You can do a demo of IB and run em side by side. The forex capital of the world is London and many of the better companie operate out of there. I believe your group clears Man Financial. You can probably get a better deal on Currenex through a London Broker directly or maybe Man Directly. Check out these guys and ask them their rates. http://www.vcapfutures.com/ They offer every major ECN for forex. You can get a good idea of competitive rates through them. It really depends on your volume and the ECN feed. Not all ECN feeds are equal. Different distributors of Currenex or Lava are different in regard to contributors etc.
TGM, i actually already trade on Currenex via MF Global out of Singapore already, i was wondering if IB can offer me better commission rates, the website you posted above , they want 250K to open an ECN account, quitre a bit, they better have excellent spreads and commission for that, thanks...
I recently tested two Currenex hubs & HotSpot FXi. The spreads were virtually the same as those offered on IB's IdealPro (which I always had running for comparisons). I was able to negotiate commissions down to $25/MM, but only with volume requirements (HS FXi $30/MM, 30:1 lev). At the end of the day, it simply wasn't worth it to pay higher commissions for the same spreads, have monthly volume requirements, and receive no overnight interest on unused funds (I don't know if all prime brokers pay no interest, but the two I dealt with did not).
kgb, do you have the same experience as tgm in terms of quality of fills with IB in normal market conditions?? be aware i do not trade the news......i trade from 11pm to 11am new york time....and i trade the gbp/usd, eur/jpy, gbp/jpy and the aud/jpy.......looks like i might switch to IB and give it a chance.......thanks again kgb
I would say you hit many nails on the head. It really depends on how big of an account etc. But IB is very, very competitive. My only bitch is on how they do the margin. And that is not much of an issue for me. Your volume requirement is a very good point. For some cross rates IB is as competitive as platforms that require major volume commitments.
The spread might be attractive in IB, but if you hold position overnight, you dont get interest on the first 10K for each currency. That kind of hurt a lot.
Good point. Oanda is probably the best for smaller accounts and interest payments. But you will find that IB is more competitive than most ecn's in regard to interest payments. IB does not pay interest on any deposits under 10k. On larger, forex positions their interest payments are very competitive.
Depends on size. Trading just one regular 100k lot, you'll receive interest on 90k. No interest on 10% of one lot is not a deal breaker. If you're trading multiple lots, it's not even an afterthought.
Executions are fine. I'm also usually trading in a quiet market (not chasing price). In a long scenario, typically I'll outbid by 0.5 pip to become the best bid (that is unless the spread is already 0.5 pip which it sometimes is on eur/usd). Most times in a quiet market, I'll get filled (usually as price trades through, but I'll at least be the first to get filled). Recently I received 0.5 pip improvement (price traded through my order to the next lower bid and I was filled at that price). If you're paying the spread, fills are instantaneous.