CMC Deal4free spreadbet

[ragingcat]

Recently I started trading actively in UK shares and I had call from their dealer to say that I am sending multiple orders quickly within 20 seconds and that is not allowed. I thought this was ridiculous. He said you should place one large order rather then splitting them and sending multiple orders every 5 / 10 seconds.. I told them that look I do not decide to do £50 a point in one go. I look at Level II and chart and decide to do another and another. But it seems their system is not capable of handling repeat orders.

What I find that if you send a large order say £50 per point (AZN) they seem to take more then a minute to confirm or re-quote, By that time the price has moved against you and they quote you a price which is against you. I have never had a re-quote which was in my favour. Did anyone had a requote in their favour! LOL

Is their any one who use CMC and what is your experience. I have heard that as soon as you start making some money they really watch you and make it difficult for you to trade profitably.

Your views with CMC and any other spread betting company appreciated.

 

[neil]

Use the "Search" facility here and you will find CMC are regularly discussed.

Perhaps you might be better off using CFD's or Direct Access?

Hope this helps.

 

[olwenh]

ragingcat,

whether you like it or not they are in the driving seat.

Whatever you do, make sure that you go along with what they have told you & don't place lots of small trades.

It happened to me & what they will do is they will intercept EVERY trade you make & hold it. It was a nightmare & I went from doing very well to losing quite a lot.

I'm now in the process of changing the way I trade - I used to scalp but this is no longer an option because I can't get in & out they way I like.

Best of luck

o

 

[stevespray]

Ragingcat - This has long been a subject of much discussion with regard to several of the spreadbet companies but most often with CMC. It would seem that orders over a certain size are routed for manual dealing, this results in dealers checking prices and depth at a time after you have submitted your oders. This can of course lead to the price not being available when it was available when you submitted your orders. CMC then refuse the order and offer a requoted price. It's my experience that requotes often went against me but seldom for me. I raised this point with them and they asured me that chances were 50/50. Of course I dont believe that personally.
I would seem that whoever is regulating this business is un-aware of certain things that really go on under the surface. I'm currently in a dispute with IG Index after they refised to allow me to close a Dow bet because the market moved inbetween me submitting my orders and the dealer reviewing it.
If I really had to hazard a guess at what was going on behind the senses at these places then it would be something along the lines of the following....
Firstly a customer opens an account and deposits cash or takes a credit option. Then they are allowed to trade on the basis of instant fills at quoted prices - this is generally the service that the company in question advertises and this of course is the side that all these magazines that dish out awards see. At this point you are expected to lose more than you make so they let you get on with it. If however you start to show some good profits they start to take a closer look at your account and how you are trading. They are trying to work out if you are just plain lucky or if you have a system. They are also looking to see if your trading strategy might be in someway inhanced by trading on their platform. If they suspect that you are doing any of the above they can alter the flaggings on your account. This normally takes the form of manually quoting you on all prices or atleast lowering the level of the stakes at which you get instant fills. In simple terms they are introducting a time factor between you submitting the trade and them filling it. In this time factor the market may move, obviously they are then in a position to see if the proposed trade is going in your favour or against you - you can guess what they do next !
It would seem that with most of these companies will slightly move the goal posts if they start to see you winning on a regular basis. If you still win they'll move them some more. It's no different to the bucket shops of NYC and Boston in the late 1880's. They attempted to slow the winning punters down by increasing spreads and slowing fills etc.

Until these companies are correctly regulated thses dirty tricks and sharp practices will continue IMHO. It would seem that there arent the relevent people available to oversee these companies operating practices. Even compliance departments don't have a grasp of their own rules and regs.

Steve.

 

[JonnyT]

These Companies are regulated by the FSA.

However I do not think that FSA stands for Financial Services Authority. More like

F'in
Sh1t
Act

They just don't seem to have any teeth.

JonnyT

 

[stevespray]

Afternoon JonnyT......The consenus does appear to indicate that the FSA has no teeth but at this point let me recommend the Financial Ombudsman Service - their service is free to use and after speaking with a number of their staff I suggest that they do have a better idea of whats going on than people appear to suggest. They are investigating my complaint against IG Index and the adjudicator in charge of the case does appear to be getting stuck right in. I shall obviously inform the board of the developements as the case proceeds.

Steve.

PS Their webaddess is....

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

 

[absmith1]

Are these sort of problems (re-quotes) less with a CFD account. Are the odds more in your favour?

I am having problems placing stop/limit orders near the quoted market value. I am always forced to place the order too far away and I am missing too much profit because of this. So I am considering a CFD account, but wll be upset if this is still the case (I can not see why this should be, but am cautious).

Andrew

 

[neil]

Here is a CFD site that may suit you. It seems to offer market prices for trading. Commission is about £9.90 I think.

https://uk.etrade.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+Home

Compare with other CFD providors who are linked to spread bet firms or brokers. You may prefer one of these others.

Hope this helps.

 

[stevespray]

If you are talking about CMC CFD's then I am afraid they are part of the same company.

Steve.

 

[Senseless]

I have had a long experience with IG with both their CFD and Spread Betting and have never experienced your problems. My trades may not be as large as yours £10k average for CFDs and £4k for spread bets.

I never used the D4F/CMC platform because I was and I am still very unhappy about the terms of the quotes i.e. you have a quote, but its executed at market, rather than what you see on the screen.

I understand that IG provide the CFD/Spread betting back end for a number of "independent" providers.

 

[stevespray]

Senseless - I'm pleased that you have had no trouble from IG. As you say, maybe your stakes have been small. In fact I had no trouble from IG whilst I acted in a manner which suggested that I was a small bit part player but as soon as I started to really place some serious positions the leopard show its spots ! The fact is that they advertise a service and then claim they can act differently. They claim that "the price you see is the price you get" but when pressed respond with "we can refuse any bet at anytime for any reason".....thats great when they keep you waiting for almost 1 min on a bet based on a futures market ! (Especially when the order is to close a bet). I wonder what they would say if I suggested to them that I could wait 40 odd seconds before deciding if I could except of reject a quote on a futures market, of course they wouldn't be able to adjust that quote in that timeframe ! Who would win then ? The fact is that when push comes to shove they don't even bother to obey their own terms and conditions. If you challenge them on the issue they just make stuff up that isnt written in the T&C. In my case its extra clauses which entitle them to refuse my instruction to close an open bet. If You could see the letter I have from their legal department it would make you do two things.....firstly - laugh....secondly - Trade somewhere else.

Steve.

 

[dolton]

I supose in time, if these practices are not regulated the newspapers/media will write a bad press..I have not personally suffered sharp practice during my SB's, but hey! £1-£4/point
ain't whats its about apparently.............

IMHO

 

[stevespray]

dolton _ I accept your point and maybe in time you maybe right however the spreadbetting community expressed as a percentage of interested readers is very low in terms of a nation publication like a national newspaper.
"What about the specialist publications" I hear you say ! Well, just look at the companies that advertise in them. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours !

Steve.