I suppose they dont need to use the virtual dealer plugin on demo accounts.
I suppose they dont need to use the virtual dealer plugin on demo accounts.
Vasco da Banana
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Vasco da Banana
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They might use it, except with the bias the other way.
As long as one can calculate what kind of bias a market maker implement against you I find it OK. But if things move in a direction where one can't control the result and outcome of the trade, then the time has come to move on.
I can report no unusual issues with slippage on any of my positions since I opened my ETX a/c at the beginning of the year. Then again, YMMV as I'm no 'day trader'.
Yes one thing is clear after my live trade testing for a couple of weeks now, ETX gives you slippage and sometimes easily 2 points on the Dow and this on the the stop loss. I have not find they give you positive slippage. The only way to get around this is to increase you stop loss level. One will still get slippage, but hopefully the percentage level will be lower on the average. Otherwise they still execute very well and I really like the platform. So far I will stay with them as the positive trading experience still overweight the negative experience trading with them.
While I couldn't agree more with you GLE, insofar as I'm also finding the positives are outweighing the negatives, I must now confess that I did have one potentially unsettling experience just yesterday evening. So, here goes.
I had trouble logging into the ETX site in the early evening, and in fact I couldn't even load the ETX site at all, on any computer, for nearly an hour, so I called up their trading desk, and asked for a quote on September Nymex. The chap hesitated for a while, and then I added "...I'm not looking to close my position, I'm looking to add to it. By the way, I've not been able to logon, so that's why I'm calling." He then politely explained that the site was experiencing technical issues at the moment and we cannot open new positions while this is not fixed, and here's the bit that got me: "Sorry, but I can only close out your position now." I thanked him and declined his offer. However...
!?Hmmm, firstly, there, in a nutshell folks, is one of the reasons why you should never, never, never rely on only one spreadbetting a/c. Secondly, the fact that I was unable to open a new position over the 'phone' because... their 'website' was experiencing difficulties (!?), has taken just a little shine from a mostly very encouraging experience with ETX to date.
Having said that, I very much hope that whatever gremlin visited them yesterday evening was just a brief black swan. Albeit it would still be interesting to know why one could close yet couldn't open any position over the phone, while their website was briefly down...
Yes I experienced the same problem yesterday, wasn't able to log in for an hour or so. This is why it is so important to have a stop loss in place when these things happen and as you say have an addition broker for hedging in case of emergency. Anyway I think ETX was quite honest with you in giving the current status of the platform. These things happen with all platforms and I am not alarmed by the technical error they had yesterday. In fact so far I haven't experience much of technical platform problems since I have started trading with them.While I couldn't agree more with you GLE, insofar as I'm also finding the positives are outweighing the negatives, I must now confess that I did have one potentially unsettling experience just yesterday evening. So, here goes.
I had trouble logging into the ETX site in the early evening, and in fact I couldn't even load the ETX site at all, on any computer, for nearly an hour, so I called up their trading desk, and asked for a quote on September Nymex. The chap hesitated for a while, and then I added "...I'm not looking to close my position, I'm looking to add to it. By the way, I've not been able to logon, so that's why I'm calling." He then politely explained that the site was experiencing technical issues at the moment and we cannot open new positions while this is not fixed, and here's the bit that got me: "Sorry, but I can only close out your position now." I thanked him and declined his offer. However...
Hmmm, firstly, there, in a nutshell folks, is one of the reasons why you should never, never, never rely on only one spreadbetting a/c. Secondly, the fact that I was unable to open a new position over the 'phone' because... their 'website' was experiencing difficulties (!?), has taken just a little shine from a mostly very encouraging experience with ETX to date.
Having said that, I very much hope that whatever gremlin visited them yesterday evening was just a brief black swan. Albeit it would still be interesting to know why one could close yet couldn't open any position over the phone, while their website was briefly down...
Vasco da Banana
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That's the sort of thing I experienced, and it's hard not to think this 'slippage' is deliberate, because they know that most people won't check what's happened. A few points or half points here and there on one account adds up to a lot of points overall.
rawrschach
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While I'm pro DMA more than anything people need to realise that this happens all the time on a DMA platform too.
News? Expect massive slippage if you're using stops.
Thin markets will also slip you a few ticks now and then. Try using hard stops on the Dax and you'll be killed.
I remember the days when Eurex was a ****hole and you'd cancel an order which would magically fill a few minutes later regardless.
News? Expect massive slippage if you're using stops.
Thin markets will also slip you a few ticks now and then. Try using hard stops on the Dax and you'll be killed.
I remember the days when Eurex was a ****hole and you'd cancel an order which would magically fill a few minutes later regardless.
Vasco da Banana
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Yes, but the point (pun intended) about SB is that you're trading with them, not the real market, so the slippage is all artificial.
mike.
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This is exactly the question i had about SB Vasco, why any slippage and overnight financing at all when betting ? its not like your waiting to be filled, Someone told me that they pass the costs they incur down to the punters for their positions in the underlying.
Yes I agree with you on this point. I traded Capitalspreads for years without a single point in slippage (for the moment I have stopped trading with them due to too many rejected trades). Market Makers for the most part have fixed spread. So there shouldn't be any slippage (a big gap an exception though). Only negative slippage on markets order with a market maker means they are manipulating the order. On the other hand I understand that with a very tight spread they must make up for it in some way or the other. They will simply not give away free money. So the only way is to calculate the slippage one gets into the price, this in order to find out if the average spread is acceptable in the long run.
Vasco da Banana
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Even if it's artificial, I think it's acceptable to have slippage if the underlying market is spiking up and down after a news announcement, but not if it only works against the client. The unacceptable face of SB is when they add slippage when the market is hardly moving, either by increasing the spread or just delaying fills.
Negative slippage is not a major issue with ETX in a slow moving market. But in a fast moving market they rather add 2 points slippage instead of 1 point slippage on the Dow.
Give me a SB or CFDs that will give you positive slippage? I have so far found only one, that I can for sure say after long time trading with them, and it is not ETX.
Well if they are only giving you negative slippage then I'd say they are defrauding you. Isn't that precisely what several fx brokers were fined for? On top of that ETX have admitted using the virtual dealer plugin, precisely the same tool that at least one of the fined FX brokers was using to defraud their clients.
Well it all depends on how you look at it. If they only give you negative slippage and you can calculate on the average it still to be a good deal I think it is Ok. If you get really narrow spread (without too much bias against you) can compensate you for it, I can accept it within reasonable limits of course. They might use a virtual dealer plugin, but it all comes down in which way they use it.
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While I couldn't agree more with you GLE, insofar as I'm also finding the positives are outweighing the negatives, I must now confess that I did have one potentially unsettling experience just yesterday evening. So, here goes.
I had trouble logging into the ETX site in the early evening, and in fact I couldn't even load the ETX site at all, on any computer, for nearly an hour, so I called up their trading desk, and asked for a quote on September Nymex. The chap hesitated for a while, and then I added "...I'm not looking to close my position, I'm looking to add to it. By the way, I've not been able to logon, so that's why I'm calling." He then politely explained that the site was experiencing technical issues at the moment and we cannot open new positions while this is not fixed, and here's the bit that got me: "Sorry, but I can only close out your position now." I thanked him and declined his offer. However...
Hmmm, firstly, there, in a nutshell folks, is one of the reasons why you should never, never, never rely on only one spreadbetting a/c. Secondly, the fact that I was unable to open a new position over the 'phone' because... their 'website' was experiencing difficulties (!?), has taken just a little shine from a mostly very encouraging experience with ETX to date.
Having said that, I very much hope that whatever gremlin visited them yesterday evening was just a brief black swan. Albeit it would still be interesting to know why one could close yet couldn't open any position over the phone, while their website was briefly down...
Hi Peakoil et al
Firstly very sincere apologies to everybody that was inconvenienced by the techinal issues we had for a couple of hours last night.
It doesnt get much worse for an online trading company than to have a trading platform that is off line. It creates lots of problems for our clients who cannot view their positions and orders or trade and for us it affects all parts of our business from the traders to the sales traders and to our customer services. Our business model is based on having thousands of clients online, not on the phone, and we struggled to cope.
ETX need always to see 2 things to operate efficiently, our risk and the underlying markets so we are able to price correctly and to hedge any risk we may need to. When we cannot see the risk or the market we go in to emergency mode and try best to deal with the situation we find ourselves in. Our priority is to keep the business flowing in as responsible a way as is possible until the situation is resolved.
At very exceptional times we may not be able to quote a price unless it is for closing purposes only. I stress this is only at exceptional times and we would always (assuming the market is open) quote a side to allow a client to close their open position. I cannot remember a time in the last few years when due to our platform being down that we have not quoted a price to trade on over the phone.
Sometimes platforms go down - that happens to every platform and no one has a 100% up time. The ETX platform is online over 99.9% of the times it should be and overall that is comparable with most other platforms, especially spreadbet and cfd ones.
That is in no way meant to excuse what happened last night. We let ourselves down by being down and we will strive even harder to make sure we can do all that we can to ensure this doesnt happen again.
Best, Rob.
It's like a retailer accepting that a certain percentage of customers will steal from them, however overall they make money and its cheaper to allow a certain amount of thieving because its more expensive to prevent it than just live with it. I think that's your argument, as long as they only steal a little bit from you then you can live with it.
