Hi pcbg007,
Thank you for your feedback.
As this is a public forum, it is not appropriate to discuss the details of your account or your trades here. As advised, please get
in touch with us.
In the meantime, to minimize re-quotes on your account:
1. "Enable the maximum deviation for quoted price" checkbox and set it above 10. This implies the max deviation is just 1 pip. To prevent re-
quotes during volatile trading times, you may want to set the max deviation between 10 to 40 points (1 to 4 pips).
I have done this before. BTW, I set to 1, not 10, because my platform states in pips, not points.
2. If you use an MT4 indicator to detect spread widening, please make sure that your indicator is configured for the 5 decimal pricing system
that we use. Otherwise a 3 pip spread-widening will be shown as 30 pips by the indicator.
I know this, and it's been already set to 5 decimal pricing system from day one.
3. Another thing to consider is your internet connection to our servers. Test your latency by pinging the Alpari trading servers or just ping
alpari.co.uk. If your latency is high (higher ms numbers), then this is one of the factor causing your orders to be re-quoted.
I even go to the extent of checking how fast my video streaming could download while trading, apart from checking with other downloads and with other broker's platform execution speed. So, problem was 100% not at my end. But if the problem is due solely to the connection speed to Alpari server that's beyond traders' control, don't you think it's unfair for traders to suffer loss via such causes? Aren't Alpari responsible? Any broker could also purportedly set this up or leave this problem aside to cause traders extreme disadvantage.
And as I have mentioned repeatedly, why the frequencies of slippages and requotes, and time length of slippages became only rampant after I started to scalp trade and made 90% WIN trades over several consecutive days and recouped about 70% of my initial losses(incurred by position trading)??? If this is a norm, then the same frequencies and the length of time of slippages should also occur, randomly, and not what it appears to be obviously very selectively - that is, only when I made 90% Win trades consecutively over a few days.
For example, let’s say a client is complaining about re-quotes. He gives us an account number and we pull the logs. We find that we received his
order at let's say, 9:01:11 and sent the execution back at 9:01:12, so less than a second. He claims it took two minutes and was re-quoted. Now,
his logs showed that the order was placed by him (manually) at 8:59:50. So, yes, assuming all timestamps are correct, that looks like 2 minutes,
but we can clearly see that from the time it was received on our end until the time of execution it was barely only a second, hardly a bad time.
Traders execute trades based only on what we see on the platform provided by Alpari-UK, and if What We See Is NOT What We Get, is this not highly absurd? Basing on Alpari's Timestamp records alone is unfair and questionable. Algorithms can be written in anyway to cause the timestamp records inclined to the advantage of brokers. They are also not 100% perfect.
Traders in UK and Europe enjoy significantly lower latencies (hence higher speed execution) and experience almost no re-quotes (when maximum
deviation setting is correct) than other traders usually in Asia, Australia, Africa or in countries where the internet is routed via proxies such
as Saudi Arabia.
I did see a number of your customers living in Europe also complaining on similar frequent slippages and requotes in this forum.
There could be many more others who just had no clue of what's happening when they encountered these.
As an experienced trader, I'm sure you understand that re-quotes have been around ever since markets were allowed to float and are a natural
consequence of that. If you are trading with the momentum of the market, and therefore by definition in the direction of least liquidity, then
re-quotes are an inescapable fact of life that everyone has to deal with, from the busiest InterBank desks to the smallest retail trader. The
only current alternatives are
Direct Market Access Accounts in which orders are
sent on a Fill or Kill basis where although you can avoid re-quotes, the risk is not getting a trade in (or out) at your preferred price at all.
You start harping in the same tone like your colleagues, as if I'm expecting NO slippages and NO requotes at all. I have already clarified several times that what I'm complaining is the unusual frequencies of these occurrences.
Let me repeat:
Why the frequencies of slippages and requotes, and time length of slippages became only rampant after I started to scalp trade and made 90% WIN trades over several consecutive days and recouped about 70% of my initial losses(incurred by position trading)??? If this is a norm, then the same frequencies and the length of time of slippages should also occur, randomly, and not what it appears to be obviously very selectively - that is, only when I made 90% Win trades consecutively over a few days.
Please explain!
Again, we're here to help. Please allow us to do so. We cannot participate in any further discussions on the specifics of a client account on a
public forum. Should you wish to discuss any further issues pertaining to your account, please contact us with the information we had requested
at
support@alpari.co.uk . We will be happy to help in any way we can.
I wish you all the best with your trading.
Alex
________
Alexander Chadwick
Alpari (UK) Representative
I also wish to settle all these issues promptly, but not when you guys are interested only in defending yourselves, repeating your stand like a broken record, but avoiding my simple questions.
Alex, if you were not accurately informed of the contents of the correspondences between me and your colleagues (Miki, Mr. L. Hawkins and Paul C.), I can show you all the correspondences.
Whether this can be settled promptly and amicably or not, the ball is actually in your court.
What is a fair compensation to me can be approximated from the following:
1. My inital capital was $7,700
2. My initial Loss by position trade was about $4,000, but I recouped about $3000 by scalping with 90% WIN trades over a few consecutive days to a balance of about $6,600 as at 1st June 2012.
3. After 1st June 2012, I could have continued to Win many more thousands via scalping, recouping all my Losses and even with Profits, however, I started losing again big time when your system started to attack me with the high frequencies of Slippages and Requotes (as captured partially in my video clips).
4. Instead of concentrating on my trades and my scalping strategies, I got confused and lost, and spending time to figure out why, and spending time to set my video recordings, compiling them and writing the report.
5. Experiencing frustrations, agony, anguish, sleepness nights, stress.
6. Spending time to scan the FPA forums and to post my encounters.
7. Spending time to compile facts and correspond with your colleagues and you.
As for the missing order, I promise to provide the full details if Alpari-UK is ready to compensate me fairly with a lump sum, based on the above 7 points.
It's no use for me to waste time arguing with your support department. As I said, if 'What We Traders See on Alpari's platform Is NOT What We Get' (since Alpari would only argue with the support of the Time-stamped logs primarily to your company's advantage), this argument would not end until the cows come home.
If there's no offer of compensation, then I'm ready to escalate to report to the relevant authorities and petition with the traders community to request the authorities to impose the requirement for brokers to state clearly to warn their customers and potential customers of :
1) The norms of Impending Long period of and frequent slippages and frequent Requotes that would add up many more pips to the published spreads.
So, in your money management strategy, include an additional 5 to >10 pips to your cost of trade.
2) What You see on your platforms is not going to be what You get, for we are relying solely only on platform logs which traders have no control and could not see until everything is over.
3) MIssing order record can also occur without the knowledge of the broker. Traders, you are responsible yourselves to keep track of any missing order and report with full details to broker, otherwise broker is not responsible to return the profit to trader.
If Alpari-UK is prepared to settle with me with a fair compensation, you can write me privately to
wealth007@gmail.com
Thanks, Alex, for taking the time to respond.
Have a nice day!