Scalping FX with Cyrox Rainbow

[el caballo]

Hi Tayser,

Great journal.

Can I ask what broker you are using, whether you are trading the actual underlying market, and whether you are able to place limit orders within the bid/ask spread? For example, IG Markets type brokers only allow the buying and selling at market prices, with a constant spread (typically greater than 2 points). This is effectively their commission. For scalping purposes, this is not a good thing - once the trade is placed, the trader is automatically at loss.

Thanks.

 

[el caballo]

Tayser,

Are you still with www.efxgroup.com.

Please let me know if your experience with his broker has a been a smooth one? Are you based in Australia? Are customer service issues difficult to solve with this overseas-based broker? Do you feel your money is safe with them? Is your account constantly exposed to exchange rate flucuations, or do they allow Australian currency?

I have been profitably scalping forex with IG Markets, but their fixed spread is an awful disadvantage, and I am looking to trade with a broker with a one point spread where I can place true limit orders (ie. with the actual underlying market spread).

Your help is appreciated.

 

[lbradman]

hi tayser great job with the trades so far especially in a such a small timeframe. I want to ask how do you get zero spread before you enter because I would imagine that happens in a blink of an eye so you have to be lightning fast. I'm not sure how your able to get your 5 pips from the OANDA demo since from the screenshots it looks like you would only end up with 3 pips after the spread. If you get a setup using EFX demo and the spread is say 2 pips do you still go ahead and take the trade or insist on zero spread before you do?

 

[tayser]

el caballo:

I've been demo'ing with EFX for about 6 months now, so I'm pretty familiar with their platform. I also have a live Oanda account.

I'm in Melbourne yeah, and they only offer USD account denomination at the moment. There was talk of them offering other currencies and apparently it wasn't too far off but has been put on the back burner yes. EFX are pretty much the best ECN broker for the small retail trader - they only require $400USD as an initial account deposit. You're best to look at the EFX group threads on here and on Forexfactory where your questions have been asked and answered a few times.

I plan to open a live account with them and start trading with them in the new financial year so I won't be able to answer many of the customer-related questions until then (again, check the EFX group threads). I have dealt with the customer support whilst on demos a few times - their demo platform is also their developer's test platform so the performance is somewhat flakey and I've had to ask to get orders that have got stuck cleared etc. Very prompt and they appear to treat demo 'customers' in the same way as live ones.

I've been back on Oanda recently, but have only been scalping EUR/USD (which has a fixed 0.9 spread) or EUR/JPY (2-2.3). I originally started scalping AUD/JPY with them back about 4-5 months ago (4 pip spread) but I was still at the stage where I was jumping in all over the place trying to maximise the pips - and ended up eroding 20% of my account (eh, I only chucked $100 in to start, but irrespective of the dollar amount, losing 20% of your account is still a big deal). So I'm sticking to using 25%-50% (depending on the probability) of my account balance in lot size and am slowly coming back up to break even.

Now though, 4-5 months on, I'm only trading big movements - it comes from learning specific currency pairs and well... more overall trading experience.

I wouldn't recommend scalping with Oanda as they have the same order types as you mention IG do (buggar all), I wouldn't focus on limit orders exclusively however. Market is fine when you jump on a big move - the spread becomes a care factor less than 1!

lbradman:

depends on the pair - the big 3 XXX/USD pairs (GBP, EUR and AUD) are frequently between 0-1 pip spread - especially EUR and it's very easy - even on market - to get in with buggar all spread. EUR/JPY is the same. AUD/JPY can on occasion do it and is invariably a sign of a surge in either direction - this is actually one of my signals to get in on a trade.

And no, I don't insist on 0 spread for my entries (you'd be waiting a long time lol!), I'm looking for bigger movements generally, so yeah, I'll enter on 2-3 pips on AUD/JPY if the momentum's building behind it. The only time I'd go the aggressive route and try and take 1 or 2 pips here or there is actually on EUR/USD exclusively on Oanda. The pair can bounce in a 5 pip range in slow times and it's quite easy to get 2-3 pips when its fixed spread is 0.9.

cheers

 

[prawn_86]

Is anyone having problems loading past data into ninja trader using Gain?

I have tried a couple times lately, but none of the past data will load

 

[tayser]

It took me ten minutes on friday to pre-load for three pairs. I think they're only allowing one day's worth of data to be downloaded now...

 

[disarray]

i didn't have any problems. i saved my workbench on 5 minutes so connect to GAIN and it will backfill the 5 minute chart. then switch down to 1 min or 1 sec then connect to MBTrading. i've gone live with EFX, $5 per trade commission as well as the spread. was no hassles wiring the cash and it was available to trade with next day.

 

[prawn_86]

i didn't have any problems. i saved my workbench on 5 minutes so connect to GAIN and it will backfill the 5 minute chart. then switch down to 1 min or 1 sec then connect to MBTrading. i've gone live with EFX, $5 per trade commission as well as the spread. was no hassles wiring the cash and it was available to trade with next day.

See when i connect to gain it is not back filling for some reason. I have all my templates saved and stuff, but it just wont get the historical data.

I have just signed up for the free demo GFT are offering in the banner adds here on ASF. I will see what their platform is like and use their charts and execute my trades with efx still as MBT spreads are fixed at 3 pips

 

[el caballo]

Tayser,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I am increasingly nervous about brokers going bankrupt, and having little to no recourse (see Trader Dealer's recent woes). I am also not keen about wiring substantial amounts of money overseas. Does EFX pay interest on the account, and if yes what is the current rate? I know Oanda pays interest. The US's interest rates are substantially lower than ours, hence I presume that would be a (~2%) disadvantage.

Has any forex trader in this forum used or using IB? I would be grateful if you could share your experience.

 

[tayser]

They only pay interest on account balances over a mil from memory (read it on the ForexFactory thread).

And yeah, that is the disadvantage of having US denominated accounts - poor bank interest. As for large amounts of money being wired - you shouldn't really have to send all that much to the US (only your initial deposit - and it doesnt need to be all that much), you'll just be getting lots of money back from the US if you successfully trade FX with EFX

 

[el caballo]

Tayser,

Thanks for the confirmation - the interest issue is a problem then. Do you know at present what their interest payment is? ~ 4.25%? Do they take off a set amount of this, a la Aussie CFD providers? IG currently pay credit interest at the RBA rate less 2% (ie. 7.25 - 2 = 5.25%) (Side question: Does this 2% reduction simply go to IG's bottom line?).

Your comment regarding the small amount needed to be wired overseas - I think successful trading is very difficult with anything less than at least a mid five figure account. Sending that type of money to an overseas broker leaves me a little cold ...

Again, to the forex traders out there .. how is the experience with IB?

 

[tayser]

I have no idea what rate's they pay, I'd be assuming it would be close to whatever the Fed charges retail US banks (but you have to have a LARGE balance to actually get the interest - they're not going to pay interest on a $50,000 account).

Remember that EFX only offer 1:100 leverage so you don't necessarily require large amounts of capital to start up (you just need to be wise with your starting lot sizes - IMO).

If you have a 5 figure starting capital - go straight to a Currenex broker (which would invariably allow you to denominate in AUD from the word go - you'll have to do your own research on Currenex however, I know very little about any of the brokers which offer the platform).

 

[disarray]

See when i connect to gain it is not back filling for some reason. I have all my templates saved and stuff, but it just wont get the historical data.

have you been changing the time properties of your charts? just leave it at default 12:00AM for open and close. i had some fill problems when i was changing my chart session times.

 

[prawn_86]

Got the backfill problem sorted

4 pips net on a good setup. Flame was expanding and broke down through .2


20:36:41 AUD/JPY Executed Bought 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.13
20:34:42 AUD/JPY Executed Sold Short 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.18

 

[tayser]

NinjaTrader update fixed problem?

 

[prawn_86]

NinjaTrader update fixed problem?

I didnt update it, i just loaded it up this morning and it had data tight back to this mornings open. It didnt go back to last week though, which doesnt really matter.

 

[prawn_86]

03:26:42 AUD/JPY Executed Bought 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.14
03:28:44 AUD/JPY Executed Sold 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.15

03:37:27 AUD/JPY Executed Bought 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.23
03:39:13 AUD/JPY Executed Sold 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.17

03:39:21 AUD/JPY Executed Sold Short 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.18
03:40:33 AUD/JPY Executed Bought 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.14

03:41:35 AUD/JPY Executed Sold Short 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.05
03:42:59 AUD/JPY Executed Bought 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.03

-3 pips nett

Dont trade against the flame!!

 

[prawn_86]

+4 pips gives me my 5 pip target for the day.

I have closed my screens down so i dont overtrade

03:56:33 AUD/JPY Executed Bought 30000 AUD/JPY at 90.95
03:55:06 AUD/JPY Executed Sold Short 30000 AUD/JPY at 91.00

 

[tayser]

^ good work.

continuation

contrarian

Time Order ID Message Event TIF Orig Trader ID
21:52:09 0wy002s:0jbe-00 Buy 300000 EUR/JPY @ Market on MBTX [expiring: 30/06/2008] (300000 traded at 157.38) Filled GTC
21:56:38 0wy002s:0jgt-00 Sell 300000 EUR/JPY @ Market on MBTX [expiring: 30/06/2008] (300000 traded at 157.49) Filled GTC
22:07:38 0wy002s:0k3z-00 Sell Short 200000 GBP/JPY @ Market on MBTX [expiring: 30/06/2008] (200000 traded at 198.28) Filled GTC
22:09:44 0wy002s:0k7o-00 Buy 200000 GBP/JPY @ Market on MBTX [expiring: 30/06/2008] (200000 traded at 198.19) Filled GTC

all up roughly-ish 10 on AUD/JPY

 

[prawn_86]

Why did you enter on that first trade T?

Its a widening downward flame so what convinced you to go long? Did you use other charts?