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Forex FAQ: General Forex

General Stocks

General Options

General Futures

General

How is Forex Trading with MB Trading Different?

MB Trading FX receives quotes from multiple banks, partners, and pools of liquidity, so we don’t create the spreads that you see. Our customers are displayed an aggregate of these prices in real-time which are immediately available. When you place a Market order with us, our award-winning proprietary routing system sends your order to the destination with the best available price. When you place a Limit order with us, we immediately post it for all clients to see. At MB Trading FX, there are No re-quotes, stop hunting, or any other trickery, just a fully transparent marketplace.
How Does MB Trading FX Make Money?

MB Trading FX offers two trading plans for Forex traders. With the EXN Pay for Limits plan, we charge 2.95 per 100,000 executed of your base currency for Market orders as a routing fee. With the Free EXN plan (available only on MetaTrader 4), we employ a markup, which means you pay no commissions and MB Trading receives a markup embedded in the spread as compensation. We offer base currency accounts for our Desktop application in USD, EUR, and GBP, CAD, and JPY denominations. The MetaTrader 4 platform offers only USD and EUR accounts. We are seeking to include additional base currencies soon, so you can trade within the currency that matters most to you.
How Do Spreads Really Work?

Brokers can charge either a routing fee or build the fee into the spread. Put simply, the higher the spread, the more it cost you to trade. Most spread-based brokers fix the spread as a way to include their fees in the price of a trade instead of displaying the quote being received from a bank or market maker. With MB Trading FX’s Free EXN plan there is a very small mark-up with the spread, but we still post customer limit orders for all to see, which can improve liquidity and narrow the spread.
How does your firm make money when offering spreads as low as .1 pip?

True interbank data provides clients with the ability to trade with the narrowest spreads. MB Trading FX Pay for Limit plan charges a small commission of $2.95 per $100,000 in currencies traded for their services. Accounts in some countries may be charged a higher rate. Please visit our commissions page for details. On top of all that, we also pay you for executed limit orders. Click HERE to see how it works.
How do I fund my account?

For complete instructions on funding your account, please see our Deposits page.
Where can I send my funding check?

Please make checks payable to MB Trading Futures. Include your 8 digit MB Trading FX account number in the memo field, and mail the check to MB Trading at:

MB Trading Futures
1926 E Maple Ave
El Segundo, CA, 90245
United States of America

*Checks made payable to just MB Trading or any other party other than MB Trading Futures will be returned.
What is the funding minimum when opening a new account?

The current account minimum is $400 and margin leverage is 50:1.
What is the minimum account value to place my Forex trade?

$200
Which currency pairs can I trade?

Click here for the current list.
What is the leverage amount available to me?

50:1 in the US. MB Trading UK will offer 100:1 leverage to international (non-US) clients only.
Do you allow scalping?

Yes.
Do you allow hedging?

No
Do you have a deal desk?

No, MB Trading FX does not operate a deal desk. We do, however, have an order desk (866.628.3001) for your convenience that you can use to call in trades or receive quotes for no additional fee. The order desk is available between 5:30pm ET on Sunday and 4:30 ET on Friday.
Why do I pay interest, when is it paid and how is the amount determined?

Trades settle in two business days in the spot Forex market. If you sell 10,000 Euros on Tuesday, you must deliver 10,000 Euros on Thursday, unless the position is held open and rolled over to the next day. As a service to our traders, we automatically roll over all open positions to the next settlement date at 5:00pm EST. Rollover involves exchanging the expiring position for a position expiring the following settlement date. The positions being exchanged are not valued at the same price. If a trader is long the currency bearing the higher interest rate, the position being "sold" is worth more than the position being acquired. The reverse is also true; if a trader is short the currency bearing the higher interest rate, the trader is acquiring a position worth more than the one being "sold". The amount of the difference varies based on the currency pair, the interest rate differential between the two currencies, and fluctuates day to day. At 5:00pm ET each day, funds are subtracted from or added to accounts with open positions because of this automatic roll over.
What are the hours I can trade foreign currencies with MB Trading Futures?

Please refer to the chart below:
Forex Session Times(all times EST)

Main session:
Opens: Sun. at 5:00 pm EST (Start time can vary)
Closes: Fri. at 4:58 pm EST

Trading suspended:
Mon. - Thurs. 4:58 pm EST - 5:06 pm EST

Securities products are offered through Manhattan Beach Trading Financial Services, Inc. ("MBTFS"), member FINRA, SIPC. MB Trading Futures, Inc. (MBTF) is a CFTC registered RFED and member of NFA. MBTF offers execution and settlement services for futures based products and off-exchange foreign currency (Forex) products. Trading in futures, options and Forex is speculative in nature and not appropriate for all investors. Investors should only use risk capital when trading futures, options and Forex because there is always the risk of substantial loss. MBTFS and MBTF are sometimes referred to collectively herein as "MB Trading."

¹MB Trading FX offers two Forex pricing models. Both models employ our RFED to client facing execution system with slightly different pricing and markup models. For purpose of clarity the two pricing models (Plan 1 and Plan 2) both operate on the same technology. The underlying technology is named The MB Trading Electronic Xrossing Network, abbreviated as EXN for the remainder of this disclaimer. The main differentiator between the models is twofold.

A. Difference in amount of markup or markdown of liquidity partner (banks) quotes when displayed to clients.
B. Commission Structure charged to client

Plan 1 or “Pay for Limit” plan employs the EXN technology in a commission model. This model charges a client 2.95 in their base currency per 100k of executed currency for market orders and pays a client 1.95 of base currency for posted, executed limit orders. In the Pay for Limits model, the term "Payment for Limit Order" refers to a non-market order which is not immediately executable and rests on the internal limit order book for some period of time, thus adding liquidity when another order of equal or greater value fills with the resting order.

Free Commission Plan employs the EXN technology in a markup only plan, which means that MB Trading receives a markup embedded in the spread as compensation. This plan does not add an additional commission, does not pay the client a rebate for posted liquidity as Plan 1 does yet does still offer the benefit of allowing the client to post quotes which is displayed to all other clients on Plan 2.

Additional information to note is that “Actual Total Paid to Clients” counter is kept on the company website which displays The Actual Total Paid to Clients currency number which is updated every five minutes and stops counting during the weekend when the market is closed. The number calculates from the launch of Pay for Limits, which was January 31, 2011.

Due to higher cost of business in China, “Get paid for limit orders” is not available for Chinese residents. All Chinese residents have a fee of 2.95 for all order types. Accounts with special commission rates are excluded from Payment for Limit Orders. There is a minimum fee of $0.01 for all Forex and spot trading orders that take liquidity.

MB Trading earned a 4.5 out of 5 star rating in Barron’s 2011 Review of Online Brokers, tying for the top spot overall. The company earned a total of 33.8 points, one tenth of a point under the top score. MB Trading also scored in the top three for separate categories of Range of Offerings, Trade Experience, Trading Technology, Usability, and Customer Service and Education. MB Trading earned a 4.5 out of 5 star rating in Barron's 2010 Review of Online Brokers. The company ranked second overall and tied for first place in the categories of Trade Experience and Portfolio Analysis & Reporting. The company also won the category of Usability. The company also tied for first place in the separate categories of "Best for Frequent Traders" and "Best for Options Traders."

*Real-time Forex Quotes are provided via the MBT Quote API. Quotes are available during platform hours from Sunday at 5 pm EST to Friday at 5 pm EST, except during the scheduled maintenance period from 4:58 pm to 5:06 pm EST. Extended maintenance periods are possible, and messages regarding maintenance are sent via the MBT Desktop, MBT Desktop Pro, and MBT Web 2.0 trading platforms. In addition, MBT begins MetaTrader 4 maintenance at 4:57 pm EST, one minute earlier.

MB Trading provides Google Translation of our website for educational or informational purposes for its international customers. The graphics, applications and some portions of the website are not translated. Customers must bear the sole responsibility of evaluating their regional translation before making any decisions based on such information outside of what the English version of the site represents.