IG Index Problem

Hi
First time posting!

I have been trading with IG Index for approximatly 6 months, 30 - 40 trades per month.
Today I have had a few issues and i need some advice.

I traded S&P, the trade moved into a modest £150 profit, I then attempted to close it, the screen froze, I rebooted and cleared the PC Cache. Still nothing. I called the IG Index help desk who said it was my issue and would transfer my to a dealer to close the position at this point he mentioned that my position had moved against me to the tune of £2000. He patched my to a dealers line and it simply t=range out for 2 - 3 minutes before i was cut off. I telephoned the helpdesk again to be told that my position had closed on the stop I set, now down £3,000. I was livid, I explained what had happened and was told that it was really to bad.

I was advised to send an email to the helpdesk explaining everything which I have done. I trade 3- 40 trades per month with an average of £750 per pip. Losing a trade to me is part of the day, I win more than I lose etc.

Does anyone have any history with such a situation especially with I Index, I need some help.

They havent responded yet so It is to soon to say if they have been fair or not. I simply wish the trade scratched.

Sorry for being so long winded.....

You could complain about the time you were on hold on the phone and they may give back the diffence between the price when you were transfered and the stop price, but it does seem that it's more your problem than theirs and i wouldn't be surprised if they did nothing.

3000 risk for 150 profit
nice

£750 per pip and a gain of £150, hardly moved then, surely at those levels, you trade with a guaranteed stop, IG offer that, would seem a tadge suicidal without that, I would have thought, unlucky and good luck in attempting to redress the issue.

basically it was my second trade of the day, first netted £7.5k second was thought to be a correction but it ulimatly moved against me, I trade with a 4 pip stop. It was more that i could not close my position and being left with a ring tone to the dealer was a nonsence. I would be happy if they refunded me 1k (the position I was at when cut off?)

OK, your computer can break, your telephone line can be cut, you could have virus problems on your computer, power cut in your area on an emergency. If you are just messing around £1 per point, then it doesn't matter too much. But you are 750 per point. That is a serious amount of money, and because it is big money you should have plenty of backups.

You should have an alternative broker/spreadbet firm in case IG has a failure. You should have your broker's number. You should have a phone/iphone/ipod/blackberry/second computer with a dongle/whatever can give you access to the internet if your main computer goes down, so that in an emergency you can still close your trade.

I have a backup broker and I'm not trading at anywhere near the size you do. Anyway as Dinos said, it hardly moved in your favour at all. It is not nice when this happens, I have sympathy, but it can happen on any company.

You are right to be annoyed about the dealer not responding to you.

Calinor - all good advice, i do have a back up PC - in fact I trade with multi PC / Screens, i also have a mobile and I have a Datacard, the issue was not that My pc lost connection or the phone line went dead, it was that the connection to IG Index was frozen, all other sites and my data streams from esiginal etc was fine. The phone line was working - it was the fact that when it counted I could not close my position via the online platform or the Telephone as the dealers were busy or not answering - 3 minutes with a ring tone is a long long time when you are wanting someone to answer it. I also cannot use another broker to close a position I have with IG Index .

However anyone reading this should note your advice.

Call me cynical, but any spread bet company won't likely be very helpful in this situation if you're been profitable recently. If you were a consistent loser, however, I'm sure they would be extremely sympathetic.

im sure you are right, im hopeing they are pragmatic, IG work on a .7 spread thats £525 per trade 2 trades per day 3 - 4 days per week, thats £3 -4k on the spread alone in revenue. If they are not fair with me I will close the account and move. I lose trades - like everyone. I just feel that if I want to close a trade in a resonable time that I can. IG Index im sure will look at the situation, they record calls and will know that I attempted twice to close the trade and see the time against the charts versus my position at the time.

Just remember they are 'SPREADBETTING' companies. i.e. Bookies!!....need I say more???

Alot of spreadbetting companies do not hedge 100% of bets. I've heard of some that are rumoured to hedge only 60%!!! Glitches, freezes and spikes are not unheard of when circumstances possibly 'dictate'.

There are only a few spreadbetting companies that hedge 100% of their positions and you have to bet the equivalent value per point as with the particular instrument from the futures market as they hedge with these contracts. These companies only make on the spread. Prospreads is one of these companies I believe.

Buyer Beware......and as ever....never bet with more than you can afford to lose!!

Keep your stops tight and may your winners run for ever!

I also cannot use another broker to close a position I have with IG Index .

Click to expand...

Of course you can't close the position with IG, but you can take up an opposite position to hedge yourself which effectively closes out your position, except that you had to pay an extra spread.

this can happen also if u trade futures through direct access , the platform can freeze and u will lose the same way and nobody will listen to u , this is trading live with it , anyway if u trade 750 pound per point in SP500 i think u should go direct access cuz the spread is 0.25 point instead of 0.7 point at IG , and u can join the bid and the offer which will cut cost , and sometimes maybe u can earn spread instead of paying spread ...

Irrespective of this issue, IG should rebate you some of the spread you cross. For example, if I was an introducing broker with IG and you opened an account and put through this kind of volume, I would get a rebate of a quarter of all your bid/ask. Suggest a rebate feature to IG otherwise take your money elsewhere.

I have noticed lately that using ig index with mozilla browser the session will crash just as a big move is going in my favour. Only their platform, while others on 2nd and 3rd screens on same comp and internet feed are perfect. I am trying not to become too paranoid that they are causing this. This has been happening since my trading has become more profitable.
I have experienced the freezing up thing once or twice. I left mds spreads and paddypower because of this. The whole platform freezes while the ticket tells you to wait. Meanwhile you are unable to cancel the deal or change it, the screen finally comes back to you when the danger to them is over.

I have noticed lately that using ig index with mozilla browser the session will crash just as a big move is going in my favour.

Click to expand...

I have never had this issue with Firefox, you could try increasing the size of the cache and also clearing the cache before logging into IG


Paul

Thanks Paul. I am not all that with the techy stuff. Would you mind explaining how I would do that please. I'm running windows xp.
Thanks
Andy

Click on "Tools"
Select "Options"
Select "Advanced"
Click on the tab labelled "Network"
Increase the size of space highlighted in the first mauve coloured box
Click "Clear Now" to empty the cache which is highlighted in the second mauve coloured box


Paul

bsmart21 said:

Calinor - all good advice, i do have a back up PC - in fact I trade with multi PC / Screens, i also have a mobile and I have a Datacard, the issue was not that My pc lost connection or the phone line went dead, it was that the connection to IG Index was frozen, all other sites and my data streams from esiginal etc was fine. The phone line was working - it was the fact that when it counted I could not close my position via the online platform or the Telephone as the dealers were busy or not answering - 3 minutes with a ring tone is a long long time when you are wanting someone to answer it. I also cannot use another broker to close a position I have with IG Index .

However anyone reading this should note your advice.

Click to expand...

Yes I agree completely with Calinor. I get cold chills up my spine every time I read posts with this kind of huge stakes. This without any proper backup strategy (hedging possibilities), it will only lead to certain ruin, if it continues for a longer period of time. With all respect, are your bets covered by any money management strategy? The reason for me asking this is, you didn't have any secondary SB at hand, from which you can exit in case of problems, like the one you have mentioned.

:idea:

Paul and tar.
Thanks for the replies , i will give it a go tmw and hopefully sort things out.
Cheers
Andy