Need help, profit target not executed

Beginner Questions
1

Is this normal, where my take profit was not executed?

Currency: usdjpy
type: sell
t/p: 119.861
lowest price of the hour: 119.771

The price exceeded my target by 9 pips. It happens just now, I was in front of my screen and watch the price exceeds my target, but it immediately exit at stop-loss, the time was at 1min prior non-farm payroll release.

Similar things happen last month, prior news release, exceed target, tp not executed and reverse to stop, and slippage causing lose more than specified price.

This time, my trades exit immediately before the price touches my my stop, the price is exactly at my predetermined stop.

I’m trading with Fxprimus, and this was the first forex broker I’ve been trading with. Can anyone tell me

  1. how big the spread can be prior to news event (especially non-farm payroll) ?
  2. was I being unlucky or is it due to dishonest broker?
2

The price on my mt4 was also often slightly different from other website such as investing.com, the spred and price should be identical right?

3

It might be because of your brokers spread, if it was more than 9 pips you wouldn’t have triggered .
Ive had this with fcpro, stupidly wide spreads and slippage, thats why im looking for a new broker

4

Remember:

I sell to the bid
I buy from the ask

If you were short, you were trying to buy from the ask to take profit. The chart you are looking at is probably showing you the bid data. When you see that the bid came down to your target, that doesn’t mean your order would have been triggered. You need the ask to hit that level to trigger your order. During that moment, the ask went up and the bid went down widening the spread dramatically because of the news release. Your profit target was within the spread, not above the ask.

-Adrian

5

In my case, the spread or ask/bid difference is more than 9 pips? My concern is whether this is normal, because usually spread is only around 0.5pip

6

At the moment they show this as 1 pip spread, much better than fxpro, but all brokers widen the spread during high volatility or low liquidity

7

Are you using a VPN?

8

FXCM shows the following:

7:28 Bid low = 119.904, Ask low = 119.903 (0 pip difference)
7:29 Bid low = 119.839, Ask low = 119.912 (7.3 pip difference)
7:30 Bid low = 119.772, Ask low = 119.908 (13.6 pip difference)
7:31 Bid low = 119.912, Ask low = 119.928 (1.6 pip difference)
7:32 Bid low = 120.308, Ask low = 120.320 (1.2 pip difference)

So just as the announcement was made, spreads went from fractions of a pip up to 13.6 pips or more and then back down to 1.2 pips in just a few minutes. And the important thing: the lowest ask low was 119.908 (4.7 pips higher than your profit target to buy at 119.861). This data may be slightly different from your broker, but I bet you will find the ask never got to your profit target.

This is very normal. In fact, spreads can shoot wider than that every day at close of business as new orders flash into the market with the new daily data update. News announcements can be way worse.

-Adrian

9

You should get a broker that has fixed spreads maybe, then you can be sure that the spread will never be more than 2 pips or whatever.

10

Thanks for help, it worries me a lot

11

Will fixed spread ensure the exit being execute properly? I heard that fixed spreads one have to face problems with requote, how’s it will be…

In the trade mention above, if I was using a fixed spread, I should have won, is it?

12

No. Your target was not hit. Fixed spreads don’t solve the problem of not hitting your target. You lost fair and square. Your broker did not do this to you. You bet you could buy at 119.861 and you lost.

-Adrian