Forex trading size

[Stok]

Any experts out there trading 20-60MM in spotfx per trade? Wondering if that size something doable in the major pairs...meaning getting fills in a decent time, not moving markets, et. al.

 

[JamesL]

Not on a retail ECN, but have easily seen fills of 100MM on a few majors on a Bloomberg terminal during prime hours.

 

[Stok]

Reason I ask is I trade with IB. Their max size per trade is 5MM. But they send orders to all the big fx banks. I could send in multiple orders of 5mm each....just curious. Not daytrading but swing trading a few times a month.

 

[kickout]

damn...500 bucks a pip, that some serious cash

 

[Stok]

Quote from kickout:

damn...500 bucks a pip, that some serious cash

Lol. I'm not trading that size right now. In the 1-2mm range, just trying to figure out scale. And I swing trade, only a few trades a month.

 

[oldtime]

Quote from Stok:

Reason I ask is I trade with IB. Their max size per trade is 5MM. But they send orders to all the big fx banks. I could send in multiple orders of 5mm each....just curious. Not daytrading but swing trading a few times a month.

my understanding was with IB, they will accept greater than 5m but they will split it up to a max size of 5m.

That's some old info I got from a 2006 button trader tutorial.

 

[Pita]

Quote from Stok:

Any experts out there trading 20-60MM in spotfx per trade? Wondering if that size something doable in the major pairs...meaning getting fills in a decent time, not moving markets, et. al.

you are definitely not moving the market with that size but the problem is your broker who can give you any price he wants and will give you one where he makes money first. As a size trader he will not put you in the B-book but will send the order to the street and then shows you fills where he got already nicely paid (from your money).
If you want to trade big size on a regular basis you need to go for prime brokerage or work in and trade for a bank or hedgefund.

 

[lg_cap]

Quote from kickout:

damn...500 bucks a pip, that some serious cash

I am always amazed of people just seeing the big cash.
What if your trade is a loss : -500 bucks each pip ?

 

[Stok]

Quote from Pita:

you are definitely not moving the market with that size but the problem is your broker who can give you any price he wants and will give you one where he makes money first. As a size trader he will not put you in the B-book but will send the order to the street and then shows you fills where he got already nicely paid (from your money).
If you want to trade big size on a regular basis you need to go for prime brokerage or work in and trade for a bank or hedgefund.

I trade with IB, they deal directly with the interbank. I also have same L2 which shows good size (IB trades in 1/2 pip's) direct from the interbank. In major pairs, usually see about 30-50MM in cum size going 2 1/2 pips deep each way. So, it seems getting up to 20-60MM range is possible.

And to earlier comments about IB max size at 5MM, yes I can send in the order of 20MM and it will just be broken into 4 - 5MM orders.

 

[Stok]

Here is L2 in AUD/USD, shows 30MM deepth: