Currency Secrets

IFX Commerce Home Page

I was introduced to IFX Commerce (formerly CBFX) through AFXI when I asked the founder of AFXI (Michael Hoetzel) who he endorsed and why.

After reading his endorsement and reasons for why he chose IFX Commerce I decided to open an account through his organization which gave me free access to Intellicharts. You may want to do similarly if you would like to receive access to Intellicharts for free.

The original attraction and the most unique feature of IFX Commerce was that you traded with a bank not a broker. After having some negative experiences with other brokerage firms I thought that IFX Commerce would no doubt have my best interests at heart.

Live & Demo Differences

The first noticeable difference is that the spread offered on the live charts is 3 pips on the 4 majors whereas it is 5 pips on the demo. The 5 pip difference is actually not a bad idea as the live account attracts US$1.25 in commission round turn per $10k lot (which is the only contract size they have). Therefore if you have made money trading their demo account you would have made MORE money trading the exact same trades on their live account after their commissions.

What We Liked About IFX Commerce:

I personally found that IFX Commerce was less volatile than say other brokerage firms such as FXCM. What I mean by that is that other firms such as FXCM might fluctuate a few pips up and a few pips down and then return to where it first started - all within the matter of a minute or so. I found that with
IFX Commerce such fluctuations either did not happen, or did not move as much. Obviously when there were extreme movements of volatility I did find that IFX Commerce’s price moved in sync with other forex firms.

I must admit that while IFX Commerce’s platform looks a little aged it is very easy to learn. There is nothing sophisticated with the platform that a 2-year old could not understand, and the only qualm I have is that I wished the charting and news packages were better.

IFX Commerce provides users with only one type of contract lot - 10k. Leverage on these 10k lots starts at 100:1 provided your account balance is below US$25,000. Once you start tipping above
this limit your leverage drops to 50:1 and once you surpass a balance of US$100k your leverage drops to 30:1.

I definitely liked the 3 pip spread on the 4 majors (now 2 pips on the EURUSD), however, as commission of US$1.25 was charged on each currency (round turn) these spreads were one of the widest in the world.

We found customer support good - although one must keep in mind that they only operate between 9am and 5pm New York EST.

One other positive that we never got around to using, but others might, is hedging - you just need to notify them via email that you want this enabled for your account. We never really saw the purpose with this as it just meant more commission for them.

UPDATED: After looking at IFX Commerce since the change I have noticed that on the platform IFX Commerce have added a handy feature - a pure trailing stop! The only minor limitation to this trailing stop is that the trailing stop amount cannot be any less than 10 pips, but who trails with less than 10 pips anyway?? I think this is a great feature added by IFX Commerce and I have increased their rating because of this feature.

What We Didn’t Like About IFX Commerce:

We’ve already mentioned that their charting and news package was a let down, but another problem is that they don’t offer a whole lot of currencies. So if you’re looking at trading some exotics then this is not the broker for you.

At present they only offer 14 currency pairs:

• 4 majors: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY, USDCHF
• Other G7 nations: AUDUSD, USDCAD, NZDUSD
• Major EUR crosses: EURGBP, EURJPY, EURCHF
• Others: GBPJPY, GBPCHF, AUDJPY, USDMXN

If there’s one thing extremely annoying about their service it’s the commission of US$1.25 round turn per contract. In effect they really offer 4.25 pip spreads when you add the commission on the currencies that have 3 pip spreads. It would be great if they could reduce the commission, but they use this commission to help pay referrers.

Another problem was that you can only open an account in USD. This is fine for US traders, but can be a little annoying for our international partners who have a currency that is appreciating against the USD - which has been most of them throughout the last couple of years. Of course this can work the other way too. I think it would be great if a brokerage firm could offer the ability to have multiple currency denominated accounts so that the customer can have their capital appreciate over the long-term by transferring funds into the currency that will appreciate the best in the long-term. The client
receives the income from their trading activities, plus the appreciation of their capital. One broker that can easily allow clients to do this is Oanda.

One other annoying feature is that rollover positions are charged regardless of whether the position is to be charged or not! It seems that IFX Commerce take the positions interest that is due to you and charge you for the benefit!! This needs to change.

In summary then…
IFX Commerce PROS:

• You deal with a bank not a broker
• Platform is simple and easy to use
• 100:1 leverage with accounts up to US$25,000
• 3 pip spreads on top 4 currencies (including USDCHF)
• Customer support good
• Hedging available (you need to email them to have it enabled)
• UPDATED: Trailing stops

IFX Commerce CONS:

• Support available only during US trading times (i.e. 9am-5pm NY)
• Only deal on 14 currencies
• Charge US$1.25 commission per round trip per contract
• Can only open an account in USD
• Charting and news packages could be better
• Positions rolled over are charged whether or not they would have otherwise accrued interest

IFX Commerce Rating:

4/10

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