for FX traders am I correct in thinking this

[Sig]

do you personally have inside information with how bank traders work? If they are the only ones that have the power to move the market then why does it move and break levels so often seemingly (its hard to not have it be so blatant and obvious to see on charts). Why do they do it? I can't think of any other reason than to take out stops not necessarily from someone who is selling a 1 lot but certainly from other big orders then in the market.

I actually do personally know individuals who worked in the forex divisions of big banks, people I sat through forex and international business classes with. Their days as described by them consisted mainly of putting together swaps for large multinationals with unbalanced currency exposure and hedging out that exposure on the forex market, which is exactly what we studied in the forex and international business classes. They couldn't have cared less about you and your stops, retail traders are so far down on the totem pole of importance to that market that they don't even merit thinking about. Sure, they could have been lying to me and really they spent all day making $10K at a time for the bank taking out stops, but I find that unlikely. I also might have missed the forex class on how to make money taking out retail trader's stops, but again unlikely. Of course that's just an anecdotal account, the real reasons I think this big bank stop hunting conspiracy theory is a bunch of crap are listed in my original response, none of which are addressed by an assertion that you "see it on the charts". I'll add that if this is so blatant and "obvious to see on the charts" you should all be ecstatic because you've found predictable behaviour, and a competent trader can always make money on predictable behavior.
There is no conspiracy, the sooner you learn from your failures in trading the sooner you'll be successful. You're only enabling your own continued failure by always looking outward for blame when things don't go your way.

 

[Money Trust]

Seriously, retail traders trading with direct market access that the banks could manipulate to "take out stops" consist of a fraction of one percent of the overall forex market. A market that is primarily made up of banks executing business strategies on behalf of their clients. Additionally, banks are now prohibited from operating trading divisions and have shut those operations down and laid off thousands who used to staff them. Even if the remaining operations are trading under the guise of hedging, they don't have the financing to just arbitrarily move markets up and down, and they've zero motivation to take the risk of doing so with the double layer of scrutiny they are under. Especially not to take $10k off a punter by blowing their stop. You're flattering yourself into being far more important than you are if you put any credence into this kind of conspiracy theory, all the more so since it's backed by no evidence except your failure to make money in the market which must be the fault of someone else.

I remember when I first started trading, a guy told me that the institutions are concerned only with taking money from each other...not from a retail traders. He told me this in order to immediately kill the idea that if I were losing, it's because some major player is gunning for me.

 

[jpvil123]

I remember when I first started trading, a guy told me that the institutions are concerned only with taking money from each other...not from a retail traders. He told me this in order to immediately kill the idea that if I were losing, it's because some major player is gunning for me.

I realize that it's not being done unto me specifically. I do realize that I'm not trading enough to move the market. I'm saying that its moved on purpose in what it does to break levels..and as you said taking money from each other is part of it

 

[Maverick74]

I realize that it's not being done unto me specifically. I do realize that I'm not trading enough to move the market. I'm saying that its moved on purpose in what it does to break levels..and as you said taking money from each other is part of it

Banks don't make money by breaking levels. They make money by earning the spread on swaps. Maybe you should intern at a bank so you could see this for yourself.

 

[contra]

To Maverick and the other guys in the know...

I agree, no way do they care about retail stops... and brokers like oanda are simply hedging their books on the FX market and don't gun for retail stops.

But what about large clusters of stops, and barrier options? There is nobody gunning for those? Places like forexlive and IFR markets used to claim so. I have not read them in quite some time, but they would list order info and barrier options and large clusters of stops. They used to say that's how big institutions/hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds like China (big into the barrier options they claimed) could take profit, or get long/short because that's where the liquidity is to do so.

 

[Maverick74]

To Maverick and the other guys in the know...

I agree, no way do they care about retail stops... and brokers like oanda are simply hedging their books on the FX market and don't gun for retail stops.

But what about large clusters of stops, and barrier options? There is nobody gunning for those? Places like forexlive and IFR markets used to claim so. I have not read them in quite some time, but they would list order info and barrier options and large clusters of stops. They used to say that's how big institutions/hedge funds could take profit, or get long/short because that's where the liquidity is to do so.

You can ask Martinghoul, I believe he works at a bank or shop in the FX/Rate world. I know years ago the exotics were magnets for liquidity but not sure what role they play in this current environment.

 

[contra]

You can ask Martinghoul, I believe he works at a bank or shop in the FX/Rate world. I know years ago the exotics were magnets for liquidity but not sure what role they play in this current environment.

Cool, yeah I was never sure how true this info was, it kinda made sense to me at the time. I won't go bug the guy as I'm fine not knowing as you can't really make a strategy with it anyway, you'll never have this info if it's happening. They were always after the fact "rumors" on these news feeds. So I just continue about my business. If he see's this maybe he'll chime in.

 

[contra]

By the way, besides Martinghoul, for newer players in FX, there was a guy who went by the name of 'gammajammer' who used to post on trade2win that worked on an FX desk in London and wrote some articles about "a day in the life of an FX dealer"... insightful but I'm not sure if this is still the way it works now. One thing he was adamant about was staying off small time frame charts in FX, as it's just noise.

 

[Sig]

To Maverick and the other guys in the know...

I agree, no way do they care about retail stops... and brokers like oanda are simply hedging their books on the FX market and don't gun for retail stops.

But what about large clusters of stops, and barrier options? There is nobody gunning for those? Places like forexlive and IFR markets used to claim so. I have not read them in quite some time, but they would list order info and barrier options and large clusters of stops. They used to say that's how big institutions/hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds like China (big into the barrier options they claimed) could take profit, or get long/short because that's where the liquidity is to do so.

If there's any truth in the underlying premise it would be this, as it did occur in the past. And we know that there was manipulation around fixing prices. None of which is really related to retail punters and their stops.

 

[Xela]

And we know that there was manipulation around fixing prices. None of which is really related to retail punters and their stops.

For sure ... certainly; not related to it ... but that's still clearly among the things that effectively help to reinforce the belief that some of the "uninitiated" have that people are gunning for their stops.