How many platforms do TradersVoiceFX offer?TradersVoiceFX offers two separate platforms for clients; both have different order routing methods. Please review details on ECN and Metatrader platform pages. What are account minimums with different platforms?The minimum account balance on MT4 platforms is $1,000.00 The minimum account balance for non-dealing desk ECN platform is $10,000.00 What are the MT4 spreads?We offer a three tiered price structure.
Please aware of what category you are trading in. The trading platform will not allow you to trade outside of your pricing structure. That is, if you want to trade 1 to 5 lots you must do it with the standard structure and the corresponding standard structure chart. And less then one lot you must use the mini pricing structure in other words there will be a $2.50 transaction charge. And so on. How much can I save using the ECN platform?Example: Using the example of the USD/CHF and comparing 13 brokers we have an average price of 4-5 pips. Now compare this to the average price on TradersvoiceFX ECN1 where you have an average 2 pips plus $6.50 fee each way. This amount is equal to 3.3 pips. Your average savings varies from 0.8 to 1.7 pips depending on market conditions. We can take the low estimate of 1 pip savings per trade. Therefore using an example of 20 trades a month saving 1 pip you save a net of $200.00 a month or $2400.00 a year. Can I trade mini lots with the ECN platform?Not at this time. You can only trade mini lots on our MT4 platform. How do I get my free trading signals and classes?You must open a live account with a minimum deposit of $5000.00 on either our MT4 or ECN platform and request them via e-mail from customer. What is the free automated program you offer?CATS (MT4 only)Cats is TradersVoiceFx's proprietary automated trading program that was developed with the assistance of our asset managers. This program is 80% automated and 20% manual. It averages an 8% to 10% per month return with minimal draw-down. Cats is available to our clients who meet the live minimum deposit requirements ($10,000.00) and our clients are required to trade it on our platforms. If they request the program, we require that all clients using the Cats Program please do so on our Standard or Alternate Platforms. We will periodically review customer accounts to ensure the Cats Program is being used per these guidelines. (Should we discover that the Cats Program is not being traded on one of our platforms a new key will not be issued by customer support.) Why do you offer two platforms?We find a lot of traders prefer different platforms. Much of this has to do with how long they might have been trading or ease of use of the platform. What is the difference between the MT4 and ECN platform?The ECN non-dealing platform is what the banks use to trade between each other utilizing variable spreads with vary little frills. Meta trader is a fixed spread system with all the bells and whistles including things like superior charting, built-in automated trading etc. Is ECN better than a fixed spread platform?We find that for a lot of platforms this is the case. However, with the TradersVoiceFX concept we have such tightly fixed spreads that there is only a little difference. ( please see our platform comparisons) How are Pip Values Calculated?A pip is the smallest increment in any currency pair. How much is one pip worth per $100,000 Dollars in EUR/USD?1 lot is equal to $100,000.00 Euros. How much is one pip worth per $100,000 Dollars in USD?1 lot is equal to $100,000.00 JPY. We will refer to the lot size, in this case 100,000 units of the base currency, as the 'National Amount'. The formula for calculating a pip value is therefore: (one pip, with proper decimal placement/currency exchange rate) x (National Amount). Using USD/JPY as an example: this yields: (.01/120.46) x USD100,000 = $8.30 or $8.30 cents per pip. Using EUR/USD as an example: we have (.0001/1.0066) x EUR100,000 = EUR 9.93. But we want the pip value in USD, so we then must multiply EUR 9.93 x (EURUSD exchange rate): EUR 9.93 x 1.0066 = $10.00 This is in fact a phenomenon you will see with any currency in which the currency is quoted first (such as EUR/USD, GBP/USD, or AUD/USD): the pip value is always $10.00 per 100,000 currency units. This is why pip (or 'tick') values in currency futures, where the currency is quoted first, are always fixed. Approximate pip values for the major currencies are as follows, per 100,000 units of the base currency: USD/JPY:
1 pip = $8.30; In other words, a change from 120.45 to 120.46 is worth about $8.30 per $100,000.
What are the Major Trading Sessions?The FOREX currency market is an integral part of the rapidly expanding financial, business and political landscape. The FOREX Interbank market has three sessions of trading.
The first begins Sunday at 7:00 P.M. NYT, which is the Asia session. What happens if my computer is shut down for a few seconds because of a power failure?You may be logged off of any accounts you have been running and all Expert Advisors will stop running until you are logged back into your account. Is there a way to print reports without saving them?No. You must save them first and then print them. If I want to hedge a position by shorting an opposing long position, is there a margin requirement on the second position as well?There is no a margin requirement on the new position that you might open up provided that it is the same number of lots and that it is against the first one (or in the opposite direction of the first one). Again the second position will be margin free if it's the same amount of lots, in the opposite direction on the same currency. Trading During Economic or Geo Political News releasesIn the case of significant economic releases, like non-farm payroll, there could be a significant gap from the price of a currency and the price immediately after. We saw a gap on the GBP/USD of 150 pips about three years ago. Basically, what occurs is right after a release all of the offers in the market go away from the current price. Banks can move their offers significantly from where it was prior to the release. This was the case on Friday the 4th of August 2006. The Market reacted negatively toward the dollar and then the EUR/USD and GBP/USD jumped significantly. If someone has a resting order such as a buy stop or sell stop, those stop orders are activated and turn into market orders. Then they are filled at the current prevailing market price. A buy stop or sell stop is not a guaranteed order at a certain price. It simply turns into a market order when it is activated and it is then filled at the current prevailing price. The actual fill on a buy stop or sell stop could vary significantly from the original order price during significant market moves or gaps or during an economic release like non-farm payroll. What is a Margin Requirement?Forex and commodity trading are always conducted on 'margin'. This means that a cash deposit, usually much smaller than the underlying value of the currency or commodity contract, is required in order to trade. For example, a broker might require only $1,000.00 in the trader's account in order to trade a $100,000.00 currency position. The $1,000.00 is referred to as 'margin'. This amount is essentially collateral to cover any losses that you might incur. Since nothing is actually being purchased or sold for delivery, the only requirement, and indeed the only real purpose for having funds in your account, is for sufficient margin. Margin should reflect some rational assessment of potential risk in a position. For example, if a currency is very volatile, a higher margin requirement would normally be justified. One common rule of thumb is a worst-case one day move in the market. So, if a $100,000.00 currency position is unlikely to move by more than 1% (or $1,000.00) in a 24 hour period, a $1,000.00 margin requirement is probably reasonable. If however the currency or commodity in question is highly volatile and is likely to move by, say, $3,000.00 or more (or 3%, as is often the case with certain NASDAQ stocks and some commodities) it would put the broker at an increased credit risk to require only a $1,000.00 margin deposit. Note that margin available in your trading account is based on account equity, not account balance. The equity is the most accurate measure of the value of your account, as it takes into account unrealized gains or losses. |
