CHF pairs during rollover on Tue 20/9

I encountered some strange scenario yesterday, which I imagine occurred because of some of the volatility that happened in the CHF pairs yesterday.

I was short usdchf @ 8908, with a stop of 8943 and a target of 8852. I had this position on my FXCM platform. Around the time of the rollover (10pm ish, GMT) you can see a huge spike down on all the chf pairs. The downward spike can be seen on eurchf, gbpchf and usdchf. I don't know why this happened.

The result was that my buy-limit order was filled at 8757.5 - giving me a profit of 150.5 pips (when my target had been a mere 56 pips) - I had not used big size on this, so this didn't turn me into a millionaire. However what concerns me about this is as to what could have happened.

I imagine if I had been long and had a stop to sell at 8852, and the market spiked down like that, then I would have been filled at 8757.5 for a huge loss. Can anyone comment as to whether this would have been the likely outcome?

What can cause a large downward spike of 100 pips like that when all of the london, new york and asian sessions are not active? It just doesn't seem feasible.

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help,
George

I will definitely try to have a chat with my contact at FXCM today to discuss this. It could potentially constitute a risk in my trading that I had been unaware of.

George, if you want to move these markets, precisely the best time to do it is when volume is light and none of the major centres are working their primary session times.


However, in this case, I believe it was due to invalid pricing provision from liquidity providers.

If you've made a windfall profit, I'd keep quiet. Your broker may well want to bust the trade.

options-george said:

I encountered some strange scenario yesterday, which I imagine occurred because of some of the volatility that happened in the CHF pairs yesterday.

I was short usdchf @ 8908, with a stop of 8943 and a target of 8852. I had this position on my FXCM platform. Around the time of the rollover (10pm ish, GMT) you can see a huge spike down on all the chf pairs. The downward spike can be seen on eurchf, gbpchf and usdchf. I don't know why this happened.

The result was that my buy-limit order was filled at 8757.5 - giving me a profit of 150.5 pips (when my target had been a mere 56 pips) - I had not used big size on this, so this didn't turn me into a millionaire. However what concerns me about this is as to what could have happened.

I imagine if I had been long and had a stop to sell at 8852, and the market spiked down like that, then I would have been filled at 8757.5 for a huge loss. Can anyone comment as to whether this would have been the likely outcome?

What can cause a large downward spike of 100 pips like that when all of the london, new york and asian sessions are not active? It just doesn't seem feasible.

Thanks in advance for anyone that can help,
George

Click to expand...

erroneous spike.

theres bugger all on the forums about this which makes me question who is actually live in this game....


"From Oanda

Our FXTrade system was provided with invalid pricing data (a situation known as a rate spike) for the following currency pair(s):

- USD/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:00 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:06:23 PM EDT
- EUR/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:13 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:06:08 PM EDT
- NZD/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:00 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:06:23 PM EDT
- AUD/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:00 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:06:23 PM EDT
- CAD/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:00 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:06:23 PM EDT
- SGD/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:00 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:06:23 PM EDT
- GBP/CHF, from September 20, 2011 5:02:00 PM EDT to September 20, 2011 5:05:17 PM EDT

Explanation: Invalid pricing for CHF currencies from multiple banks

When any trades take place during a rate spike, our system must reassess all trades that may be related to the spike (as well as certain standing orders and open trades). This reassessment requires that these trades and orders be closed, with new ticket numbers issued to reinstate the valid trades and orders.

The invalid pricing data triggered the adjustments to your account listed below. We tried to reinstate trades and orders to match your intentions, but please review the following details at your earliest convenience and check your account.

If you have any questions or concerns, please go to http://fxtrade.oanda.com/support/tro...ort_form.shtml and fill out a bug report to the OANDA Customer Service department.

Regards,
The FXTrade Team
OANDA Corp."

francisfinley said:

erroneous spike.

theres bugger all on the forums about this which makes me question who is actually live in this game....

Click to expand...

With respect Francis, please see my post ahead of yours.

On a separate note, posting on this site in not necessarily any indication of or qualification for being 'live in this game'. Indeed, some might suggest the exact opposite may enjoy a stronger basis in fact.

TheBramble said:

With respect Francis, please see my post ahead of yours.

On a separate note, posting on this site in not necessarily any indication of or qualification for being 'live in this game'. Indeed, some might suggest the exact opposite may enjoy a stronger basis in fact.

Click to expand...

I am on the bigger forums and researched twitter on the cause.

I have provided fact from one broker.

given the majority of brokers had the erroneous spike and there was very little info at the time about it, I think its a fair assumption to question who is running live around the world at a given point.

I can count on one hand the people that do and are profitable and if you consider the amount of people I have spoken to over the years, well...

bump. Had a telephone call with my broker. He said their audit team is onto it, and they will try and sort out all the questionable trades that resulted from the mispricings. He said they would make me good on my 'losing' trade.