Is IG manipulating their market?

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07/17/2017 at 1:52 PM #40869 quote

juanj
Participant

Master

Good Day

I am sure we have all been at a place where we felt the market is ‘out to get us’ or as some call it ‘stop hunted’. I made my peace long ago that this is simply not true. However, I recently read the pathfinder thread in the forum (see the link below) were I believe is a clearcut case of where IG literally manipulated the market and then try to hide it. Why else would they pay back the money if not acceptance of guilt?

Pathfinder swing TS

@dajvop

@wp01

Now this has lead me to very carefully monitor my trades and what I found literally began to worry me. I have been stopped out almost to the point far too many times with stops (way above or below obvious resistance) just for the market to quickly retrace again. As have been stated in the above link IG create their own market and hence would be capable of doing this very easily as they see all our stops and limits in their orderbook and can very easily manipulate the market for their own gain.

Are we being played by the biggest casino of them all? I found this reference on IG’s About page that is somewhat telling:

“IG Index supports responsible gambling, for information and advice please visit http://www.gambleaware.co.uk.”

Can anyone comment on this? @Nicolas?

07/18/2017 at 9:46 AM #40935 quote

juanj
Participant

Master

I had an interesting situation again today where I again had a stop at a very respectable level again far above obvious support and pullback levels ( slightly above the 76.4 Fib retracement level) . It again began to appear as if the market was coming hel or high water to take out my stop. And just before I got stopped I removed my stop order and almost immediately the price pulled back leaving my position in place. Really makes me wonder who is working the order book.

07/18/2017 at 10:20 AM #40936 quote

robertogozzi
Moderator

Master

I am using IG for automated trading only, but I still use it as a reference.

I am trading manually with another broker and I happened sometimes to have my SL triggered by few pips as well as my TP triggered by a few pips, as well as my SL not triggered by 1.2 pips then becoming a winning trade!

Las week a had a losing trade by less than 4 pips, then the price went the other way round and it would be a winning trade right now, in this case after placing my limit order I was thinking about the correct placement of my SL, because there was another further place thant could have fit better I thought, but I decided not to change my order to risk less. And I lost!!!!

I also have crosschecked 3 different brokers, several times, and in normal situations (far from important news where volatility may bring even 10-20 pips difference in prices among brokers) prices were less than 1 pip apart!

I cannot say much about your case, because only you know the real facts, but I don’t believe in a BIG BROTHER.

I don’t think Deutsche Bank or JP Morgan etc…. will care much about a couple of our pips! They even do not know about our SL and TP, only our broker does! And adding some pips to catch your SL may trigger someone else’s TP!

There are some “odd” (to say the least) Market Makers and everyone should stay away from them. Their reputation is jeopardized and they have to change name quite often. They are best placed in “exotic” or less controlled countries!

Some brokers may “take advantage” of high volatility just to increase slippage on the spur of the moment, but even slippage may turn to your favor sometimes!

I trust brokers with decades of activity and experience. For sure they are common companies and as such they need to make profits, but traders are their “daily bread”, wasting that bread may starve them in the long run!

07/18/2017 at 4:41 PM #41003 quote

Nicolas
Keymaster

Master

IG is a CFD broker, the biggest CFD factory worldwide. Their instruments are their own and their quotations are their own quotations. So I can’t say much more than this fact.

About the XAGUSD, you are referring about the attached chart? IMO a fat finger has pushed a big button when there were no volumes (during night).

graphique-xagusd.png

07/18/2017 at 5:14 PM #41016 quote

juanj
Participant

Master

@Nicolas but why would IG pay back money in that instance if this is just simply a price spike caused by low volatility? Like I said I don’t want to believe prices can be manipulated by market makers at my expense but the truth is stranger things have happened. This phenomenon in my experience is also only prevalent on lower time-frames mostly 1min to 30min.

07/18/2017 at 7:09 PM #41025 quote

GraHal
Participant

Master

Pick 3 instances where you suspect your stops were hunted and compare the IG tick by tick price (at your stop price) with 2 or 3 other brokers.

I did this once (1 instance not 3) and it checked out okay. However, spreads can be widened either way whilst still keeping the mid price the same and so the tick price would be in line with prices external to IG but your stop could still have been hit by the ‘flash widening’ of the spread?

I just looked back and Roberto says he checked external tick prices a few times and the difference between brokers was less than 1 pip.

Roberto also says … began to appear as if the market was coming hell or high water to take out my stop. And just before I got stopped I removed my stop order and almost immediately the price pulled back leaving my position in place … yes I’ve done same often, moved my stop much further away and the ‘hell or high water price advance towards my stop’ then immediately started to retreat!

GraHal

07/18/2017 at 7:35 PM #41030 quote

Eric
Participant

Master

If IG dont follow the underlaying (dax future for dax CFD)

then there soon will be this http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/arbitrage.asp

so thats not in their interest i think

07/18/2017 at 7:43 PM #41033 quote

GraHal
Participant

Master

Maybe that’s why IG ‘hell or high water slow creep advance’ towards our stops while they keep one eye out for arbitrageurs taking advantage of the IG ‘out of step price with underlying’!? 🙂

07/19/2017 at 7:38 PM #41108 quote

juanj
Participant

Master

Very easy for IG to reject an order of someone trying to take advantage of the arbitrage. I have had orders rejected for ‘no apparent reason’ just before I could take advantage of apparent arbitrage in Buy/Sell prices. And by the time I re-opened the Buy/Sell window the price was conveniently back in balance. So no arbitrage for me.

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07/21/2017 at 8:07 PM #41321 quote

Derek
Participant

Veteran

What if it’s just a drawdown phase of your strategy?

I suggest you compare the number of all trades to the number of trades with unexpected price movements. It will be interesting to see the results.

07/21/2017 at 8:23 PM #41329 quote

Eric
Participant

Master

I use Nicolas trailing stop a lot and it works great

i try not to place the stop where everybody else have it to avoid the risk of “mr markets” stoploss hunt
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