Smart Live Markets Marry MetaTrader and Spread Betting

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A recent addition to the ranks of UK forex brokers has finally delivered something we've been waiting to see for a long time now here at the Trading Gurus. If you are a UK resident it is now possible to spread bet using MetaTrader 4 as your trading platform. You can now therefore use an MT4 expert advisor to automate your tax free forex trading, if you are so inclined.

Not just forex trading either, since Smart Live Markets offer a long list of other instruments apart from currencies, including indices, shares, gold and oil. Their fixed spreads look competitive too. 1 on the FTSE 100, 2 on GBP/USD. Even if you're not a UK resident you can trade those instruments and spreads too, since Smart Live also offer spot forex/CFD accounts as well. That's the good news, so what about the bad news?

Well, if you're from the US and you're concerned about all the latest forex regulations over there you're out of luck, because Smart Live don't take US citizens as customers. They offer mini-lots but not micro-lots on MetaTrader forex/CFD accounts. The minimum "bet" is 10 pence per pip on a spread betting account. They make no claims whatsoever about offering STP, NDD, ECN or the like on their MetaTrader accounts. They freely admit that they lump most if not all of your trades into one big internal "pot", which they then manually hedge only when their overall exposure warrants it. They also say quite clearly that they do not want "scalpers" for customers. Here's what their terms of business state in that regard:

Smart Live Markets, while not condoning the use of ‘scalping’, especially in tandem with Expert Advisors, does not forbid it. We reserve the right to switch off the Expert Advisor functionality for any client who we, at our sole discretion, feel is abusing that facility, or may abuse it in the future.

In extreme cases we may, as per our full Terms of Business, close a client’s account.

To summarise – They won't refuse any trade, but if they discover you're into automated "sniping" or "arbing" they'll stop you doing it PDQ by turning off your EAs or closing your account .

Somewhat refreshingly Smart Live tell me they are not spending vast sums of money on marketing to build their customer base. Instead they are relying on "word of mouth", which might explain why we didn't notice their initial "launch"!  A lot of the money they are spending seems to come from Turkish entrepreneur Kasım Garipoğlu, who is behind a number of other businesses under the Smart Live brand. Smart Live Markets further assure me that they are eager to acquire profitable forex traders (and not just gamblers!) as customers in order to help achieve their stated aim:

To create a truly dominant and cutting edge financial trading service provider.

A laudable goal I'm sure you'll agree, and I've done my bit to help them out by opening a modest account of my very own. I'll keep you posted about my experiences with it.

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