Ternion Financial released its HAX (Heikin Ashi Cross)technical indicator today.  The HAX isbased on the Heikin Ashi algorithm and does a little more than a typicalindicator and a little less than an expert advisor. 

You can register to get a free copy of the HAX, completewith documentation, on Ternion’s website. 

FXDD announced today that it will be enabling fractional pip pricing for demo trading effective August 1, 2010 and for live trading effective August 15, 2010.  The move to fractional pip pricing is becoming more popular in recent months.  AC-Markets, FXCM, IBFX and others have already made the switch and retail traders are adjusting.  

For those of you who aren't quite sure what fractional pip pricing might mean to your trading, rest easy.  It simply means that prices will be quoted with an extra digit to the right of the decimal point.  So if you are used to seeing the EUR/USD as 1.2738 it might now be quoted as 1.27385.  Yen based currencies, which had previously been quoted with 2 decimal places are quoted with 3 in a fractional pip pricing system.  So the USD/JPY formerly quoted as 88.25 might now be quoted as 88.256.

The smallest price movement used to be the pip but in a fractional pip pricing system, the smallest price movement is now one tenth of a pip (or point).  This means that spreads can now be quoted in fractional pips also.  So, more competitive brokers who formerly quoted a 3 pip spread on a currency pair might now quote 2.8 to get a jump on their competition.  

When I switched from IBFX to AC-Markets it took me a little while to get used to fractional pip pricing.  Not only did the Market Watch window look different but I had to modify all my technical indicators and expert advisors to ensure that they ran on both a standard pip system and a fractional pip system.  Now that the changes have been made I am a lot happier with trading fractional pips.

Ternion Financial LLC, an Atlanta based currency trading firm, will begin a phased release its series of technical indicators this week.  The indicators serve as the core of Ternion's library of proprietary Metatrader 4 expert advisors.  The initial manuals and technical indicators will be available for download to the trading public on Friday, July 16th.  The first expert advisors will be released later this month.

For further information, go to Ternion's website at www.TernionFinancial.com. 

FXDD announced today its successful registration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and its newly enacted status as an official member of National Futures Association (NFA). Going forward, FXDD will operate as a fully registered Forex Dealer Member (FDM) in accordance with the rules and regulations of CFTC and NFA.

“We have always focused on compliance and made sure we were up to speed on new changes in the applicable rules and regulations. Throughout the registration process we worked closely with the NFA and came to appreciate the hard work and effort the NFA staff puts in to manage a firm through the registration process. Needless to say, I am glad that we’ve finally obtained member status. This is a very important and long awaited moment in the life of our company,” said James E. Green, Chief Legal Counsel and Head of Compliance for FXDD.

FXDD, headquartered in New York City, is a leading online foreign exchange trading firm dedicated to providing superior customer service, powerful trading technology, and reliable streaming liquidity. We provide our services to individual and institutional traders, hedge funds, commercial entities, brokerage firms and money managers around the world. FXDD offers 24-hour Forex trading by way of its trading platforms, which include: MetaTrader, MTXtreme, FXDDTrader, PowerTrader and FXDDAuto. The Company’s services currently provide competitive interbank pricing, no-interest accounts, and fully automated execution. FXDD also provides competitive bid-to-ask spreads (2-3-wide on most majors for retail platforms and 0-2 pips on most majors for institutional platforms). 

This week I've been focused on the upcoming MetaTrader 5 release but other things have still been happening in the Forex world.

Here's what happened on Turtle Soup this week:

 Monday, 8th
George Soros said that China's influence will grow faster than expected

Tuesday, 9th
GAIN Capital's FOREX.com Named Best Retail FX Platform by Profit & Loss Magazine for Second Consecutive Year

Wednesday, 10th
Alpari launches forex trading platform in India
Persian Gulf Monetary Union Agreement is finally signed
MT5 Series Part 1: MetaTrader 5 Offers Market Depth Data

Thursday, 11th
Crown Forex appeals regulator bankruptcy ruling
MT5 Series Part 2: A Sneak Peek At MetaTrader 5

Friday, 12th
Oanda Loses Alexander Shirokov to CIBC
MT5 Series Part 3:Bigger Profits With MetaTrader 5 Expert Advisors

Next week, a video interview with Stanislov Starikov, the chief developer for MetaQuotes' MQL4 and MQL5.