For what it's worth, a few people here have tried to do something with this company because of what was perceived as a genuine approach to trading spot forex but went in a different direction once you got past the promotion. For starters, they claim to have a combined feed of HSFxi and Currenex and some other proprietary network. Well let's just say side by side, the HS FXi platform displayed spreads as tight as .1 pip on some of the majors while concurrently having a .5-1 pip displayed on this swiss company's platform. If they have similar feeds, the spreads should be as tight if not tighter (than .1 pip) since it is an aggregate feed. Go figure. Also their claim of using Swiss bank to hold funds for daily sweep came up weak too as requested info concerning such relationship(s) was never forwarded or forthcoming. Finally, for those on the level that this Swiss company is trying to solicit you can open a HSFXi prime account directly with HotSpot either here in the US or Europe or Asia. You now only need 100k to open prime directly with them - no more special arrangements with other brokers. Plus $20/mil. If I had to make a choice, and I have, I'd rather go with HotSpot. Remember the old adage, if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and looks like a duck...well... (Sorry to come across as a shill, but when you've tried quite a few platforms you tend to go with the one(s) that baks and hedgies tend to use. Got to figure they know something I don't, right?)
For starters, there are 2 different platforms depending on where you live. Europe and I believe Asia use a platform developed by ChoiceFx for their retail accounts. It's easier to use but does not have depth like their standard platform. Institutional (fxi) uses the standard platform you can find on their web page. Retail you can open account for as little as 7.5k; Institutional for 100K Spreads are tighter on institutional, EUR as low as .1 pips - that's .1 as in 1.56261~.56262, retail .5 on EURO, Aussie, NZD JPY. Sometimes you can see 0 spread on either platform, but good luck trying to take advantage of it. Charting sucks. You need to get 3rd party, such as eSignal. They interface with FXi easily (not sure about fxr, but you can check) Much deeper liquidity pool on fxi than fxr, i.e. you can easily trade in and out 5M sizes w/o difficulty. Of course this depends on the time of day - you have no depth on a Sunday night no matter who you trade with. Some cons:- NZD trading cuts out around 3pm ET for rollover since NZ trading day starts earlier other Asian markets. Sucks if you trade kiwi.
Thanks for the response. So with the very tight spreads on the institutional, how are you treated if you're taking 5-10pip profits here and there?
Scalp away! Seriously for my intraday trading I take 5-10 pip profits all the time and maybe less than 1% of the time was there ever a problem. One thing I did not mention above is that the platform does not have some of the trading functionality that you may be used to, like stops. Mainly because most of the clientele are brokerages and banks and hedgies who program their own API to integrate with the Hotspot program. Unless you can do your own programming or find an already existing front end, this may be a deal breaker.
Cool. I ask because I seem to remember a discussion a while back about some traders who were using institutional platforms to scalp but were being asked to take a hike by the other participating banks...?? Don't remember all the details.
.1 pip and .5pip? Where else can you get spreads like that ? I am not a programmer and need stops I would trade all day with spreads like that ! Can