Praise for IG Index

£10kLoser

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There's a lot of SB bashing here so I thought I'd report something good!

I'd bought the USD/CHF and had a limit in at plus 15 ticks. The market started moving erratically so I closed my position at +13, only to have IG say that they couldn't execute the order as another one was in progress.

Simultaneously, the surprise IFO sentiment came out and everything went wild (100 ticks on the EUR/USD) and the USD/CHF spiked up about 10 ticks and right down about 60 ticks - well past my stop.

So, I was thinking, 'Hmm, am I going to get stung here?' Five minutes later, they closed my position at my 15 points limit.

Now, these were non-guaranteed stops and even in the middle of spiking chaos, they honoured them in my favour.

Despite all the bad posts about spread betting, I've nothing but praise for IG and Capital Spreads, even when trading for serious money.
 
Yes I have moved over to them and the difference is stark. They come over as far more professional and straight forward.

I have not traded much with them so far but reckon from their attitude and client service I have recieved thus far, they stand out a mile better than CMC. I suppose the difference is same as between Pacific Continental and JP Morgan.
 
Ok I have to agree. IG are better than cmc.
As a long time trader with cmc They have fallen way behind. From the by days of screwing
the trader on non existent spikes and biased pricing they did improve. But they lack to give the trader the best tools. For instance if you draw a trend line on a cmc chart it will go out of sync if you zoom.

On the real time IG stuff it stays how it should be.

The only thing all sb's lack is volume on the charts... But would you want volume from a sb company and not from the whole market?

This is currencies I am talking about.

Surely with the information advances now available via the internet, the total volume must be available to the retail punter?
 
As long as the SBs prices truly reflect the underlying market, any movement will reflect the volume as shown in Metatrader, for example. I take all my signals from Metatrader charts and place my 'trades' with IG. Small inconvenience but I've never known any better!
 
Me too

anyone been on IG this morning. Can't get pure deal to open.....

Me too for about 2 hours. In the end I ran a cleaner to remove all temp files and it then worked but this could be coincidence.
 
I have just set up another account with CMC; They have a good deal on where I was recommended by Digitallook.com. I signed up and for the life of the cmc account I get free level 2 access and free access to MarketStars and all the subscription stuff on digitallook.com. Now market stars is £150 a year and Level 2 access can be costly. I thought it was too good to be true so I checked, and they assured me it's for the life of the cmc account. All I had to do was credit the accnt with £250; I could even take it back out the next day!

Now first impressions are that Market Maker is NO WHERE as good as IG's platform. It's bloody confusing to place an order. I placed a stop order today on an FX pair going short and as the market went lower the bet lost money?? I called CMC and they said to place a stop order is a 2 bet process. First you place the market bet then (contrary to common sense) you place a BUY order at the level above the price you want your stop to activate. So I did exactly that today (on their advice) and hey presto the price reaches the stop level and instead of closing the trade it acted as a buy order; So when the price starts sinking again the trade is still live and losing money???

I have written to CMC for shoddy advise and asked why it can't be as simple as IG's Platform. The fact you can't edit a stop on a live trade is daylight robbery too!

Or am I getting it all wrong? Advise keenly welcome
Grim
 
CMC and Stops!

Now first impressions are that Market Maker is NO WHERE as good as IG's platform. It's bloody confusing to place an order. I placed a stop order today on an FX pair going short and as the market went lower the bet lost money?? I called CMC and they said to place a stop order is a 2 bet process. First you place the market bet then (contrary to common sense) you place a BUY order at the level above the price you want your stop to activate. So I did exactly that today (on their advice) and hey presto the price reaches the stop level and instead of closing the trade it acted as a buy order; So when the price starts sinking again the trade is still live and losing money???


Or am I getting it all wrong? Advise keenly welcome
Grim

CMC are very good for long-term currency trades as you can roll over their spot prices almost indefinietely and almost free. That way, you can get a 2 or 3 pip spread comapred to IG's atrocious 10 or 12 point spread.

Are you using CMC's Marketmaker software or their inferior web based platform? You should be using the Marketmaker software - it takes a bit of getting used to but is actually very good. Here's how you input stops in marketmaker.

To place a stop and limit in CMC, we right click on the price window and click on ‘Old Style Ticket’. The reason that it’s called this is they updated the software! A window pops up. You need to set the Order Type to OCO – One Cancels the Other. This means that when either your Stop or your Limit is reached and the trade automatically closed, the other is automatically cancelled. In the early days, I used to put in a separate Stop and a separate Limit. A couple of times, I forgot to cancel the other one (particularly after the excitement of a win) only to find that it triggered an entirely new trade, unknown to me a few hours or even a day later. Very annoying unless you get lucky and it makes a profit by the time you discover it!

Leave the Duration at GTC (Good Till Cancelled); make absolutely sure that the Buy/Sell is set to the opposite of the trade you’ve just opened. Leave the Expiry at Rolling Cash but do change the Val(ue)/Point to the same as your trade. Then, crank the Stop to X (stop loss) points in the ‘wrong’ direction and the Limit to Y (take profit) points the way you want the market to go.

There is a very good 57 page (I think) handbook for Marketmaker...
 
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CMC are very good for long-term currency trades as you can roll over their spot prices almost indefinietely and almost free. That way, you can get a 2 or 3 pip spread comapred to IG's atrocious 10 or 12 point spread.

Are you using CMC's Marketmaker software or their inferior web based platform? You should be using the Marketmaker software - it takes a bit of getting used to but is actually very good. Here's how you input stops in marketmaker.

To place a stop and limit in CMC, we right click on the price window and click on ‘Old Style Ticket’. The reason that it’s called this is they updated the software! A window pops up. You need to set the Order Type to OCO – One Cancels the Other. This means that when either your Stop or your Limit is reached and the trade automatically closed, the other is automatically cancelled. In the early days, I used to put in a separate Stop and a separate Limit. A couple of times, I forgot to cancel the other one (particularly after the excitement of a win) only to find that it triggered an entirely new trade, unknown to me a few hours or even a day later. Very annoying unless you get lucky and it makes a profit by the time you discover it!

Leave the Duration at GTC (Good Till Cancelled); make absolutely sure that the Buy/Sell is set to the opposite of the trade you’ve just opened. Leave the Expiry at Rolling Cash but do change the Val(ue)/Point to the same as your trade. Then, crank the Stop to X (stop loss) points in the ‘wrong’ direction and the Limit to Y (take profit) points the way you want the market to go.

There is a very good 57 page (I think) handbook for Marketmaker...

Thanks very much for that 10K. I was a little confused today and the CMC bod on the end of the phone was some 19yr old who spoke with contempt for me not knowing what I was doing. Turns out he gave me duff gen! Thanks for the reply as there is nothing on the sire bar videos it seems?
 
Sorry 10K i tried it but it didn't work!
So if I want to short Cable at 19540 for eg I place a market order to SELL at X pp. That gets accepted.
Then, I open an OCO order for the same security but this time I BUY (opposite to trade) with a stop at say 19620 (above the order price to limit losses) and a LIMIT at say 19300 to take profits should it go that far?
God that seems complex. Give me the simplicity of IG's deal ticket any day?
Grim
 
10k,

"only to have IG say that they couldn't execute the order as another one was in progress".

This is a joke/wind-up isn't it?

Or perhaps their HR policy is "all-inclusive" in that they also employ out-and-out retards.

Grant.
 
There's a lot of SB bashing here so I thought I'd report something good!

Yes, I too have found IG excellent. They seem to be very reasonable regarding honouring stop/limit levels from my experience.

Having said that, you do read some horror stories which make you wonder whether it is quite as rosy all the time. I suppose these bad tales exist for DA brokers and SB firms alike though...
 
lost nearly 30k using ig index, why wasn't i stopped????

HI
This is my first message here.
I have lost nearly 30k since i started spread betting with IG Index few months ago. I started well at the beginning and then gradually lost all this money. Today I closed my account. It was such a stupid and expensive mistake to make. Of course deep inside I blame them about it. of course after myself. But considering I am on a salary of 30k per year before tax, its ridiculous that I was allowed to do it in the first place.
But hey, It happened and dont think I can do much about it except work my a... off and pay a loan for 20k and a credit card for 5000 (i also lost my savings of 4k that i had before my stupid attempt to sb_) my life is pretty much ruined for some years now as I havent got money to do anything else.
I decided to write this because I wanted to make people aware of the perils of sb, although we do not think it would happen to us, it happened to me, it clearly became a gambling addition. I didnt know when to stop, clearly should have been stopped by someone else. I wish someone stopped me.
I did trading with IG Index from the beginning. Never gave a s... about me, and even though they were getting a lot of my money, customer service was appalling.
I do think that I lost money because I am terrible at it and with no discipline, it just gets worse. But they should stop people from losing so much money. They knew my situation before. I hope more regulations are introduce in regards to this so other people don't do the same mistake as I did.
I havent told anyone about this as I am embarrassed. I dont have the courage to tell people what I have done cause its too embarrassing. Thank you for taking your time to read this. and think twice about spreadbetting. they do manipulate numbers to get more money, specially at the end of trade
 
But they should stop people from losing so much money. They knew my situation before. I hope more regulations are introduce in regards to this so other people don't do the same mistake as I did

It is very sad that you have experienced this but I fear that no regulation will be forthcoming to address this type of scenario. Recently there was a case where someone sued a bookie for failure in "Duty of Care" when they were allowed to keep gambling and lost a fortune doing so. The person concerned lost the case and I think that the grounds were along the lines that you are responsible for your own actions.


Paul
 
Recently there was a case where someone sued a bookie for failure in "Duty of Care" when they were allowed to keep gambling and lost a fortune doing so.

Yes, and I think in this case the bookmaker argued that the person in question had had large wins before and was prepared to take them. Still, I suppose if you submit a self-exclusion request like he did then perhaps legislation should be introduced to make it hard to circumvent, which it apparantly wasn't. He argued that if he had won instead of lost, the bookmaker would have held his winnings upon discovering that he had self-excluded, which I think is a valid point.

Still, I agree that legislation is unlikely to be introduced any time soon unfortunately.
 
IMO it's the same as taking out loads of credit cards, loans that you cannot afford to pay back. People have to start taking responsibility and stop crying to the state when they gamble or spend money they don't have.

I do feel bad for you fifteen grand but at the same time I would never in a million years take out credit to gamble on (I beleive you gambled it)
 
IMO it's the same as taking out loads of credit cards, loans that you cannot afford to pay back. People have to start taking responsibility and stop crying to the state when they gamble or spend money they don't have.

I do feel bad for you fifteen grand but at the same time I would never in a million years take out credit to gamble on (I beleive you gambled it)

Believe that I am not "crying to the state".
Just wanted to make people aware so others may think twice.
Gambling is pretty addictive and I am prepared to pay for my mistake.
Im going to get a part time job and have been doing lots of extra hours.
I did get some winning but wouldnt define them as large.

If someone searches about money being lost, I thought that my story might serve as a lesson.
I just wished someone or something would have stopped me. To be honest, i didnt realize myself until it was too late. not that I was losing money, that I knew. I realised that I was out of control. It;s a different point here, I think.
I am glad you are disciplined enough to not get into this sort of problem. I didt owe 1 pound before, Never missed a payment in any credit card, had no loans. B ut now I do and I feel terrible. I can't stop thinking about it. I feel really stuck and havent told anyone cause I am too embarrassed, So it feels good to write this.
Thanks for caring and taking the time to write to me,but believe me, I am not crying for money to anyone. I would work 24 hours if I could. Well, got an interview on wednesday for this stupid job. but I could get some extra money.
So you out there, think twice before doing what I did. before you realize, its done.
 
HI
This is my first message here.
I have lost nearly 30k since i started spread betting with IG Index few months ago. I started well at the beginning and then gradually lost all this money. Today I closed my account. It was such a stupid and expensive mistake to make. Of course deep inside I blame them about it. of course after myself. But considering I am on a salary of 30k per year before tax, its ridiculous that I was allowed to do it in the first place.
But hey, It happened and dont think I can do much about it except work my a... off and pay a loan for 20k and a credit card for 5000 (i also lost my savings of 4k that i had before my stupid attempt to sb_) my life is pretty much ruined for some years now as I havent got money to do anything else.
I decided to write this because I wanted to make people aware of the perils of sb, although we do not think it would happen to us, it happened to me, it clearly became a gambling addition. I didnt know when to stop, clearly should have been stopped by someone else. I wish someone stopped me.
I did trading with IG Index from the beginning. Never gave a s... about me, and even though they were getting a lot of my money, customer service was appalling.
I do think that I lost money because I am terrible at it and with no discipline, it just gets worse. But they should stop people from losing so much money. They knew my situation before. I hope more regulations are introduce in regards to this so other people don't do the same mistake as I did.
I havent told anyone about this as I am embarrassed. I dont have the courage to tell people what I have done cause its too embarrassing. Thank you for taking your time to read this. and think twice about spreadbetting. they do manipulate numbers to get more money, specially at the end of trade

15K,

It is very public-spirited of you to relate your experience. I (and others I suspect) have some understanding of where you've been. It's all too easy when you first start out to let losses mount up. When you have little experience and have read just a few books that explain how simple it is ("but it ain't easy" as one contributor's byline truthfully says) it's almost an insult to your intelligence that you could actually be wrong! But I've been there & would be surprised if others haven't also.

In the old days before spreadbetting, all you could do as an amateur punter was to buy some shares and that, unless you were exceptionally unlucky would limit your loss to about 50%. After a few doses of that, you began to suspect something was wrong, had a think, and set off in a different and hopefully, more scenic direction. There was no T2W either in pre-internet days. So, you can see that it's a lot more dangerous these days.

You have learned that SB'ing can be dangerous - but that applies to any leveraged instrument. "Experts" have been caught out also - and they "knew" what they were doing. It seems that you have just succumbed to normal human failings despite the warnings in the SB Co's terms etc - but smokers ignore the "it can kill you" message on every packet, so it is a common trait. Not that that makes your loss any better but at least you know you're human!

Do also remember that the credit crunch has also arisen from basic human failings. I hope that once you have repaid your losses - and that's got to be your immediate aim & will certainly give you some thought in discipline and determination etc - that you will come back to investing / trading and make a success of it. Like many things, it's not rocket science but you do need to understand and practise the basics. Not many of us can equal Lewis Hamilton but most can learn to drive safely and competently - if you can do that in the markets you'll do ok.

It would be interesting to know more details of your loss-making trades - was it a poor system? Poor personal discipline? Bad advice? I appreciate you may not feel like revealing this to 100K readers but as you say in your post, it may just make someone else think twice.

My suggestion would be to forget about encouraging the regulation of SB Co's etc. People whose main aim in life is to empty your wallet are like moles :) They keep popping up all over the place and it's just like the cartoons - you go round bashing them down with a big mallet and they just keep popping up. Best put your energy into wising-up on how to look after your interests. And you are the best person to do that - no one else has your concern.

So, "chin up". When you look back, things are never as bad (or as good) as they seemed at the time. Some of the best traders ever (see the "Market Wizards" series of books by Jack Schwagger) have won & lost fortunes - maybe if you'd been more expert you'd have lost more! :)

Good luck and best wishes for the future.
 
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