IG Index Trading Platform

[TonyQ]

I have been day trading the markets using the above Company. I have found, too many times for comfort, that the 5 minute price bars are able to spike and hit my exact entry point and within a flash turn around and move against me. Even more disconcerting is that regardless of where it is set, my exit stop loss is triggered in the same way.

Reviewing the day I can see these odd spikes that have caused me to enter the trade at the wrong point and exit in the same manner. The spikes stick out like sore thumbs. It happens far too frequently and at random selection points to be less than suspicious behaviour.

Has anyone else experienced this phenomena?

 

[Pazienza]

I have been day trading the markets using the above Company. I have found, too many times for comfort, that the 5 minute price bars are able to spike and hit my exact entry point and within a flash turn around and move against me. Even more disconcerting is that regardless of where it is set my exit stop loss is triggered in the same way.

Reviewing the day I can see these odd spikes that have caused me to enter the trade at the wrong point and exit in the same manner. The spikes stick out like sore thumbs. It happens far too frequently and at random selection points to be less than suspicious behaviour.

Has anyone else experience this phenomena?

What are you trading?

 

[x4x]

I have been day trading the markets using the above Company. I have found, too many times for comfort, that the 5 minute price bars are able to spike and hit my exact entry point and within a flash turn around and move against me. Even more disconcerting is that regardless of where it is set, my exit stop loss is triggered in the same way.

Reviewing the day I can see these odd spikes that have caused me to enter the trade at the wrong point and exit in the same manner. The spikes stick out like sore thumbs. It happens far too frequently and at random selection points to be less than suspicious behaviour.

Has anyone else experienced this phenomena?

I used to trade with IG, and whilst I don't like their spreads or their customer service, I can vouch for their prices - or at least I can for spot forex. I've always used 3rd party charts and have never felt cheated in the 10 years I was with them - in fact I have stayed in trades by 0.00001 on numerous (100's) occasions. Try checking the 'suspicious' prices with a 3rd party. If it is spot forex I'm happy to help - just shout out the times and I will give you the levels I have.

 

[brasil2000]

I used to trade with IG, and whilst I don't like their spreads or their customer service, I can vouch for their prices - or at least I can for spot forex. I've always used 3rd party charts and have never felt cheated in the 10 years I was with them - in fact I have stayed in trades by 0.00001 on numerous (100's) occasions. Try checking the 'suspicious' prices with a 3rd party. If it is spot forex I'm happy to help - just shout out the times and I will give you the levels I have.

TonyQ, please take x4x offer to help, I would also like to see your too frequently price spikes you are getting.

 

[TonyQ]

Trading Indexes and Commodities. Yesterday it was Gold. And the offending spike low at 1696 where my order was short.

Also, I have read on a separate thread that another party has suffered from the slowness of closing out IGM orders. It happened to me last year and cost me around $1K. I was ahead and tried to exit (BTC) but there was no response so I did it again and ended up with 1 long bet when the market was collapsing. And I had a hell of a job to close out in May 2010 when the market crashed and I was riding the trade down. Then I tried to close out and their system would not accept my order. That cost me around $2K in lost profit. Fortunately I remained about $3K up but it was still a bad event.

Does this sort of thing happen with other Brokers?

Back in time I used to do quite well backing and laying race horses. Then something went wrong and I was losing every time. I stopped but later discovered there was a betting ring involved with the jockeys who were deliberately pulling their horses from winning having laid them on 'Betfair' with the best odds. I fear that this sort of fiddle might be happening to us naive day traders.

 

[x4x]

Trading Indexes and Commodities. Yesterday it was Gold. And the offending spike low at 1696 where my order was short.

Looking at IG charts their lowest bid price was 1691.8 (14.55 BST)

Intertrader quoted 1691.65 / Alpari 1691.85

so I can't see anything suspicious there. I would advise you seriously consider using 3rd party charts in the future - this should stop any doubts by verifying IG's prices.

 

[tommog]

That happens in the live market too, especially when day trading.
The odds of IG artificially moving their quotes up or down to stop you out are pretty slim, why bother. Also bear in mind, if you are short and they make the price spike up, they have just given extra profit to all the people that are long.

Very occasionally they will have a imbalance of buyers vs sellers but they have algorithms automatically hedging their exposure in the underlying, again, why risk taking an outright view with the firms money when they have a guaranteed income stream from the spread.

So taking in to account all these factors its still possible once in a while (like once a month) they could pull a crafty trick but honestly, they dont care whether you make or lose on a trade by trade basis they know they will earn off the spread if you trade with them long enough.

I suggest, cut your size and have a wider stop or wait for the markets to calm down a bit

 

[TonyQ]

As I said, it happens far too frequently to be ignored. I can't cut down because I stake only the minimum required. I have read several adverse comments about IGM over the past few days and I'm interested in hearing if this problem occurs with other brokers. At the moment it is only IGM that have the black marks.

I can't see the spike actually helping those Long any more than they would have been.

I think, the only way this could happen legitimately is that there are a shed load of Limit Buy Orders around that point. I shall now experiment with Limit Buys rather than Stop Sells.

I guess I shall try Buying 1 on a Limit and Selling 2 on a Stop below it with a contingent Stop Loss at the Limit order position, just in case. Unless anyone else has a better idea.

 

[brettus]

As I said, it happens far too frequently to be ignored. I can't cut down because I stake only the minimum required. I have read several adverse comments about IGM over the past few days and I'm interested in hearing if this problem occurs with other brokers. At the moment it is only IGM that have the black marks.

I can't see the spike actually helping those Long any more than they would have been.

I think, the only way this could happen legitimately is that there are a shed load of Limit Buy Orders around that point. I shall now experiment with Limit Buys rather than Stop Sells.

I guess I shall try Buying 1 on a Limit and Selling 2 on a Stop below it with a contingent Stop Loss at the Limit order position, just in case. Unless anyone else has a better idea.

Did you see the previous post? Gold went as low as 1691.8 and you got filled at 1696 short. What's wrong with that fill? How about next time you get filled post it and we'll have a look and tell you if it was right or not.

Who are you comparing your prices with to make sure the price didnt actually get there?

 

[Rossini]

As I said, it happens far too frequently to be ignored. I can't cut down because I stake only the minimum required. I have read several adverse comments about IGM over the past few days and I'm interested in hearing if this problem occurs with other brokers. At the moment it is only IGM that have the black marks.

I can't see the spike actually helping those Long any more than they would have been.

I think, the only way this could happen legitimately is that there are a shed load of Limit Buy Orders around that point. I shall now experiment with Limit Buys rather than Stop Sells.

I guess I shall try Buying 1 on a Limit and Selling 2 on a Stop below it with a contingent Stop Loss at the Limit order position, just in case. Unless anyone else has a better idea.

Hi Tony,

I experienced funny dealing with IG in 08 when everything was kicking off (however, I think this was due to my internet speed at the time).

But since then (and inc this huge volatility currently) IG have always been perfect. Even when trading with some size I have always been filled and not experienced any spikes you are talking about....

Having said this I personally would always invest in a good charting package (tradestation, prorealtime, etc...) as then you can be dead sure that the prices you trade from are 'real'.

Ross

 

[welshguy]

i have the same problem with ig i had 2 deals that went wrong on me today while scalping and it cost nearly 1200uk where had it canceled where it should have cancelled i would have been approx 200 down but the inability to close let them borrow a grand off me i am very suspicios of this action as it only happens when profitable guess they have to pay their wages on fridays

 

[brettus]

i have the same problem with ig i had 2 deals that went wrong on me today while scalping and it cost nearly 1200uk where had it canceled where it should have cancelled i would have been approx 200 down but the inability to close let them borrow a grand off me i am very suspicios of this action as it only happens when profitable guess they have to pay their wages on fridays

I've never had a problem with their prices, but when you get to larger size they start rejecting alot. I've had my trades rejected a lot with them and i have been only accepted when it goes against me at times. I think certain traders at IG accept my larger bets better than others. If you're trading that size though, you should be trading DMA.

 

[welshguy]

thanks for that brettus
not quite ready yet but soon will be

 

[Rossini]

IMO internet speed plays a large part in the quality of the fills, if your seeing lagging prices its only fair that they should reject them....

You can easily get 100-200pp off on IG (no re-quotes, slippage or rejections), wonder what kind of size you guys call large? Must be market moving size ;-).

 

[brettus]

IMO internet speed plays a large part in the quality of the fills, if your seeing lagging prices its only fair that they should reject them....

You can easily get 100-200pp off on IG (no re-quotes, slippage or rejections), wonder what kind of size you guys call large? Must be market moving size ;-).

I've had problems with 50-150. That' what i consider large.

 

[Rossini]

Out of interest what markets? And when?

 

[brettus]

Out of interest what markets? And when?

USDCAD, EURCHF. Never had a problem on indicies. EURCHF they rejected my trade 3 times in a row.

 

[TonyQ]

Did you see the previous post? Gold went as low as 1691.8 and you got filled at 1696 short. What's wrong with that fill? How about next time you get filled post it and we'll have a look and tell you if it was right or not.

Who are you comparing your prices with to make sure the price didnt actually get there?

You should look at my actual entry point on the 5 minute Bar @ 1555. It was uphill from there.
My beef is that the price bar dropped sufficiently to exactly trigger my sell order then immediately rose. One time is acceptable but this has happened to me at least 5 times in the last month, and even more before that. This was the last straw for me.Clearly all is not perfect at IGM, to say the least about it. Given the other comments about their platform proves it is too suspect for me and I am dumping them.

Can anyone recommend another Broker?

 

[anley]

You should look at my actual entry point on the 5 minute Bar @ 1555. It was uphill from there.
My beef is that the price bar dropped sufficiently to exactly trigger my sell order then immediately rose. One time is acceptable but this has happened to me at least 5 times in the last month, and even more before that. This was the last straw for me.Clearly all is not perfect at IGM, to say the least about it. Given the other comments about their platform proves it is too suspect for me and I am dumping them.

Can anyone recommend another Broker?

It will be 100% the same with other brokers.

You seem to be blaming the broker and the market for your losses. I mean if you get filled at 96 on stop and it trades down to 91.2 (or whatever it was) and then quickly rebounds, how can anyone be blamed apart from you for putting the order where it was. Do you think a billion $ market is worried about your position?

Chances are you're putting your orders in at textbook levels, ie the levels where the boys KNOW there's a good chance plenty of stops will be. Their MO is therefore simple, run the stops, accumulate their positions and then the market rebounds and often very quickly.

And do you know or think about WHY the market might rebound so quickly?

If yes, then good, but if no then you need to think hard about how the other market participants are positioned and what their orders or lack of them might mean for future price movements.

 

[TonyQ]

It would be appreciated if you would actually read what was written THEN add your comment. Quote "You should look at my actual entry point on the 5 minute Bar @ 1555" Now, if you would look at the 5 min bar exactly 1 hour earlier @ 1455. The LOW of that Bar is 1692.1 (I don't show a low 0f 1691.2 that day, which raises my eyebrows even further).
My SELL Stop was actioned 1 hour AFTER that AND the price NEVER fell back to that level. Have a look at it and tell me it's not uncanny that I pick the exact turning point again.

To re-Iterate, my beef is that it is just not the Once nor the thrice but much more than 5 times this has happened since July 1st. Either I am incredibly unlucky and manage to pick the precise turning point on the Indexes and the Metals or there is something unsavoury going on. Either way, IGM is a jinx on me and I will dump them and try another. Also, I am not blaming the Broker for my losses. Yet! But I am suspicious of the operation of their platform. I know it is possible to manipulate on-line casino gaming software to the casinos advantage and so it is done with several off-shore un-registered outfits. Because of this, I see no reason that it cannot be done with any software.

You say that it will be 100% the same for all Brokers. Do you actually know that for a fact, having tried all of them or is it your assumption that they will be the same?

Now, can anyone else recommend AN ALTERNATIVE brokerage with a good platform and free decent charting software with a Demo account facility to test them. This is all I really want to know right now as IGM and me are far from being a match.