NGAS price unstable in break time or closed? FXCM

J

jago25_98

Today I just caught the price of NGAS changing by one or 2 pips after I made an order so I got in contact with FXCM support.

Support told me the market is on a break. I asked how I could have made an order while on break. They told me that the order is created but it isn't executed. They then sent me a PDF showing that the market for energies is on a break (21:15-00:00GMT).

I then asked again how the price is fluctuating. They said they can see that and looked into it. After a while they came back and said there's a typo in the pdf and the market actually closed at ~18:00GMT.

I then said 'how can the price fluctuate if the market is closed?' to which they said 'price can fluctuate as the market never really closes'.


OK guys... WTF!
I felt a little bit like the time I caught the dealer in a casino looking at cards as dealt.

I'm a bit new to this but this isn't making much sense?

Exact times and amounts were:
23:35-23:49GMT - Price fluctuating on closing price 3.611-3.617, symbol NGAS. Spread 10, Pip cost 0.62, Open 3.627 (didn't see it change but might have missed it), P/L -12, Gross P/L -7.42
 
Quote from jago25_98:

I'm a bit new to this but this isn't making much sense?
More...

Hi Jago,

Sorry for the confusion, but hopefully I can clarify this for you. With the end of Daylight Savings Time in the US, on Sunday, November 3rd, the weekly trading hours for NGAS are from Sunday 23:00 to Friday 21:45 GMT. In addition, there is a daily break from 22:15 to 23:00 GMT.

When trading is closed for the weekend, you will not be able to place or modify any orders, and no existing orders will be triggered. During the daily break, you can place or modify stop and limit orders, but you can't open or close any positions. Stop and limit orders will not trigger during the daily break.

You might be interested in this post I made earlier today listing FXCM's trading hours for all contracts: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3893243#post3893243

Jason
 
Quote from jago25_98:

'how can the price fluctuate if the market is closed?'
More...

Some liquidity providers may stream indicative rates during the daily break, but there isn't much liquidity in the market to fill orders. You may notice something similar on Sundays with indicative rates for currencies before forex trading opens for the new week at 5 PM New York time.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Am I reading this right. FXCM is offering natural gas trading on it's platform?
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Yes, they cover NGAS.

I tried to trade it and found that with 1 lot I was immediately down £60 on a pot size of £3500. I had to cancel it immediately as the exposure was to big, the biggest loss I've ever made. The position sizes are way too big unless you have £10,000+ imho. I wish this big lot size was pointed out to the beginner... which you're going to find in a mainly forex platform.
 
Quote from jago25_98:

Yes, they cover NGAS.

I tried to trade it and found that with 1 lot I was immediately down £60 on a pot size of £3500. I had to cancel it immediately as the exposure was to big, the biggest loss I've ever made. The position sizes are way too big unless you have £10,000+ imho. I wish this big lot size was pointed out to the beginner... which you're going to find in a mainly forex platform.
More...

OK, follow up question. I assume they only offer this in Europe and not in the US. Can anyone confirm that?
 
Quote from Maverick74:

OK, follow up question. I assume they only offer this in Europe and not in the US. Can anyone confirm that?
More...

Yes, you can't offer OTC products like spot fxor CFDs (through non-NFA members) to american retail customers. The CFTC did enforce this aggressively in the past, they even got firms in places like Mauritius to settle with them.
 
Quote from jago25_98:

Yes, they cover NGAS.

I tried to trade it and found that with 1 lot I was immediately down £60 on a pot size of £3500. I had to cancel it immediately as the exposure was to big, the biggest loss I've ever made. The position sizes are way too big unless you have £10,000+ imho. I wish this big lot size was pointed out to the beginner... which you're going to find in a mainly forex platform.
More...

Hi Jago,

There seems to be some confusion here. The mininum trade size for natural gas (NGAS) with FXCM is 1k mmBtu (or 1,000 million British thermal units). Technically, that's 1 billion British thermal units, but people don't say it that way. It's similar to how people say 1,000 kilometers instead of 1 million meters, because kilometers are the commonly used unit of measurement.

That's trade size equates to $1 per point in the price. That means a 10-point spread would equate to $10 or approximately £6. If you found that you were immediately down £60, then mostly likely you placed a trade for 10 lots or 10k mmBtu instead of 1 lot.

More information is available in our CFD Product Guide.

Jason
 
Quote from Maverick74:

OK, follow up question. I assume they only offer this in Europe and not in the US. Can anyone confirm that?
More...

Hi Mav,

As Pippi mentioned, CFD trading is not available to US residents. However, you don't have to live in Europe to trade CFDs. With the exception of US residents, traders worldwide can trade CFDs through FXCM UK and FXCM Australia.

Jason
 
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