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Anyone here into FOREX?

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That's funny that you were having those problems with CMC because 5 minutes before the trade, my window kept disappearing and I had to go log back in 2-3 times.(with oanda on my game account)

So, when it came time to trade, I clicked and it took at least ten seconds before it executed and usually when it does that, they will still fill you in at the original quote but this time, when it finally went through, it filled in at the very bottom of the spike and when I realized it I closed, making a loss of 7 pips.

I assume that they dont do that with a real account. Im going to start trading $2(50:1, so a pip is 1 cent) on monday in my real account just to see if it does that.

Im pissed because, yesterday, ttn gave me the free audio trial for a week and this was my first chance to use it. Looking back, I cant think of anything I did wrong(like taking time to think, etc.) He announced the #s and I clicked.

I logged in to my real account after the trade to compare and it seems they only widened the spread on the real accounts this time.

So, real accounts = insane spread, game accounts = retarded execution.(i know it isnt like this every time, im just pissed:mad: )

Whatever. Hopefully it wont happen again.
 
Nathan, the Oanda game account is nothing compared to the live trading account. The live account is obviously stable (except during nfp.. some nfps) , but yes.. the spreads are there. They did reduce them to 20 though.. initially they used to be 25.

I really like Oanda's execution.. with CMC you might make 50% of all trades.. as you will get a re-quote. Both have their pros and cons.. but I like the fact that Oanda keeps paying you interest on a daily basis.
 
Traded the retail sales #s this morning, made 2 pips on CMC - not much movement, really. $20 is better than nothing though. ;)

So nhallmark, ttn gave you a free audio trial as well? So if I sign up for a free trial for their news service, I can then essentially sign up again and get another week free using their audio service? Or did you have to contact them directly to get that free audio trial?
 
~Shard~ said:
So nhallmark, ttn gave you a free audio trial as well? So if I sign up for a free trial for their news service, I can then essentially sign up again and get another week free using their audio service? Or did you have to contact them directly to get that free audio trial?
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I signed up for the free trial back at the end of november and they let it run at least three weeks before ending it. When you sign up, the trial is for everything(text, audio, etc. for forex, stocks, etc.). Then I started paying the $40 a month for just the forex text news.

I never really used the audio in my trial because I was still figuring all this out. Then, Music_Producer said he used the audio, so I emailed ttn and asked if they would let me try the audio for a few days because I didnt get to use it the first time and they are now giving me free audio until the 19th.:)

So, I guess you could do the same thing. They are really nice about everything.
 
nhallmark said:
I signed up for the free trial back at the end of november and they let it run at least three weeks before ending it. When you sign up, the trial is for everything(text, audio, etc. for forex, stocks, etc.). Then I started paying the $40 a month for just the forex text news.

I never really used the audio in my trial because I was still figuring all this out. Then, Music_Producer said he used the audio, so I emailed ttn and asked if they would let me try the audio for a few days because I didnt get to use it the first time and they are now giving me free audio until the 19th.:)

So, I guess you could do the same thing. They are really nice about everything.
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Wow, that's really great customer service, good to know, thanks. :cool: Hopefully I'll get lucky and end up with longer than a week on my trial as well, and then perhaps I'll try and squeeze a little more out of them like you did as well for the audio peice by pleading ignorance. :eek: ;)
 
You guys have written so much about Forex. I'm quite impressed by the level of commitment you have for teaching others about forex. I've read all 34 pages so far.

Just replying to tell you all that you're doing a great job. Keep it up.
 
Martinus said:
You guys have written so much about Forex. I'm quite impressed by the level of commitment you have for teaching others about forex. I've read all 34 pages so far.

Just replying to tell you all that you're doing a great job. Keep it up.
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You're welcome.. and by the way, I'm doubly impressed that you have read all the pages :eek: :D

Shard, you still in your carry trade? I exited today.. at 94.50. Today's report is the UK PPI, but it might not be that exciting because trading volume will be low (US holiday)
 
Would using FOREX be a good way to start

saving money for a move to the country that uses said currency? I am considering going to Japan to attend grad school and I would like to try to take advantage of the current strength of the dollar visa vis the yen. If I buy a whole bunch of yen using forex, can I get that money back in yen? Or would I have to convert it back to USD then withdraw yen at an ATM for example?

Also, is it possible to earn interest on your forex holdings? I mean, could I use it to start a euro denominated bank account?
 
From what I understand, there is a base currency in your forex account. You input money into your account from this currency (USD for example), and can only retrieve money via that currency. If I'm wrong, please correct me. This may have changed.

Not sure why you want a Euro based bank account, but you can easily open one at most major North American banks. Just walk into the branch you deal with and tell them you want to open a Euro account. They will likely ask for a higher monthly fee and a minimum deposit.

It is possible to gain interest on currency currently in a trade (for the full value of the trade, not just the amount you have invested. It has been suggested that a buy order on the Aussie dollar from Yen would yeild a 6% interest rate differential. If you do this, use Oanda as it offers daily interest. Also make sure to keep a large amount of currency unused to account for dips.

If you're going for grad school, it might be best to open a Japanese Bank Account while you're there, and make one big conversion at the start. From there, you can put your money into forex if you would like to assume some risk. Retrieving money from a foreign ATM often costs lots of money. $5-$10 per transaction is standard. Having a Japanese account will fix this problem.

I don't know Japanese Banking law at all, but you might have problems opening an account as a foreigner. Make sure to consult your grad school about opening an account.
 
Music_Producer said:
Shard, you still in your carry trade? I exited today.. at 94.50.
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Nope, my stop hit last night while I was asleep @ 94.60. She seems to have pulled back a bit today, so I think I'll just watch it for now. There's the BoJ announcement Thursday too, so not sure if I want to be in the carry trade when that news comes out - you never know what might happen. That being said, I'll definitely be ready to trade it the second the news hits. ;)
 
19 pips on the GBP/USD trade (UK CPI report) .. although the pound hit 1.9705 and then there was a massive selling session (probably profit-taking) which drove it down to almost 1.9600 during the US session.

ZEW sentiment report only got me 5 pips.. didn't move much anyway.. was given a 're-quote' for the US Empire State Business Conditions Index. It seems like CMC lets me trade the UK reports.. but when it's US reports.. I get re-quoted all the time. Apparently a lot more people trade the us reports than the uk ones.. so maybe there is just too much volatility at that time.

Canadian interest rates were left untouched. We have a busy week.. tomorrow is US PPI and TIC reports. I just realized as I'm typing this.. I sound rather dull (as compared to - i made 19 pips today! woo hoo!) I'm so sleepy, and it's abnormally cold here in CA (20 degrees this morning when i was trading) I just want to sleep all day :eek:
 
Music_Producer said:
19 pips on the GBP/USD trade (UK CPI report) .. although the pound hit 1.9705 and then there was a massive selling session (probably profit-taking) which drove it down to almost 1.9600 during the US session.
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I got up at 3am yesterday and today(for PPI and CPI) and Ive counted 6 trades so far that Ive sat out on. I was ready to trade CPI this morning but when it came out 3.0 V 2.9E I decided to watch because it was so close and ttn was reporting a lot about which way it would go.

Now, I see you made money so I wish I would have went for it, but Im playing it safe.


Music_Producer said:
I just realized as I'm typing this.. I sound rather dull (as compared to - i made 19 pips today! woo hoo!) I'm so sleepy, and it's abnormally cold here in CA (20 degrees this morning when i was trading) I just want to sleep all day :eek:
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Yeah, its about 27 here...it sucks and I would wager that Shard isnt that thrilled about it, being in Canada and all :p

Anyway, Im getting really impatient because Ive sat out on six trades and I changed my sleep schedule to catch more trades, so Im dying to just click "buy" but I might as well quit it all together if I did that.

So, Im deciding whether to get up again at 3am, tomorrow morning for GBP "Claimant count change", Average Earnings, and unemployment rate.

I haven't traded that before(the UK #S), so is it worth it to get up?
 
Music_Producer said:
19 pips on the GBP/USD trade (UK CPI report) .. although the pound hit 1.9705 and then there was a massive selling session (probably profit-taking) which drove it down to almost 1.9600 during the US session.
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Nice one Music_Producer! I made 7 pips on the Empire Survey myself this morning... Man, I need to get tradethenews going, I'm trading handicapped without some type of news service - I think I'll assign up in the next week or so.... :cool:

Music_Producer said:
it's abnormally cold here in CA (20 degrees this morning when i was trading) I just want to sleep all day :eek:
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nhallmark is right, you have nothing to complain about - it warmed up today to about -20 Celsius. :eek: :p Actually, in all honesty, it's not that bad. A couple weeks ago it was above zero here which was really nice for this time of year. I don't mind the cold at all, but I suppose if you're not used it it.... :eek: ;)

I'll be trading the PPI numbers tomorrow - we'll see what happens... :cool:
 
~Shard~ said:
nhallmark is right, you have nothing to complain about - it warmed up today to about -20 Celsius. :eek: :p Actually, in all honesty, it's not that bad. A couple weeks ago it was above zero here which was really nice for this time of year. I don't mind the cold at all, but I suppose if you're not used it it.... :eek: ;)

I'll be trading the PPI numbers tomorrow - we'll see what happens... :cool:
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Holy crap!!! With those sort of temperatures.. no matter what news platform you have, your brain will still lag :p :D

nhallmark.. the UK reports are not worth waking up for today, only the US ones. Good luck everybody!
 
Got a re-quote :mad: Pisses me off when I stay up all night and then they don't let my trade go through.. could have made an easy 20 pips.
 
I lost 6 pips because oanda widened the spread to 20 again.:mad: I should have waited because GBP/USD dropped another 10-15 pips after they lowered the spread.
 
Nathan, what's odd is that they didn't raise the spread of the EUR/USD.. only that of the GBP/USD. The report wasn't that great to make a huge move.. the deviation was there.. but not that much. With Oanda, you have to take into account the atrocious 20 pip spread (sometimes 25) so you better pray for a big move to make some profit.

I suppose a no-trade because of a re-quote is better than a trade with a 20 pip loss rightaway :eek:

Edit : TIC report next
 
Yeah...same thing just happened with TIC. Lost 10 pips. And Im trading real money too.(1 pip=1 cent) Its funny how they rarely raise the spreads on the game accounts to get you in and then once you start for real, its like "WTF? I did everything right and I lost money":mad:

Im about ready to change brokers now.;)
 
nhallmark said:
Yeah...same thing just happened with TIC. Lost 10 pips. And Im trading real money too.(1 pip=1 cent) Its funny how they rarely raise the spreads on the game accounts to get you in and then once you start for real, its like "WTF? I did everything right and I lost money":mad:

Im about ready to change brokers now.;)
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Lol.. true, almost true of every business actually. I was quite mad at first when I discovered this (they started jacking up their spreads since mid-2006.. before that, it was always 2-3 pip spread.. even during news)
 
OK, so I opened an account with CMC and Im waiting on oanda to withdraw my money. In the mean time, I also opened a demo account with CMC so I can get used to their platform.

The sane thing would be to try out CMC before I go opening a real account with them, but I've counted 8 trades since monday that I would have traded if oanda 's spreads would allow you to actually make money(what a concept!) :rolleyes:

So, I'll use the CMC demo account for the rest of this week and next and then I will start back with real money(although CMC's minimum is $10K so I guess I'll start at $1 a pip).

I would rather get requotes and be able to trade at least 1% of the time than never.
 
One of you guys could have made $500 off of me...if Im profitable. I just got off the phone with CMC. They were really nice..much better than oanda. Anyway, the guy said if I had any friends that I could refer them to CMC and if they open an account and start trading more than 1 lot, they would give me $500.

So, I dont know if they give you an affiliate link or if you are supposed to tell them the name of the person that refered you. Either way, did you guys not know about that?
 
Phone back and tell them that myself and Music_Producer jointly referred you and that we each want $250 in our accounts. :p ;)

And for that matter while we're at it, I think you need to phone them back too Muisc_Producer and get me another $500. :eek: ;) :D

Yeah, the guy I dealt with encouraged me to get other people signed up and so forth, but never mentioned any incentives - I just assumed it was standard sales tactics. But yes, they have always had excellent customer service every time I've dealt with them. I hope your experience with them is a good one. :cool:
 
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