Best Thread Capital Spreads

Looks like Capital Spreads shut down their platform a few minutes before non farm payroll news today and it didnt work properly even nearly 30 minutes after news. Poor performance overall - the trade window remaining blank, connecting to front end processor problem, long delays, and looks like they rejected all trades. Overall very poor.
 
PipStar said:
Looks like Capital Spreads shut down their platform a few minutes before non farm payroll news today and it didnt work properly even nearly 30 minutes after news. Poor performance overall - the trade window remaining blank, connecting to front end processor problem, long delays, and looks like they rejected all trades. Overall very poor.
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I noticed that PS. I was actually in a footy long trade, always having the intention of getting out before 1.30pm as I'm not a gambling man ~ and soon as I did (at 1.28pm) I had the same picture as you on the screen...... weird :rolleyes:
 
Interesting afternoon of emails with CS. Price sailed way past the stop. Seeing it race away and build up losses i assumed the platform was being buggy again and so closed it out manually thinking cs would see this a fair thing to do given the history of the platform. I was told that because i had closed out manually [10.7 t&C] the losses past the stop stand and that the correct procedure is to leave the trade open, watch the losses build up on the screen and telephone and they will honour the stop. I can't find this procedure of telephoning in the terms and conditions and asked them to make it clearer that is what one should do. No one is psychic.
 
I'm glad to annouce that I have finally parted company with CS! YIIPPEEEE!!!!

Got my last pence of deposit back today and moved to IG.

Hopefully stay there for a while {before they start going potty?!}

Have to say, IG's instant execution is a far cry from the rubbish waits and "Check your positions" cr@p I used to get from CS!
 
oiltanker said:
Interesting afternoon of emails with CS. Price sailed way past the stop. Seeing it race away and build up losses i assumed the platform was being buggy again and so closed it out manually thinking cs would see this a fair thing to do given the history of the platform. I was told that because i had closed out manually [10.7 t&C] the losses past the stop stand and that the correct procedure is to leave the trade open, watch the losses build up on the screen and telephone and they will honour the stop. I can't find this procedure of telephoning in the terms and conditions and asked them to make it clearer that is what one should do. No one is psychic.
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Are the Capital Spreads stops guarenteed? If not, then how do you know if Capital Spreads are correctly closing trades at the stops?

That sounds very dodgy to me...
 
RichieE said:
Are the Capital Spreads stops guarenteed? If not, then how do you know if Capital Spreads are correctly closing trades at the stops?

That sounds very dodgy to me...
Click to expand...

I don't think they are guaranteed.

If you leave positions open over night and price opens up below your stops you'll pay the closing price not your SL pos price.

The platform is not reliable.

Price updates are very slow.

Not suitable for scalping at all.

In quite periods it's fine. In busy periods hopeless. It's obvious they have grown but their trading platform can't scale to usage demand.

I like their web interface compared to CMCs.
 
oiltanker said:
Interesting afternoon of emails with CS. Price sailed way past the stop. Seeing it race away and build up losses i assumed the platform was being buggy again and so closed it out manually thinking cs would see this a fair thing to do given the history of the platform. I was told that because i had closed out manually [10.7 t&C] the losses past the stop stand and that the correct procedure is to leave the trade open, watch the losses build up on the screen and telephone and they will honour the stop. I can't find this procedure of telephoning in the terms and conditions and asked them to make it clearer that is what one should do. No one is psychic.
Click to expand...

Similar problems. Short dow at 56, stop had been moved to 62. However, wanted to come out flat, clicked to exit at 52, Blue bar moving across the screen for over 60 seconds all the while the price raced up through my stop with my position still open, clicked again at 53 when it pulled back same story. The message said "Please check your open positions or call our dealing desk"

By the time I was through to the dealing desk the position had been taken out at my stop level even though the price was now at 44 !!!. I spoke to one of the dealers who looked at my account and could see I had tried to exit at 52 and refunded the loss.

This trade was around 5pm UK Time and the dow was pretty quiet. I wasn't trying to trade after news.

I took a FTSE trade at around 2pm and the fills were PAINFUL. I trade on skype with some other guys and the time stamps for my fills showed a 50second delay between clicking and getting filled. To give capital spreads their dues I got filled at the price I clicked even though the price had risen 10 points higher.

It appears the platform is creaking under the strain of too many users. Thats the only reason I can think FILLS HAVE SLOWED DOWN, DEAL TICKETS ARE BLANK/DELAYED quite a few niggling issues. I have only EVER used Capital Spreads in my 18month "S/bet" career. Unfortunatley it does appear that the platform is getting less stable !

One of the guys I trade with has dropped Capital Spreads in favour of CMC markets and finds their fills are instant. Apparently click and the fill is instantaneous. If CMC can do it, fingers crossed Capital Spreads are working toward that goal !

I must say however that on the whole staff at the office are pretty good and friendly if you have any problems or issues like this they are normally sorted. I do feel sorry for the guys up there though because they must be taking some heavy duty grief from a lot of people who aren't happy with the platform and take it out on the poor girl who answers the phone. Not too fair in my opinion !! But hey I am sure to get some grief from people who say, if she works there she is in the firing line. I totally disagree !!
 
Atilla said:
I don't think they are guaranteed.

If you leave positions open over night and price opens up below your stops you'll pay the closing price not your SL pos price.

The platform is not reliable.

Price updates are very slow.

Not suitable for scalping at all.

In quite periods it's fine. In busy periods hopeless. It's obvious they have grown but their trading platform can't scale to usage demand.

I like their web interface compared to CMCs.
Click to expand...
So it sounds like their shortcomings are due to their lack of foresight and lack of scalability in their platform. Not impressed but that sounds better than an attempt to defraud.
 
ceydababy said:
Similar problems. Short dow at 56, stop had been moved to 62. However, wanted to come out flat, clicked to exit at 52, Blue bar moving across the screen for over 60 seconds all the while the price raced up through my stop with my position still open, clicked again at 53 when it pulled back same story. The message said "Please check your open positions or call our dealing desk"

By the time I was through to the dealing desk the position had been taken out at my stop level even though the price was now at 44 !!!. I spoke to one of the dealers who looked at my account and could see I had tried to exit at 52 and refunded the loss.

This trade was around 5pm UK Time and the dow was pretty quiet. I wasn't trying to trade after news.

I took a FTSE trade at around 2pm and the fills were PAINFUL. I trade on skype with some other guys and the time stamps for my fills showed a 50second delay between clicking and getting filled. To give capital spreads their dues I got filled at the price I clicked even though the price had risen 10 points higher.

It appears the platform is creaking under the strain of too many users. Thats the only reason I can think FILLS HAVE SLOWED DOWN, DEAL TICKETS ARE BLANK/DELAYED quite a few niggling issues. I have only EVER used Capital Spreads in my 18month "S/bet" career. Unfortunatley it does appear that the platform is getting less stable !

One of the guys I trade with has dropped Capital Spreads in favour of CMC markets and finds their fills are instant. Apparently click and the fill is instantaneous. If CMC can do it, fingers crossed Capital Spreads are working toward that goal !

I must say however that on the whole staff at the office are pretty good and friendly if you have any problems or issues like this they are normally sorted. I do feel sorry for the guys up there though because they must be taking some heavy duty grief from a lot of people who aren't happy with the platform and take it out on the poor girl who answers the phone. Not too fair in my opinion !! But hey I am sure to get some grief from people who say, if she works there she is in the firing line. I totally disagree !!
Click to expand...
Good post! Yes CS has got some problems to sort out, that is for sure. I have given them a wishlist of platform facilities, and in a year's time they have done nothing to correct any of them. I am quite sure that all this, at the moment, is costing them a significant market share. This fact alone, makes me confident that CS are finally forced to do something about it, otherwise, people are simply moving over to better options. Still, I feel CS are not calculatedly dishonest in order to wipe you of your money. They do honor the price, even if it takes 1 minute to execute, and even if the price has moved in your favor. However, this delay in execution, is not up to acceptable standards in SB industry today and a huge risk for us as traders.

This week's performance from CS was a little better compared to last week's disaster. Hopefully we are know seeing a service curve that points upwards.
 
CMC vs. CS and IG

ceydababy said:
One of the guys I trade with has dropped Capital Spreads in favour of CMC markets and finds their fills are instant. Apparently click and the fill is instantaneous. If CMC can do it, fingers crossed Capital Spreads are working toward that goal !
Click to expand...

I have given up trading with CS at any time when a quick in and out may be necessary, e.g. after news announcements. This is largely due to the slow fills, consequently not knowing whether a trade is accepted or not, "price no longer valid" messages, "unexpected error" messages - your trade may or may not be open, if you check your open positions it may not show but if you look two minutes later there it is, etc.

I have recently opened an account with CMC. It is true their fills are much quicker, as are IG Index. And there are fewer buttons to press than on IG to get in and out of a trade (unless perhaps you use IG's one-click dealing, which does not allow you to set a stop level in advance of the trade, and thus demands a higher margin commitment than if you had pre-set a tight stop). But the big drawback for fast trades is that 1. you cannot set a sstop level in advance like in IG 2. stops and limits are not linked to a particular trade. They are free-standing entities so that if you close your trade manually you then have to go and separately close your stops and limits.

So if you forget (as I have done), or if you manually close out near a stop level and the price proceeds against you, you suddenly find yourself with a new position open in the opposite direction to your original one. If the price then reverses, you are quickly down. This has happened to me twice so far.

CMC will reqoute when the price is moving - this is better then CapitalSpreads who just give "price is no longer valid" while you see the pips you would have made flash by on the screen. You also get a screen showing an order has been sent but not yet executed; execution may be slower at busy periods, though not as bad as CapitalSpreads. if you see the price move back in your favour, you can sometimes cancel the close order you have just placed before it is executed.

CMC have a software-based programme, not web-based. It seems not to use too much processor power, though the platform does take ages to open and does freeze up every so often for 30 seconds to a minute on my PC (only got a P800). But it seems to work better on my PC re resource use than having to have numerous browser windows open if using IG or CS charts. CMC charts seem to open quicker, though I now use a demo of Metatrader for FX charts.

I still have my account with CS as their spreads are better on some FX e.g. 2 point USD/JPY, 3 point USD/CHF, and their margin requirements are lower, which I need as I do not have a lot in my account to trade with. As I usually set a sensible stop-loss I am not in danger of being caught out re margin.
 
i have been making money using the cs platform. it is possible. the biggest thing that would improve things imo is the ability to set stops before opening a trade like at IG whose execution is warp speed.

it costs more to trade at ig but i guess you get what you pay for? for extra cost you can also have guaranteed stops which for overnight trades buys peace of mind.

if it sails through the stop again i won't close out but telephone. funny enough if i had left it i would have made pips as the price reversed and went lower. live and learn.
 
So if IG can have superb execution speed why can`t Capital .

Perhaps that could be addressed by Simon

Likewise the charts cease to work consistently ,this has been an ongoing issue for a year at least why isn`t this addressed . Last time i asked about portfolio issues and it was addressed straight away.

If the third party software supplier can`t fix the issue there`s a simple remedy ...change them .Today for example the chart was stuck on a price for 4 minutes meanwhile the actual screen price is actually moving.It simply isn`t feasible to keep a ticket open on every trade screen on every stock/index , this is what the dealers have said after apologising for this issue

Please just look at this issue and remedy it .It`s spoiling the platform there really is no excuses for this after 1 year of notification from clients .
 
It`s just froze again

I`m going to try and keep a log here so it can be addressed

This might show the frequency with which it`s occuring .If you`ve got a trade open and watching the ticker screen it`s not acceptable
 
all charts freeze from time to time depending what is going on. The best indicator is a ticker as a stand by.

Be aware of the start and finish times of a chart. Those that have 24hr charts give you different moving averages than those that start at 7am. e.g today my 24hr ftse chart has the 100 moving average below price while the 7 -9 charts has it above. This also knocks into any other indicators one might use. Not that one should be trading indicators-ahem- but always stick to trading price. I might get the hang of it one day ;)
 
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Trusted said:
So if IG can have superb execution speed why can`t Capital .

Perhaps that could be addressed by Simon

Likewise the charts cease to work consistently ,this has been an ongoing issue for a year at least why isn`t this addressed . Last time i asked about portfolio issues and it was addressed straight away.

If the third party software supplier can`t fix the issue there`s a simple remedy ...change them .Today for example the chart was stuck on a price for 4 minutes meanwhile the actual screen price is actually moving.It simply isn`t feasible to keep a ticket open on every trade screen on every stock/index , this is what the dealers have said after apologising for this issue




Please just look at this issue and remedy it .It`s spoiling the platform there really is no excuses for this after 1 year of notification from clients .
Click to expand...

To be fair chart freezing is more likely to be a java software issue on your pc than a CS fault. IG Index have similar problems. A chap I know who uses IG has similar problems with charts freezing. Don't be fooled with the "fixes" the s/bet firms give you, they don't work. These problems have nothing to do with your Cache,defragging hard drive or accessing the site from a historical link

You need to google the issue and get the patch. Apparently once the patch is downloaded the chart service is much improved.
 
No more Capital Spreads

Hi guys,

After 18 months of dealing with Capital Spreads. I have finally jumped ship and moved to IG Index. Since January I have been plagued with problems, the killer was last week sold the FTSE short at 74, according to CS it was filled within 1 second yet I got a DEAL NOT ACCEPTED MESSAGE. My P/L was clear and my trading funds were unaffected so I went away. I discovered on my return that the trade was in fact filled. Again after much discussion on the phone the trade was reversed.

Today I couldn't log on to Capital spreads for about 1 hour whilst I had a trade running, that cost me money. Rather than add to my CS account I thought sod this. Joined IG.

Fills are INSTANT, click the button and bang you're in. The whole setup seems more robust. OK you pay an extra 1 point on FTSE but trust me it's worth it, in piece of mind alone !!

18 months ago I found Capital Spreads REALLY good and would/did recommended them to others. Now, the additional two people I have recommended I've told them not to bother.

Good luck to those still with CS. I did try to be loyal and defend them on this board but enough is enough. The platform is just plain bad and nothing seems to be getting done about it. I guess they're too busy selling the platform to other companies for extra $$$ than working on fixing the obvious problems with the system.
 
Yes, I have decided on the same thing.

I have said all along with my restaurant analogy that I would give them some time - maybe restrict my trading with them to the longet term where entries and exits don't really matter as much.

But - the time has come. I have mentioned that I keep my "proper" money with another broker, and the fact they have always forbidden hedging is the reason I liked to have another account to trade within the ups and downs of the longer term trades I take as The Day Job.

After speaking with them, they are now happy for me to open a second account, funded seperately, which can hold positions counter to the ones I have in my main account. This fulfills my needs.

Cheers,
Dave
 
Maybe this will get them to address problems with the site. I too jumped ship a couple of weeks. I closed my position using the close button only to discover they not only close short but simultaneously opened a long. The FTSE was in freefall and within 5mins I was down almost 30 points.

emess
 
Faster execution?

Yes, Capitalspreads must understand that the service level has to be high and consistent in order to keep the client base happy. There are so many other good SB alternatives available today, and even more companies are around the corner, wanting to come in to claim their share of a growing market segment. Still this and the past week, I have experienced surprisingly good execution from CS. In fact, I have never found it to be better and faster since I first joined them. Am I the only one on this board, who is experiencing this improvement?
 
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