Investment Bank/ECN for retail spot FX

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by thomsonfx, Nov 24, 2006.

  1. Dear all fellows,

    May I ask whether any of you tried any Investment Bank / ECN for retail spot FX ?

    I searched through the web and located a lot of options, below are my findings..

    Caylon: registered on the web but replied that individual cannot be authorized without a sales following up by registering on the web

    Deutsche: registered and got the demo, surprised that its charting service dont even support 4 hour timeframe..

    UBS: enquired on the web, no reply yet

    Credit Suisse: registered on the web, no reply yet

    Lehman: enquired and replied that individual account is not applicable

    BNP: enquired and replied that individual account is not applicable

    ML, MS, JP seems no related services

    It seems to me that none of them have API support unless you are prime brokerage clients and then they will setup a FIX connection for you.

    For ECN,

    3 Major ones are FXAll, FX Connect & Currenex

    However, seems none of them can be connected to individual client without going through broker or you have to be corporate clients to gain the FIX / API access

    From searching ET, I found that the lowest size to trade in ECN is in PropFX (10K USD) but that's not true ECN.. it adds extra pip instead of commission and its parent company is FXCM. For the lowest account size to trade with real ECN seems to be IDEALPRO from InteractiveBrokers (25K USD), is that true ?

    For those who had ever used ECN, would you mind telling me which ibank usually offer the best quote for liquidation ? If certain ibank usually offer the best quote, can I say that it has the same effect of trading with that particular ibank by approaching the sales (assuming that it supports retail client) ?

    Thanks !