I wrote to Alpari (UK) today, and they told me that this was a price-feed-error and if I had a live-account they would refund me the lost money.
As such errors seem to occure more often @ Alpari, I was wondering how this is possible if this is a reliable/honest broker? I have read that Oanda had such spikes too in the past…
I checked with tech support and an issue did occur with one of our demo servers.
The Demo server is used for testing so that improvements can be made to the live server’s functionality. I’m sure you would agree that it is better for us to experiment with the demo server rather than the live one for obvious reasons.
In spite of our demo server’s excellent uptime there are rare occasions when there are issues. We apologise if this issue has inconvenienced you. I do understand that some clients use our demo in a serious manner which is something we respect and promote. However, we are committed to improving functionality for all clients which requires testing, thereby preventing errors on the live server.
Also, please note that unplanned emergency maintenance cannot be foreseen and therefore, in such cases, we would be unable to alert our clients.
I understand your fear of this occurring in a live environment but we have sophisticated systems in place to prevent this; we have also recently added more servers for our live accounts.
Any live server errors that induce a loss on your account are immediately corrected and funds are returned to you in full.
We have always treated our clients fairly. If a loss is incurred by no fault of your own, we would compensate you in full.
Well the guy from Alpari seems to have answered your question.
Reality is this: you are dealing with technology, and as such there can always be errors here and there. It happens to ALL brokers, both demo and Live. It is something you will need to deal with I’m afraid. The important thing is how the broker reacts to these issues and whether he corrects them.
As I am demo-trading with Alpari since a while, and happy with the customer support, I registered a Micro-Live-Account.
First thing I did was to take a look at the chart of GBP/CHF, and this is what you see:
There are still two spikes @Alpari that don’t occure on IBFX - so if one of thos spikes would have hit a SL would this also be recognized as an error or is this to take as a spread?
These aren’t spikes. Alpari UK receives prices from its liquidity providers (Banks) which are reflected in the price feed on MT4. Inter-Bank prices will always differ slightly and reflect their views, order books and current exposure to the market. Therefore, they can vary between different brokers.
It’s hard to see if it’s a Spike due to feed error from an Hourly chart. Go to a 1 minute chart and check and see if it’s only on 1 minute. If it’s a pretty big spike on only 1 candlestick on a 1 minute chart and it’s during standard trading conditions (so not before/during news) then it often is due to an error. IF it’s over many minutes, then it may be something else. That’s my experience at least.
It could the liquidity providers, which is it is important to work with the best to ensure no ‘sprites’ will show on the charts. Maybe it was a one-off with Alpari.
By the way, it looks like the “spike” you are referring to is at the opening hour on the Sunday. Again, you would need to check the 1 minute chart imho . It may be due to spread widening on the open (if chart price is based on bid) due to low liquidity at that time, or something else.
Just as a reference, this is my hourly on GBPCHF with Hantec Markets
Hi Andy - thank you for sharing your experience - yes, that was the opening hour (15.10.2012 01:00).
Is this a Live-Account that you are watching/trading with Hantec Markets?
(What is your opinion about Oanda? I didn’t try them…)
Hi Dafuq,
actually I think I may have taken the screenshot from Hantec’s demo, but I have live account also.
I haven’t traded with Oanda, have heard mixed things, but then again you will hear mixed things on EVERY broker. That’s not always necessarily due to the broker I feel, but more than often down to the trader’s experience/feeling. They are MM (well I think they do a bit of both, MM and STP/ECN), but I think generally they might be ok.
We are aware of a spike on certain AUD related pairs overnight. Unfortunately, this was due to an incorrect price given to us by one of our liquidity providers. Alpari UK merely reflects prices provided.
Anyone that has been affected has had their trades corrected already. I apologise for any inconvenience that may have been caused.
Non-disclosure agreements mean that we cannot normally name any of the multiple tier 1 banks (liquidity providers) which stream prices to our platforms.
Another spike, on a LIVE account, on GBPUSD. Over at a different forum, users have noticed spikes in the Alpari feed with different currencies, symbols.
I’ve got quite a few of them showing across multiple pairs at the moment on a live account. Quite a few from yesterday evening and the same GBPUSD one as above from today.
