Is my broker trustworthy? (FXCM)

Quote from oraclewizard77:

FXCM is not really the problem.

I talked to a trader who made a $ million trading with FXCM, he never used hard stops, just mental stops.
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I would never say that you can't be profitable using shady forex dealers. The only problem is that it makes a hard game (trading) even harder. For the average forex customer who is on the steep part of the learning curve, this presents a disadvantage that should not be underestimated.

I know there are stop hunters out there, but I try to take that into account when trading and placing stops. But when your dealer is the stop hunter, it turns it from a game into theft, IMO.
 
Quote from oraclewizard77:

FXCM is not really the problem.

I talked to a trader who made a $ million trading with FXCM, he never used hard stops, just mental stops.
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As much crap that come out of Jim Creamer from CNBC he always says you should never trade with stop's (for Short Term Trades) if you don't have discipline to watch and monitor your open trades (Short Term) you are not a true trader.

Im not trying to put down anyone's trading its just something that Creamer said that i do think he has a point on.
 
Quote from nexx:

As much crap that come out of Jim Creamer from CNBC he always says you should never trade with stop's (for Short Term Trades) if you don't have discipline to watch and monitor your open trades (Short Term) you are not a true trader.
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From what I understand, Cramer deals mostly with US stock market. I think his point is more valid in that context. Due to the 24-hour nature of currencies I don't think thats as easy to do. Many of my best trades have been set right before I go to bed, and in the morning I'll see how accurate my forecast was. I understand the risks of trading this way. At least in the futures I'll know that losses are the result of poor trading. In the cash market you can't always be so sure.
 
No yea i understand Jim Creamer deals only in the US Stock Market but i was trying to get across is that he has a point to put it a better way i was more sirected to a Day Traders (why i used the term Short Term trader) i wasn't sure what you trading style was so, it seems you might be in between day trader and swing trader and what i said was meant more for pure day traders.

Although Tight stops from what i hear is what kill any short term trader.
 
Quote from mamba315:

At least in the futures I'll know that losses are the result of poor trading. In the cash market you can't always be so sure.
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I would imagine stop hunting is easier in less liquid futures than in forex, isn't that where the tactic originated in the first place?
 
Quote from cabletrader:

I would imagine stop hunting is easier in less liquid futures than in forex, isn't that where the tactic originated in the first place?
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You're probably right. What I was trying to say is that if your stop gets hit in the futures market due to the trading of other market participants, then you should have been more careful. But in the cash forex market, it's not always clear if the market did it or if your broker started taking creative measures with their quotes. I'm okay with the former, as that is part of trading. I am less happy with the latter.
 
Quote from mamba315:

You're probably right. What I was trying to say is that if your stop gets hit in the futures market due to the trading of other market participants, then you should have been more careful. But in the cash forex market, it's not always clear if the market did it or if your broker started taking creative measures with their quotes. I'm okay with the former, as that is part of trading. I am less happy with the latter.
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lol @ 'creative measures', that was very diplomatic :)

Sure, I see what you're saying, but futures also has it's gremlins like every other market. What the business needs is some sort of mutually agreeable reference point for disputes like this, unfortunately the way things are the broker can pretty much do whatever he likes and get away with it! I can imagine the uproar if casinos did the same thing, choosing which cards to deal! "If I give you an eight you're bust, here you go, oh look an 8, unlucky have another go", lol

If you can find a decent broker I still think it's a great business to be in. Just thinking about it, as a predominantly counter-trend trader I'm probably flying under the radar and providing in-house liquidity for my broker, I think I should be on a bonus myself (not to mention my shill fee)!
 
Quote from vjr:

what are some of the decent brokers?
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That depends on several things such as the size of your account, which sessions you trade, what type of trader you are, which pairs you trade......

The average new trader seems to trade the majors mainly Eur/Usd, in the late European and US sessions, intraday, account of around 2 or 3k, avoiding news and data, and with an average stop of 35 pips. Oanda is pretty much the only choice, not bad but not perfect, their platform and orders are easy and they have their own forum, good for a beginner for sure.
 
Quote from cabletrader:

I would imagine stop hunting is easier in less liquid futures than in forex, isn't that where the tactic originated in the first place?
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Who says futures are less liquid than bucketshops?

Let's take the CME EC contract, on Friday it traded 246,508 contracts
http://www2.barchart.com/dfutpage.asp?sym=EC&code=BSTK&section=currencies
Contracts control 125,000 Euros, let's suppose an average price of 1.5400.
That is $47,452,790,000 traded friday March 21
$47 BILLION!

Compare this with your forex broker (your REAL pool of liquidity) having at most $50 or $100 Million.
 
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