Anybody here trade forex with IB?

Discussion in 'Interactive Brokers' started by oldtime, Jun 29, 2011.

  1. oh yeah, and in fx, there really is no such thing as a last price, it's all just bid and ask. And there is no volume, just bid size and ask size.

    So that's everything I know so I guess that's all there is to know.

    Also, if you're interested, do some googling and figure out the diference between MM (marketmaker) and ECN (exotic crisis negotiator). IB is an ECN.
     
    #21     Oct 8, 2011
  2. I acknowledge I'm a hyperactive trader and did over $3B in forex in September. I start most trades at $400k to $1M. But I'm on a winning streak now (for the most part) so can't slow down. But I'm ready to pull the plug when needed as this is my best year ever. Just looked at my last statement and I've paid IB > $360k in commissions. And I'm taking all the risk!

    I don't have a separate trading account. I have a large portfolio of stocks that are long term holds. I get substantial dividend income each month which I live on. I use this capital as the platform for my forex trading, generally closing out trades by the end of each day.
     
    #22     Oct 8, 2011
  3. My paper trade account got to where it was about 20k more than my real account and I like to keep it about the same so I tried to lose 20k last afternoon. I was putting millions on and adding to losers and closing winners out in seconds and was trading at full margin. No matter what I did I could never lose enough to be auto liqidated. They even have a msg if you try put on too much. It will ask you if you want to size down or just put as much as you can on. So for instance, the order is to buy 1m it will automatically just buy you 938,779. The best I could do with HFT is lose about $4800 in an hour, then I was exhausted.

    Even on a Friday afternoon after Europe and London closes the spreads are so tight it's hard to lose much on spreads and commissions alone. You have to be dead wrong and that is not easy in a non trending market.

    The pathetic thing is, it is not unusual for me to lose $4800 on 100k positions in a few hours swing trading. But it's hard when you trade 1m for a few seconds at a time. Just when you think it's going down it turns back profitable on you.
     
    #23     Oct 8, 2011
  4. JamesL

    JamesL

    In order for you to lose that amount, you would need to lose about 480 pips on a 100k trade ( i.e. EUR/USD from 1.35 to 1.3120) since each pip on a 100k trade is ~10/pip (some pairs a little more, some a little less)
     
    #24     Oct 8, 2011
  5. I trade 7 pairs at 100k each, maybe not in 4 hrs, but in a day. But never when I'm watching it.
     
    #25     Oct 8, 2011
  6. IB's decent. It can get expensive.

    I prefer Oanda

    Each has it's downfalls.
     
    #26     Oct 8, 2011