Eurusd 1.50000

[Anna-Maria]

	Quote:	AbeSmith
	So Interactive Brokers and EFX won't try to rip me off? What about Forex.com? Could you talk about some of the pitfalls?

Rip you off as in what? how? They're not deal desks. They earn their fee's (from your account anyway) via the comms, therefore they route you directly into the flow. To my knowledge, they don't shade or fade you. Get on the phones, speak to them & tell them what you want/need.

They won't hold your hand, but talk out there is positive for both firms.

I have no view/comments on Forex.com, sorry.

Pitfalls?

The web, specific sites-threads, 2nd & 3rd hand contacts etc, are awash with varying degree's of inefficiency and/or bad karma regards the deal desk outfits.

Most of it can be attributed to inexperienced, ineffective & ill prepared traders. Majority are under-capped, over leveraged gamblers who blow up then cry wolf & urinate on the brokers.

However, it's (unregulated) a free for all out there, especially amongst the low tier shops. Worst offenders will fade, shade & skew prices when they get the slightest opportunity, in both hectic & quiet periods.

Outside of the majors, spreads are criminal, particularly on Yen crosses. Dangerous territory if you're a greenhorn.

+ why trade with a shop who controls the price (fixed spreads/high hidden costs) when you can leg in via a straight thru (ECN) operator?? Again, engage brain & use common sense.

Ask (the IB's & EFX's) searching questions...fee's/spreads/costs/liquidity blah blah.

Beware of greeks bearing gifts (fixed spreads - low or otherwise), no slippage, guaranteed fills & other such garbage. Markets are markets whatever the instrument!!

[AbeSmith]

	Quote:	Anna-Maria
	Rip you off as in what? how? They're not deal desks. They earn their fee's (from your account anyway) via the comms, therefore they route you directly into the flow. To my knowledge, they don't shade or fade you. Get on the phones, speak to them & tell them what you want/need. They won't hold your hand, but talk out there is positive for both firms. I have no view/comments on Forex.com, sorry. Pitfalls? The web, specific sites-threads, 2nd & 3rd hand contacts etc, are awash with varying degree's of inefficiency and/or bad karma regards the deal desk outfits. Most of it can be attributed to inexperienced, ineffective & ill prepared traders. Majority are under-capped, over leveraged gamblers who blow up then cry wolf & urinate on the brokers. However, it's (unregulated) a free for all out there, especially amongst the low tier shops. Worst offenders will fade, shade & skew prices when they get the slightest opportunity, in both hectic & quiet periods. Outside of the majors, spreads are criminal, particularly on Yen crosses. Dangerous territory if you're a greenhorn. + why trade with a shop who controls the price (fixed spreads/high hidden costs) when you can leg in via a straight thru (ECN) operator?? Again, engage brain & use common sense. Ask (the IB's & EFX's) searching questions...fee's/spreads/costs/liquidity blah blah. Beware of greeks bearing gifts (fixed spreads - low or otherwise), no slippage, guaranteed fills & other such garbage. Markets are markets whatever the instrument!!

Ok. Thanks for the info Anna Maria.

[BlowFish]

There's always the currency futures too.

I heard EFX & MBT where giving access to the actual 'market' hows that working out? Do you really see a good chunk of those trillions of $'s of liquidity? Always made me chuckle the old snake oil salesman bigging up the market with no way for the retail trader to participate. With EFX & MBT do you get like a nasdaq LII display with who's bidding and offering what?

BTW enjoying the few currency threads as a lurker

[Sparrow]

I think they call it Level II in their current version of the MBT Navigator but changed its name to Market Depth in the new beta version of the software.

You just get a regular kind of DOM like for every other instrument. Now for FX that might be quite something but for futures it's not very impressive.

Being a noob I don't really know how to make sense of it.

Cheers

[torero]

It's Level II but without the market maker on MBT. I like it, what you see is what you get. I place an order and I can see the order on outside the bid or ask immediately (depending on where the price you placed) so I get transparency. Like I said, I haven't had problems with them for more than a year so. But test drive it yourself. Use these threads as a starting criteria to weed out the good from the bad, then create your own criteria for your own needs. Good luck.

[notouch]

The problem with targeting the 1.5 level is that if EUR/USD = 1.5 then USD/EUR = .666! It's not surprising price backed away from that level. Who knows if it will ever get there. You're entering the trend very late.

[AbeSmith]

	Quote:	notouch
	The problem with targeting the 1.5 level is that if EUR/USD = 1.5 then USD/EUR = .666! It's not surprising price backed away from that level. Who knows if it will ever get there. You're entering the trend very late.

Ah yes, the good old 666.

[AbeSmith]

Ok guys and gals. The EURUSD is starting to look interesting on the long side. Stochastic is heading towards oversold. Smaller red candle on the 17th pointing to slowing down in direction. Also, reverse head and shoulders pattern. And fed rate cut helps to make it go up, right. Perhaps we'll get a surprise rate cut, like 1 basis point. That would make it go up? Anyways, still to early to enter at this point. But just wanted to point it out and see if anyone had any input. Probably best to wait for it to bottom and after it shows signs of reversal, perhaps 2 days of green then go long.

[AbeSmith]

Hello again. EurUsd dropped significantly today. It's starting to look better now. Stochastics are closer to oversold. Price might be headed to the support at 1.43.

[AbeSmith]

OMG. My first Forex trade!!! I woke up today without the alarm. Said to myself today I will not set the alarm. I will wake up whenever I feel like it. I woke up aroud 8CT, and by the time I did my morning routine 10 minutes before the open I found out that the fed had cut rates 3/4 point, Emergency cut. So I said to myself, wow. I looked at the forex and my first thought was, when did the cut happen. Looking at the spike on the chart I assumed it was around 7:25CT. Then I noticed the classic 1-2-3 pattern often when there is a fed cut. 1 is the initial spike. 2 is a retracement. And 3 is the second rally. I noticed we were in the 2 range, and price was consolidating. Then I decided to calculate how much to risk and where to place my stop. Since I was looking at the daily chart I had a swing trade in mind. So decided that with the stop at 1.43 I could risk a little over 1K if I buy 50,000 euros. So then I entered into my IB TWS account and first I noticed that there were 2 choices, Ideal and Ideal pro. So I did some reserach online and found that Ideal pro was the one to go with. Then I placed the order for 50,000 Euros at 8:40CT, hit transmit, and BAM, the DING sounded and almost instantly my TWS spreadsheet showed a -505 loss in realized P/L, with the trade closed!!!!! The portfolio section also showed no signs of a trade. But the trades section only showed the buy! And the account section was showing the trade active with the P/L changing. OMG. So I called IB, was placed on hold. Normally I would panick and get upset, but from prior experience I knew that the most important thing was to remain calm. I theorized that perhaps I was overleveraged and IB closed out the trade. But that didn't make much sense because I had 10K in my account. But suffice it to say that I do not like to read instruction manuals and so do not know what the leverage is. This got me in trouble once with a GOOG swing trade. So I was on hold for several minutes and right when the IB representative answered the phone, I mean right at that exact moment, the TWS spreadsheet erased the -505 loss closed out trade and showed an active EURUSD trade.

So now the trade is active. My stop is at 1.43. But I'm considering what to do with it. Tighten the stop to break even perhaps. Take some profit at 1.48. Fed might continue to cut rates in the next meeting.

Anyways, the lesson I learned is, don't panick. Don't loose your temper. It will make the situation worse. This time I didn't panick or lose my temper.