Anyone is trading Forex? 50:1?

With regards to MatchbookFX, I can say they have great liquidity and they are open to all. A large portion of the trading there is by hedge funds and institutions. They have recently signed up some very large banks. The bottom line is the market is deep and fair.

Best,

Mike
 
Thanks Mike, that is good to hear. If they can get the banks online and using it, then we may have a winner. Do you know if they publish their volume numbers? Do you trade with them? If so, what kind of spreads are you seeing, and does it vary throughout the day or is the liqudity there all the time?

Kirk
 
Hi Kirk,

I don't trade the FX, but some of my close friends and associated do. So I follow the seen a little.

With regards to Matchbook, from what I've hear they have been checked out by the Fed and the managment has the highest integrity.

The market is usually 3 to 5 pips wide,
during violent market moves it can have gaps like EBS
but for the most part there are always tight spreads
and dealable prices. The average posted bid or offer
is 1 buck but I have seen 3-4 bucks up in slow
markets. They used to publish volume but they
recently upgraded their technology and the new system
does not publish volume numbers. I think they do
around a half a yard a day. I have seen in articles
where they quote that they do between $250 M and $300
M a day. Liquidity isn't really an issue because you
can post your own bid or offer so you have the
advantage of being a price taker or a price maker.
The new system also has a anonomous request for quote
feature that allows every market participant to
respond to a customers request for quote. That
feature helps in violent markets like yesterday. They
are much closer to equity trading systems than anything
else in the market.

Best,


Mike
 
def,

Do you know what times of day they are actively traded on globex? The appeal of spot forex is the 24 hr liquidity and the ability to trade non-traditional hours. I have not done a lot of research into the globex contracts.

thanks,

Kirk
 
I have been told by a futures broker that the currency futures are not nearly as liquid as the spot market, but that something called "exchange-for-physical" works around that problem.

AFAIK there is no leverage advantage going from underlying -> futures in currencies, so the only reason might be if you couldn't find a spot broker you could trust.
 
confirmed, they trade the same hours as the e-minis. Yes they are not always very liquid but there is size at times. If you put a decent price out you will get hit. The advantages seem to be not trading against the house (giving up the spread) and doing it in a regulated environment.
 
wareagle,
I'm not sure if your an IB client or not. If so, you'll be able to put/trade the Globex Futures on your screen (the symbols are on the website). I put a few on my screen to check out the overnight markets and was surprised to see decent markets and liquidity in most of the overnight contracts. Thus I assume it is better during the day.

For what it's worth this is what I observed:
e.g. typical euro market was 15-20 up 1-3 tics wide

the markets did fluctuate between .0001 and .0005 ticks but they did move and they did trade.
 
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