I am very new to trading (1 week now) and I am trying things out on a FXCM demo account. I was doing pretty well. I was up 2K until a few minute ago. I entered a short sale on the AUD/USD. I then heard the warning sound a few minutes later that I had hit a margin call. I have read about the margin call but didn’t think that a 13K pip movement was even possible over just a few minutes. When I look at ALL the charts this 13K spike does not show up on any of them and the ticker show the currency selling for just a few pips from where I sold.
Has anyone seen anything like this? Is this sort of thing common?
Any advice is much appreciated.
I have attached screen shots of the closed position and the chart.
What is very strange is the closing price of 2.19176?! :eek: Considering price is normally under 1.00 ie .8903. I’d say it was a feed glitch.
If that was live, I’d certainly be contacting FXCM. Actually you could contact them anyways and ask what they would do in the event that was a live account…just so you’d know.
info: You are now chatting with ‘FXCM - Dmitriy’
FXCM - Dmitriy: Thank you for chatting. FXCM is currently experiencing very high chat volume. If you have questions or technical issues with the recent Trading Station update, please visit:
FXCM - Dmitriy: fxstatus.com
John: Hi Dmitriy
FXCM - Dmitriy: Hello John
John: I just made a short sale on the aud/usd market on a demo account
John: I hit a margin call that does not show on the charts
John: The closed position shows a 13K pip movement in 4 mins
FXCM - Dmitriy: we did have a technical issue with prices
FXCM - Dmitriy: on certain pairs
John: can this be corrected?
FXCM - Dmitriy: on the demo account
FXCM - Dmitriy: you can open a new demo
John: yep
FXCM - Dmitriy: but we are working on fixing this
John: ok
FXCM - Dmitriy: on our real accounts
FXCM - Dmitriy: let me get you the new demo
John: what would happen if this sort of thing happened on a real account?
FXCM - Dmitriy: if it is a technical issue
FXCM - Dmitriy: on our end
FXCM - Dmitriy: then we fix it
FXCM - Dmitriy: so if you were affected by this in a negative way
FXCM - Dmitriy: we will not keep your account harmed
John: I would say 130K loss in 4 mins would have a negative affect
John: lol
Yeah, I am thinking an erroneous tick…it does happen. Definitely call them on it.
Here is also a news flash…you will not see the spike hitting your stop loss in this case. Remember that the price you see on the chart is the bid price. In your case, your trade(short) would have been valued at the Ask price and this is not reflected anywhere on the chart. There is no history of it unless you track the spreads via a CSV file. Spreads on the AUD can get wild at times, and very much so with an ECN broker where you are totally exposed to the whims of the market. I have seen 300 pips on the EURAUD during NFP. This is the one case where I can say those bucket shop market makers have the upper hand…
I am thinking that the broker fed you an erroneous Ask price and this hit your stoploss or margined your account. This is one of the main reasons why I do not use server side stoplosses. This is why a good EA will take spreads into account during an internal stoploss.
A bad tick occurred on the usdchf, audusd, usdcad, nzdusd, euraud, audnzd currency pairs around 10:46am EST. It’s still being investigated to see exactly why this occurred. Trading Station Update Center at FX Trading Station Support Portal has been updated with new information about the bad tick and what we’re doing.
Live accounts affected by the bad tick (for example due to a margin call) are automatically going to be corrected. Anyone that had a stop loss incorrectly executed should request a trade audit.
