MB Trading now offering MT4 with ECN

[MBT_Justin]

Hello Everyone,

This is Justin LeBlang from MB Trading. I just wanted to let everyone know we have recently released MetaTrader 4 into to Beta with our ECN execution. We’ve taken the user-friendly front-end trading interface and added the execution that the market has been looking for. We’ve turned off the deal-desk functionality of the platform and made the executions as true as our systems can handle.

More INFO: MB Trading

For my first post I’m going to do my best to clear up some questions I feel you might have from what I’ve read so far, but please feel free to fire away at me or contact me directly at justin@mbtrading.com

To Sign Up for the Beta:

At this time we are requesting that everyone interested in signing up for the Beta, please email me at justin@mbtrading.com including a brief description of your Meta experience and contact details. I will forward on your information to the appropriate Meta rep. Your Meta experience and feedback will only help us improve the product.

Regarding the Quotes:

• Live quotes in Nav and Live quotes in Meta are the same.
• Demo quotes in Nav and Demo quotes in Meta are the same.

So for example, using the EUR/GBP. Let's say that the quote is 0.9040 by 0.9050 at the bank level (which is probably wider than it would really be during European, but let's give that example).

Now, let's say in the Live environment, one of our customers places a Limit order to buy 10 EUR/GBP at 0.9045. That now becomes the bid, so the quote in the live environment is now 0.9045 by 0.9050. But demo would still show 0.9040 by 0.9050. A 5 pip difference. Note that the same would be true in reverse if someone in Demo put a buy limit at 0.9045. The live quote would still be 0.9040 by 0.9050 because obviously the demo order isn't real for a live trader to hit.

So those are the only differences you'll see in quotes, which is the same as comparing our Nav demo quotes to Nav live quotes.

Regarding Back Testing:

When we come off of Beta, we will have years of back data available. In the meantime, there is about one month's data, and some of it has gaps from when we put code updates on the server.

We will not be installing the back data until we go live for a variety of reasons, one of which is that it still gets messed up as we continue to update our bridge with fixes.

Regarding Disconnects:

Please be advised that the Demo environment is constantly being updated with new features and code. This can happen at any point in the day as needed on our end. There was one update yesterday (Monday) around 6:30 pm EST and another one today around 1:00 pm EST. When the updates occur, they can cause orders in the system to stick, be unclosable, etc. Obviously, we don’t do this in the Live environment, which is now entering Beta anyway. But in the Demo environment, it will continue to happen once or twice a week for the next few weeks.

Other Items:

·Please don’t open an account with us right now with the intent of using Metatrader. As the OnLine Application states, that is for Navigator only. We are currently in Beta in MetaTrader only, which requires a specific process that five people use to get set up (and then another 5, and then another 5).

·Midnight maintenance does not exist in Meta Demo, but it currently does exist in Meta Live Beta. Before Meta comes off of Beta, we expect that midnight maintenance will no longer exist across the board for all Nav and Meta environments.

·If anyone has a group of traders that would like us to discuss Meta with them in a webinar format to help answer questions and spread them to the community, please let me know.

I think that’s a good start, why don’t we go from there and see what else you would like to know about at this time.

Hope to hear from you soon.

[fxtrendline]

how about spread ? still 1 pip ?

[MBT_Justin]

Originally Posted by fxtrendline

how about spread ? still 1 pip ?

Yes and less. If you visit our homepage you'll be able to see the live quotes and the current spreads.

[abgcompu]

I don't really think that MBtrading will have the MT4 platform soon. I think the whole thing is marketing strategy.
I know so many people who would be willing to move their accounts to MBtrading. If they were really serious about it, it would have already been setup.
Right now, they don't even have an idea when this will be implemented.

[oilfxpro]

Justin

How secure are our funds?

O D L , ALPARI,FXCM, ACTIV trades etc are covered by the FSA scheme.

Who guarantees any of our funds?

OILFXPRO

[MBT_Justin]

This is Justin from MB Trading. I saw this note and I thought it was a little strange. We already have a few hundred people trading Live and over 8000 people trading in Demo on MetaTrader 4. The platform has already been operating perfectly for weeks. However, with the FIFO rule pending, we had to hold off because MetaQuotes will change how the servers work to adjust for the new rule, but their update is not compatible with our bridge, so we then need to update our end after theirs. Until that is done, there is no point in taking the product off of Beta or adding anyone new. However, from April until the first week in July, we were adding 25-50 people almost every week. Your comment is unusual because you suggest it was a marketing gimmick. If we never intended to release the product, how good would that work for us in the long run? We posted the Beta on our website back in January after almost a year of working to integrate MT4 with us. We’ve had three months of heavy demo users testing and finding bugs, and then several months of live testing. However, this FIFO situation is really a much bigger problem for Meta than it is for us (our Nav platform requires almost no changes), so they had to solve their side first before we could get to work and adjust our end.

[abgcompu]

I appreciate the clarification Justin.
The reason I said this is because I opened an account with MB trading back in march of 09. I did this because I was told the MT4 platform was going to be available to me once it was ready. Until now, no one has ever told me that the platform was already in operation and I was left out.
You may be right, but in my eyes it feel as though they wanted me to join and start trading with the navigator (which I hate), get use to it and keep dreaming.

I have been calling and chatting with the MT4 platform support for months. At least once a week. No one took the time to explain what you just explained to me. All they keep saying is that they have no date.

Your answer kind of makes sense, but it does not answer the question why I was not part of those that are currently trading live with the MT4 version.

But your tech support people are very friendly.

[MBT_Justin]

Originally Posted by abgcompu

I appreciate the clarification Justin.
The reason I said this is because I opened an account with MB trading back in march of 09. I did this because I was told the MT4 platform was going to be available to me once it was ready. Until now, no one has ever told me that the platform was already in operation and I was left out.
You may be right, but in my eyes it feel as though they wanted me to join and start trading with the navigator (which I hate), get use to it and keep dreaming.

I have been calling and chatting with the MT4 platform support for months. At least once a week. No one took the time to explain what you just explained to me. All they keep saying is that they have no date.

Your answer kind of makes sense, but it does not answer the question why I was not part of those that are currently trading live with the MT4 version.

But your tech support people are very friendly.

In the past, when we needed beta testers, we would send a message to a list of traders that had requested information on going live with MT4. Normally we would have a set number of traders we were looking to add and the moment we reached our goal, the application was closed. The past 4 times we did this, we reached our goal within hours of notifying everyone. So I apologize you were not on the list, but if you can still be added by emailing me directly at justin@mbtrading.com.

[abgcompu]

Originally Posted by MBT_Justin

In the past, when we needed beta testers, we would send a message to a list of traders that had requested information on going live with MT4. Normally we would have a set number of traders we were looking to add and the moment we reached our goal, the application was closed. The past 4 times we did this, we reached our goal within hours of notifying everyone. So I apologize you were not on the list, but if you can still be added by emailing me directly at justin@mbtrading.com.

Justin,
Thank you for assistance. I will email you once I have a chance.

[MBT_Justin]

Hi Everyone,

This post is to address questions and concerns about the current state of MT4 and is directed at no one particular person, but rather post from multiple sites.

1) We have a couple of hundred Live Beta users. The Live environment has been functioning now for four months. We’ve had no issues with trades, connections, or anything in the Live environment for over a month.
2) When rolling out a software product, we can’t just look at one day and say, “OK, no issues, we’re good to go.” We have a threshold of number of days in the Live environment without issues to meet before we can go wide with the product. It is safe to say that that threshold had been met by the trading in the last month. We have a lot of extremely active Live users employing active EAs as well as manual traders.
3) The issue now is FIFO. Because of that new rule, MetaQuotes needed to update their software, which includes the Meta Servers and the Meta Client (what you use as a customer) and other components. Keep in mind that we are not a desk, so whatever their solution was going to be, the issue was whether or not their changes would affect how our “bridge,” if you will, worked with their new server implementation. Keep in mind that their fix completely changed how positions were handled, and that is all inside of Meta, which is deal desk software. We have to make it so that our bridge takes that information and properly applies it to orders passing through the ECN. We didn’t get the MetaQuotes FIFO update until less than two weeks ago. It came as no surprise to us that it completely threw off how our system interacted with MT4. So, we already had in motion a different solution, which we are now employing. This solution is actually more robust because it will continue to allow the full EXISTING (non-FIFO adjusted) functionality of the MetaTrader platform AND will now allow you to trade the same account through the Navigator if you wish and get your statements on-line like a Nav account instead of through MetaTrader (because our statements are FIFO-based and the MetaTrader ones aren’t).

While this requires no changes in how the orders interact with Meta and our ECN, it is a significant structural change at the backoffice side in terms of accounts and reporting. Obviously, we’re about done with the implementation. We were, as many of you know, adding Live Beta users almost every week up until about three weeks ago. We stopped that while we worked on this FIFO adjustment. Once it is complete, once again, we need to make sure that it runs fine with the Beta testers that we have and get any additional feedback. As no issues arise, then we will start adding Beta testers again, but since we already know the trading component is working, we won’t need to add too many before we take off the Beta label.

So there is your update. The rumors of issues with our MetaTrader are greatly exaggerated. For the most part, there is a reason that no one else has successfully separated MT4 from the desk features in the past. However, I can tell you that the people that are in our Beta, some of whom have commented on these boards, are extremely pleased with how it is working. By the way, for those that run EAs that actively trade both directions and are affected by hedging not working, we already have customers that have a solution in the Live environment. They are opening two accounts and adjusting the EAs to run the same variables but only trigger the longs in one account and the shorts in another. FIFO won’t really have an impact as it is really a reporting/statement issue from our perspective, so you should be able to use MT4 as it was meant to be used, with hedging handled by having two accounts, and no other limitations and no “deal desk” issues very soon.