I worked out the "real" spreads for the major pairs on IB. These are expressed in "pseudopips", defined as (spread/sell price + 2*commission) * 10000. These are a snapshot; they vary during the day. USDHKD 0.18 EURUSD 0.66 GBPUSD 0.70 USDJPY 0.73 EURJPY 0.83 EURCHF 0.84 GBPCHF 0.98 GBPHKD 1.08 USDCHF 1.15 EURHKD 1.22 AUDJPY 1.32 EURAUD 1.51 AUDUSD 1.63 EURGBP 2.10 USDCAD 2.29 GBPCAD 2.56 EURCAD 3.78 Divide by 100 and you get the % of every entry/exit pair that is eaten up by spread + commission, i.e. ranging from 0.0018% to 0.0038%. You then have to multiply by your leverage to figure out how much of your capital the house is raking - could be as high as 0.19%. USDHKD did so well because the spread when I took the snapshot was only 1 pip. It often suffers from low liquidity, however, and as I look at it right now the spread is 13 pips, which in "pseudopips" works out to 1.7 Anyway, clearly xCAD is not the place to be if you do rapid trading.
I just opened 11 New positions AUD/USD B USD/CAD S USD/JPY B CAD/JPY B GBP/AUD S AUD/JPY B GBP/JPY B AUD/NZD B EUR/CAD S AUD/JPY B AUD/CHF B to hold at max 20 of July gl
+ usd/sgd Sell I am now 3 Lots each in the MKT expecting an average loss (running) 30 pips /Lot and about 33 Pips gain per lot per day
my avgerage prices USD/JPY 123.03 AUD/USD 0.8603 USD/CAD 1.0487 GBP/JPY 248.13 EUR/CAD 1.4326 AUD/JPY 105.92 CAD/JPY 117.29 GBP/AUD 2.3443 AUD/NZD 1.1064 AUD/CHF 1.0431 USD/SGD 1.5159
OK. So why would a totally expected, no-surprises move by BoC cause USDCAD to zoom up 40 pips? People say, well, it was priced into the market - but then why did the market move at all? And if anyone had any doubts he was going to do it, then that should have been pushing USDCAD up a bit, and when he actually did it, it should have gone down, no? Anyway, I watched it all unfold in amazement, shorted at 1.10537 and bought back in 10 minutes later at 1.10498. Shorted again at 1.10521, and we shall see ... Though I kinda regret having jumped off my USDJPY short to do all that, cause that's been developing nicely, too. USDJPY is way overdue for that big unwind, predicting 119 or maybe even 117 in a couple of weeks. The Economist figures at PPP it should be at 109.
Because the BoC indicated that the currency strength was doing some of their work for them, and another hike might or might not be necessary.
Housing starts were off for June as well, often a canary for the rest of the economy. The high-loonie bad news is starting to roll in, I guess. On the other hand, USD is weak everywhere else - EURUSD now over 1.37, GBPUSD 2.02+, USDJPY off 140 pips from yesterday's high, USDCHF under 1.21 ... where does it get off suddenly recovering against the loonie, when oil is now over $72 and the rate spread is down to half a point? It's got to be overreaction to news. I'm holding on to my short for now.