FXCM Trading Station Adds OCO Orders

I logged in to my demo FXCM Trading Station this morning to see a very welcome sight, to us here at the Trading Gurus at least. It asked me if I wanted to upgrade to the latest version:

Version 01.05.072209
The updates to this release of the Trading Station are:
-OCO orders support
-Option to define Stop/Limit Orders in PIPs/Points
-Minor cosmetic and functional improvements

I didn't hit the "Cancel" button!

You may be wondering why I was so pleased? After all we're based in the UK, surely we're not affected by the NFA "hedging" and FIFO fiascos? The FSA hasn't inflicted similar restrictions on the forex industry on this side of the Atlantic. Why are we so keen to see the end of "hedging" and the advent of One Cancels the Other orders?

Here's the reason. As soon as the Order2Go API catches up with the platform we will at last be able to use the very same trading systems that we have been using on Interactive Brokers platform for a number of years now, using either FXCM's straight FIX or Order2Go API's. Our systems don't rely on "hedging", because futures brokers don't provide that "benefit" to their customers. They do however use bracket orders, as OCO orders are more often referred to by futures traders, which do come in very handy when you want to automate certain types of strategy. The FIX API has been ready and waiting for a while, and the Order2Go API including OCO functionality has already been released to developers by FXCM but the:

Official release will be available in a few days, when all required QA tests will be completed.

There is one more significant thing however, that makes it very tempting for us to move our money and our trading systems from Interactive Brokers to FXCM. Back in March FXCM UK announced it was introducing spread betting accounts. As FXCM pointed out at the time:

An FXCM Spread Bet account is the same as an FXCM forex account with the added tax benefits – No Capital Gains Taxes for UK Residents.

If we move then in future we won't have to pay any tax on any profits we might make. That's because now we'll be setting our software off to do some betting instead of some trading. Gambling is tax free here in the UK, whereas investing is not.

Now all we have to do is wait and see when the UK Government decides to change the tax laws again.