“If Done” Orders
When deal4free introduced “if done” orders some while ago I asked why they were only available on CFDs and not on spreadbets and was fobbed off with the excuse that it was prohibited by the FSA! Several phone calls to the FSA confirmed that this implausible story was just not the case. After all, surely it is in the interests of the consumer to have access to “if done” or “linked” orders to avoid the possibility of an entry buy stop being actioned without a safety sell stop then being inserted manually, thereby giving rise to potentially unlimited losses. I for one consider them an absolute boon and a definite aid to trading.
In practice an “if done” order translates into: “I’m going out to play golf now, so please stop me in long on the FTSE at £10 per point if it rises to 4500 but if it does, and I am stopped in long and therefore exposed, please also immediately put in a sell stop at 4450 to protect me and limit my losses if the market suddenly plunges while I am on the sixteenth green”.
Six months or so after my original enquiry I again approached deal4free and again was fobbed off. I contacted the FSA a second time and they repeated their original advice, also referring me to their spreadbet book of rules which incidentally can be accessed online at their website. True enough, there was no mention of any restriction.
Perhaps our contact at Capital Spreads can enlighten us as to why the spreadbet firms deny traders this facility.
When deal4free introduced “if done” orders some while ago I asked why they were only available on CFDs and not on spreadbets and was fobbed off with the excuse that it was prohibited by the FSA! Several phone calls to the FSA confirmed that this implausible story was just not the case. After all, surely it is in the interests of the consumer to have access to “if done” or “linked” orders to avoid the possibility of an entry buy stop being actioned without a safety sell stop then being inserted manually, thereby giving rise to potentially unlimited losses. I for one consider them an absolute boon and a definite aid to trading.
In practice an “if done” order translates into: “I’m going out to play golf now, so please stop me in long on the FTSE at £10 per point if it rises to 4500 but if it does, and I am stopped in long and therefore exposed, please also immediately put in a sell stop at 4450 to protect me and limit my losses if the market suddenly plunges while I am on the sixteenth green”.
Six months or so after my original enquiry I again approached deal4free and again was fobbed off. I contacted the FSA a second time and they repeated their original advice, also referring me to their spreadbet book of rules which incidentally can be accessed online at their website. True enough, there was no mention of any restriction.
Perhaps our contact at Capital Spreads can enlighten us as to why the spreadbet firms deny traders this facility.
