Hi, im looking for a new broker, and Hotspot looks quite good to me. Im looking for positive/negative feedback, from people that already traded with them. Note im talking about their retail plattform. Andy
Their sales person said, its good for 10 to 20m at all times for the majors, more than enough for me. About the spreads, i dont really know, their demo-plattform doesnt resemble the live situation. Im looking for info on that for myself.
2 cents loves it. I think Lava and Currenex are far btter although I do use it. For example at the moment Hotspot in cable is 45 48 with 4mio on the bid and 1 on the offer. Currenex is 45 47 with 13 and 9 respectively and lava 44 46, 8 by 10.
Hi Lon Eagle, i think you are talking about the institutional plattform, bigger stuff than i am looking for. Their retail-plattform maybe quite different from their institutional one (i.e. 7500 usd account minimum on retail), i dont know. Andy
just my observations: 1. currenex: matching engine is weird at best, . i have documented cases of even smallish 1 mio MKT (GBPUSD, EURUSD) order sitting on the platform without being filled for up to 5 secs in fast markets!!!! easy to verify thanks to currenex's audit trail, currenex IT etc didn't dispute, just said they couldn't reproduce... well, yeah, cool, i feel better now... . worse, i hit the wrong button once last year (yeah ok stop laughing will ya ) on a 10mio MKT order on a figure... mkt jumped 30pips in 1 sec and i was fucking livid... but guess what... fucking currenex didn't even execute, thk gawd, until 30 secs had passed and once the dust had settled it appeared that i'd actually managed to close at a (insignificant) profit thks to quick fluctuations within the 30-45 sec interval... but that does nothing to help me trust the platform, nothing at all . why did i come to use MKT orders in fast mkts (potentially lethal) instead of limit orders as everybody does: cause latency issues (from Tokyo 180ms) meant even my 15pips-wide sweep attempts wld practically never receive any fills on currenex . i asked but currenex never showed any willingness to disclose how their matching engine works, detailed execution rules, priorities, iteration rules and messaging if any (could aggravate latency-related issues), but basically and for having IMPLEMENTED matching algos for stock exchanges in my youth, i suspect they manage a timestamp-based queue and perhaps a priority to larger orders first, even a 30 sec auction-type system perhaps on figures, and a msg exchange prior to resubmitting an unfilled order... in my case, total garbage in fast mkts... but not everybody lives in tokyo... and they're ok in slow mkts (but who isnt?...) 2. HSFXi, yeah, i've complained about their spreads being 1-2pips wider than currenex on avg for a few weeks, depending on pair and time of day, 2 months or so ago... now fixed, on Ldn & US timeframe that is, and to me thats all that really matters actually... . never had a single execution problem with HSFXi, lightning fast, latency not an issue . liquidity is just as good if not better... get HSFXi's Tradeview so u can compare on 5, 20, 100mio and you'll see... also don't forget HSFXi has iceberg orders... try hitting the 100 button and u'll soon realize that there is way more on the bid/ask than first meets the eye... 3. LavaFX... have only looked at demo and live quotes, looks good but not better than HSFXi imo... dunno for execution speed / overall quality of fills... other thing is they still lack liquidity in a big way, ask for their monthly volumes, they are peanuts compared to HSFXi and currenex... improving of course but still a v.long way to go having said that, all 3 are pretty good platforms imo, depends on how one trades, and personal circumstances i guess have a great holiday all!!!
Thank you 2cents. iceburg orders are defined here for those of you that read 2cents post. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/icebergorder.asp
Interesting stuff - funny I find fills better on Lava and Currenex but you stick to Hotspot and I will keep the others and we are all happy (and filled!) But market orders on figures - are you insane. I havent used them since I was filled 20 pips under the real low of the day after a figure. Best few grand lesson I ever learnt. I know someone filled a couple of figures below the low!
cheers Lon' ;-) it was sthg one cld 'attempt' to get away with in those days and on the right pairs though, but not any more... and yeah, totally insane to do that i agree, both in principle and in practice...
Interesting posts guys, but can you say something about Hotspot FXr ? My account is just not big enough for curenex et.al. Funny enough, i cant seem to find any reviews or forum posts from users about HS-FXr at all. They definatly dont seem to be very popular amongst retail-traders, altho on paper their offer seems pretty interesting, i also like their platform-software. Pippi