I invested in a company, which uses a robot to trade for me. And their robot opens a position at a price of 1808.28, when the candle high is only at 1808.07… at 10:54 How is this possible? Is there manipulation? Is this even possible in MT4?
Most charts show the bid prices, i.e. the price at which you would short the market or close a long position in the market. The price at which you would buy this market is the ask price and is always higher than what you see on the chart, the difference being called the spread.
This means that if the chart shows a price of e.g. 1.2468, the ask price (not shown on the chart) could be 1.2472. If you looked only at the chart, you would think that your buy order set at 1.2471 should not have been triggered, but in reality it would have been.
Some charts can be re-set to show ask price in stead of the bid price and some might be re-set to show both. The true prices at any one time are the quotes, not the chart.
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I see. So the price in “History” tab is the ASK price, and it is possible for the ASK price at 10:54 to be HIGHER than the candle HIGH at 10:54?
There is no manipulation
It is just the spread
As mentioned in above, MT charts are based on the bid price meaning that candles are drawn by the bid line.
So it is better to go to properties and add the “ask line” to better track your prices during opening & closing (Note: this will still not change the candle drawing)
Buy opens with ask closes with bid
Sell opens with bid closes with ask
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thanks for your nice post with good level of information. thanks again.
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Ok. So the chart is showing the “bid” price.
But the “history” tab’s open and close position price is based on the “Ask” price, right?
I am so new at this, I am sorry about being so ignorant.
yes the candles OHLC are only based on the bid price
but your terminal history shows you the exact price where your order was open or closed (bid or ask)
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I understand now! Thank you.
A little slightly OOT but somewhat relevant to my concern question:
So, if I can see the trades in MT4, is there no way a broker can manipulate the record in the “history” tab, such as the time of trading (like opening a position at 10:30:40 but having the time show up as 10:30:25) or manipulate the price of the position (like opening a position at a price of 1808.24 but having the price show up as 1808.13) for example?
depends on the broker
that’s why people have a hard time choosing a good broker which is regulated and is ethical in its operations
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Anything’s possible if you have someone clever enough at IT. But you have to consider whether it is worth their while - whether the risk is worth it.
The CEO of a UK spreadbetting firm has said that its just not worth them cheating their private retail clients out of trading profits. The reason is because it can’t be kept a secret from the staff - as soon as something negative happens to an employee, such as they’re made redundant, they could go straight to the regulator. And then the game’s up.
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So, are you saying that if a broker is dishonest, the trading log (time, price, positions etc) in the “history” tab can be manipulated by the broker in MT4?
yes! it is possible for a broker to manipulate your order
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Exactly, and that’s why you need to do a lot of research on your broker before joining them
Regulations, Executions, Spreads, Slippage, etc…
And always open a demo account first and try it our for some time before opening a real one
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ask for the tick to tick data from tje broker. It will clear the story
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Thanks a lot guys. I am not trading myself. The broker trades for me using its robot, and I only have to sit still and receive the profit. Sounds shady, but well, I’ve only tried it for 3 days. So far so good.
We’ll see, I guess.
Thank you for a well-written article with a high degree of detail. Thank you one more.