Trade with a Flexible Lot Size

October 9, 2006 by Trader Rich 

I'm now with my third different broker in the one year since I started trading.  My first was FXCM, which I still use, my second was Gain Capital or http://www.forex.com, and the third which I most recently opened an account with, Oanda.   If I had to describe each in one incomplete sentence, it would go like this:

FXCM - Comfortable platform with industry standard spreads.

GAIN - Offers a decent free API to standard account holders with at least $10,000.

Oanda - Lower than usual spreads during non-news events that allows any size lot trades.

It's pretty much impossible to describe in one sentence but I thought I'd give it a try.  What I'm finding is that there really isn't a hugely noticeable difference between them.  I've heard traders say that FXCM artificially spikes prices or that Oanda's spreads during economic releases turn news trades into news untradables but each have their issues and there is no perfect broker platform.  If I had to make a semi-perfect broker platform, it might be a combination of the three.

  • Spreads from OANDA
  • Currency pair selection from OANDA
  • API from GAIN
  • Order types from GAIN which provide limit, stop loss, OCO, If/Then single, If/Then OCO, and trailing
  • News from GAIN and FXCM
  • Money transfer options from GAIN and FXCM
  • Interest on balance from OANDA

This is just a list by quickly brainstorming but it might be beneficial if I created a feature matrix unless someone knows if someone already did on the web.

Originally, the whole point of this post was to mention FXSol's Flexi Contract options that I stumbled upon today.  I thought Oanda was the only broker that offered variable sized lots but this is not the case.  FXSol offers lot sizes of 1K, 5K, 10K (Mini), 50K, or 100K.  Nice….

At this moment, my wish list of features that are not provided by any broker are both related to order scheduling:

  1. Ability to schedule an order at a specific time.  This is provided by FXEngines and can obviously be done via an API
  2. Ability to receive alerts if and when this order is triggered also provided by FXEngines  

Like I said, FXEngines can do both but what FXEngines really provides to you is a front-end to their API that communicates with FXCM.  This front-end is web-based and slow.  They really need to update their technology and offer a front-end to brokers other than FXCM.

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Comments

One Response to “Trade with a Flexible Lot Size”

  1. IBj on November 23rd, 2006 4:46 pm

    Interactive Brokers’ IDEALPRO allows you to trade any (integral) quantity over the minimum order size of 25′000 USD. You can trade $52′345 if that is desired.
    Good-After-Time, GTC, GTD, stops, trailing stops, etc. all available.
    Alerts to the TWS interface (or to email, cell phone) also available.
    Fast Java interface but also FIX engine and API connectivity possible.
    The counterparties are money cewnter banks. You get the NBBO quote from 6 of the largest FX liquidity engines in the world. Direct, without filtering or spreading.

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