I think for the most part that is correct. For the most part. Not every bank is a liquidity provider for Knight and FxAll, so the reps comments may not be accurate. Sincere, because he/she says what they were told, but not accurate.
Standard rate is $3/100k bcu, but that can be negotiated depending on volume, which can be cheaper than IB's $2/$100k trades.
Hmm, well I sent them the following screenshot earlier in the week. It's a comparison of the HS FXi demo, IB, and their CNX. U/J and A/J are highlighted as those are my heaviest pairs. The FXi demo has both under 1 pip, IB is at 1 and 2 pip, CNX at 3 and 5 pip.. I was going to hold off any funding until I tested their HS FXi/FXall, but they're saying the feed/spreads are the same. Questionable because those spreads are the same/worse than dealing desk spreads..
Is that a live price on the currenex or demo pricing (demo's tend to have wider spreads than live) Because if it is, Jesus! 4 wide on the Aussie? I can get 1/2 that on Oanda's platform. Looks like they might be manipulating that spread.
It is live.. They gave me the demo at first, and I thought the same as you, that the demo must be wider than the live.. But the live feed is the same.. I asked them point blank if they were padding the spreads, but they said the spread issues are due to the sub-prime meltdown, that the US banks in their network widened their spreads in defense. I haven't noticed any spread widening on IB or FXi to back that claim up though. On Friday, I downloaded their FxNext platform (retail demo). Although the website isn't exactly clear, their FAQ says they do not charge commissions (spread based). Ironically (or not) it has the same spreads as the CNX platform.. I called them to discuss this and haven't yet heard back..
Either that or they have shit liquidity. The problem may be that like a lot of commodity based FCM's like ADM and FCStone, they are new entering the currency world and have yet to work out the issues in the forex world. I'm starting to think the best route is to go prime with one of the banks.
It's funny that they gave you that excuse. One of our newly funded traders has been testing a high frequency EURUSD scalper written in C++ on BGC's Currenex hub (I believe they are on eSpeed) for three weeks now. The scalper is super spread sensitive and we run filters to disable it if the spread changes by a statistically significant amount from what's "normal." In the last two weeks or so, the spreads have changed, as the scalper is off many times. I don't know if it's because the banks are acting defensively to the subprime fiasco or traders are not putting on size until after summer is officially over, but there has been a change. Don't know if this is of much use to you guys, but it's what we've experienced. cstfx, good summary of the dealing desk vs ecn pricing model.
Exactly number one - marketmakers__ and number two - marketplace, but some market makers also using number two that's why need to be careful
Props to a Market Maker: For those who prefer the no-commish model, I noticed this morning that Oanda has .9 spread on the Euro and 1.5 on the cable. For those that don't need to trade volume or news, it's worth a look. Plus, they're financially sound according to recent CFTC reports.
On top of that Oanda just announced that it is getting another $100 million in venture capital. http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news/article.aspx?StoryId=718411fd-8bf0-43bf-83e4-0ebadd20d37e