Live Press Conference: Introducing Active Trader
| Live Press Conference: Introducing Active Trader | (04/16/2009) |
3:01 | FXstreet.com: “Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.” |
3:02 | FXstreet.com: Good Morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone. Welcome to todays FXstreet.com and FXCM Press Conference to present the brand new FXCM Active Trader Platform. |
3:04 | FXstreet.com: Brandon Mulvihill is the global sales manager for FXCM's Active Trader Group. This group focuses strictly on the needs of the active trader community, namely high frequency self traders, money managers, small hedge funds, and financial intermediaries. The Active Trader platform is the primary vehicle used by this group. Before taking control of the Active Trader Group, Mr. Mulvihill managed FXCM's San Francisco retail sales desk. He has also managed strategic white label relationship, and FXCM's course sales. |
3:04 | FXstreet.com: Hello, Brandon it's a pleasure to have you here today! |
3:04 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Hello, I'm excited to be here. And thank you for having us. |
3:04 | FXstreet.com: FXCM has reinvented its No Dealing Desk execution model in launching FXCM’s Active Trader platform. As a one-of-a-kind forex trading platform, Active Trader displays an ECN type view of total liquidity available through the platform, providing two major advantages: |
3:05 | FXstreet.com:
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3:05 | FXstreet.com: Key Features:
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3:05 | FXstreet.com: Let's watch a video to better understand this! |
| 3:05 | [Video file] | ActiveTrader Play |
3:07 | FXstreet.com: While you see the video, just let you know that you can ask as many questions as you want to Brandon. He will be delighted to answer them. |
3:08 | FXstreet.com: “Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.” |
3:08 | [Comment From fxgal] Is there a minimum for an account balance and is this available for micro and min? |
3:09 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The minimum account balance is $25,000 or clients who trade over 10 million notional volume per month may also come onto the active trader platform. |
3:09 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: I see a couple of questions trickling in, before I get to them, I want to give a little background about the platform. |
3:10 | FXstreet.com: Ok, Brandon I see our users are eager to know more about Active Trader, what could you tell us about it? |
3:10 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The FXCM Active Trader Platform was created with the professional forex trader in mind, those who not only wanted advanced functionality but also wanted more information that would give them a trading edge: tight spreads, execution certainty on large orders, market depth, and the ability to trade from anywhere as it is a web based platform. |
3:10 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The spreads on active trader platform are the some of the tightest in the industry. On FXCM Active Trader you will see the typical spreads on a pair like EUR/USD at 0.7 pips, and at times as tight as 0.3 pips. Tight spreads in addition to having a tiered commission structure, Active Trader is designed to help reduce trading costs. |
3:11 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Our execution model on Active Trader is a no dealing desk (agency) model, which means that trades are done back-to- back with the liquidity providers that compete to make prices. Specifically, this means that you can trade without dealer intervention, order restrictions, or restrictions on specific trading strategies. Specifically, this means you can trade within the spread, scalp, and perform one-click trades with pre-set stops and limits at any level ideal for scalping or short term trading strategies. |
3:11 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: With that said let us jump into the first batch of questions I see coming. |
3:11 | [Comment From tony] hi, is the platform also available to australian residents and what is the min account ballance ? |
3:12 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Actually this question is very relevant. We are going to begin onboarding Australian clients very soon. The minimum is the equivalent of $25000 USD |
3:12 | [Comment From Guest] what is the minimum unit??? 10K? |
3:12 | FXstreet.com: I would like to remind to all our viewers that you can send any question to Brandon. He will try to answer as many as possible |
3:13 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The minimum unit is 10K. There is no maximum unit as traders can type into the amount field any notional increment in sizes of 10K. |
3:13 | [Comment From Japanese trader] Does "spread widening" happens during big events and weekend???? |
3:14 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Excellent question. The spreads on the platform are variable as they reflect the changing rates that our liquidity providers provide us. With that said we are working diligently to onboard more banks and more liquidity providers to the platform. |
3:15 | [Comment From fxtrdr09] Hi Brandon, what order types are available on the Active Trader platform? |
3:15 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: There are various order types, among them being FXCM's At Best and Market Range orders. |
3:15 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: At Best orders help traders to grab fill certainty while market range orders help traders to grab price certainty. |
3:16 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: In addition to those orders we also have fill or kill orders (FOK), |
3:16 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Immediate or Cancel (IOC), and Good Until Canceled (GTC). |
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3:16 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: If you look above you can see that At Best and Market Range orders are placed through the order type window, |
3:17 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The Time In Force is where you can define FOK, IOC, or GTC orders. |
3:17 | [Comment From Guest] You mentioned that the platform provides an edge. How does the market depth specifically provide a scalper, like myself, a trading advantage ? |
3:18 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: When scalping the market, it is vital to know the liquidity available in the market, for instance if you want to do a 3M order on EURUSD, what is key for you is that you can get into the position with minimal slippage. |
3:18 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: If only 1M is available at the top tier and the next tier is several points away you may change your order type to help work your order more efficiently. Without this information you would have put your order in and been slipped several points off the market. |
3:19 | [Comment From Guest] does this platform offer APIs? |
3:19 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Yes we do offer API. At present we offer the FIX protocol. |
3:19 | [Comment From al] can I trade directly to the different liquidity levels? |
3:20 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: You can trade to the different liquidity levels, you can actually place trades inside the spread. Very soon we will have a "sweep" function that will allow you to take all the liquidity out of the market as you will be able to see the Volume Weight Average Price (VWAP). We expect this to be available in the next month or so. |
3:20 | [Comment From Joe] Can you go into more detail on the commission structure for high volume traders? Can i significantly lower my cost of trading? |
3:21 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The commission structure begins at $5 per side. |
3:22 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: For traders doing 10M notional volume per month. |
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3:23 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: If you look at the image above you can begin to see the possible commission structure, however part of being a client of the active trader group is that we are willing to customize your commission structure depending on the volume you do monthly. |
3:23 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: For a better idea on this you can email us at activetrader@fxcm.com |
3:23 | [Comment From Guest] Is there a demo available and does it provide an accurate testing environment ? Spreads and depth are accurately reflected ? |
3:24 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: There is a demo available. We have worked hard to provide an environment that simulates the real environment as much as possible. However simulating liquidity in the market is never going to be as real as trading in a live environment. We advise clients to start with a smaller portion of their portfolio to test out the platform, the execution, and the pricing. |
3:25 | [Comment From Joshi Santika] How or what would it be if someone could not reach 10 Milion? How much sread GBP/USD it same all day or variable? Thank. I am in Asian Country |
3:26 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: For traders who do not consistently do 10M notional volume per month, and who do not have an account balance higher than 25,000 USD, we will remove them from the platform. Keep in mind that the liquidity pool provided to the Active Trader platform is a separate pool than that liquidity pool provided to other FXCM products. |
3:27 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Regarding GBP/USD, recently the spreads have been higher than what we would like as they have been trading between 2 and 3 during the US hours. We have several relationships in the pipeline that we feel will address this issue in the near future. |
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3:27 | [Comment From al] what happens with my order if it exceeds the available liquidity I see on the platform |
3:27 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: There are a couple things to note here. |
3:28 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The depth of market displayed showcases individual liquidity providers and the amount of liquidity at a given price point. However when that liquidity is taken away there may also be a refresh, meaning that it is likely that more liquidity could be added. |
3:29 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Secondly, on EUR/USD we are currently showing over 30M available on both the bid and the ask. Trading in excess of that available liquidity means that slippage will definitely occur, |
3:30 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: it is important to note that liquidity is a scarce resource if you decide to place a 5M order with Bank A vs. 40M with Bank A at a given time, the 5M order will be exponentially cheaper. |
3:31 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: There has been lots of presentations done at seminars and expos regarding the vast liquidity available in the forex market. This is absolutely true relative to other markets, however the notion of doing a 40M EUR/USD ticket on a 2 pip spread is simply not feasible. The Active Trader platform is designed to show you exactly what liquidity is available and how much you will pay to get that liquidity. |
3:32 | [Comment From yen4fx] i am new to fx. if i were to deposit $25,000 what type of education/support can you offer me? |
3:32 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: It is important to note that Active Trader clients are considered Gold Account members and receive the following perks: |
3:32 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: 1) Day Trading Course valued at $999 |
3:33 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: 2) Pro Real Time Charts valued at $70 per month, |
3:34 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: 3) Access to the Active Trader sales and client support team, which is a dedicated team for market information as well as providing support to expedite all operational inquiries & forms. |
3:35 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: 4) Finally, because the clients on this product typically fund well in excess of $10,000 per deposit or withdrawal, we offer 2 waived wire expenses per month. |
3:35 | [Comment From LadyF] Is the platform customizable? Like changing the color, etc? |
3:36 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The platform is customizable. If you go to the Options Tab at the top left you will have the ability to change the color or times of rate updates. The windows can be rearranged by simply clicking and dragging around, in addition if you like any of our sales representatives are happy to spend 20 minutes tailoring your platform to your needs. |
3:37 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The phone number for those interested is 646-432-2970, |
3:38 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Alternatively our toll free is 888-503-6739. You will want to dial the extension 702970 to be directed straight through to our Active Trader group. |
3:38 | [Comment From Guest] no requotes? and instantly execution ? |
3:39 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: To answer this questionwe have to discuss how our execution model works. |
3:39 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: When placing a buy order FXCM is not selling. The order is done back to back with the liquidity provider who competed to offer that price. |
3:41 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Because we hold no exposure on the trade we don't have to requote trades or place restrictions on orders in fear that we may not be able to offset the orders. |
3:41 | FXstreet.com: Please, keep on sending your questions we still have time to answer a few! Thanks! |
3:42 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: In fact our one click trading gives you the ability to get into and out of the market quickly. Let me show you an example. |
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3:43 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: If you look above you can see the "create limit" and "create stop" features. You can even create a 3 pip limit so that when you do a single click on a given currency pair a limit order to take profit is automatically attached to your ticket 3 pips in your favor from the price that you got into the trade. |
3:43 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: There is no need to click and confirm, and then have to go in and place an additional order to take profit or cover a loss. |
3:44 | [Comment From allan] is hedging allowed |
3:44 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: This is a timely question. |
3:45 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Hedging is allowed on the product. Recently I have been informed by my superiors that US regulators will no longer allow hedging for regulated entities in the United States. |
3:45 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: This means that those traders who would like to hedge may be required to simply open their account through FXCM LTD, otherwise known as FXCM UK. |
3:45 | [Comment From carrytrader] can i bid and offer inside the spread? |
3:46 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: You can absolutely place orders inside the spread. |
3:46 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Note, you are not posting liquidity to the platform. Our liquidity providers are the only price makers to the platform at this time. |
3:46 | [Comment From LadyFX] Is the platform usable on my lovey IPhone? |
3:47 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Mobile device trading is not available at this time. |
3:47 | [Comment From Big] Any additional services if i open an account with FXCM? Like signals, technical reports, news, and so on? |
3:48 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Of course all Active Trader clients have access to the traditional FXCM products and services which include but are certainly not limited to: multiple charting programs, trading signals, our speculative sentiment index (SSI), and real time news releases. |
3:49 | [Comment From Guest] any API available for Active Trader? |
3:49 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: We do offer the FIX API, this must be requested and can be by sending an email to activetrader@fxcm.com |
3:50 | [Comment From allan] how are you different from other ecns |
3:50 | FXstreet.com: I am sorry we are short of time, last couple of questions, Brandon |
3:51 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: The Active Trader platform and the execution model associated with it has been built on years of experience. To date the FXCM group does over 500b notional trading volume per month. To answer your question we believe that the credit lines and relationships that we have built with banks have put us in a position where we can offer traders doing larger sizes to be able to get larger chunks at extremely competitive prices. |
3:51 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: I'll take one more question, and then we'll wrap it up. |
3:52 | [Comment From MetalTrader] Are economic news and chart applications integrated into the application? |
3:52 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: At this time charts are not integrated into the platform. We are working to integrate our proprietary market scope charts into the platform within the next 3-4 months. |
3:53 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Before I go, I want to thank all of you for attending, and I would like to thank FXStreet for having us. We look forward to working with you and again feel free to contact us at the number and email provided in the script. |
3:55 | FXstreet.com: Thanks Brandon! Before finishing this event, we want you to answer some questions! Please, be kind to vote the 4 polls we are going to launch. |
| 3:55 | How long have you traded FX? 0-1 year ( 14% ) ( 57% ) ( 14% ) ( 14% ) |
3:57 | FXstreet.com: I will let you take a couple of minutes to answer this question. In the meantime, just a reminder about the great advantages of Active Trader |
| 3:57 | [Ad] | FXCM Active Trader View |
| 3:57 | [Ad] | FXCM’s Active Trader Platform View |
3:58 | FXstreet.com: Second Poll! |
| 3:58 | What is most important to you as a trader? Pricing ( 17% ) ( 17% ) ( 33% ) ( 33% ) |
3:59 | FXstreet.com: 5 minutes more to answer this question, an important one I guess |
4:02 | FXstreet.com: Thanks for voting! |
4:02 | FXstreet.com: Third one, please, pick up one option again. |
| 4:03 | What is the best trading strategy for current market conditions? Range ( 25% ) ( 25% ) ( 25% ) ( 25% ) |
4:03 | FXstreet.com: In the meantime, let's see a couple of messages more about Active Trader |
| 4:04 | [Ad] | Active Trader (img) View |
| 4:04 | [Ad] | Test Drive FXCM Active Trader View |
4:05 | FXstreet.com: two minutes more to answer the last question and we will move to the last one. Thanks for your patience and for bearing with us while we launch this questionnaire. |
4:07 | FXstreet.com: Last question! Please, pick up one of the four options below. |
| 4:07 | Which markets are best suited for potentially high yield returns? Forex ( 71% ) ( 14% ) ( 14% ) |
4:12 | FXstreet.com: And that was all for today. I would like to thank you very much for your time and participation in this Special Live Press Conference today. |
4:13 | FXstreet.com: Brandon, it has been a great pleasure to have you today with us offering such a great presentation about Active Trader. Any final word? |
4:13 | Brandon Mulvihill, FXCM: Simply to contact us with any additional questions that we weren't able to answer today. Thanks again for having us. |
4:14 | FXstreet.com: Thanks once more. I hope to see you in the next Live event! |
| 4:14 | [Ad] | Active Trader (img) View |
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