The full & fair story on @MBTrading #FX #trading

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I had a plan on Friday and, in the end, I got exactly the move I was looking for..

I started shorting AUDJPY Friday from 82.46 to 83.03 for 7 lots total. I'm still currently short 10 lots AUDUSD & 6 lots EURUSD mainly on hopes / expectations of a dollar bounce in the short term..

Once in awhile this is the way I trade.. as dangerous as it may be..

Usually the REASON I find myself trading this way is because I am convinced, for whatever reason, that what I am seeing is pure stop hunting to punish shorts..

Thus was the case Friday, certainly with AUDJPY shorts..

I began shorting AUDJPY as it was challenging the daily 13 EMA and the tenkan and kijun. 13 EMA looks a lot different now than it did on Friday.. As AUDJPY blasted through that resistance I admit I got pissed and began adding to my position.

Was it revenge trading? Or was I merely still convinced that it was even more egregious stop hunting that I was witnessing?

Does it matter? I called their bluff and added. They ran it up all day long closing the day and the week at the day's high.

Still I held on because I'm stubborn like that sometimes.. The Primary Dealers and banks were applying an immense amount of pressure and by the end of the day I was facing about a 3% drawdown on total forex capital available (I currently have 2 accounts).

I decided to hold over the weekend, most with no stops, convinced there would be a sharp pullback off Friday's moves allowing me B/E at worst and some nice profits at best..

It's not because I enjoy holding positions over the weekend.. Especially with the middle east on fire and Japan lying in ruins. But isn't that what volatility is all about?

And isn't that what I was looking for? Aren't we all?

So, with some dread I admit, I awaited Sunday's open. I mean I was fully aware that the market could surge against me on the open. Which is why I had no stops.

But, to my pleasant surprise, All of my shorts opened the trading week not higher but lower at 5:00 pm EST, 4:00pm my time.

Immediately, with my shorts lower, I was interested in setting some stop losses above Friday's highs..

That's when I first got the 'No Connection' message on MB Trading's MT4 platform.

I have been trading this new MB Trading MT4 platform for 2 weeks now.

One day last week during the week MB Trading was down for well over an hour on just the rollover period.. I had trades at the time and I did email them just to ask WTF? And got a very generalized reply a day or two later about how trading is suspended briefly during the rollover period. "Forex Rollover / Premium automatically occurs each evening between 4:58 and 5:06 p.m. EST (Monday through Friday). During this time, users will temporarily be unable to trade." But as i said I was concerned last week because this brief period ended up being more than an hour long.

So anyway I blew that off and as time went by this Sunday after the open my shorts continued to move in my favor until all the sudden AUDJPY broke lower big time! Right before my eyes I had a staked out 423 fib extension being hit!

I panicked big time at that point. I mean my God! My prayers had been answered!

2 1/2 hours AFTER the open, 7:30 EST, I was STILL not ALLOWED to access or trade my account!

I sat there dumbfounded for a few moments. Then I realized the Primary Dealers and banks were beginning to COVER their shorts. That startled me back into reality quick and I grabbed the phone calling the MB Trading "Trade Desk".

What I got for my effort was very loud, very bad music blaring in my ear and an occasional recorded robotic sounding female voice thanking me for my "patience".

That went on for close to 30 minutes, while I watched the Primary Dealers and banks finish up their short covering and the market move 100 pips against me..

Then, finally, I got a human voice on the phone.. the MB Trading "Trade Desk" representative.

I'm sorry but by then I had run completely out of "patience".. I'm sorry but I was cursing a blue streak and really pissed off by then.

I mean when I was f'ing dying to close ALL my shorts, about 30 minutes prior, I was +700 pips on my AUDJPY short positions alone. Most of that was gone now and at least 2 1/2 hours after the open I was STILL unable to trade my account. Most of my rather large profits were already gone.

Of course it was some flunky on the phone that was absolutely no help at all. He seemed more concerned about my language than he did the state of my trades for sure.. In the end all he did was convince me that I had no choice at all except to close my MB Trading account. Because, apparently, Sunday went off without a hitch, I guess it is standard operating procedure for MB Trading to block access to the currency market for 2 or 3 hours on Sunday while the banks are in the market doing whatever TF they want.

He told me, because I asked how many banks were providing quotes for them, that they had 15 banks doing so. But due to liquidity and volatility issues they didn't have any quotes from the banks that were "good" enough to give to retail traders..

I guarantee you that those 15 banks were IN the market covering THEIR short positions for fat profits! And just why TF would they WANT retail traders getting in their way?!

The guy could not answer hardly any of my questions telling me that he didn't really know that much about the nuts and bolts of forex trading. He did inform me that I could call and talk to a "Trade Manager" on Monday. However he also informed me that MB Trading had absolutely no liability in the matter because it was all the banks fault. That it was the banks who were not connecting or providing "good enough" quotes.

How convenient and reassuring is that?

All that says to me is that either MB Trading is complicit and cooperating with the banks to intentionally keep retail traders out of the market until the banks have finished their feeding frenzy OR MB Trading is completely at the mercy of the banks and have absolutely no control of the most important aspect of their business.. Market access for their clients.

I asked the guy.. Why are other brokers getting quotes? Why are they able to take trades at the open?

He got a little huffy on that one stating that they were (implied evil) dealing desks who provided their own liquidity to their clients.

Now I have traded with FXCM for quite awhile, over 2 years now I know.. And sure no broker is perfect.. FXCM plays with the spread a lot! Widening it way out to prevent you from hitting targets during times of volatility. I know and understand most of the "tricks of the trade" FXCM uses against traders so I'm familiar with what to watch out for. But is my choice to be screwed by the FXCM I know or use an ECN that simply excludes me from trading entirely until the banks have finished up doing whatever it is they want to do?

I know that I could have at least closed my positions with FXCM. I did not have that option at all with MB Trading until nearly 3 hours after the open.

So.. how could MB Trading make this right and keep me as a customer?

#1> by guaranteeing me that I can actually trade my account when the market opens on Sunday

#2> they can close all the short positions I had open at a price = to AUDJPY 81.35

FAT F*CKING CHANCE!

They are not about to change the they do business because Ancient Warrior is pissed off.. That ain't the way it works.. LMAO

So.. I'll be pulling my funds from MB Trading and figuring out which alternative FX broker I want to gamble with next.. Looks like Oanda is the current leader there..

In all fairness I will give MB Trading credit for very tight spreads, an open and up front reasonable commision charge for market orders and they actually PAY you a commission for executed limit orders as a thank you for providing liquidity. So.. if you are a swing and/or position trader only maybe MB Trading would work out well for you. Especially if being locked out of the market for 2 or 3 hours after the open doesn't bother you.

I don't trade the way I did on Friday all the time or most of the time. But once in awhile when I am really convinced what I am seeing is punishing stop hunting I do.. In that case I simply MUST have access to the market when it is open. In FX a lot can happen in 2 or 3 hours time..