Last week Swiss forex broker Dukascopy announced that they are reducing the minimum lot size for their ECN retail accounts. According to the news section of their website:
Dukascopy (Suisse) SA announces the reduction of minimal lot size. Starting from 8th of January 2010, traders can use mini lots from 0.001 equal to 1000 units of a primary currency amount.
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Here at the Trading Gurus we are constantly monitoring the quotes from a wide range of brokers. Yesterday alarm bells started ringing to tell us that the spreads on one of our MetaTrader 4 demo accounts at Alpari UK had suddenly reduced to previously unheard of levels. Spreads as low as 0.4 pips on GBP/USD for example, and once (briefly!) even zero on EUR/USD.
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The recent introduction by Alpari UK of "interbank spreads" on their MetaTrader 4 demo accounts has given us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate one of the potential problems you might encounter using the MetaTrader 4 strategy tester to evaluate a forex trading strategy you have developed for yourself, or even bought off a virtual shelf. Our regular readers will know that we have performed numerous live tests and backtests on the Forex MegaDroid "robot". Today is a Saturday, so I had a few minutes spare to run yet another backtest on the Droid. I started the simulation on March 30th 2009, the date the Forex MegaDroid team launched their creation amid great fanfare, and finished it yesterday evening. Here's what the Alpari UK MetaTrader 4 demo strategy tester showed me:
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When I started writing this blog in the Spring of 2009 I put forward the proposition that thanks to the advent of the internet and online retail forex brokers it had become possible for anyone possessing an entrepreneurial spirit, and prepared to put in the required effort over a number of years, to learn how to turn $1000 that they were willing and able to lose into a business that could support their family and themselves. I didn't say it was easy, but I did suggest it was possible. All that is about to change. It never was easy, and it looks like it's going to get ten times more difficult, for US citizens at least.
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You are probably aware by now that the latest regulatory changes proposed by the CFTC, and in particular the reduction of retail forex leverage to 10 to 1, have caused a lot of consternation in the forex industry, to say the least! I anticipate that one side effect of the new rule will be that even more money will very soon be winging it's way from the United States over the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. If you are, or hope soon to be, a profitable forex trader then you really do need to start considering whether to send your hard earned moolah in this direction too.
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The CFTC has now published details of how to comment on its new ten to one leverage proposals for retail forex accounts. If you click the link at the bottom of that page you can also read the initial comments that the CFTC has received.
More on CFTC Publishes Public Comments on Ten to One Leverage Proposal
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Fresh from his onslaught on retail forex traders, Barack Obama today took aim at another target instead. Those nasty, greedy bankers. According to Bloomberg Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC that:
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It has been brought to our attention that the original link we published to the page on the CFTC website that allowed you to download the 193 page document detailing its newly released proposals to limit leverage in the retail forex industry in the United States to 10 to 1 now simply says:
More on New Download Location for CFTC 10 to 1 Leverage Proposals
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In response to the proposed legislation to reduce forex leverage to 10 to 1, beleaguered US brokers have banded together to form the Forex Dealers Coalition to fight a common enemy; the CFTC! The Coalition have just launched their website, which urges their readers to:
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In the first response I have spotted made by a forex broker to their recent proposal to limit leverage to a maximum of 10 to 1, the CFTC earlier this week published a 6 page letter from Interbank FX on their website. Interbank FX welcome most of the other CFTC proposals, but say that the 10 to 1 leverage proposal:
More on Interbank FX Comment on CFTC 10 to 1 Leverage Proposals
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