Cory2679

Very cool! Good luck!!

On a program called "Mind Over Money" that came on public television, I saw something similar that compared monetary gain to sex and food. NOVA | Mind Over Money | PBS I thought the program was worth watching. Cory

Update I moved my account to MB Trading...I just pulled up Oanda next to MBT to watch the spreads during the unemployment claims news.... Oanda's EUR/USD spread spiked to 10 pips and remained there 5-10 seconds. Oanda's spread was actually wider than usual leading up to and after the spike (about 3 pips). MB Trading's EUR/USD spread spiked to 2.5 pips and remained there a fraction of a second. MBT's spread quickly reverted back to 0.9 pips (typical spread) and touched as low as 0.2 pips. Needless to say, I'm much happier with MBT than with Oanda! Cory

IB seems to have a respectable following...even around TL...you guys (Kiwi, MK), thales (althought I don't think he trades spot fx), I think Blowfish, and maybe some others. Furthermore, I was just reading a thread in the "other" forum about some guys trading some huge size in spot fx...while a lot of the conversation was about big guys having relationships with multiple banks/prime brokerages/liquidity providers, etc., IB still was talked about highly. It seems that among the ECN forex available to an individual retail trader, IB really shines. So, it'll probably be pretty much like Kiwi's first post for me...MBT as a stepping stone to IB. I'm still not up to trading at full size ("full size" for me is a $10k account...IB's initial deposit requirement). MBT will allow me the opportunity to continue to scale up to "full size" with an ECN broker, rather than a market maker like Oanda.

Thanks for the input, guys. I appreciate it. All things considered though, I think I'm still going to move foward with MB Trading for now. Like I said, they seem to meet all of my criteria...and I do want 100:1 leverage. While most of the time, 50:1 would be sufficient (I believe the highest leverage IB offers is actually 40:1, Kiwi), since I'm currently focused on only the EUR/USD, there are times when I'm watching price on something like a 1 minute chart (side by side with something like a 15 minute chart) and will enter a trade with 5 or maybe even 4 ticks of risk (at a significant area)! With those trades, sometimes I like to put on some size...I currently generally risk the same amount per trade (2%), so that small risk zone requires more size...these types of trades offer spectacular R:R opportunity for me. I would never need more than 100:1...I could sometimes use more than 40:1. Regarding their ECN forex broker status, I asked them (take it for what it's worth)... Cory: Hello. I'm looking for an absolute, all-inclusive "yes" or "no" answer to the following: Is MB Trading a true full-time ECN forex broker (no dealing desk + straight through processing + electronic communications network, 100% of the time)? MBT Paul: Yes All in all, I think MBT is good for my current situation and what I currently want/need. EDIT: I will keep IB in the back of my mind for the future...I've heard nothing but good things about them here...MBT has been mixed.

I've been researching ECN forex brokers, and I've almost decided on MB Trading. I have the following list of criteria (which MB Trading seems to meet): No dealing desk Straight through processing Full-time ECN CFTC registered FCM NFA member 100:1 leverage Competitive execution, spreads, commissions, etc. My questions for this thread...is there any particular reason why anyone would recommend not going with MB Trading? Is there any ECN forex broker that anyone would recommend over MB Trading for any particular reason? Thanks, Cory

I highly recommend "Trading in the Zone," by Mark Douglas... http://www.amazon.com/Trading-Zone-Confidence-Discipline-Attitude/dp/0735201447/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

Good point...EUR is all I need to know seeing as I'm solely trading the EUR/USD...don't know where my mind was...thanks. :embarassed:

And for the USD, it's $25k - $6 million...(I finally ran across this while researching Ideal Pro)...

Thanks, MK! I've spent the last several minutes on their website trying to find that information...I wasn't sure that I knew what I was talking about...I finally sent customer service an e-mail. Personal preference, I suppose.

Thanks for the advice. It will probably be a month (or 2 or 3) before I make the move, if I do. I'm going to stick with Oanda a little while longer... In less than a week and a half I'm going to begin trading a $1k account with Oanda, which I want to trade consistently with no changes/additional deposits/etc. for 5+ weeks so I can get an idea of my 5-week average R-multiple (recently I've been changing every couple weeks...sim trading privately, sim trading "publicly," live trading with a $100 account, etc.). I realize IB requires minimum 25k positions, but I believe you can size in increments of 10k...just has to be >= 25k total...I think. I also realize IB requires a $10k initial deposit, which has me considering just going back to futures rather than moving to an ECN spot forex broker...I definitely want to trade currency futures in the long run, but I sort of wanted an account larger than $10k so that I can size my positions as close as possible to a 2% risk per trade...trading the 6E with a $10K account, my risk would vary a lot because the contracts are so big (ie 1.2%, then 1.5%, then 1.9%, then 1.3%, etc.). I'd really rather have something like $100k to trade the 6E...I know I don't need that much, but I'd feel the most comfortable that way (and I don't have $100k...the most I think I can pull together right now is $10k...so I'd simply have to grow that if I wanted $100k). That's why I thought something like IB ECN spot forex would be nice...I can trade the smaller lots ("mini" lots) without trading with a bucket shop...while I gradually build my account to a point where I feel ready to trade futures. I would certainly sim trade the platform until I was 110% confident that I knew what I was doing.

Unfortunately, I believe this is the best I can do... That's the best that Oanda offers...I can't dial down to 10 second intervals. However, I could attempt to do it manually by watching the spread....or taking screen shots every 10 seconds, etc. Were you talking about doing it manually or does IB offer spread history? -Cory

Yeah, and I just want to add...I can handle a pip or two or maybe even three spike...my stops aren't that close so I could probably stay in my trade...but Oanda regularly spikes the EUR/USD spread to 10 pips, multiple times per day...

NOTE: Even bucket shops vary. I was trading a live micro account with FXCM a little while ago before they increased their spreads, and their news spread spike was nothing compared to Oanda...with FXCM I could hold through these every-day news events (with the exception of FOMC, NFP, etc.).

Thanks for the help. I think what I'm going to do is open MB Trading and Interactive Brokers forex demos along side Oanda and watch the spreads during "market moving, etc." news. With the ECN's I guess it's a more legitimate spike, whereas Oanda is broker-induced. I've never traded with an ECN spot forex broker, but I have traded currency futures and I know with futures these news events that I'm talking about have very little effect on the spread, while Oanda has widened it to 10 pips! Tomorrow's an FOMC day so I really won't worry about it tomorrow, but over the next few days I'll watch the EUR/USD spread with MBT, IB, & Oanda during news (since I can't trade then, anyway!). I'll report back next week sometime what I find for anyone who's interested. -Cory

+$1.20 (Live) Big money! :o I'm not going to be posting regularly...just today, since it was my first day live. I sim trade (and sim traded "off the record" when I was sim trading) Monday's, so today was my first day live. I'd been sim trading (or sim trading "off the record") Monday's because I would get thrown off from the 2 day break over the weekend, but I think I'm getting to the point now that I don't need to do that anymore, so beginning next week I'm going to trade Monday's live from now on. I did all right. Trade #4 could have been a big winner if it weren't for having to pull out because of upcoming news, due to Oanda spiking their spreads. I was so frustrated as I watched price take off because I feel like I basically have to trade in spite of Oanda, that I quit trading and began researching and started a thread about spot forex brokers and news/spread spikes, found here. I should have waited until I was done trading, but in the moment that is what was on my mind. I didn't take any more trades after that. HOWEVER, even though you could describe today as mediocre (+0.6R), I'm still very happy because much to my surprise, it was EASY to trade...much easier than I anticipated...easier than when posting daily sim results! So easy in fact, that I'll likely be moving to a $1,000 live account as soon as next week (probably the next week, though). After talking with Thales, I am now focused on my results in terms of a trailing 5 week average R-multiple, rather than focusing on daily or even weekly results. This mindset really frees me up to trade in a continuous flow, rather focusing on this day or this week. A lot's changed for me over the past month or so. You may remember me posting this... Well, it didn't happen. When I went to do it, I was immobilized by fear and went sim. NOW, trading my $100 live account is truly as easy as trading sim! (But to be clear, I'm not saying it would be so easy with a $10k account or even a $1k account...) On another note, I'm seriously considering moving to Interactive Brokers ECN spot forex in the near future, which has their leverage for the EUR/USD set at 40:1, so I'm going to set my Oanda account to 40:1 right after this post to prepare (it's currently set at 50:1). I'm pretty excited...maybe I'm finally getting somewhere with this! -Cory

I use Econoday, DailyFX, and Forex Factory. For a while I was only using Econoday and DailyFX, but there was a spread spike with Oanda that wasn't labeled "market moving" or "high importance" with either of them, and it was with Forex Factory, so now I watch all three.

Also, I used MB Trading as an example but I know there are some others out there, such as Interactive Brokers...

Actually, I just created a thread concerning this... http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f24/spot-forex-news-7827.html

I currently trade with Oanda. It is well known that Oanda spikes their spreads around news events. I currently trade the EUR/USD from 8:20AM - 3PM Eastern Time. During those hours the spread usually spikes multiple times, resulting in anywhere from 5-10 tick spreads for a few moments. I'm not caught off guard...I monitor 3 separate economic calendars and make sure I'm out of the market for any news labeled "high impact," "market moving," "high importance," etc. However, I do miss out on opportunity due to the fact that several times during the day I can't participate. So, my question is: Is it the same way with ECN spot forex brokers, such as MB Trading? Basically, can you hold through news without worrying about the spread spiking (during normal market hours)? I understand events like FOMC announcements can throw off just about anything, including futures, but I'm talking about the every day "high impact" news events... Thanks for the help, Cory

I was in this (off a smaller swing), but I closed it in anticicpation of the news (consumer confidence & Bernanke), which indeed spiked the EUR/USD spread to 10 ticks with Oanda... Had I not closed it, and was still in, I would have been up 4R+ in unrealized p/l by now... To those that trade spot forex: Do ECN forex brokers, such as MB Trading, do the same sort of thing around news events (spike the spread)...or can you hold a position through a news event like consumer confidence. (I understand that even with futures, events like the FOMC announcement can be troublesome, but with Oanda, there's something every day that spikes the spread, usually more than once...)

FWIW, I'm live now. (starting this week) -Cory

I've implemented the 2B into my trading, and have had success with it, but I don't trade it "right"...I trade it more like a 123 (I buy/sell on the break of the high/low). NOTE: I'll often take very small 2B's (1 minute chart) at significant levels. NOTE2: Actually, the same thing applies to 123's. NOTE3: I currently don't watch a DOM. -Cory

I can't wait to see this unfold! :cinema::cinema::cinema:

While it's fine to be realistic, don't sell yourself short. You were consistently profitable on sim week after week...what has really changed? I can't help but be reminded of Thales's post about sim trading found here. That post is partly what has inspired me to go live next week. And don't forget the story of Thales's daughter...1 month "training" and BAM!!! Although, to be fair, she did have the benefit of Thales's "20ish" years of experience on her side.