Bitcoin Spread on FXCM Soars as Market Remains Volatile

FXCM, a Jefferies Financial Group-owned FX and CFDs brokerage, published its trading execution statistics for February 2021, reporting much wider spreads for the BTC/USD pair. The broker offered peak, and non-peak spreads, of 68.1, and 67.3 pips, respectively, for the crypto-fiat-pair, while the effective spread remained at 61.8 pips.

The spreads for the pair were much higher than what FXCM offered a month ago at an average of 33.9 pips. The BTC/USD spreads have been rising on FXCM for a few months now, and with the latest jump, it has surpassed the average industry benchmark of 45 pips.

However, it is to be noted that the bid-ask spreads of crypto-fiat pairs are rising across the trading industry with the increased Volatility Volatility In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad In finance, volatility refers to the amount of change in the rate of a financial instrument, such as commodities, currencies, or stocks, over a given time period. Essentially, volatility describes the nature of an instrument’s fluctuation; a highly volatile security equates to large fluctuations in price, and a low volatile security equates to timid fluctuations in price. Volatility is an important statistical indicator used by financial traders to assist them in developing trading systems. Trad Read this Term of the pair due to the latest swings in the Bitcoin price.

Other than Bitcoin, FXCM offers Etheruem and Litecoin trading pairs, the offered spreads jumped to an average of 3 pips, and 0.5 pips, respectively. Further, the broker charged an average of 1.0, and 0.3 pips, respectively, on these two Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term in January.

Trade Execution Improved in 2021

While crypto spreads keep rising, the order execution on the brokerage platform slipped marginally from the previous but still remains strong from last year’s average.

FXCM revealed that 64 percent of its orders in February were executed at price, which is down from the previous month’s 65.2 percent. Additionally, 23.5 percent of the remaining orders were executed with positive slippage, while the outstanding 12.5 percent received negative slippage.

Another important execution metric highlighted by FXCM was the execution speed, which signifies the time between the placement of the order and its execution by the brokerage. This number with an average of 30 milliseconds improved significantly from last year but saw a slight dip month-over-month.