Trader’s Professional Tool – ECN Terminal: Integral FX

Market Leader informed

 

With The Trading Account Called Integral

You’ll Become a Trading General!

Nord Group Investments Inc (Nord FX)

Forex is believed to be one of the most high-yield and relatively fast ways to make decent money.This is a fact. However, in the foreign currency market, like in any other sphere of life, we face inevitable risks that we have to take into account. An inexperienced trader often ignores this fact which unfortunately drives him or her to endless losses. Their more experienced peer knows that the main thing in the Forex is to be patient, psychologically stable and… your own person. Complete with a reliable broker, the trader’s guide in the stock market, this all will play into your hands and Forex will ultimately become a gold mine, an inexhaustible source of income for you. But, dear friends, this may happen only after you demonstrate the characteristics above, deny any thought of ‘freebie’ and treat Forex as a serious job. On its own part, a reliable broker that has modern internet trading technologies at hand will help you achieve positive results.

NordFX is appropriately in the vanguard of trading technologies as it currently offers the widest variety of platforms – from MT5 to Integral – that meet the needs of both beginner traders and professionals.

In this respect, Nord Group Investments Inc (Nord FX) emphasizes major ‘elements’ of a modern trader’s success and believes that before starting to trade real money in the foreign exchange market, each trader has to know:

1. WHAT to do (have information about the market conditions, be able to analyze the current situation in the market, have title and opportunity to execute trades);

2. HOW to do this (know the basics of stock exchange trading and use modern trading tools and instruments to execute profitable trades);

3. WHERE and the best way to effectively use a certain trading instrument.

In other words, a professional trader:

• HAS accurate information about what is going on in the market;

• CAN forecast possible behavior of the market in the near future based on analysis of this information;

• SEES what other market actors are doing;

• CAN join or exit action;

• KNOWS how to join or exit IN TIME.

Notably, Integral trading terminal is part of electronic communication networks (ECN) that have been increasingly popular among traders recently as they offer minimum costs of market entry.

Only the select could be successful pros in exchange trading before ECN was created. After emergence of electronic trading platforms it became much easier to be a professional trader as in this way one needs no intermediaries (market makers) and can trade on the bid-ask basis between sellers and buyers.

A special trading terminal, Integral, linked to ECN and offered by NordFX allows the trader to ‘live’ online trading on global exchanges and being among the first to learn economic and political news.

By working through this trading terminal, the trader can:

1. regularly receive accurate information;

2. discover, forecast and monitor market trends during analysis in a timely matter;

3. monitor behavior of market actors and analyze how it may result in development or dying out of the new tendency.

It should also be noted that Integral trading accounts are intended for professional traders sufficiently experienced in trading in financial markets and prepared to trade directly in ECN Integral through NFX Trades or FIX Protocol.This account is characterized by the narrowest banking spreads and small fees charged per trade and paid separately.

Beginners who apply to NordFX and would like to trade using electronic networks should be aware of one peculiar feature of the ECN algorithm – prioritization based on price/time algorithmic dependence for selection of buyers and sellers (a high bid and a low ask mean a prioritized position, when the price is equal – the priority is based on the time of data input in the system).

Any electronic exchange trading system is built on a classical three-element principle:

1. The workplace, the trader station. Traders use their terminals to participate in trading, get information about the current market condition and execute trades themselves (place buy or sell orders);

2. The Communications Link provides for dialog-based information exchange between the trader and the central exchange;

3. The Central Exchange System processes, stores and consolidates all market data and executes traders’ orders.

 

ECN Design

ECN was primarily designed to provide traders with continuous guaranteed lawful access to the system and high speed of information exchange between the trader and the system and, most importantly, significantly cut costs directly related to the very trading process.

It should be noted that the dynamic database in the central system stores a huge volume of information about market activities and tendencies. Operations of traders and the very system operating for you are built on these data effectively and with a certain guarantee. Moreover, access to the database offered by the system to clearing houses and their members allows more careful supervision and timely receipt of data for risk analysis and control which, in turn, mitigates concerns that the state authorities and the public may have about use of unfair trading practices in the system.

As an illustration, let’s analyze a trader’s operation in the ECN Integral FX.

Accessing the system

The electronic exchange trading system, Integral FX, has an authorized access feature. Besides, it can ‘independently’ administer access rights. Most interestingly, the system ‘monitors’ appropriate and lawful connection in general, not only at first attempt, but routinely, with random regularity.

So, if the trader carries out appropriate authorization action, Nord Group Investments Inc grants them access to ECN Integral FX through the NFX Trades platform almost immediately upon login.

Viewing market information

Integral FX offers the trader real-time information about the market situation in three ways:

1. Market Window. It reflects traded positions with bid and ask as well as the number of traded instruments given for each position. The user can also use individual settings selecting current trading conditions and peculiarities they need;

2. Trading news (Trader Ticker). This is a place where information about the trader’s use of the system is concentrated. For example, the system’s verification tests, the system’s error messages related to data input or order placement and, most importantly, this is where the system sends notices of trade execution.

3. Market news (Market Ticker). It reflects information about the market condition in general. The user can select and organize preferred information in a graphical way they find convenient.

Placing control actions (orders)

The trader may easily give an order to the system even with a single click of the mouse. By consecutively selecting the position in the Market Window and then the order type from a dropdown list box the trader sets an order ‘at their discretion’: either with standard or special conditions (through the Order Input menu). Then the trader presses Enter to send the order to the system.

When placing the order in the system one can select the order type (through the Order Types menu). For example the All or Nothing order means that exactly the quantity of currency in a certain position should be realized (purchased or sold). This order is automatically cancelled unless this happens. Be aware: if you notice the Acts Before Cancellation filter in the order it will remain valid until you cancel it or the system offers a counterparty to execute the trade. If this does not happen or you ‘forget’ to cancel this order you’ll have to wait till the close of the trading session when it ‘automatically expires’.

Executing trades

Integral FX enables the trader to select any trade execution method they find convenient. For example, this can be Continuous Trading with a continuous flow of orders from the trader while the system constantly selects counterparties for trade execution. You can also use the bidding method when bids and asks under a specific position are collected within a certain period of time following which the system establishes an ‘aligned’ (average) price for this position and all trades are made at the price so established.

Order log

All trader’s operations are recorded by the system in the order log that the trader may use to keep records of and monitor orders sent to the system.

When working with the order log you can request data on orders sent to the system and monitor their execution (Order Enquiry). To make trading more convenient, Integral FX offers a unique feature – you can additionally modify orders that have already been placed in the system or cancel them altogether (Order Amend/Cancel).

When keeping records in the Scratch Pad mode, you can create an order chain scenario and then send them for execution to the system in one batch or, if required, recall from it.

You can convert effective orders into other formats by using Export and Import modes.

Distributing messages

The system constantly interacts with trader stations through a dialog. It continuously sends information about current bids and executed trades. Apart from system messages themselves the trader’s screen can also display information tickers of general nature with their messages to be taken into account during analysis.

Supervising trades

Integral FX allows exchange administrations and public supervisory agencies to control and analyze current exchange transactions in a timely manner as it records every order and every trade. That’s why, when required, the system administrator may use the Exchange Monitor to request and receive any information kept by the system to have a trader’s behavior investigated.

Controlling

Simplest control parameters of the system - the time when the trading session starts and finishes. But there are also specialized modules. For example, the module for verifying the trader’s solvency.

We point out that the major advantage of electronic communication networks for exchange trading is absence of any time limits on trading – transactions can be made at any time of day and night. This ensures additional profits and maximum access to markets.

Another advantage of ECN – lower operating expenses, deeper information about the market (several ‘better positions’ are visible) and, of course, confidentiality.

ECN disadvantages include primarily low market activity at certain times of the day and, as a result, low liquidity that provokes and allows artificial market manipulations during this period.

There are also other problems. For example, the system forgives no carelessness or mistakes – one has to pay a rather high price for a misprint in an order placed in the system.

Disadvantages also include a large number of currently available ECNs because it is challenging for a trader (especially a beginner) to understand peculiarities of over 50 electronic exchange trading systems. Sometimes one has to work simultaneously with several different (and incompatible!) electronic platforms.

So, effort aimed at increasing compatibility of electronic exchange trading systems will be the next step in development of the ECN market, in our opinion. A powerful impulse for development of such systems will be guaranteed if the low trading liquidity problem is solved during ECN development. It will be unsurprising if the market creates a single global electronic exchange trading system – TraderNet – in which NordFX will take up a leading position!

We hope our article about the new trading terminal, Integral FX, cleared up some subtleties of trading through electronic communication networks for you.NordFX will continue covering latest exchange trading terminals in the next issue of Market Leader.

 

 

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