FXCM Forex Feed

Ensign Windows includes a free Forex feed from FXCM (Forex Capital Markets), who is a major player in the forex markets.  This free feed has real-time quotes on the following 56 currency pairs.

The real-time feed from FXCM updates with every change in a Bid or Ask.  Ensign's implementation also has a refresh capability for tick based charts, intra-day, daily, weekly and monthly charts.  Tick refresh is available for the last 100,000 ticks on each symbol pair.  Intra-day refresh is available for the last 4 months.   Daily, weekly and monthly refresh is available for the last 14 years (from May 1993 for most symbols).

The coverage of symbols are 28 symbol pairs from FXCM, and the inverse relationship for these same 28 pairs.  So while FXCM broadcasts data for 28 symbols, the feed from Ensign will give quotes on 56 symbols.  These 56 symbols will show on the Forex market group quote page.  Click the big Q button for a quote page.  Click the Forex market group button on the bottom of the quote page to show the Forex Currencies.

Steps to take:

To get the FXCM feed, download the latest version of Ensign Windows.  Click menu File | Open | Internet Services and select the Download tab.

On this form, wait for the column of Version Dates to fill in.   Select the bullet for Ensign Program Upgrade, and then click the Download button.   The Ensign Windows program will download an upgrade, exit, and begin the installation.   Accept the default prompts which will install the Ensign upgrade.   When the installation is finished, rerun Ensign Windows.

Now click menu Setup | Connection.   Enter 10000 as the Port value, and  206.71.64.14 as the IP address.   Check the box for the FXCM feed and Ensign will connect to the Ensign servers and process the FXCM feed.  Uncheck the FXCM feed box to stop the data feed.   If you experience difficulty in getting the FXCM feed to flow, you might try unchecking and rechecking the FXCM feed check box .

Ensign's implementation processes the FXCM feed in parallel with the data feed you subscribe to.  You can have a feed from eSignal, IQFeed, CyberTrader, or Interactive Brokers and optionally elect to also have the 56 forex symbols from FXCM by checking the FXCM feed checkbox.  The FXCM symbols will be automatic, meaning there is no need to enter any symbols on the Setup | Manager watch list.   Those who will use just the FXCM feed should select Ensign Internet as the Data Source.

Users are welcome to track the forex symbols from FXCM, even though they do not have an account with FXCM.  The feed is from FXCM to Ensign's servers in Salt Lake City.  When you connect to the feed, you are connecting to Ensign's servers, and not to any FXCM server.  The historical refresh data is also maintained in a database on the Ensign servers.

Symbol properties:

The symbol format will be two currency roots separated by a slash and have a + character as a suffix.  This will make the symbols from FXCM unique and not conflict with forex symbols from any of the supported data vendor feeds.

One word of explanation is that Ensign has imposed a 2 decimal shift on the Yen quotes.  This makes it standard with the way Ensign quotes Yen currencies from our other data feeds.  The JPY/USD+ quote shows 0.83794 when the actual price is 0.0083794.   The extras 2 leading zeros in the price just make the price harder to read.  So Ensign quotes it as 0.83794 by multiplying the actual quote by 100.  This format is easier on the eyes and mind and takes less space to show on a chart scale.

Forex is 24 hours, so here is example market hours page for the EUR/USD+ symbol.

The forex symbols can be shown on quote pages, snap quotes, time and sales, and charted in any time frame.

Ensign is charting the changes in the Bid price.  There is no volume with each tick, so a default volume of 1 is used.   The volume that shows is a tick count total and it is treated as at the Bid on a down tick and at the Ask on an up tick.

Why do quotes differ?:

Equity and Futures traders are used to prices being the same at any given time regardless of which firm they are trading through or charting provider they are using and often assume the same holds true for spot FX. Because the spot FX market is decentralized, meaning it lacks a single exchange where all transactions are conducted, each FX dealer (market maker) may quote slightly different prices on their markets.  Therefore, any prices displayed by a third party charting provider, which does not employ the market maker's data feed, will reflect indicative prices and not necessarily dealing prices.

Market watchers, such as S&P or ESignal, compile indicative quotes as a proxy for the actual market movement.  These prices are derived from a host of contributors such as banks and clearing firms, which may or may not reflect where FXCM's market is.  Ensign Windows uses the FXCM data feed from their Order To Go dealing desk.