What the broker does?

Last night, I went short on the GBP/JPY with my stop loss set at 143.262, the price went against me, up to 143.269 and then fell, as I expected it to. Stopped out by 0.7 pips which is annoying but I won’t let it stop me in my learning. This afternoon, went long on the same pair as it broke through resistance at around 143.35, my TP was around 50 pips (143.910 with spread etc) and the price went up to 143.902 then went against me, to the point where I decided to just take the BE so at least didn’t lose anything.
So over the last day, I’ve had one trade (2 lots) stopped out by 0.7 pips and another on the same pair, miss my TP by 0.8 pips then go completely wrong!
2 questions… I’ve sort of heard of things like 'stophunter’s and brokers not being completely honest but always thought it was people just making excuses but is this not as made up as I first thought?
Also, what was your high on GBY/JPY on the 14th at 02:42 BST (01:42 GMT) and the high for today, around 15:00 GMT, a long wicked, bearish candle? Are they around the same as mine?

What broker are you using? I don’t have my charting software at the moment to check where you think there may be issues but when I’m back home I will.

Are you using MT4 platform with a trusted broker?

Its a micro account with FXCM I’m using, I know some people have said bad stuff about them before but I get on so well with their charts and they also offer spread betting, which I will get into as long as I have a decent few months on the micro account first as Im in the UK so can do the whole tax free thing

Hi Mike,

From what I’ve read, dealers aren’t always honest.
Have a read of Beat the Forex Dealer - Agustin Silvani it’ll open your eyes to some of their tricks. The key thing is don’t make your stops an easy target for stop hunters.
As for the GBP last night, I got taken out by it to. I was on the GBPNZD with a wide stop, within my limits, but I felt well out of range of any stop hunters. Could have simply been the movement of the market, although it ran pretty hard at my stop, it’s likely there were a lot of stops leading up to mine. I appear to have been taken out by around 10 pips on a 200 pip stop loss. I was aiming to be in for a lot more profit than that on the next wave of risk appetite, so I set what appeared to be an acceptable buffer, however I seem to have got amidst a lot of other stops there by the looks. Too close to the whole number still.
Also remember the spread will get you. If the spread opens up, it’ll swallow your stop while the real price is still many pips way. The chart may say you were taken out by 0.7 pips, but once you add in the spread at the time it could have been aywhere between 5 and 15 pips.

ForexPros.com is showing 1.4386 as their high around that time (0130 GMT on the 15 min chart). I don’t know what my LattitudeFX MT4 account is showing as I’m not at home at the moment.

One other point to remember is to always include the spread + a little into your take profits and stop loss figures. I play the Bollingers a bit, with mixed success. Early on I would set a T/P at the opposite Bollingeer band only to see it just miss it a reverse. I realised it would have got there, but for the spread. Don’t get greedy on the take profit figure, trim a few pips off, and maybe a couple more to allow for the spread and ensure you get hit. My mixed success with the Bollinger bands is mostly due to targets not quite getting hit before the reversal because I get too greedy, that and I’m having major trouble sticking to my plan because these strong upward moves lately, which happen before I start trading, don’t give much in the way of pullback for me to bounce off.

Cheers,
Brian

Many GFT supporters! I think I may look into GFT when I go live. Still liking MT4 and would have switched to GFT had it not been for their limited demoing.

Fairly easy to test this. Compare the prices at the time with other brokers. Pretty clear from the chart that the first trade was stopped out around 7:39pm ET on the 13th. Wasn’t able to tell the time for the second trade from your notes. Here are the screenshots comparing FXCM, Oanda, and GFT.

Oanda

FXCM

GFT

Wow, thanks for going to all that effort! I did have a demo account with GFT but it expired so can’t use it anymore, but it looks like I may just have been a bit unlucky really! Oh well, live and learn :slight_smile:

Hi Jason,
Can you please explain me the negative balance protection policy of FXCM?

Hello

Is your broker a market maker?!?!?! You need to find a broker that gets quote from liquidity provider.
MM bets against traders, and quote from LP brokers are on traders side.
Be careful choosing ur broker my friend.