IG Index Sudden Price Spike and Unable to close trade? ( 17/01/14 - 10.14am)

[bhupe]

Has anyone here at the forum experienced sudden price spike in your favour and yet unable to close the trade at IG Index.

(I have taken a screenshot of my IG trading platform when this happened today on my account - taken on 17/01/14 GMT: 10.14am)

One more peculiar thing is that when I checked the chart on Google, it did not indicated that the price went to that level.

The shares concerning were: SBRY, TSCO, MRW??

Does anybody know the reason beyond this?
Regards,
Bhupe

 

[bhupe]

IG price spike...

I am not disappointed about missing the opportunity to close the above positions, but my only concern is it has happened quite a few times on my positions and I was wondering whether the spike was intended to flush out the shorters or may be on other occasions, the reverse could have happened to flush out the traders who are long on their positions - even though the actual trading price would have never went to the level shown on the trading platform? Or may be the whole spike incident is result of system glitch?

What do you guys think about this? I only want to share my experience and may be read other people's opinion on similar type of experience....

Regards,
Bhupe

Has anyone here at the forum experienced sudden price spike in your favour and yet unable to close the trade at IG Index.

(I have taken a screenshot of my IG trading platform when this happened today on my account - taken on 17/01/14 GMT: 10.14am)

One more peculiar thing is that when I checked the chart on Google, it did not indicated that the price went to that level.

The shares concerning were: SBRY, TSCO, MRW??

Does anybody know the reason beyond this?
Regards,
Bhupe

 

[alphahunter]

bhupe,

You can see straight away that the selling prices were higher than the buying prices.
This was a glitch in the platform, or more precisely in the prices feed and this has nothing to do with flushing anybody, no stop-losses would have been triggered, no one could have dealt on erroneous feeds and made instant fortune

This happens once every month for a minute or so I reckon. IG has a fairly robust platform.

 

[obayesshelton]

This sometimes happens near to the close of markets for me

 

[MORRIS2001]

IG publish equity date derived from darkpool exchanges such as Chi-X, and you are likely to be making comparisons to LSE data. It is probable that the spike was within the Chi-X feed more than anything.

 

[SpreadBeta]

Bhupe,

Between 10:10 and 10:15 on the third Friday of the month the shares on the LSE go through an intraday auction. (So the 17th jan was such an auction day). These intraday auctions are related to the expiry of equity or index option connected to these equities.

During this time any spread betting firm will (usually) suspend the effected equity markets as that have no reference price from the LSE to refer to.

Their platforms will often also show "untradeable" crossed bid and ask prices during that time as that is what is shown on the LSE itself during such an auction.

Google will not show any spike as for 5 minutes that will not see any real prices issued from the LSE during the 5 minute auction, so usually their charts will appear flat for this 5 minute period.

Bottom line is that what you saw is expected and would be the same across all Spread betting platforms from all firms, so you have not missed out on any "real" opportunity

Hope this explains what is going on.....

 

[kwalduck]

Hi Bhupe

Your experience is quite common- the only explanation I have ever been given was that it was a "bad data feed"

 

[bhupe]

Thank you all for your replies. Much appreciated.

 

[FCDG]

I was on the end of a spike in price and closed my position out with a profit. My account was credited and I continued to trade. 3hrs later IG reinstated the position I had closed out and reversed the profit.

I obviously questioned this and was told it was a mistake and the price had never gone there!! I was subsequently close out of the reinstated position and incurred a £6,000 loss!!!In total a £10,000 swing.

IG said sorry for the mistake. If that's not taking the **** then I don't know what is. Their graphs were still showing the spike this morning and promptly changed the movement more than 16 hours later after I had brought it to their attention.

Surely, mistake or not in pricing, I saw a spike and took it as some news had suddenly got in the market and took advantage by closing my position. Surely this is not right???!!! would appreciate any guidance on how t follow this up.

 

[peakoil]

@FCDG I cannot speak for how you ended up with such a loss, and in all sincerity, I've re-read your post and I'm aghast - are you really suggesting, with all respect, that you were in with at least some profit before it happened, albeit but for the erroneous spike in the print, you'd have *still* closed at a profit? But because you were re-instated you ended up down six grand? A sad tale but honestly that sounds wild.

Regardless of how you could elaborate on that, sorry to tell you but the bottom line is that they (and any firm) are entitled to correct any obvious price errors. Nobody can expect to profit spectacularly from pricing errors - even the firm itself! It is, just as others have said, that these happen rarely, but do on occasion occur.

Just know that it can work the other way too - i.e., should you get stopped out by a clear pricing error, you are entitled to call them up, as soon as you realise it, and provided you're right, they will re-instate your position for you, and your losses in error will just as quickly evaporate. I know this to be true with any s/b firm with whom I've had an account. And it is gut wrenching when it happens. We all know the feeling.

Anyway, please believe me, as others could confirm, such random glitches in the feed were more common in the nineties than they are nowadays. It's best though always to have your own independent source for prices, so you can compare any spikes against it. Sorry I've not better news for you.

 

[FCDG]

The spike was at the close UK at 16:30. My position was at a loss (I was short FTSE) I saw the market went down and couldn't believe it. I attempted to close but IG had blocked any admin to the position. It reactivated so I closed, simple. My thoughts as I was in the car at the time was that some significant news had been released and I was lucky to be in a position to exit the position. Went from a heavy loss to a profit in seconds.

In the meantime and 2 hours later I placed a further trade (long s&p cash) my balance at this point was unchanged. At 19:20 is when IG reinstated the position and debited my account with the profit. In effect they placed a trade from my account with out my knowledge. In the morning,with their charts still showing the price movement that I had close on, the price went 5 points above the stop loss and the position got closed out and the account debited with a £6k loss.!!!!

My account manager seriously said " I'm really sorry but the original trade you closed out was a mistake and if the boot was on the other foot you would have demanded a refund!!" Actually, I closed it legitamately based on their charts and sophisticated systems. I then made subsequent trading decisions based on the fact my exposure had changed. Don't forget, IG made material adjustments to my account without consulting/informing me, the client.

Clearly I can't leave this as it stands. Thankfully I have deal tickets and and screen shots of the charts and will attempt to follow this up with an official complaint as far as I can take it.

Would you believe that when I was on the phone complaining they said "I'm not saying we can do this but if we reinstate your position, would that be ok?" also suggesting that if they could do that that I would also have to extend the SL as it had already gone past the level I had set. At this point I genuinely came to the conclusion I was being properly mugged off and further conversation with them was totally pointless. Mickey Mouse!!

 

[lucas_king]

Has anyone here at the forum experienced sudden price spike in your favour and yet unable to close the trade at IG Index.

(I have taken a screenshot of my IG trading platform when this happened today on my account - taken on 17/01/14 GMT: 10.14am)

One more peculiar thing is that when I checked the chart on Google, it did not indicated that the price went to that level.

The shares concerning were: SBRY, TSCO, MRW??

Does anybody know the reason beyond this?
Regards,
Bhupe

Hi,

Are you spread betting or trading via CFDs? I have had artificial spikes before whilst spread betting but this is unfortunately the nature of spread betting. Have you tried using CFDs, in particular, via DMA (direct market access). This will ensure you don’t get artificial spikes as the pricing is from the underlying market, not a synthetic one.

With regards to those stocks, I’m guessing your were trading them over results? Recently, those three (SBRY/MRW and TESCO) have all reported results and because of this, have been subject to higher swings/more volatility.