true and is still true if people don't go with a good Forex broker like yourself. So that is still the problem, you should know that many people are clients of Forex brokers that keep customer trades in house so they can trade against them, also its a proven fact that if you compare prices of one of these brokers to another during the same time, you get a different price. Also, a limit order entered into a futures broker including IB, will get filled without slippage and the limit order to hit the target will get filled without slippage so I am not giving up a tick. Usually my stop will also not have slippage however since its a sell stop at market, yes I can lose a tick on a fast moving market. Also, many times since I am not trading multiple contracts, my target will get filled at the exact high for a long order before price retreats "without having to move through the price". This is because shorts had stops at that price which had to be filled by taking my order. Also., I am talking about trading during normal market hours of liquid future instruments.
Then you have to know that there is no centralized source (exchange for example) which issues information on price, volumes, etc. For example Hotforex, my broker, uses Barclays as liquidity provider; it is the supplier of price feed at the same time. If you try to compare it with other broker which has other liquidity provider and moreover in some " hard time" (important news release, etc.), divergence in price feed can be even more noticeable (even 20-30 pips or more in some cases)
From someone who has worked in brokerages for 8 years I confirm retail FX is a mugs game. too much noise , too much leverage almost never saw a client make money (well not for long). Only good FX trades are based on fundamentals i.e. eur/chf floor, Jap intervention etc.. Trying to pick where the next 20 pips are going with some dumb indicator is impossible.
You might want to actually read the article. Also the link about the Forex platform is about a scam, a con, it has nothing to do with forex trading.
Assuming that one trades with a reputable broker, the only way to make money in forex is to try to ride a trend because mid frequency trading is not economical due to the spread. Note that brokers open spreads wide whenever they feel their profits are in danger, like during fast markets when limit orders are hard to execute and market orders can be charged a high spread and that erodes profits steadily to the point that any intraday or position trader turns unprofitable after a while. Reading this article is a must for anyone who thinks money can be made in forex markets with intraday or position signals. On the other hand, trend following in forex produces horrendous drawdowns and ruins those who assume high leverage.
Unfair???? That´s the BUSINESS MODEL of dealers? Why don´t you start your own broker/dealer and offer to ALL THESE UNFAIR TREATED TRADERS BETTER SPREADS/DEALS? I assume you would close your business at day 1.
mid frequency trading is not economical due to the spread.....plain wrong.... my spread in EUR/USD is 0.00001 on average THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. Mid Frequency Trading in EUR/USD is just a cash machine. Also, everything Japanese cross related is just a cash cow. I say: Thank you, Kuroda San!
ditto! Coming from treasury background, true FX trading is more than just spot/retail. think forwards, swaps, options and NDFs.