Alpari UK - Data feed

[NicoRoets]

I have two accounts with Alpari UK, one demo account and one live account. I have seen the data feed to the live account is very poor. I have an Expert Advisor that measure the bar length on M1 and then trade if the length is matched. With this Expert advisor I get trades on my demo account but no trades on the live account. The bar sizes does not look the same between the two accounts.
First I was told by Alpari UK that my internet connection is the issue. I then proofed that it was not the case. If it was my internet connection then both accounts should have poor data feeds.

Why is this possible and does someone else also get the same results.

 

[henyo]

is it possible that the live chart differs from the demo one, I know there are a difference in execution, sorry im not sure hopefully some of the mods can clear this out.

 

[RP1]

im pretty sure that when using a demo account you will get no execution problems or slippage, which probably explains why EA's look great on demo but fail when you use them on a real account.
As for actual data differences I dont know but I would hope there would be none.

 

[Pharaoh]

An EA trading off of 1 minute charts would generally do better on demo.

On the other hand, I'd be a little disturbed if a 1 minute chart on a live account looked significantly different than a 1 minute chart on a live account at the same broker. If that is happening, it means that the demo is running on a very different data feed and the demo account is useless for testing short term (and perhaps even long term) strategies.

 

[henyo]

aw, i see, meaning there are demo accounts which show significant difference compared to the live ones. especially on the 1m chart since it should be accurate to test a certain strategy or EA, so these are like some of the difference of demo and live accounts aside from being on a different servers..

 

[forexia]

There is 2 main reasons:

1. Most of the time the real data feed filtered after receiving tones of feeds from feed suppliers companies, this is reduce the "speed" of the feed.
2. Probably they are using some virtual dealer mechanism. This feature exist in MT4/5 and also in other platforms in order to avoid arbitrage and "out of the market quotes".

 

[Pharaoh]

Small differences in demo and live might be acceptable. Large ones aren't.

Virtual dealer plugins don't exist to avoid arbitrage. They exist to allow a broker to selectively induce slippage against traders. I hope that AlpariUK isn't using one.

 

[henyo]

ahm pharaoh, if you don't mind me asking and this may seem a bit out of topic I've been hearing a lot about arbitrage EAs, but I have no Idea how it works or the concept behind it.. so i thought id ask you?

 

[forexia]

Small differences in demo and live might be acceptable. Large ones aren't.

Virtual dealer plugins don't exist to avoid arbitrage. They exist to allow a broker to selectively induce slippage against traders. I hope that AlpariUK isn't using one.

The new generation of virtual dealer feature is exactly like you said and also was programmed to avoid arbitrage (maybe they call it in other name)

The virtual dealer check the client price against "covering" prices provided by multiple brokers in the real market- if the price+company mark up will feet to the broker they will approve the deal- if not the client will get re quote or decline.

This feature exist in MT4/5 and also other companies developed and developing it.

 

[Pharaoh]

Real "arbitrage" in forex would be using a faster data feed to anticipate where price will next go. If you can get 1 or 2 pips ahead of your broker, you can open short-term, high leverage trades.

The problem is that a simple scalping strategy that makes profits while using no external data feed can result in an accusation of arbitrage.

I also have an issue with the thought that any real broker with top of the line computers and datafeeds couldn't stay ahead of a person sitting at home using a simple program to compare the MT4 datafeeds from 2 different brokers.

But, this is a little off-topic. The question is just how different AlpariUK's demo feed is from their live feed. A pip here and there would be one thing. If it's significantly different candles, that's a big issue.