Interbank commissions on EBS Prime

Discussion in 'Forex' started by jorgeamado88, Oct 28, 2005.

  1. For misc. reasons I will need to be more flexible on my trading hours, and am considering moving from swing-trading stocks to trading forex. (No, no bucket shops).

    So far, I've found that trading the FX-futures on globex would suit me fine - the liquidity at least on EURUSD is there, and if one becomes an electronic member one can get some very low commissions.

    The one thing I haven't checked out properly, is EBS Prime and true interbank trading through a prime bank. At the EBS website the following is stated: "Customers negotiate and pay a fee to their EBS Prime bank, typically in the form of a spread added to the dealt price on the customer's deal ticket. They also pay a standard EBS Spot transaction brokerage fee to EBS."

    Am I right in assuming that it would be more expensive to deal through EBS than trade on globex as an electronic member? My normal size would probably be around 100-150 contracts in the EURUSD. If anyone would like to share some EBS experiences and info it would be most welcome.
     
  2. You might find higher costs from slippage on GLOBEX depending on your strategy and timeframe.
     
  3. fhr999

    fhr999

    You can trade also through Currenex depending of your volume
    you shou pay around 40doll per mio or less also you can try Barclays or Citi platform they have around 1 pip spread on euro and yen and around 2 pips doll swissie
     
  4. how r they on figures do u know?

    fwiw, last fri on currenex my MKT order on us gdp figures just stayed on the screen for up to 3 seconds (! yes, 3 or more!) waiting to be filled as the banks were just pretending to quote, i ended up being filled a good 15 pips below what i cld see flashing on my screen, and that was just for gbp1.5mio, not exactly big size...

    not the 1st time its happened (initially i wld go in with limit orders but i just wldn't get filled... therefore decided to take my chances and experiment with MKT orders for a while), i've therefore raised a formal enquiry with currenex & fxcmpro... currenex says no foul play from fxcmpro (mmmhhh... ok....) its just that the liquidity providers r using their last look option to ensure the quotes they r contributing r stale by the time u hit them (i.e. within 5ms!?!)... pretty shite if u ask me...
     


  5. If I were you I would check to see if their is an account minimum. If you have done this please share what you have learned. I was under the impression EBS only accepted accounts over 10 million
     
  6. I think that to trade on EBS you need to be an institution.
     
  7. Thanks for replies.

    Slippage:
    Here I was just thinking of the pure commission costs, not the spread. The spread can also work in your favour, especially when the matching is fair (time-based).

    EBS and account-size:
    It's more a question of what EBS Prime banks accept really, and I'd be suprised if they don't factor in the volume you do and not just account equity. With 500k of equity and then doing 10 million RTs five times an hour you're more valuable than someone with 10 million equity doing 20 million once an hour. However, Prime banks could also reason that with a 10 mln minimum they might be getting more important orderflow than a small trader's account.

    Currenex:
    I'll be sure to check this out, thanks. I just forgot about it.

    Barclays, Citi etc:
    I was thinking of ECN-type access, which means that you could hit several banks instead of just trading with the same bank over and over. I'm not too fond of the idea of having a relationship with one bank only.

    I've also been thinking of Reuters, but it might be harder to establish the credit rating to actually trade with enough counterparties? I like their systems though, and you find quotes on absolutely everything there. Can one establish a Prime bank relationship and trade through Reuters? What would those costs be?