what's that all about then? Has it been getting stick stateside? http://www.fxcm.com/news-release.jsp
$120,660,927 In Capital (Assets Minus Liabilities) $98, 657,018 In Operating Cash (Excludes Client Funds Not bad, looks like a profitable business.
a couple of things... -"profit" is not a dirty word. -criminals wouldn't post ill-gotten gains on the public-domain unless they want the NFA to raid their offices and shut down their business just because a business is successful, doesn't mean they're unethical. i run a successful business...does that mean i achieved it dishonorably as well? obviously the answer is no.
"FXCM may be the biggest...and they sure act like it." - theSnaggle December 12, 2006 3:24 PM If you are a small retail trader and depend on rapid execution at market with minimum slippage, do NOT deposit your money with this broker. Even their "non-Dealing Desk" is a joke. Here is there sales pitch from a recent email: - Rapid execution even during volatile market conditions - No requotes from a dealing desk confirming your trades - No restrictions on entry orders prior to news events - Anonymity: The banks, who are the counterparties to your trades, will only see that FXCM has an order in the market whenever you enter a trade. Your stop, limit, as well as entry orders are not known to the banks until executed. They go on to say that, "with multiple banks quoting, the spreads can vary," and that "on average, spreads will be tighter." This is certainly true when compared to FXCM's fixed spread dealing station, but this is not true for the average fixed spread retail brokers out there, which begs the question -- Why sign up for their No Dealing Desk platform at all? But that isn't the half of it. The speed of execution is in fact not faster and I have experienced more slippage with this than with Oanda's platform during normal volatility. Oanda's order tickets are also much more flexible and managable. During peak volatility, Oanda's fills are much better and their spreads are comparable. This makes me wonder exactly which banks are involved in FXCM's shady little adventure. Other platforms, like EFX Group's Navigator for example, offer much tighter spreads than FXCM's, although they charge a commission each way. (It's still much cheaper to trade with them.) Only Oanda, and a few other brokers such as CMC, etc., compete with EFX's quotes, spreads, fills and fees, although EFX's Navigator has the most flexible order entries in the retail FX broker community (IMO). FXCM lags far, far behind the curve on most fronts and for them to claim otherwise is just dishonest. Given their size, I wonder where Drew Niv's priorities are. (They are probably with that trading firm out of FL, Gibraltar Monetary Corporation, Inc., that defrauded $3M out of their customers, while earning $800K in commissions as an IB from FXCM.) I recently had a very bad experience with their trading desk. I entered at market during the Dec 8 NFP surprise, was filled in a few seconds with about 14 points of slippage (not so bad), and was in profit by more than 30 pips. I then went to close the trade as price seemed to stall, and for more than five minutes my order at market was rejected because "the market moved." However, the market was not moving more than 10 pips at a time at that point and my close order was, after all, "at market." The next best price should have kicked in -- so I called the trading desk. A dealer picked up after about 10 rings and said "Trading Desk..." I provided my account number, indicated that I was on the No Dealing Desk platform, gave my name and said "I want to close my position." The position was at breakeven at that point, but I wanted out. I was then put on hold and after a few minutes an agent from customer service picked up the line. This was totally disorienting. I then asked to close the position again, not quite believing what I heard. The operator said she couldn't help me and that she was transferring me to the trading desk. My position was now 15 pips in the red. (Wasn't I just talking to the guy at the Trading Desk?) After another two or three minutes, another person at the trading desk picked up the phone and the market had moved 70 pips against me. She offered to "close at market." When I told her that is what I asked the last guy to do almost ten minutes prior, she seemed unapologetic and said that because I was on the NDD platform all she could do was close the position. I replied, "Now that the market has moved 70 points against me, I can probably do that myself [insert appropriate expletive here]." Sure enough, my latest order went through, for a close at -73. This situation is currently being audited by FXCM, so I won't know what their decision will be. However, the original call to the trading desk should have closed out the position and I am unable to say whether the trading desk's actions were due to incompetence or to some other factor. Either way, DO NOT USE THIS PLATFORM for the following reasons: - Their spreads are not competitive, - Their execution is horrible, even for volatile market periods, - There is something very wrong with their trading desk, and - Their retail fixed spread platform is even worse! I find it rather suspicious that the largest retail FX spot broker in the US does not have more reviews written about them on this site -- good or bad. I wanted to give FXCM's No Dealing Desk a try with a small $1000 account. My thumb is definitely a down on this one! I recently read what has to be a plug for them on Wikipedia by some corporate shill -- How could they get Best Retail Platform by FX Week in 2004? And the TW2 Member Choice Award as Best Currency Broker in 2004? And Best FX Specialist by S&C in 2002, 2003, and 2004? This just doesn't ring true. (I can say that the Trade2Win outfit is a sham, but FX Week and S&C? Come on! Shame on both of them.) I'm one step away from calling FXCM a bucket shop, but will hold off because I also trade stocks and futures and I know what a true bucket shop is. The worst FX brokers still don't compare to the games played by those operators. I now have a great online broker for stocks/futures and two for FX. They are out there! Oh yeah, I also traded with CMS Forex when I first started with the spot market back in 2000. Now THAT was a bucket shop! Nothing either CMS or FXCM can say will bring me back. ****UPDATE**** This is an update on the last rating. FXCM's audit team refunded the loss incurred as a result of the trading desk's error -- and on the same day of the report. While this response time is a cut above many brokers, problems with the Non-Dealing Desk remain. Something else I thought of that hadn't already been mentioned -- While the orders at market going in are filled and slippage is allowed, exit orders are Fill or Kill and execute at the price specified -- unless a price range is specified. If price moves even a pip, the order will be rejected. This process took a minimum of 20 seconds on Friday to find out whether the order went through. The average was much longer. This is simply too much time. There is no default for this setting, so the FoK range on exit orders has to be typed in every time...which also takes too much time. This is something I would expect in the futures or stock markets, but not in FX spot. This is the rating of FXCM by theSnaggle. Check the part of fraud 3M.....Hmmm.....might be true. Read the parts in red.
legal criminals because their are NO REGULATIONS for dealing practices with a broker that makes it's own prices in a decentralized market
There are regulations in place for false advertising. There are also regulations in place for defrauding customers. Look at the number of firms, including FXCM, that have paid penalties levied by arbitration. The industry is self-regulating and by most standards, they do a pretty decent job. There are violations that are just flat illegal, however, and in those cases (hard to prove as they might be) the customer has powerful advocates. The bottom line is traders need to do a better job of holding their brokers accountable. What we do NOT need are apologists, however sympathetic they may be. You also missed the point of the post -- the dealer (FXCM is not a broker) in the case cited above was not making its own prices. That's why they call it a NON-Dealing Desk.
you seem to be very familiar with the FX business. here's a question for you, i have used the NDD option and note that that spread is generally 3 pips in the eur/usd, but occasionally flashes 2 pips--- obviously, there is some dealer intervention here---- what's the story?? how can they state no dealer desk, but the spreads are still this wide?? thanks, surf