Dukascopy Beta Testing MetaTrader 4 ECN Accounts
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.
Last November Dukascopy reduced their minimum deposit requirement to $5,000, but at that time this was in a potentially lethal combination with a minimum lot size of 0.1. Note that as far as Dukascopy are concerned a lot is $1 million dollars, so a lot size of 0.1 corresponds to what most other forex brokers would call a full lot (i.e. $100,000). The new minimum lot size therefore corresponds to what most other brokers call a micro-lot of $1000. This now makes opening a Dukascopy account far more attractive to the average retail forex trader, who will no longer have to risk blowing their entire account with a single bad trade! If you're used to MetaTrader then you're used to experimenting on a demo account, and if you'd like to check out Dukascopy they helpfully provide 14 day trials of their JForex ECN platform which you can apply for here.
I assume that it is no coincidence that Dukascopy are offering these attractive new terms to retail customers whilst simultaneously inviting applications for beta testing of their new MetaTrader 4 ECN accounts. If after beta testing the demo you do find yourself attracted by the idea of opening a MetaTrader 4 account offshore in Switzerland then there is one very important difference between a Dukascopy MT4 account and most others. Dukascopy charge commissions on trades placed through their MT4 platform, just as they do if you use their JForex platform. These commissions start at $50/million for a minimum $5,000 deposit, reducing in stages to $5/million if you're fortunate enough to be able to deposit $10 million or more, or if your volume exceeds $3 billion dollars in a calendar month.
Mighty oaks from little acorns grow!
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Comments on Dukascopy Beta Testing MetaTrader 4 ECN Accounts
Very interesting, thanks for this useful info; I will experiment with the demo account
Very interesting Jim! thanks for the post!
Commissions are truly negligible. I have more respect
for any business that calls it the way it is. Commission
called a commission is infinitely better and transparent
than unknown spread upmarks any day.
Hi Jon,
I suppose with high enough volumes Dukascopy commissions could be considered "negligible", and calling them commissions is undoubtedly more transparent.
However the entry level commission (which has now reduced slightly BTW) works out at (almost!) an extra 1 pip spread on a round turn, which is not entirely insignificant if you're scalping.
Jim
Guys – you can get a 40%+ percent rebate on dukascopy commissions if you do a little google searching…
Hi Ed,
Thanks for the suggestion. So it seems as though at the Duke's highest rate of commission you can save around 0.4 of a pip if you shop around.
The next question is how hard do they hit you on average on other, rather less transparent, costs? Slippage and the like.
Jim