I have stated a couple of times on this thread, that trading the news could be a risky undertaking. If the real spread is wider than the SB quote, just previous to the news release, and you hit the buy button when the news is released, what price do you expect to get, cheaper than the real market? Delay and slippage could also be a problem trading the news. However, even during volatile times such as news releases, I find things have improved considerably.
Yes, trading the news is risky. What I need if I am trying it is predictability of risk. So I need to know that the platform behaves pretty consistently, and that the messages it gives about trades are accurate. Yes, all platforms I have tried have occasional glitches - maybe they will just freeze for a while, with no activity; I have had this on CMC, and even on IG. My PC is not very new, but I have no way of knowing what is down to my PC and what is down to the platform or to overloaded servers at the SB company.
The problems which stopped me trading the news at all with CS were 1. slow fills, during which time the price may move considerably 2. same problem on trying to exit a trade 3. trade rejected due to "price no longer valid", possibly combined with the delay, meaning it was not possible to take advantage of quick and sizeable price moves. This also could happen on trying to exit a trade. 4. the problem others have recently mentioned, of a trade apparently being rejected, not appearing in "open positions", but then popping up later in "open positions"
For me to risk trying trading the news again on CS, I need to know that all these problems have been consistently fixed. You say that there has been an improvement since a recent upgrade - maybe I will try a trade or two at non-news times and see what the fill speed is like.
But I have to say IG fills very fast. True, I have occasionally had "price no longer valid" - but it is fairly rare compared to what I used to get way back with CS.
I rated CMC fairly highly at first, but one bad experience made me wary there too. They do generally fill fast, they give you a requote if not filled at original price, and sometimes while your order is pending you can cancel it (not always - depends how fast they fill). But when I was trading oil after the Weds. 1530 inventory announcement a few weeks back, there seemed to be a delay on their prices. I opened a trade and then found that I could not close it - even when they offered me a requote and I pressed to accept it, they said I had timed out. They did refund me some money when I raised the issue, but without getting to the bottom of what caused the problem. Unlike IG, CMC and CS do not allow you to preset a stop when you open a trade, and unlike CS they do not set their own stop for you (admittedly at a rather distant level for me), so there is no limit to the short-term loss if this sort of error occurs.
I have decided that CS platform scores in one respect; it is possible to open the order book in one broswer window, the prices page in another so as to open a deal ticket for a new trade, and the open positions in a third window to close existing trades. In fact I find the platform unusable at speed without having all these windows open. I used to think this a disadvantage of the platform; but on IG, if you want to change your stop level, you have to close the deal ticket which allows you to close the trade. So if trading in a fast moving market, you can find that while you are moving your stop closer to take advantage of your gains, the price turns against you, and by the time you have closed the "change stop" window and opend the deal ticket to close the trade, your profits may have gone. Whereas with separate windows in CS, resized so all can be viewed simultaneously, this is not a problem.
To those who say "don't spreadbet at all, use some other way", my response is that I - and presumably others - have reasons for using SB. Given that, the question is what we can legitimately expect. I don't think all SB companies are just rip-off merchants, but obviously they are running a busines and are not going to give away free money.
What I do expect is that mistakes are rectified - they often have been for me, but not always. I find CS no better or worse than others in this respect.
What I also expect is a decent platform that works at reasonable speed without repeating the same errors on a regular basis - and, ideally that the platform incoprorates good features from competitors.
