Currency Secrets

Once again CMS Forex have updated their platform. Be sure to log in early if you are a CMS user.

One interesting inclusion into their platform is a “Volume Value“.

I noticed when I first used some forex data vendors that some did provide what seems like a volume value in their forex data history, but upon further investigation I realized that the volume bar represented the quantity of ticks in the bar!

Having come from the stock market where volume meant something completely different I was confused. However, I’m glad I knew.

Here’s how you can check to see whether the volume value provided by your forex data vendor is indeed “volume” (in the general sense of the word), or whether it represents “tick” quantity - all you have to do is plot a tick chart with the volume indicator shown and see if the “volume” indicator changes, or has a greater value than 1 on each bar.

Here is an attached chart of CMS’ tick chart of the EURUSD…

Hence CMS’ volume indicator is tick quantity.

Capital Market Services (CMS) Home Page

What’s The Attraction?

I’ll admit that the very first thing about CMS that had me hooked was the ability to trade automatically. The platform utilized by CMS allows the user to create their own buy and sell signals along with their own custom indicators and have the software automatically trade their system according to the system’s rules. But, it’s not easy, and we think that while CMS has taken a step in the right direction, it could be some time before this platform is user-friendly.

Live & Demo Differences

As with other platforms we found no difference between the demo and live accounts.

What We Liked About CMS:

Several things I liked about CMS included the payment of interest on mini positions!

I also liked the live Reuters data feed for their news service - this is a major plus when trading as some large moves made in the forex market are due to unexpected news events, and the best way to find out what has happened is to look at live news (even if they are just headings).

The charting package by CMS is also very good allowing many different time frames, indicators, and even the ability to download the data.

Another benefit of CMS is the ability to have accounts denominated in other currencies besides USD, these include: AUD, NZD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD & CHF and the minimum balances
needed for each currency are extremely low (~300).

What We Didn’t Like About CMS:

Unfortunately the trading system aspect to the platform has a lot to be desired, however, learning how to write code isn’t too difficult (similar to MetaStock in a way).

Due to the fact that their platform is fairly intensive it is prone to bugs and fixes, therefore every month it seems CMS update their platform. So be sure to log onto the platform early on Monday’s in case they have conducted some upgrades over the weekend.

While learning how to write the code needed to programme your ideas isn’t too difficult be prepared to spend about a month learning it if you’ve never programmed before in your life. It isn’t impossible, just tedious.

In summary then…

CMS PROS:

• Excellent news & charting platforms
• Can trade a system automatically (if you can programme it)
• Accounts can be denominated in any major currency
• 100:1 leverage
• Customer support good
• Interest payable on positions held after 5pm NY EST (no matter what the size of the position!)

CMS CONS:

• The system development aspect of the platform needs further work, before I would allow the platform software to automatically trade my funds
• As they are constantly updating their platform expect more downtimes than any other provider

CMS Rating

CMS is definitely heading in the right direction. While they might take a few more months (possibly years) to get to where they would like to be I’d keep an eye on them and possibly even open an account.

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