Hello,
I am entirely new to Forex trading and up to this very moment I have not made a single Forex trade. However, it has piqued my interest lately and I decided to spend some spare time writing some high frequency FIX over SSL code. I was hoping you guys could help me with a couple of questions I have. Forgive me if these questions sound entirely dumb. If they are more suitable on a different subreddit please let me know.
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1) Can I get a couple of resources (web-links/URLs) for historical currency pair data? What is the the best temporal granularity I can find in historical data? Seconds/milliseconds/nanoseconds?
2) Can I get recommendations for brokers that offer FIX trading? I found a somewhat popular platform with a $5000 minimum deposit but they do not permit registrations for US residents. Is this common? Any idea why? In addition, I came across a couple of VPS providers offering low latency connections to brokers often in the single digit milliseconds latency range. Are these guys legit? Anyone have any experience here?
3) In a low latency trading scenario, what is the typical duration for order execution? By this I mean the time period between placing a market order (FIX Tag 35=D) and getting a successful execution report(FIX Tag 35=8)? If this is a variable time period can you list the contributing factors? I have encountered some verbiage on broker sites warning that their demo accounts could offer more expedited order execution than real market accounts which might also have slippage(what is this?). I was hoping I could get actual numbers of typical expectations in a real market scenario under a variety of dependent conditions.
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Any answers I get would be every helpful and highly appreciated. Thanks!

I always dreamt of becoming a multi millionaire in 5 to 10 years but this guy has brought an interesting point to the table:

Day Trading Market Ceiling There also a Day Trading Market Ceiling. A successful day trader (not an investor, though) will eventually get capped out, as the market simply can’t accommodate an infinitely increasing position size for a particular strategy. To make more the trader either needs to alter the strategy, or also trade something else…and this may or may not work. Change one thing and you can’t assume all else will stay the same. To attain the returns discussed in the “How Much Day Traders Make,” multiple trades are made each day. Trades are likely only lasting a couple minutes. While multiple-millions of dollars worth of stocks, futures or currencies may change hands over the course of couple hours, day traders have precise entry points. Therefore, position size is limited to the amount of liquidity (volume) available at the exact moment a trader needs to get into and out of trades. Investors, hedge funds and mutual funds can accumulate or dispose of positions over weeks, taking advantage of days or even weeks worth liquidity. Day traders don’t have that luxury. It doesn’t matter if a stock trades millions of shares a day; if there is only 100 shares available when they need to take the trade (based on the strategy) that’s all they get. That’s an extreme example, but at any given moment there isn’t infinite liquidity available–there is what there is, and that means there is a limit to how big of a position you can accumulate and dispose of when your strategy calls for it. Based on personal experience, in day trading forex I wouldn’t be comfortable taking more than 5 standard lots on a day trade. Some may take more, most traders would take way less. Taking a larger amount would mean significantly increased risk of slippage or partial fills (you end up with the whole position on losing trades, but only partial positions on some winning trades). Possible gains attained by taking a larger position are offset by these negative factors. At 10:1 or 15:1 leverage a forex day trader–using a day trading forex strategy similar to mine— may cap out at around a $50,000 to $75,000 account (including leverage, that means trading close to $1million). Beyond that, they may find little additional gains, unless they alter their strategy, take longer term trades or stagger their entries and exits at various prices. Changing a strategy to accommodate a larger position isn’t a bad thing, but it takes additional research/practice time…and is it worth it? Only each individual can answer that for them self. In the ES futures market I cap out at about 10 contracts, and that only requires a $40,000 to $75,000 account (maybe even less depending on how much you risk per trade). There is no reason to trade more in my opinion. Could you day trade more contracts? Sure, you could probably get away with 100 contracts some days/some trades…but why? It would take a long time to work up to carrying those sorts of positions, and even trading a few contracts can produce a good living. The same goes for the stock market. Even in a very liquid stock or ETF like the SPDR S&P 500 (SPY) you will hit a limit on how much you can effectively trade on a short time frame. It may be a big limit, but you do hit it. To see the minimum amount of capital you need to day trade, see How Much Do I Need to Become a Day Trader. The bottom line is that you hit a limit on the amount of capital you can utilize effectively, and beyond that your percentage returns will likely decrease. For example, it’s much easier to make 10% a month on a $20,000 account than it is to make 10% a month on $20,000,000. That means day trader tend to withdraw all proceeds over and above their “efficient capital limit.” So a $50,000 day trading forex accounts stays a $50,000 account and monthly profits are withdrawn and spent (like any other job) or allocated to something else. In other words the account doesn’t keep compounding indefinitely, the trader nor the market can withstand doing that…there are ceilings…psychological, natural (life) and structural (market).

Source: https://vantagepointtrading.com/why-day-traders-can-make-big-returns-but-arent-millionaires/
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The entire article is a good read. Go read it. But in a way this shattered my dream. So tell me is this guy telling the hard truth or just bull shitting?
He also says that he has met a lot of day traders and most make between 50,000 to 200,000 per year. So aiming for that is a more "realistic goal" then making close to a million dollar per year.

A VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. As the name implies it is your own private server which is hosted in the cloud/on the Internet. Like any server it is always on 24/7 and constantly online.
There are many usages for Forex VPS and here is the list of usage mainly by traders.

1. Running Expert Advisor (EA)
2. Indicators
3. Trade Copier
   1. Slave and Master
4. Publishing EA Tool
   1. myfxbook & fxblue etc
5. Push notification
   1. sending a notification to mobile

You can read this article about how Forex VPS vs Home PC for a more in-depth comparison.
Basically the core factor for using a Forex VPS is the reduce the latency between your MT4 platform to your Broker server. By using the correct location provided by the Forex VPS vendors, you can achieve 1ms latency which helps to improve trade execution aka reducing slippage.
Next factor is the uptime. Our home network ISP and home electricity can never be assured. What if you face a blackout? Or network outage? Or hardware failures? As it is important to ensure your trading platform is running 24 hours a day without fail, you will require professional infrastructure to ensure 100% uptime or at least 99.9%
There are many advantages of using Forex VPS but here is the list of the most important ones:

• Internet Connection Stability- Our VPS solution offers a professional setup. We have a high-grade Internet connection and multiple backup connections in case one or more go down. In comparison, a Home Internet connection has no backup and can vary in reliability.
• Power Consumption- Our VPS solution offers a professional setup. We have a high-grade Internet connection and multiple backup connections in case one or more go down. In comparison, a Home Internet connection has no backup and can vary in reliability.
• Keep your PC desktop tidy- If you run your MT4 on your PC you will always have the terminal on the desktop. This can be annoying and also you could mistakenly close the terminal while closing other applications. With a VPS it is out of site unless you have your RDP connection running.
• Access from anywhere- You can remotely access your VPS from anywhere you have an Internet connection.

To be categorized as one of the Best Forex VPS in the industry for Algo trading, these are the few core factor you need to consider:

• Ultra-low latency
  • 1ms latency to major brokerages
    • Lower latency will improve your Algo Trading aka better execution
• Security
  • 3 Tier Security (DDoS, 24/7 Technical Monitoring, Disaster Recovery)
• True Hardware Virtualization
  • Hyper - V (Dedicated Resources)
• 30 Days Moneyback Guaranteed
  • Safe Purchase
• 24/7 Support Team
  • Assist in installation of EA and trading platform

I would recommend to give TradingFXVPS a try and enjoy their robust VPS for traders and our excellent customer support service.

Originally posted by Darkstar at Forex Factory.
Disclaimer: I did not write this. I found this post on ForexFactory written by a user called DarkStar, which I believe a lot of redditors will benefit from reading.
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There has been much discussion of late regarding borker spreads and liquidity. Many assumptions are being made about why spreads are widened during news time that are built on an incomplete knowledge of the architecture of the forex market in general. The purpose of this article is to dissect the market and hopefully shed some light on the situation so that a more rational and productive discussion can be undertaken by the Forex Factory members.
We will begin with an explanation of the purpose of the Forex market and how it is utilized by its primary participants, expand into the structure and operation of the market, and conclude with the implications of this information for speculators. With that having been said, let us begin.
Unlike the various bond and equity markets, the Forex market is not generally utilized as an investment medium. While speculation has a critical role in its proper function, the lion’s share of Forex transactions are done as a function of international business.
The guy who buys a shiny new Eclipse more then likely will pay for it with US Dollars. Unfortunately Mitsubishi’s factory workers in Japan need to get their paychecks denominated in Yen, so at some point a conversion needs to be made. When one considers that companies like Exxon, Boeing, Sony, Dell, Honda, and thousands of other international businesses move nearly every dollar, real, yen, rubble, pound, and euro they make in a foreign country through the Forex market, it isn’t hard to understand how insignificant the speculative presence is; even in a $2tril per day market.
By and large, businesses don’t much care about the intricacies of exchange rates, they just want to make and sell their products. As a central repository of a company’s money, it was only natural that the banks would be the facilitators of these transactions. In the old days it was easy enough for a bank to call a foreign bank (or a foreign branch of ones own bank) and swap the stockpiles of currency each had accumulated from their many customers.
Just as any business would, the banks bought the foreign currency at one rate and marked it up before selling it to the customer. With that the foreign exchange spread was born. This was (and still is) a reasonable cost of doing business. Mitsubishi can pay its customers and the banks make a nice little profit for the hassle and risks associated with moving around the currency.
As a byproduct of transacting all this business, bank traders developed the ability to speculate on the future of currency rates. Utilizing a better understanding of the market, a bank could quote a business a spread on the current rate but hold off hedging until a better one came along. This process allowed the banks to expand their net income dramatically. The unfortunate consequence was that liquidity was redistributed in a way that made certain transactions impossible to complete.
It was for this reason and this reason alone that the market was eventually opened up to non-bank participants. The banks wanted more orders in the market so that a) they could profit from the less experienced participants, and b) the less experienced participants could provide a better liquidity distribution for execution of international business hedge orders. Initially only megacap hedge funds (such as Soros’s and others) were permitted, but it has since grown to include the retail brokerages and ECNs.
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Market Structure:
Now that we have established why the market exists, let’s take a look at how the transactions are facilitated:
The top tier of the Forex market is transacted on what is collectively known as the Interbank. Contrary to popular belief the Interbank is not an exchange; it is a collection of communication agreements between the world’s largest money center banks.
To understand the structure of the Interbank market, it may be easier to grasp by way of analogy. Consider that in an office (or maybe even someone’s home) there are multiple computers connected via a network cable. Each computer operates independently of the others until it needs a resource that another computer possesses. At that point it will contact the other computer and request access to the necessary resource. If the computer is working properly and its owner has given the requestor authorization to do so, the resource can be accessed and the initiating computers request can be fulfilled. By substituting computers for banks and resources for currency, you can easily grasp the relationships that exist on the Interbank.
Anyone who has ever tried to find resources on a computer network without a server can appreciate how difficult it can be to keep track of who has what resources. The same issue exists on the Interbank market with regard to prices and currency inventory. A bank in Singapore may only rarely transact business with a company that needs to exchange some Brazilian Real and it can be very difficult to establish what a proper exchange rate should be. It is for this purpose that EBS and Reuters (hereafter EBS) established their services.
Layered on top (in a manner of speaking) of the Interbank communication links, the EBS service enables banks to see how much and at what prices all the Interbank members are willing to transact. Pains should be taken to express that EBS is not a market or a market maker; it is an application used to see bids and offers from the various banks.
The second tier of the market exists essential within each bank. By calling your local Bank of America branch you can exchange any foreign currency you would like. More then likely they will just move some excess currency from one branch to another. Since this is a micro-exchange with a single counterparty, you are basically at their mercy as to what exchange rate they will quote you. Your choice is to accept their offer or shop a different bank. Everyone who trades the forex market should visit their bank at least once to get a few quotes. It would be very enlightening to see how lucrative these transactions really are.
Branching off of this second tier is the third tier retail market. When brokers like Oanda, Forex.com, FXCM, etc. desire to establish a retail operation the first thing they need is a liquidity provider. Nine in ten of these brokers will sign an agreement with just one bank. This bank will agree to provide liquidity if and only if they can hedge it on EBS inclusive of their desired spread. Because the volume will be significantly higher a single bank patron will transact, the spreads will be much more competitive. By no means should it be expected these tier 3 providers will be quoted precisely what exists on the Interbank. Remember the bank is in the business of collecting spreads and no agreement is going to suspend that priority.
Retail forex is almost akin to running a casino. The majority of its participants have zero understanding how to trade effectively and as a result are consistent losers. The spread system combined with a standard probability distribution of returns gives the broker a built in house advantage of a few percentage points. As a result, they have all built internal order matching systems that play one loser off against a winner and collect the spread. On the occasions when disequilibrium exists within the internal order book, the broker hedges any exposure with their tier 2 liquidity provider.
As bad as this may sound, there are some significant advantages for speculators that deal with them. Because it is an internal order book, many features can be provided which are otherwise unavailable through other means. Non-standard contract sizes, high leverage on tiny account balances, and the ability to transact in a commission free environment are just a few of them…
An ECN operates similar to a Tier 2 bank, but still exists on the third tier. An ECN will generally establish agreements with several tier 2 banks for liquidity. However instead of matching orders internally, it will just pass through the quotes from the banks, as is, to be traded on. It’s sort of an EBS for little guys. There are many advantages to the model, but it is still not the Interbank. The banks are going to make their spread or their not go to waste their time. Depending on the bank this will take the form of price shading or widened spreads depending on market conditions. The ECN, for its trouble, collects a commission on each transaction.
Aside from the commission factor, there are some other disadvantages a speculator should consider before making the leap to an ECN. Most offer much lower leverage and only allow full lot transactions. During certain market conditions, the banks may also pull their liquidity leaving traders without an opportunity to enter or exit positions at their desired price.
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Trade Mechanics:
It is convenient to believe that in a $2tril per day market there is always enough liquidity to do what needs to be done. Unfortunately belief does not negate the reality that for every buyer there MUST be a seller or no transaction can occur. When an order is too large to transact at the current price, the price moves to the point where open interest is abundant enough to cover it. Every time you see price move a single pip, it means that an order was executed that consumed (or otherwise removed) the open interest at the current price. There is no other way that prices can move.
As we covered earlier, each bank lists on EBS how much and at what price they are willing to transact a currency. It is important to note that no Interbank participant is under any obligation to make a transaction if they do not feel it is in their best interest. There are no “market makers” on the Interbank; only speculators and hedgers.
Looking at an ECN platform or Level II data on the stock market, one can get a feel for what the orders on EBS look like. The following is a sample representation:
You’ll notice that there is open interest (Level II Vol figures) of various sizes at different price points. Each one of those units represents existing limit orders and in this example, each unit is $1mil in currency.
Using this information, if a market sell order was placed for 38.4mil, the spread would instantly widen from 2.5 pips to 4.5 pips because there would no longer be any orders between 1.56300 and 1.56345. No broker, market maker, bank, or thief in the night widened the spread; it was the natural byproduct of the order that was placed. If no additional orders entered the market, the spread would remain this large forever. Fortunately, someone somewhere will deem a price point between those 2 figures an appropriate opportunity to do something and place an order. That order will either consume more interest or add to it, depending whether it is a market or limit order respectively.
What would have happened if someone placed a market sell order for 2mil just 1 millisecond after that 38.4 mil order hit? They would have been filled at 1.5630 Why were they “slipped”? Because there was no one to take the other side of the transaction at 1.56320 any longer. Again, nobody was out screwing the trader; it was the natural byproduct of the order flow.
A more interesting question is, what would happen if all the listed orders where suddenly canceled? The spread would widen to a point at which there were existing bids and offers. That may be 5,7,9, or even 100 pips; it is going to widen to whatever the difference between a bid and an offer are. Notice that nobody came in and “set” the spread, they just refused to transact at anything between it.
Nothing can be done to force orders into existence that don’t exist. Regardless what market is being examined or what broker is facilitating transactions, it is impossible to avoid spreads and slippage. They are a fact of life in the realm of trading.
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Implications for speculators:
Trading has been characterized as a zero sum game, and rightly so. If trader A sells a security to trader B and the price goes up, trader A lost money that they otherwise could have made. If it goes down, Trader A made money from trader B’s mistake. Even in a huge market like the Forex, each transaction must have a buyer and a seller to make a trade and one of them is going to lose. In the general realm of trading, this is materially irrelevant to each participant. But there are certain situations where it becomes of significant importance. One of those situations is a news event.
Much has been made of late about how it is immoral, illegal, or downright evil for a broker, bank, or other liquidity provider to withdraw their order (increasing the spread) and slip orders (as though it was a conscious decision on their part to do so) more then normal during these events. These things occur for very specific reasons which have nothing to do with screwing anyone. Let us examine why:
Leading up to an economic report for example, certain traders will enter into positions expecting the news to go a certain way. As the event becomes immanent, the banks on the Interbank will remove their speculative orders for fear of taking unnecessary losses. Technical traders will pull their orders as well since it is common practice for them to avoid the news. Hedge funds and other macro traders are either already positioned or waiting until after the news hits to make decisions dependent on the result.
Knowing what we now know, where is the liquidity necessary to maintain a tight spread coming from?
Moving down the food chain to Tier 2; a bank will only provide liquidity to an ECN or retail broker if they can instantly hedge (plus their requisite spread) the positions on Interbank. If the Interbank spreads are widening due to lower liquidity, the bank is going to have to widen the spreads on the downstream players as well.
At tier 3 the ECN’s are simply passing the banks offers on, so spreads widen up to their customers. The retailers that guarantee spreads of 2 to 5 pips have just opened a gaping hole in their risk profile since they can no longer hedge their net exposure (ever wonder why they always seem to shut down or requote until its over?). The variable spread retailers in turn open up their spreads to match what is happening at the bank or they run into the same problems fixed spreads broker are dealing with.
Now think about this situation for a second. What is going to happen when a number misses expectations? How many traders going into the event with positions chose wrong and need to get out ASAP? How many hedge funds are going to instantly drop their macro orders? How many retail traders’ straddle orders just executed? How many of them were waiting to hear a miss and executed market orders?
With the technical traders on the sidelines, who is going to be stupid enough to take the other side of all these orders?
The answer is no one. Between 1 and 5 seconds after the news hits it is a purely a 1 way market. That big long pin bar that occurs is a grand total of 2 prices; the one before the news hit and the one after. The 10, 20, or 30 pips between them is called a gap.
Is it any wonder that slippage is in evidence at this time?
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Conclusions:
Each tier of the Forex market has its own inherent advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your priorities you have to make a choice between what restrictions you can live with and those you cant. Unfortunately, you can’t always get what you want.
By focusing on slippage and spreads, which are the natural byproduct of order flow, one is not only pursuing a futile ideal, they are passing up an enormous opportunity to capitalize on true inefficiencies. News events are one of the few times where a large number of players are positioned inappropriately and it is fairly easy to profit from their foolishness. If a trader truly wants to make the leap to the next level of profitability they should be spending their time figuring out how identify these positions and trading with the goal of capturing the price movement they inevitably will cause.
Nobody is going to make the argument that a broker is a trader’s best friend, but they still provide a valuable service and should be compensated for their efforts. By accepting a broker for what it is and learning how to work within the limitations of the relationship, traders have access to a world of opportunity that they otherwise could never dream of capturing. Let us all remember that simple truth.

Without disrupting your own strategies.
We all know that the Forex market is bigger than the Stock market, Though what is rarerly mentioned is the leverage used in Forex vs Stock.
I.E the 5+ trillion a day is partly based on the 100-500 leverage used by most retail traders out there, even the hedge funds use 3-5x leverage.Thats why brokers like IC markets can do a monthly volume of 550 Billion.While stock trading or an average stock trader perhaps doesn't even use leverage.Thats why i believe the money behind these turnovers (Actual money in the account) isn´t that different Stock vs Forex Even though i still believe, thanks to the banks etc that the money behind Forex is still bigger.
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So anyways, let´s say one has a strategy that produces 2 Profit Factor, on average has a 60+ pip gain.In 2-4 minutes i could be in a 10,000 lot position in E/U (splitting up my entries) without affecting the market? Without any slippage.thats 10,000x10USD per pip = 100,000 per pip; 60 pip move = 6mil per trade.
So the only difference on me making 600USD instead of 6mil per trade, is the time it takes to fill it.
My question is, does this affect your strategy? butterfly effect.Getting in the market in about 5 min times without slippage in a 5 trillion dollar market (EUUSD is around 1.5+)Should in theory not disrupt the efficiency of your strategy, and making 600 USD vs 6 mil should be the same end result.The market soaked up your 10k lot position in 5 minutes without slippage, the end results should be same, or?.
The only problem i see is the exit, which would always take a couple of minutes and perhaps you lose your edge,From 2 a Profit factor strategy to about 1.7-1.8 (which is still very good)
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I am a profitable trader (not rich) but scaling works great in Forex, and one daydreams of what if any limit there really is.

In my first post I compared Oanda's spreads to other legitimate brokers. I received criticism (see below) because I compared spreads on the weekend and brokers with different business models (Market Makers vs ECN).
In this post I used the same mechanics to compare brokers, except I used average spreads, not current, from 30/11/16 20:07 GMT+3 to 6/12/16 20:07 GMT+3, and included comissions into the spreads.
Oanda: 1.50
FXCM: 1.16
Forex.com: 1.96
Pepperstone: 0.90
Darwinex: 0.94
IC Markets: 0.85
Exness: 1.14
RoboForex: 1.01
Although Oanda's spreads have reduced and are smaller in comparison to other brokers, broker spreads ranking hasn't changed. Oanda has the second highest spreads after Forex.com. IC Markets has nearly half the spreads of Oanda's, even after including commissions. I am leaning towards opening an account with Pepperstone or IC Markets more than ever before.

Although spreads are a major factor in choosing a broker, they do not represent execution quality, slippage, or any other fees of a broker.

While this is true, why open an account with Oanda over Pepperstone, for example?
Hall of Criticism
NormanConquest:

You're doing it wrong. Never in 3 years as an Oanda client have I seen eurusd with an 8 pip spread. When we're you looking, Sunday night? Eurusd is usually around 1.2 pips, sometimes less than 1. However you're finding them, it's not reporting them right.

KidUnidentifiable:

You can't just compare spreads with brokers using different business models. http://prntscr.com/d3tjme If you look at the spreads of ICMarkets (I use) and Oanda, they don't differ by much really. That's because you need to integrate the commission ICMarkets charge and integrate it into the spread. Once you do, they don't differ by much.

What is XTRD?

XTRD is a technology company that are introducing a new infrastructure that would allow banks, hedge funds, and large institutional traders to easily access cryptocurrency markets.
XTRD is launching three separate products in sequential stages to solve the ongoing problems caused by having so many disparate markets. Firstly a unified FIX API followed by XTRD Dark Pools and finally the XTRD Single Point of Access or SPA.
Our goal is to build trading infrastructure in the cyptospace and become one of the first full service shops in the cryptocurrency markets for large traders and funds.

• A single FIX API for trading across all connected exchanges
• A robust GUI for manual cross execution on all crypto markets
• A large liquidity pool, based on orders books from all connected exchanges
• Best prices and best top of book execution net of fees
• Low transaction fees
• 99.99999% reliability and uptime
• Fast execution
• Parent/child orders on multiple exchanges to minimize individual market impact
• Advanced order types common in the equity and FX trading space
• Establish XTRD as a premier market-making entity to mitigate spreads and increase liquidity in the cryptocurrency space
• Derivative trading - XTRD plans to connect to LedgerX (US based, approved by the CFTC) for cryptocurrency options and swaps to offer unified hedging and derivate trading strategies
• Robust, US based technical support
• Reliable and familiar deployment methods for institutions:
  • IPSec as a connectivity option across the Internet
  • Cross connection options
  • Collocation space or VPS (Virtual Private Servers) that clients can rent from XTRD
  • UAT/Sandbox environment for testing

What are the industry issues?

COMPLEX WEB OF EXCHANGES. A combination of differing KYC policies, means of funding, interfaces and APIs results in a fragmented patchwork of liquidity for cryptocurrencies. Trading in an automated fashion with full awareness of best pricing and current liquidity necessitates the opening and use of accounts on multiple exchanges, coding to multiple API’s, following varying funding and withdrawal procedures. Once those hurdles are cleared, market participants must convert fiat currency to BTC or ETH and then forward the ETH on to an exchange that may not accept fiat, necessitating yet another transaction to convert back to fiat. Major concerns for market participants range from unmitigated slippage and counterparty risk to hacking prevention and liquidity.
HIGH FEES. Execution costs are even more of a factor. Typical exchange commissions are in the 0.1% – 0.25% range per transaction (10 to 25 basis points), but the effective fees are much higher when taking into bid and ask spreads maintained by the exchanges. As most exchanges are unregulated, there is generally no central authority or regulator to examine internal exchange orders that separate proprietary activity from customer activity and ensure fair pricing.
THIN LIQUIDITY. A large institutional order, representing a sizable percentage of daily volume can move the market for a product, and related products in an exchange by a factor of 5-10%. That means a single order to buy $1,000,000 worth of bitcoin can cost an extra $50,000-$100,000 per transaction given a lack of liquidity if not managed correctly and executed on only one exchange. By way of comparison, similar trades on FX exchanges barely move markets a fraction of a percent; those price changes cost traders money, and deter investment.

What are the XTRD solutions?

FIX API
An API is an “Application Programming Interface”, a set of rules that computer programs use to communicate. FIX stands for “Financial Information eXchange”, the API standard used by most financial organizations as the intermediary protocol to communicate amongst disparate systems such as market data, execution, trade reporting, and order entry for the past 25 years.XTRD is fixing the problem of having 100 different APIs for 100 exchanges by creating a single FIX based API for market data and execution – the same FIX API that all current financial institutions utilize.XTRD will leverage our data center presences in DC3 Chicago and NY4 New Jersey to host FIX trading clients and reduce their trading latencies to single milliseconds, a time acceleration of 100x when it comes to execution vs internet. More infrastructure and private worldwide internet lines will be added in 2018 and beyond to enable secure, low latency execution for all XTRD clients, FIX and PRO.
XTRD PRO
XTRD PRO is a professional trading platform that will fix the basic problems with trading across crypto exchanges – the need to open multiple web pages, having to click around multiple windows, only being able to use basic order types, and not seeing all your positions, trades, and market data in one place.XTRD PRO will be standalone, downloadable, robust end-to-end encrypted software that will consolidate all market data from exchanges visually into one order book, provide a consolidated position and order view across all your exchange accounts, and enable client side orders not available on exchanges – keyboard macro shortcuts, VWAP/TWAP, shaving the bid and offer, hit through 1% of the inside, reserve orders that bid 100 but show 1, SMART order routing to best exchange and intelligent order splicing across exchanges based on execution costs net of fees, OCO and OTO, many others.
XTRD SPA
XTRD SPA is the solution to bridge cross-exchange liquidity issues. XTRD is creating Joint Venture partnerships with trusted cryptocurrency exchanges to provide clients on those exchanges execution across other exchanges where they do not have accounts by leveraging XTRD’s liquidity pools.An order placed by a client at CEX.IO, XTRD’s first JV partner, can be executed by XTRD at a different exchange where there may be a better price or higher liquidity for a digital asset. Subsequently, XTRD will deliver the position to CEX.IO and then CEX.IO will deliver the execution to the client, with XTRD acting as just another market participant at the CEX.IO exchange.XTRD does not take custody of funds, we are a technology partner with exchanges. All local exchange rules, procedures, and AML/KYC policies apply.
XTRD DARK
Institutions and large market participants who have large orders of 100 BTC or more generally must execute across multiple markets, increasing their counterparty risk, paying enormous commissions and spreads, and generally having to deal with the vagaries of the crypto space. Alternatives are OTC brokers that charge multiple percents or private peer-to-peer swaps which are difficult to effectuate unless one is deeply in the space.XTRD is launching XTRD DARK – a dark liquidity pool to trade crypto vs fiat that matches buyers and sellers of large orders, discreetly and anonymously, at a much lower cost. Liquidity is not displayed so large orders do not move thin markets as they would publicly. The liquidity will come from direct XTRD DARK participants as well as aggregation of retail order flow into block orders, XTRD’s own liquidity pools, connections with decentralized exchanges to effectuate liquidity swaps, and OTC broker order flow.XTRD is partnering with a fiat banking providebroker dealer to onboard all XTRD DARK participants for the fiat currency custody side with full KYC/AML procedures.

XTRD Tokenomics

• TOKEN USAGE. XTRD will generate the XTRD utility tokens via smart contact during the Token Generation Event (TGE) in Q1 of 2018. The XTRD utility token will be utilized on the XTRD network by market participants to pay for execution, VPS, market data, software licensing, and other fees. Market participants will be able to purchase XTRD tokens directly from XTRD’s liquidity pool. The TGE will be preceded by a private institutional sale and a SAFT (Simple Agreement for Future Token) Platform based presale. The XTRD token will be fully ERC20 compliant to ensure that it functions properly on the Ethereum blockchain, similarly to other ERC20 tokens.
• XTRD TOKEN LIQUIDITY AGGREGATION. The XTRD token will be used to create liquidity in the overall cryptocurrency market. Along with the utility of the XTRD token to pay for fees on the XTRD platform of products, most of the XTRD token revenue will be used to increase the inventory of other cryptocurrencies that are in demand by our customers. This will create points of liquidity for our customers to access across the worldwide crypto exchange ecosystem. These liquidity points will be created using XTRD tokens that are paid back into the system for fees. 70% of funds raised in the token sale will be used for liquidity aggregation.
• XTRD STAKING. Discounts of 25% on XTRD services (execution, colocation, market data, software licensing) will be available for token holders in general and discounts of 40% on XTRD services will be available for token holders who maintain an average monthly stake of at least 50,000 XTRD tokens. Fiat will be accepted at no discount to par. Execution fees will generally be set as a percentage of the gross trade amount, based on a combination of factors such as liquidity, the pair being traded, market conditions at the time of the trade, and so on. All charges will be marked to market and remain constant, no matter the value of the XTRD token (a $10 charge will be 2 XTRD if $5 each or 0.5 XTRD if $20 each).
• TOKEN LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS. XTRD tokens are ERC20 compliant utility tokens functioning on the Ethereum blockchain. The value of XTRD is derived purely from serving as a medium of payment for services by market participants in the XTRD trading ecosystem. XTRD tokens confer no voting rights, profit participation, equity, ownership of intellectual property, revenue sharing, rights to dividends, transfer of ownership upon company sale, control of company assets, or any decision-making ability regarding XTRD or its’ operations. XTRD tokens are not designed for speculation. In summary, XTRD tokens are not securities. XTRD Digital Assets, Inc has obtained a qualified legal opinion concurring that XTRD tokens are not to be considered “securities” under applicable U.S. securities laws given their failure to meet all prongs of the Howey Test.

Who is XTRD intended for?

XTRD is mainly aimed at major institutions, hedge funds, algorithmic traders who are currently unable to enter the crypto markets.
These firms include companies such as Divisa Capital run by XTRD Advisor Mushegh Tovmasyan.

XTRD Weekly Updates

• XTRD Update: May 20th, 2018
• XTRD Update: May 28th, 2018
• XTRD Update: June 4th, 2018
• XTRD Update: June 11th, 2018
• XTRD Update: June 18th, 2018
• XTRD Update: June 25th, 2018
• XTRD Update: July 2nd, 2018
• XTRD Update: July 9th, 2018
• XTRD Update: July 16th, 2018

Upcoming Events

• Futurist Conference - August 14-16th Toronto
• Blockchain Shift - October 11-12th Miami
• The Trading Show New York - September 26th

AMA's

Further AMA's will be coming soon!

• OhHeyMatty AMA
• CryptoBobby AMA
• TheCryptoLark AMA

XTRD In The Media

• Bloomberg Markets Bitcoin Growing Pains. Bloomberg
• XTRD Brings Wall St Trading Infrastructure To Crypto Markets - Fintech News
• Bad Crypto Meets Alex Kravets - Podcast Interview
• Alex Kravets On Modernizing Crypto Exchanges - Podcast Interview
• How Exchanges Work On Wall Street And How They Will Work In Crypto Markets. - Crypto 101 Podcast
• Ethereum Outperforms Bitcoin - Article Feature
• Crypto Markets Are Broken - CoinTelegraph Alex Guest Writer
• Wall Street Comes To Crypto - CryptoCoinNews Article / Interview
• Cryptocurrency Businesses Real Value - Business News Daily
• Cryptocurrency Market Psychology - CBS News
• Bitcoin Slides Again - Expert Option - Reuters

Resources

• Telegram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Medium
• Reddit
• Whitepaper
• Website

More information will be added to this thread as the project develops.
We are currently looking for key community members to assist in building out this thread.
If you are interested please email [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])

Cryptocurrency Trading is easier than you think, and OctaFX provides a range of tools to make a profit from cryptocurrency into a reality.
If you have any interest in trading and investment at all, it would be hard to miss that cryptocurrency tradingis the hottest ticket in the market at the moment. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and many others have excited investors with the possibility of substantial profits and a completely new way of thinking about what a currency is and how it works.
What Exactly is a Cryptocurrency? Oddly enough, the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, didn’t start off to create a whole new way of thinking about currency, but as a technology to prevent the same amount of regular electronic cash being sent twice to two different people.
The process of validating transactions to prevent this, via a system known as a blockchain, became known as mining, as those doing the validating received Bitcoins as a reward for validating traditional electronic transactions. These coins soon took on a value of their own, and have now become a trading juggernaut.
What Do You Need to Know About Trading Cryptocurrency? Trading cryptocurrencies don’t require any specialist knowledge, and in fact, it’s not all that different to trading in Forex, commodities or many other markets. Despite its unusual nature, crypto still rises and falls like any other market, and is still subject to predictable external factors in a way that gives you the opportunity to make substantial profits.
It’s especially easy to get into crypto with OctaFX because you can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin in MetaTrader 4 and 5, alongside Forex and commodities. You needn’t rely on guesswork to predict which cryptocurrencies are worth investing in and which aren’t, as our free Trading Signals plugin offers detailed technical analysis and some of the best crypto price predictions in the market.
Low Costs and Buying Power A sensible approach to any sort of investment is to minimize initial outlay to maximize the potential for profit, especially one so volatile as investing in cryptocurrency. OctaFX will set you up well in this regard, by offering some of the lowest spreads in the business, and the opportunity to trade micro-lots as small as 0.01 lot, so you don’t need a huge initial outlay to profit from Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum.
OctaFX will also provide you with added muscle for your crypto trades with free leverage to maximize your profit potential, and there’s no commission to be paid for trading volume, and no deposit or withdrawal fees.
Don’t Miss the Perfect Moment When investing in something quite so volatile as a cryptocurrency, maximizing your profits relies on buying and selling with pinpoint accuracy, at the second the market offers the most potential. OctaFX will allow you to do this thanks to some of the fastest execution on the market.
Buy and sell for the price you see, with no delays, and make deposits and withdrawals instantly. Both fiat currencies and Bitcoin are accepted, without commission or delay, and the process is smooth and completely straightforward. OctaFX also maintains an excellent record of minimizing slippage, with 97.5% of all orders completed without any slippage at all.
How to Predict the Biggest Cryptocurrencies’ Price? So now you’re fully briefed on trading cryptocurrencies, maybe you’d like to know a bit more about the currencies themselves. Three of the biggest, most volatile and most exciting are Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
BITCOIN – THE DIGITAL GOLD Bitcoin is the first digital currency, created back in 2009. The main difference from traditional currencies (EUR, USD, JPY, etc) is that transactions are decentralized, highly secure, and what’s more, completely private. Bitcoin is one of the most volatile, discussed and popular instruments among cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin trading mainly happens on news, for example, a bullish trend before Bitcoin forks (this is the separation of Bitcoin when cryptocurrency owners get part of a new crypto). A bearish trend is usually seen after news regarding the ban of Bitcoin in some countries (China, for example). Bitcoin can be easily predicted using technical analysis figures, making your trading more profitable. Bitcoin is the most profitable instrument for trading in USD.
Right now, the leverage for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at OctaFX is set to 1:2, which is more than enough considering the high volatility of that instrument. Apart from that, you also can trade Bitcoin in micro lots (0.01) which allows planning your trading budget effectively. OctaFX sets the amount of 1 lot to 1 Bitcoin, which is comparatively low and requires less investment.
ETHEREUM – INVEST IN THE FUTURE Ethereum is the second most interesting instrument to trade in USD. Nowadays there are more and more ways to buy Ethereum for fiat without changing it into Bitcoins. That means that the price of Ethereum is now less dependent on the Bitcoin price compared to other cryptocurrencies. It can be considered an independent instrument.
Ethereum is a system to support smart contract technologies to invest in the ICOs of new start-up companies. The more start-ups are interested in Ethereum – the more expensive it becomes.
To analyze the price of the Ethereum it’s wise to research how many ICO contracts are about to be issued in exchange for Ethereum. Compare results with existing data – the more contracts, the higher the price. It’s also good to pay attention to news about other cryptocurrencies supporting ICOs and competing with Ethereum. The most important competitors are Waves and Bitshares. Technical analysis figures work well with Ethereum too.
Combining that information with the Ethereum’s volatility of the last few months, Ethereum can sometimes lead to more profit than with Bitcoin.
LITECOIN – CRYPTO SILVER Litecoin was first issued in 2011 and is quite similar to Bitcoin. If Bitcoin can be defined as the ‘gold’ of today’s cryptocurrencies, this makes Litecoin the ‘silver’.
Litecoin provides secure and fast transactions inside the blockchain, with the ability to purchase goods on the internet. The main difference from Bitcoin (and the central benefit of Litecoin) is the capability of processing much higher volumes in one transaction. While Bitcoin can only have up to 21 million coins, Litecoin offers four times as many – 84 million.
The Litecoin price now greatly depends on Bitcoin. That makes it possible to use the Pairs trading strategy with Bitcoin as the main currency to successfully forecast Litecoin changes.
One lot at OctaFX equals 100 Litecoin.
There’s currently a lot of talk around cryptocurrencies – some predict a fast rise and a dramatic fall, while others are confident that they are the currency of the future.
Sounds interesting? You can keep reading the hottest news and best articles on cryptocurrency, but you’ll get much closer to understanding how it works by cryptocurrency trading. So what are you waiting for? Start getting profit from crypto right now!
https://www.fxempire.com/news/article/trade-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-ethereum-cfds-forex-market-485383

When it comes to mechanical type trading systems an extremely important concept to understand is whether a trading system is robust. What robustness basically means is whether a system is designed to work in a number of different markets, be it stocks, bonds, forex, futures, options and whether it will generate a reasonable amount of tradeable signals. The reason this is important should be obvious but unfortunately there are many of these guru’s out there trying to push their systems which backtest well (think of forex day trading robots and binary options systems) but in the real world are either not robust or are completely curve fitted (over optimized) and do not work at all. You have to be careful and ask the proper questions or else you can end up in a lot of trouble with a system that doesn’t provide enough/any profitable opportunities. If you start trading the wrong system and hit a rough patch from the beginning, you could end up losing your entire account in one trade and this is obviously something you need to prevent at all costs.
My system works in any market and on any time frame and is therefore very robust. If you want to day trade it will produce a number of profitable signals. As the time frame you use to trade increases, so will the number of setups that will present themselves. If you decide to go out to a daily, weekly or even monthly chart for swing trading or position trading, it will work exactly the same. This means if you are like most people who currently work a 9-5 job or are a student without access to the market for 6 hours a day, you can begin to swing or position trade utilizing my system. As your account size grows and your wealth increases perhaps you will choose to make trading a full time profession and begin to day trade on a short time frame.
Tip offs to an optimized system.

1. Unrealistically good looking performance
   
2. Only trades one market or sector well
   
3. Uses different rules for each market
   
4. Uses different inputs for each market even if the rules are the same
   
5. Uses different rules or inputs for initiating buys vs. sells
   
6. Does not factor in realistic transaction costs like slippage & commissions
   
7. Uses money management methods that don’t include market normalization
   
8. Uses static numbers for all markets like a $2000 stop or $5000 profit target (some markets could hit those in an hour and others could take weeks). This may seem to contradict #3 but it does not. Its ok if markets have different stops and targets etc. as long as they were all dynamically computed and inputs (as opposed to a static predetermined number across the board).