GBP Spread Up, Litecoin Down at FXCM in March 2019

FXCM Group today reported its execution quality metrics for March 2019, which showed mixed performance across its average ‎spreads and Slippage Slippage In financial trading, slippage refers to the difference in price between the price an order was intended or expected to be filled and the actual price an order was filled. Slippage is a very contentious issue among retail traders, which can lead to issues. Many traders view levels of slippage at brokers as a key determinant for their business. For example, in forex trading, if a trader places a trade intending to enter a buy on the EUR/USD at 1.1080, but they only get into the market at a price In financial trading, slippage refers to the difference in price between the price an order was intended or expected to be filled and the actual price an order was filled. Slippage is a very contentious issue among retail traders, which can lead to issues. Many traders view levels of slippage at brokers as a key determinant for their business. For example, in forex trading, if a trader places a trade intending to enter a buy on the EUR/USD at 1.1080, but they only get into the market at a price Read this Term rates for cryptocurrency and certain FX instruments.‎

FXCM also published its price improvements/slippage statics for March 2019, which ‎showed the following highlights‏.‏

• 69.2 percent of orders executed at price.
• 20.2 percent of orders executed with positive slippage.
• 10.6 percent of orders executed with negative slippage.

The company also reported on its execution speed, which is measured from the time a customer's order is received to the time of filling. The average order execution time was 21 milliseconds in March. Although an important factor in determining where orders are routed, it is only one factor. Some brokers may provide a good speed of execution but fail to provide price improvement or Liquidity Liquidity The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent Read this Term.

FXCM has also published its price metric for Q1 2019:

• 65.87 percent of all orders had no slippage.
• 23.32 percent of all orders received positive slippage.
• 10.82 percent of all orders received negative slippage.
• 64.91 percent of all limit and limit entry orders received positive slippage.
• 45.70 percent of all stop and stop entry orders received negative slippage.

According to figures stated in the report, the average spreads on the ‎EUR/USD, GBP/USD and XAU/USD pairs were 0.2, 0.8, and 35.1 pips respectively.

For the cryptocurrency pairs, the ‎company averaged 25.7 pips on BTC/USD, almost unchanged from February. However, March’s spread was significantly lower when weighed against the 44 pips the company charged when it first reported spreads metrics for its bitcoin instrument in July 2018.

For the Ethereum and Litecoin instruments, FXCM charged on average 1.8 and 0.54 pips, respectively, compared to 1.9 and 0.65 pips in the month prior.

The FX broker introduced the new asset type earlier last year when it began testing the service with its already installed Bitcoin offering.

Additionally, the online brokerage disclosed its Effective Spread statics, ‎which displays its quoted spread for its top FX pairs, and compares ‎the figures with actual spreads, at which trades were already filled, with the ‎difference being displayed in a table key.‎

The following table shows the exact figures in March: