Trying buying the bid or selling the ask on IB FX. You'll only get it if another customer crosses you or if the bid turns ask, or vice versa. It's not a true market or ECN. It's just a bucket shop with tighter spreads.
I dont understand 'earning the spread'. If you can actually 'earn' the spread, then wouldn't we all be rich? Say the bid/ask is 3 pips on something. If you can 'earn' rather than 'pay' the spread, then You could just open a position and close it instantly for 3 pips profit and do it all day long!? So isn't 'buying on the bid' the same as just putting a limit order in at 1 tick below the current price? Nothing special about that is there? Also, I know 'bucket shops' get a bad rep, but can someone explain exactly what the problem is? I mean, in my experience, they move pip for pip with the futures market. If you get stopped on a trade at a bucket shop, you would have also got stopped in the futures market. You're either right or wrong. You'll need to Enlighten this noob as i come from a European spreabet/bucketshop background. thanks
Up or down. And that is SO EASY to do with a broker like Mirus and their intraday margins. And before someone chimes in about the dangers of low margin day trading, remember, it is day trading. If you need to hold your position overnight, stay with IB. BTW, Surdo, thx for the pluses about Mirus - a little more expensive but damn worth it. (Most impressive stat: I ask for a wire by 8am and it is at my bank before noon. Sweet.)
Interaktive brokers is a ECN. Or they are lying: From there homepage: "Interactive Brokers Forex ECN offers traders direct access to interbank prices and dealing for orders as small as 25,000 USD (or equivalent), and up to 10 million USD, or more. IBFX's ECN design provides best-execution functionality and a transparent pricing structure. We offer trading in 13 currencies (USD, EUR, CHF, GBP, SEK, NOK, JPY, AUD, NZD, HKD, CAD, MXN, and special conversion functionality in KRW) with market spreads as small as 1/2 PIP. The tight spreads and substantial liquidity are a result of combining quotation streams from 11 of the world's largest foreign exchange dealers which constitute more than two-thirds1 of the market share in the global interbank market. Below are some reasons why professional individuals and institutions choose the IB Forex ECN. Direct access to interbank forex quotes with no hidden price spreading, no markup, no kickbacks. Just the combination of real time prices from 12 of the world's largest FX dealing banks plus a transparent, low commission that avoids the conflict of interest of FX platforms which deal for their own account.