Strategy Trader

FXCM is releasing a new automated trading platform called Strategy Trader which will be an alternative for MT4 and MT5. The benefit of this platform is that it connects directly to FXCM servers without the need for bridges because it was built for NDD execution. Here's a picture of the platform:

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A larger image is attached for you to see detail. The platform is currently going through beta testing and we would love to hear your feedback you want to test it out. Here's where you can request the platform to beta test: http://www.fxcm.com/lp-strategy-trader-beta.html

Let me know if you have any questions.

Jason
FXCM

 

There will be a Strategy Trader Q&A webinar on Thursday July 1 at 2:00pm EDT. Here's the link to access it http://forex.na6.acrobat.com/webinars4/

 

how much does this product cost?

 

There's no cost. It's free.

You can test it with a demo, and any live account setup for the FX Trading Station II has free access to Strategy Trader.

If you test it on a demo, make sure to register for a demo without hedging on the US site www.fxcm.com . If you have a live account with hedging, you'll need to disable hedging first through www.myfxcm.com.

 

Strategy Trader was released for public beta yesterday. Here's where you can find all of the details for the platform: http://www.fxcm.co.uk/strategy-trader.jsp . As mentioned before, there's no live trading cost to use the platform unlike with TradeStation or NinjaTrader and you can also use it free with a demo.

A programming wiki has also been released along with Strategy Trader and it contains free open source code for strategies, indicators and functions in C# for Strategy Trader. Here's the wiki http://www.forexcodesource.com/

 

If I have a live account with FXCM UK, will I need to disable hedging on my account as a prerequisite to using Strategy Trader, or can I simply use Strategy Trader without hedging?

 

Hedging will need to be disabled first through www.myfxcm.com. The platform doesn't support hedging because it uses exchange execution which makes it compatible for possible use in futures and equities.

 

A new programming wiki has been launched with free code and documentation in C# if you need any help with coding for Strategy Trader. The wiki is found here www.forexcodesource.com

Additional documentation will be added in the coming weeks.

 

Another trader added a new EA to the Strategy Trader directory yesterday which imports the economic news events onto the Strategy Trader chart. Take a look



You can find the EA by going to the top of the platform and clicking on Help > Discussion Forums then look for the Strategy Trader Add-Ons section.

 

I downloaded Strategy Trader out of curiosity. At first look, the product was so inspiring... But, the very first attempt to use it left me so bemused.

What doesn’t FXCM tell us?

At first, the advertising tables look so great. More than 100 indicators. Wow! 4 strategies. Wow-Wow! But... Stop, guys. I will not trade using the tables. I need the tool for trading. What do I need then? I need freedom of choosing the trading tools. Here is what I have in fact:

Custom indicators I can download: MT4: thousands. Strategy Trader: 0.0
Custom strategies I can download: MT4: thousands. Strategy Trader: 0.0

But even the indicators "included"... 4 moving averages while just one MT4’s moving average indicator does much more! So, I personally prefer 25 indicators which work right and a chance to load the indicator I really need.

Can't download? Well, I’m ready to develop. C#? Huh! Sounds good as well. Popular! Well known! The next thing I tried to do was to write an indicator. I’m not a C# guru and, moreover, I’m not a professional programmer, but I wrote the indicators and advisors for MT4, so, I expected I would be able to do the same for Strategy Trader.

The first thing is the documentation. Probably, MT4’s documentation is not the best documentation in the world (Russian guys have never been pretty good at it), but, you know, the documentation is like sex – even bad is much better than nothing. Tell you that, guys, Strategy Trader “documentation” is just a list of some “classes” with no information on how I should use it.

Hopefully, FXCM is so generous to provide the sources of all existing indicators. I used the simplest indicator to try. Show arrows when EMA crosses Bollinger Bands. It takes only a half screen of lines in MT4. After a day of work, it turned into three screens in Strategy Trader and the best thing I got was 160-characters-long construction with mainly names and points but with no comparisons, which should be used to check whether the indicators cross. Wow! Wow! Wow! I felt like a programming guru. Was it the purpose?! Now I know that the only reason which could seduce me for such experience again is whether FXCM pays me for it and whether it pays me well. Nothing like easy-to-read and easy-to-write good old MT4’s code.

And the last but not the least. My PC isn’t the worst in this world, but Strategy Trader is so slow. Try to open 80-bars chart? It takes up to a minute! (BTW, on my 15Mbs broadband MT4 loads more data in no time!). At the same time, the CPU usage was never lower than 5% on my quad-core, with only 5 charts open. It was during the last Friday when the market was relatively still. What kind of equipment should I have to use Strategy Trader when the market really starts moving?!

I felt as though I’ve been fooled like a child who opened a glaring candy cover and found a piece of... You know.

So, I hope that FXCM will not stop supporting MT4 and will not leave us all without a chance for the real strategy trading.