Don't forget that MB is offering Mini Lots for 50c/10K at tight spreads on a ECN like plattform. They are the only one out doing this. IBs minimum trades size is $25k, but then you still have to pay minimum of $2.50, so you end up at $1/10k. And, You always can talk to them. If you going to make a few 100 Mio/Month you will get much closer to the price level at IB ($25/Mio) or Hotspot (30/Mio). Just ask them. Joerg
Canes, I am speachlesssssss. Seriously, I thought that they might have a good thing going there, I guess not. What a coincidence that the outage happened at that time. Really, after the news, Trichet etc. nothing really happened price wise. Then we moved dollar strong, and that was well after the news. To Bad. The Ever Watchful Viper
Tradeviper........... We had a router bounce which caused certain traders on that order server to experience a disconnect from the server. We were able to replace it with a redundant router which took a total of approximately 6 minutes. The router had bounced at 8:36am PST. We had informed our customers on that server internally of the status during this period. If you would like to discuss further you are welcome to send me a msg. I would be happy to help. Regards, Steve
toby....... My apologies for not responding earlier. It is not a cost issue but one of suitability. We at MBT are generally more conservative and feel it is potentially not appropriate to accept payment to fund an account that could be creating debt (credit card) for that customer. Obviously trading can be speculative so it is our feeling that a customer should have the excess funds available before they venture into trading. I realize there could easily be exceptions to this which would keep it more convenient for the customer however this is the conservative nature of our firm. Regards, Steve
I think that merchant accounts rules purpose a problem. The Visa organization does not allow a merchant who fly's the Visa or MasterCard logo to charge for the use of their card. If it is Star, Mac or Cirrus logo....without the logo (Visa or MC) that is another story. This is how the certain gasoline stations can charge a 35 cent transaction fee, as they do not fly the MC or Visa logo anywhere, but they take those credit cards with the Star, Mac or Cirrus logo. The Visa or MC logo cards are also referred to as a "Branded Card". The nature of dealer/marketmaker sales is funding, so it really is not an end-user product..it is a transfer. By utilizing a loophole a user could get a cash advance from their credit card without having to pay the 3% cash advance fee to their credit card company, as they "charged" their funding as the merchant considered it an end-user or point of sale purchase. I hope this uttterly confuses you, as it has me... There are payment processors such as PayPal that Oanda uses and indirectly you can use your Credit Card that way. Michael B. P.S. For all of this to make sense why does Visa and MC insist on this? Because if they allowed their merchants to add a transaction fee, it would cause the use of their cards to be avoided. They want you to replace Cash with their cards and even have reward programs to get you thinking along those ways... P.P.S. The 60/90 day Credit Card dispute rules is another very important consideration for a dealer/marketmaker to consider. They do not tie up your funds for 60 or 90 days generally to make sure they are clear and that would be very negative for the trader too. Imagine the negative effect that would have on a Broker/Dealer/Marketmakers reputation if they held your funds for 90 days because they are waiting to see if you dispute the transaction....and even worse what if you traded profitably and they sent you your funds early and you were dishonest and disputed the original funding and got an immediate credit on your card while it went through the dispute process? Meanwhile the Broker/Dealer/marketmaker is screwed! P.P.P.S. a merchant account can cost 2-3% in merchant fees on the gross funding that CANNOT be passed on to the trader directly...hehe they can hide it in the spread