I am on the demo retail hotspot fx and the spread for eur-usd is 2 I would say 90 % of the time. It goes to 1 for a very short time here and there, sometimes to 3. There is also a commission which adds basically the equivalent of 0.6 pips (round trip). So its as though the "spread" where 2.6 on eur/usd almost all the time. This seems very high for an ecn. On currenex the spreads seems to be 1 pip. Is the hotspot retail platform different from the professional platform...they claim it is not????
The spreads on the retail platform are either exactly the same or very close (within 0.5 pip) to that on the institutional platform. If you are comparing to the Currenex platform, there are also commissions there (not sure what their current comms are) If you are accessing Currenex through a prime broker you also have to pay a prime brokerage fee.
We are actually in the process of adding another liquidity providing bank to the platform. Any time you add more price makers into the mix you will increase the opportunity for tighter spreads.
Yes we will also be adding NZD/USD, AUD/NZD and a couple of others. If there are any that you would like to see, suggestions are always welcome.
Peter: Higher credit interest rates for customer account balances will make Hotspot more attractive. At present, IB offers a better deal. As to currency pairs, how about NZD/JPY (which IB doesn't offer)?