Goodbye Finspreads jan 4th 2007

[JTrader]

Hi Splorff

I can recommend tradesation 8.1 as a good charting package, with the ability to program mechanical trading systems etc.

$199 per month for non brokerage clients, $100 for brokerage clients with $5000 in a tradestation futures trading account, and a maintenance balance of $2500 thereafter.

I have a bfutures trading account with them but have never used it, but just get the charts for less.

 

[splorff]

Sierra is a chart service. It does not provide data, you'll have to get that from somewhere else and download it to Sierra. IB does that free but, if you want an independent service you should get some advice so that you get the best for the price. There's, also , Sharescope, but I don't know the cost but you get data plus chart with them.There's, probably, a special platform where guys get together on here. If you ask on the live chat, as well, on how they get their data they, also, will give you some ideas.

Cheers

Split

Thanks yet again Splitlink. Yes I have seen that. You must subscribe for Sierra platform and again somewhere else for the data supply.

Sharescope is said to be one of the best. There is a one off payment of about £70 and a monthly subscription of about £10. Apparantly they also give a "Data mining " facility.

I think this means that you can search for features in current charts. So it would be possible to see all the chats in say the Dow with a doji sitting pretty at the top or the bottom. Dark clouds, hanging man, evening stars and more besides. Not sure though

 

[splorff]

I don't think it is a good enough excuse for any spreadbet dealer to say that "Client A" lost £X amount today because our server went down.

If the server of a direct market access broker went down (who have no vested interest in whether clients win or lose money), or the exchange's server went down - then this seems more acceptable.
But finspreads seem to have a vested interest in seeing clients lose money. Therefore if any spreadbet dealer says to a client - "I'm sorry you lost £x amount, it's not our fault, our server went down." I would be thinking -

A) Thats not a good excuse in my book.
B) Where's my compensation please.

The only way dodgy spreadbet dealers are going to clean up their acts is if they are made accountable for their failings.

What had happened to their backup server, and the backup server to their backup server? Were these all "down" also??

Hi JT . I agree.

 

[splorff]

Suggest you read the Worldspreads thread Splorff before you decide that they're the answer to your problems! They're still a bookie, so the fundamental issues still arise. Unless you've used all of your capital gains allowance this year, or are being taxed on an income basis as a trader, I suggest you concentrate first on honing your trading with the best and cheapest brokerage (eg IB) and only worry about the tax issues as they arise.

Thanks Jack
Off to do just that now.

 

[Paulds11]

Splitlink]Spreadbetters tend to be untrusting with their opposite parts.That, I believe, is the problem they have with placing their stops. They believe, with good reason, that they will be cleaned out in a spike action. The other option, though, is a terrible uncertainty and the stress must be enormous when bets are at stake.

I trade profitably with Fins, but with far smaller amounts and I am confident that I know what I am doing. Frankly, I feel thaf £100 betters are better served with brokers. How anyone can trade like that without stops is beyond my comprehension. You can't think of anything else, when in a crisis, apart from getting someone to answer the phone!

In 1987- the big weekend drop- James Capel, a reputable broker at the time, would not pick up the phone for me until things settled down a bit, on the Monday morning. Anyone trading without stops in that atmosphere must have had a nightmare of a weekend.

Regards

Split[/QUOTE]

Yes they did that to me the other day on the Nikkei, the graph did not represent the data or the numbers properly, I saw the mark approaching went to move the stop loss and was locked out of my account.. only to witness the movement get near and then my money debited at £600.... bang! just like that... I have lost most of my money learning the hard way the inadequacies of the system they provide "charletans" if only they are straight and upfront about everything.. I didnt read anywhere

 

[Splitlink]

Thanks yet again Splitlink. Yes I have seen that. You must subscribe for Sierra platform and again somewhere else for the data supply.

Sharescope is said to be one of the best. There is a one off payment of about £70 and a monthly subscription of about £10. Apparantly they also give a "Data mining " facility.

I think this means that you can search for features in current charts. So it would be possible to see all the chats in say the Dow with a doji sitting pretty at the top or the bottom. Dark clouds, hanging man, evening stars and more besides. Not sure though

You are talking about Sharescope's EOD service which I have. The monthly charge is about £14, The real time one is more expensive, some people say too much, so you need to investigate.

Split

 

[Vorbis]

You are talking about Sharescope's EOD service which I have. The monthly charge is about £14, The real time one is more expensive, some people say too much, so you need to investigate.

Split

Sharescope Gold is indeed £14/Mth, the upgrade rates are here

 

[JTrader]

HI splorff

ive had broadband for 2 years but am using tiscali dialup this week while virgin transfer my broadband account to a new address.

I can't believe how slow dial-up is, even with the tiscali dial-up accelerator.
I'm quite angry with myself actually, thinking about all those wasted hours waiting for web pages to load when using dial-up pre-2005. I coulda/shoulda/woulda been on broadband since 2003.
Although I only traded with dial-up for about 6 months previously, but only smallish stakes.

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

HI splorff

ive had broadband for 2 years but am using tiscali dialup this week while virgin transfer my broadband account to a new address.

I can't believe how slow dial-up is, even with the tiscali dial-up accelerator.
I'm quite angry with myself actually, thinking about all those wasted hours waiting for web pages to load when I used dial-up pre-1995, when I coulda/shoulda/woulda been on broadbad since 2003.
Although I only traded with dial-up for about 6 months previously, but only smallish stakes.

when I migrated broadband services earlier in the year I went and stayed at my folks for a couple of days to use theirs rather than try and trade through dial-up!

 

[splorff]

HI splorff

ive had broadband for 2 years but am using tiscali dialup this week while virgin transfer my broadband account to a new address.

I can't believe how slow dial-up is, even with the tiscali dial-up accelerator.
I'm quite angry with myself actually, thinking about all those wasted hours waiting for web pages to load when using dial-up pre-2005. I coulda/shoulda/woulda been on broadband since 2003.
Although I only traded with dial-up for about 6 months previously, but only smallish stakes.

Strange how we get used to something and just never question it.

Anyway, I am waiting for the broadband goodies to arrive any day now. It won't even cost me anymore. Its still £14.99 with Orange.

 

[splorff]

You are talking about Sharescope's EOD service which I have. The monthly charge is about £14, The real time one is more expensive, some people say too much, so you need to investigate.

Split

Hi Splitlink
Sharescope gets a good press, are you happy with it? I found this on another thread. It seems pretty good. It costs nothing initially, and lets you evaluate the package.. There is even a free evaluation period of 7 days. If you want it ,its 14.6 Euros per month, whatever that is.

It does the data mining thing too. Which is better I wonder ?

http://www.prorealtime.com/en/

 

[Jack o'Clubs]

Splorff,

The Sharescope website lets you download a trial version for free (with old data) - so you can see how it stacks up and if it does what you want. Why don't you have a look yourself and compare?

 

[Splitlink]

Hi Splitlink
Sharescope gets a good press, are you happy with it? I found this on another thread. It seems pretty good. It costs nothing initially, and lets you evaluate the package.. There is even a free evaluation period of 7 days. If you want it ,its 14.6 Euros per month, whatever that is.

It does the data mining thing too. Which is better I wonder ?

http://www.prorealtime.com/en/

If you are trading an index, maybe you should look at a real time charting package.- I am happy with Sharescope Gold but I trade UK shares and buy them, too. I don't think that I need more and I look during the day at Big Charts, which is delayed by about 15 minutes, still good enough for me, though. More leisurely stuff, not wheeling and dealing like you guys I, also, use the Fins charts, not being convinced that they are as bad as you guys suggest.

I use the data mining and you can, also, sort the columns, which I find more useful.

Split

 

[fibonelli]

I tried Sharescope Gold and found errors in the FTSE100 on 6, 20 and 21 April and personally found the screen layout to be not very user friendly.

I am using ProRealTime EOD costs £0. My view is that it has a better set of TA data mining tools and the ability to create your own TA indicators, screeners and backtesting as compared to SS Gold.

Obviously SS Gold wins on the fundamental indicators but I use Digitallook for data mining the fundamentals.

 

[pulsoft]

I have just had an extra 10 stop loss pips taken by Finspreads today...

Today I decided I was never again going to use Finspreads. I went long at about 12430. I don't use stops as I prefer to just watch whats happening with a book for company. It was going well about 27 points in my favour. Things then started to change for the worse. It started to nosedive. I hung on but was getting concerned. Suddenly The screen was no longer live, with no fresh updating. I didn't know where I was.

I turned the computer off, as I must to use the telephone. I called Finspreads. They must have been busy, as it was a while before I got an answer. I told the lady what was happening. Another wait, while she connects me to a dealer. Again I tell him what is going on. I am told that the server is down. Politely enough I told him what I thought of the service. The line then becomes dead.

I ring them again and got through the whole thing again. Then I'm talking to a dealer again. Yes the server is down he tells me. What about my bet I tell him. I havn't a clue whats going on, and I am long £100 per point on the Dow.

He wants my account number, post code etc. Eventually I discover I am nearly £4 K out of pocket. I get him to close the bet. As there is no point leaving it run as I cannot see what the hell is happening, and it could easily get worse.

Finspreads have a spread of 6 points. Therefore I placed £600 in their hand that day. Thats a tidy sum of money considering the little they do. I think the service considering its cost, is really crap. Servers- whatever they are, should not be going down or anywhere else for that price.

It really is just not good enough. To cap it all the Dow closed at 12480. I would have made 50 points 50 X100 = £5000. So, Ive lost about £9k all in.

The previous week while in a bet, they did the same thing -down server. Then I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Once yes, but not twice. Good bye Finspreads.

* IF YOU ARE A UK BASED SOLICITOR WITH AN INTEREST IN SPREAD BETTING / TRADING i WISH TO SPEAK TO YOU.*

These guys are no better than legalised crooks.

Like others on this post I have regularly suffered from server down time (last 3 months). With the amount of money they make from spreads and supposed gapping on stop loss settings you would think that they could afford top of the range servers and IT staff to keep them up and running. My other feeds never fall over at the same time so it must be Finspreads.

Is anyone interested in getting a major body of evidence together and reporting Finspreads to the relevant regulator?

 

[JTrader]

These guys are no better than legalised crooks.

Like others on this post I have regularly suffered from server down time (last 3 months). With the amount of money they make from spreads and supposed gapping on stop loss settings you would think that they could afford top of the range servers and IT staff to keep them up and running. My other feeds never fall over at the same time so it must be Finspreads.

Is anyone interested in getting a major body of evidence together and reporting Finspreads to the relevant regulator?

Server down is just not an excuse, let alone a good excuse.
If their servers "are" down thats their fault and problem. They either need better servers or more backup servers.
Their backroom technical problems should not translate to client financial losses.

As mentioned, a local High School has 2-3 backup servers, so how many backup servers should any broker/dealer have?

I'd ask them to refund all losses that were due to their technical problems. If they don't agree to, I'd then report them to the FSA and whoever else who might listen to and take your problems seriously.

It seems that if finspreads was a restaurant, environmental health would have closed them down a long time ago.

 

[Pippppin]

I look forward to the first successful FSA investigation into SB malpractice

......(don't hold your breath)

 

[splorff]

These guys are no better than legalised crooks.


Is anyone interested in getting a major body of evidence together and reporting Finspreads to the relevant regulator?

Great idea. You can count me in pulsoft

 

[splorff]

I look forward to the first successful FSA investigation into SB malpractice

......(don't hold your breath)

Has anyone here ever had their money returned by finspreads after similar treatment by them?

Has anyone here engaged a solicitor to take legal action against finspreads ?

I'd love to hear from you if you have.

 

[hoogsy]

I had same problem with IGindex, i lost 4k , never paid them back, yeah i got ccj, but it was there fault, server crash and busy lines, if thats how want to be , fine dont expect any money from me, how you chaps ever go with spread betting company i dont understand, i hate them, will never use them again, there price are crap there spreads are crap, the companys are crap, stick to a normal broker.!