IG Markets massive slippage on slow moving DAX

[stuartrichardson]

I and a friend of mine have been day trading the DAX for a few years now and we have been using IG Markets exclusively for over a year. Tonight he experienced massive slippage on a trade that moved slowly through his stop. According to the tick chart it was around 20 seconds later that IG managed to execute his stop order for a 16 point slippage.... yep that is right you heard it... 16 point slippage. 20 seconds equates to over 700 ticks on the tick chart, where 300 of them was very near his stop. This is also after he tried to get off the trade while it was in profit, but IG didn't let him off because it moved to much... apparently 3 points too much.

This is enough of a reason for us to never ever use IG Markets again, and to actively convince people to never use them... because when you get serious and more money is on the line... funny business starts to happen. IG Markets cannot be trusted.

This is just wrong.

His telephone conversions haven't gone too well... they hold their line that it is acceptable that it can take 20 seconds to exit a trade that is moving slowly through your stop. (...for maximum profit for IG markets)

 

[pboyles]

Well here we go again, someone will be along in a minute to tell you it's all your fault.

 

[Shakone]

It's all your fault.

But really, what time and price are we talking about? And what is this 3 point move too big thing that you mentioned?

 

[ffsear]

What time of day was this?

 

[pboyles]

Try to google 'virtual dealer plugin'.

 

[stuartrichardson]

It's all your fault.

But really, what time and price are we talking about? And what is this 3 point move too big thing that you mentioned?

Hi,

The trade was a short trade on the 10:50am 5 minute bar, ie just a few hours ago. 3 point move that I'm talking about is from the time you press the button to the time that IG gets the request the market has moved 3 points and instead of just closing out the position at market, they reject the order.

 

[ffsear]

10.50 GMT? Just thinking about EUR PPI figs at 11am

 

[Liquid validity]

Hi,

The trade was a short trade on the 10:50am 5 minute bar, ie just a few hours ago. 3 point move that I'm talking about is from the time you press the button to the time that IG gets the request the market has moved 3 points and instead of just closing out the position at market, they reject the order.

Are you using MT4?

 

[stuartrichardson]

Hi,

The trade was a short trade on the 10:50am 5 minute bar, ie just a few hours ago. 3 point move that I'm talking about is from the time you press the button to the time that IG gets the request the market has moved 3 points and instead of just closing out the position at market, they reject the order.

The trade was entered "At Market" when he entered the trade, but when he tried to close the position it rejected him as if it wasn't a market trade. I would have thought that a market trade would also close the trade at market... or is this a bad assumption?

 

[stuartrichardson]

Are you using MT4?

No, using IG Markets Deal Ticket (at market checked)

 

[Shakone]

Sure it wasn't 9:53am-9:54am when there was a quick move? 10:50 bar doesn't look interesting.

 

[stuartrichardson]

Sure it wasn't 9:53am-9:54am when there was a quick move? 10:50 bar doesn't look interesting.

I am using the exchange time here.... so we are probably talking the same time.

 

[stuartrichardson]

The question I should be really asking is:

On IG Markets:
When you open an order "At Market" does this mean that when you attempt to close the position it is closed "At Market"?

According to IG Market's help desk this is the case... but it doesn't explain why my friend's attempt to close his position was rejected, if it is an "At Market" order? So are the people at the IG help desk lying or do they not know what they are talking about?

 

[bustech]

The question I should be really asking is:

On IG Markets:
When you open an order "At Market" does this mean that when you attempt to close the position it is closed "At Market"?

According to IG Market's help desk this is the case... but it doesn't explain why my friend's attempt to close his position was rejected, if it is an "At Market" order? So are the people at the IG help desk lying or do they not know what they are talking about?

Check time and sales and volume on the the underlying market.

I don't have DAX on DMA, so can't get the info.

 

[Splitlink]

I was closed right on my stop at 8289.5. ITH. I don't use IG but I do use SB. As you can see the Dax went much lower than that, this morning, and I consider myself fortunate, because my stop was not guaranteed.

 

[tar]

If it happens more often then you may wish to move to another broker , but seriously its not uncommon to get bad slippage when you trade FDAX futures with a DMA broker ....

 

[WR1]

Google "IG markets are cheats"

 

[x4x]

Well here we go again, someone will be along in a minute to tell you it's all your fault.

When you trade you have to accept responsibility for everything that happens, it may not be his fault, but it is his responsibility.

A few questions for the OP:

How many trades have you made with IG?

Were you listening to live news? - if you were you'd have known that the Russian's had just reported a rocket launch in the Med.

If you couldn't get out, did you try getting in to hedge your position? - you said it was slow so you must have had time to do so.

If you're using correct MM 16 pips shouldn't be too painful - DAX is the best mover at the moment, you should easily have covered the loss.

I can understand you're p'd off, but you're better off working out what you could have done better rather than moaning about it.

 

[x4x]

Google "IG markets are cheats"

I can't be bothered to look, but if I remember correctly, that site was started by some idiot who was trading at full margin and then some - it's called Russian Roulette, you may get away with playing it once or twice, but it will always end badly if played for long enough.

 

[Pferd]

Not to defend them, but I have been trading with them for three years or so and I find them a very serious company.

As previously said, I believe this situation happened because of the news coming out of the rocket launch by Israel.

It is unfortunate that it happened to you but it is a risk we all have to bear in mind these days. With the proliferation of HFT, the machines get turn off automatically when this kind of volatility appears. As most of the trading is done by machines these days, it leads to an instant collapse of liquidity. There are no bids anymore therefore it is impossible to close any positions. Flash crashes are becoming more often and even entire exchanges (Nasdaq few days ago) get shut off.

It is nothing to do with IG or any other broker, it is just a simple operational matter.

The best you can do is to use guaranteed stops, the comission is relatively cheap compare with the disaster it can occurs in a situation like this. You just have to calculate it as a cost of business. And let's face it, trading is not getting any easier due to machines, geopolitical issues and central bank liquidity injections.

Second best is buying a binary option (or a normal option) against your position. If you get the time right you can ensure at least part of your loss for little money. But the prices of these options are not the best most of the times, so make sure you make your calculations well in advance. It might be cheaper to choose directly option 1.

I am sorry this happened to you. I hope you can recover from it.