Anybody trading currencies?

[JanaSergeevna]

Quote from kubilai:What I wonder about is why don't these bucket shops really bucket your orders and hedge against their own positions on the world-wide 24/7 spot market and futures market? Surely some of the largest of those dealers have enough order-flow to accomplish such?

Some of them do. Over here (I'm in the UK at the moment) many of the spread-betting firms do exactly that. They continually assess their net positions on every instrument, and hedge the balance. It protects them from large payouts, and it also benefits their customers, who are able to trade without this worry that their "broker" is taking up the other side of the position, i.e. trading against them. They make their living from the spread, which is paid by winners and losers alike, of course.

I endorse the comments above about Saxo "Bank".

It's strange: because of the lack of consistent international regulation of Forex trading, some of the best-sounding outfits are probably the worst to deal with, while some of the spread-betting firms over here (which are often criticised by ill-informed people with out-of-date information) are the best.

 

[wanderer]

How's Refco as a forex broker ?

Is anyone here making consistent money by daytrading forex thru Refco ?

 

[Pabst]

Quote from Rickshaw Man:

You won't get any interest when you trade currencies thru globex, but you will if you trade in the spot market. Last summer I was making an additional $5.00 a day holding EURUSD long, not to mention the profit from price appreciation. It's like a daily dividend. GBP, AUD pay some awesome interest for holding long in that currency.

I think most people who bash the currency markets are just venting from their own mistakes, and that is one of the big problems you face when trading, not being able to admit you were wrong.
Sure some of these outfits are rip offs, but you will encounter rip offs in every day life, not just in the forex markets.

Not accurate. Since rates are higher in EUR than the U.S. the futures trade at a discount to spot. Thus a long in EUR futures sees his position "catch up" or as it's called converge with spot at expiration. ALL futures contracts have similar "cost of carry" dynamics. I suggest you study these terms as well as learn the word: basis.

 

[danoXP]

Quote from SethArb:

for a few minutes before 3 PM EST

in EUR / USD ?

my chart shows a spike ( down ) in march 05 fut.

to 1.2932 or so ... the cme website shows

the pit only traded a low of 1.2944

that is a big difference ... and am now unsure

of the correct low

SethArb,

The FX futures contract price will be slightly different than the cash market due to net interest rate adjustment out to the delivery date.

This site here can be helpful in getting a feel for Futures prices vs. expiry (including the cash market)

http://www2.barchart.com/dfutpage.asp?sym=EC&code=BSTK

... you will see the cash price vs. the differnt futures contracts available.

Hope that helps.

(ps. all futures have this characteristic

 

[swoop[TR]]

Quote from Pabst:

Not accurate. Since rates are higher in EUR than the U.S. the futures trade at a discount to spot. Thus a long in EUR futures sees his position "catch up" or as it's called converge with spot at expiration. ALL futures contracts have similar "cost of carry" dynamics. I suggest you study these terms as well as learn the word: basis.

Not accurate. Rates are higher in the US than in EUR. The Euro forward trade at a premium to spot. I suggest you get your facts correct before teaching someone.

 

[traderob]

Quote from JanaSergeevna:



I endorse the comments above about Saxo "Bank".

It's strange: because of the lack of consistent international regulation of Forex trading, some of the best-sounding outfits are probably the worst to deal with, while some of the spread-betting firms over here (which are often criticised by ill-informed people with out-of-date information) are the best.

The hilarious thing is, I read some posts on another site that actually believe Saxo is a bank! (I mean a real bank)

 

[JanaSergeevna]

Quote from roberk:The hilarious thing is, I read some posts on another site that actually believe Saxo is a bank! (I mean a real bank)

I know what you mean ... well, people will believe what they want to believe, won't they?

 

[Lon Eagle]

Quote from roberk:

The hilarious thing is, I read some posts on another site that actually believe Saxo is a bank! (I mean a real bank)

Really don't understand this comment. How do you define a bank? Of course it is not a bank the size of Citibank, Goldmans or RBS etc but it is a bank. It has a decent amount of capital and is fully regulated as a bank. Furthermore if it ever went bankrupt, as it is a bank, then all depositors are covered by the depositors protection scheme that means the first 60k odd of Euros is not at risk.

 

[Chood]

I traded with Saxo. The depositor protection, via the Danish government, is 30k Danish (Euro pegged), not 60k Euro. Also, it applies only to cash deposits and, in part, to securities, not spot FX positions. That was last year, so unless the protection has changed and doubled since then, the above post overstates the amount and scope of the protection.

Plus, when Saxo burned my FX trading account, I discovered that the Danish government regulator would not provide ANY information to me about Saxo even though I was a Saxo customer. Stone wall of silence.

 

[JanaSergeevna]

Quote from Chood: unless the protection has changed and doubled since then, the above post overstates the amount and scope of the protection.

Correct.

Quote from Chood: when Saxo burned my FX trading account, I discovered that the Danish government regulator would not provide ANY information to me about Saxo even though I was a Saxo customer. Stone wall of silence.

Usual sort of story, sadly. Without wishing to offend anyone, the belief that one will necessarily be ok because "a 'bank' must be regulated" is simply the height of naivety. The Forex industry has staggeringly little effective regulation. (One of the many attractions of the UK's spread-betting companies is that they are _very_ tightly regulated by the FSA, which examines every trade made by every client.)