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Problem Caught by Live Platform Video Clips - How Alpari UK subtly forces you into paying multiple folds mor

I am having an issue with a company
Intriguing videos.
One suggestion - use trailing stops on open orders. if you get one that won't close, set the trailing stop as close as the broker will allow and then see if you can insert a TP order as close as possible.

In the meantime, I hope Alpari steps in and tries to fix the issue.

Thanks very much for your suggestions, Pharaoh.

I did end up using TP to close some orders, but not Trailing stops. Good suggestion.

Nevertheless, the few seconds spent in manually setting up the TP or Trailing stops would inevitably also lead to loss of some pips,
and I may have to repeat the setup process if, just before I click the button, the price move past the minimum pip difference allowed for TP or Trailing stops.
 
Hi Alex,

I do understand and appreciate that should Alpari become aware of any security issue, it is your obligation to inform me of this. However, your colleagues lied to you to discredit my integrity, because I don't believe there would be any stranger who would impose as me to call any of your colleagues, unless I dishonestly arranged to get a male to call. Moreover, I'm a female, and the difference between a female and a male voice should be easily recognisable. That's why I took that as wrongful accusation rather than a security notification issue.

The detail report and the seven video clips have all already been given to Mr. L Hawkins and Miki two weeks ago, although there are a few more which I haven't compiled. You can also download these seven video clips and the detail report directly from this forum.

As for the detail of the missing order, I don't wish to keep showing hands with all my cards, after noting the way your so-called 'specialists' have handled the other issues pertaining to the seven video clips.

Would your client services specialists willingly and honestly make an official statement here that there have been similar occasions of orders that disappeared into thin air before from other customers' accounts OR such incidence had NEVER occurred before and that mine is the first case Alpari-UK has ever heard of.

I'd also like to hear an official statement here from your company that all the incidences shown in my video clips are normal and are expected scenarios by all Alpari-UK customers.

I'll then proceed from there after seeing your company statements on the above here.

Thanks.

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).

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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
 
Good to know (and to read) Alpari (UK) representative here making attempts to resolve the problem.

Again, I emphasize the greater importance of reputable brokers to employ competent & efficient Support staffs as they are their first line of defense against putting the company's good reputation on the line.
Time and again, I have broker's support putting the blame fully on my side before some senior/experienced personnel come on line to give some tangible replies and make attempts to find out the real cause of the problem. But most times, the harm has been done and it would become difficult to regain the trust.


pchg007 do keep us updated on the outcome of the investigation and the resolution;yah!
All the best!
 
Good to know (and to read) Alpari (UK) representative here making attempts to resolve the problem.

Thank you RahmanSL.

Alpari UK prides itself on providing the very best customer service for our clients. All clients who have a relationship with us are treated fairly. We strive to ensure that any information required by a client is provided in a clear and transparent manner.

Whatever your query, we are here to help.


Alex

________
Alexander Chadwick
Alpari (UK) Representative
 
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!
 
Good to know (and to read) Alpari (UK) representative here making attempts to resolve the problem.

Again, I emphasize the greater importance of reputable brokers to employ competent & efficient Support staffs as they are their first line of defense against putting the company's good reputation on the line.
Time and again, I have broker's support putting the blame fully on my side before some senior/experienced personnel come on line to give some tangible replies and make attempts to find out the real cause of the problem. But most times, the harm has been done and it would become difficult to regain the trust.

pchg007 do keep us updated on the outcome of the investigation and the resolution;yah!
All the best!

Ya, for now, looks like Alex is at least trying.

His colleagues were not truthful at all.

My dad is a programmer and a research scientist, and a couple of his programmer peers told him years ago that they were once engaged by brokers to re-write programs to cheat and to operate their platforms with Stop hunting, Slippages, Requotes, Spikes and several other tricks to increase the broker's chance of winning. These algorithms can either be activated automatically to aim on particular accounts once they hit a certain threshold or percentage of Win trades OR against big accounts with potential big Wins, Or it can work by first flagging out accounts with potential big Wins or with certain Win thresholds reached, and has someone activate a specific code to act against the specific trader or category of traders. That may explain what I've been experiencing and why you sometimes see a spike of >30 pips in one currency pair on one broker's platform, but no spike with the identical currency pair at all at that exact time on other brokers' platforms. That is to hunt down those trades with set Stop Loss. Some algorithms would hunt not by Spikes, but slower, and the moment they stopped you out, you'll almost instantly see the price reverting to where it came from. When such occurrences repeated frequently it's no co-incidence.

There are many other tricks a programmer can use to help the brokers. My dad's friends told him that after working for those overly greedy brokers for some time their conscience began pricking them, and they left for good, in repentance.

So, I know that all that has happened to me are not normal as Alpari-UK's 'Specialists' are attempting to convince me and their customers.

Perhaps, their 'Specialists' may even not be aware of what their company's platforms' algorithms have been programmed to do. They may be trained in a standard way of interpreting the log records and defend their system all out blindly, unless they are also trained programmers themselves, else they too have no clue.

Thanks, RahmanSL
 
By the way, my dad just informed me that a programmer friend has shared with him not long ago that these days most brokers claim that they have

no dealing desks - meaning they don't employ dealers to trade against customers. Well, they actually need not have human dealers anymore. Brokers

(alpari-UK not excluded) are now using a specialized and advanced virtual Dealer plugin for MT4 supplied by Metaquotes to allow brokers access to much more efficient and effective virtual dealers to trade against traders. The plugin allows brokers to set the following to reduce their risks and increase their chance of winning in leaps and bounds:

- Stop hunting
- Requoting
- Widening the spread
- Software disconnects
- Lagging/fraudulent price quotes
- Unfilled orders
- And more...

Anyone interested to know more about this Virtual Dealer plugin used by brokers can email me at wealth007@gmail.com

It may be helpful to always ask a broker (before signing up with them) if they use any virtual dealing desk software. Ask them for a written statement saying that they do not. If they refuse or do not answer then you can smell rats right away.

I wonder also if Alpari-UK would dare declare with an official statement here and in their company website that they do not use any Virtual Dealer software at all.
 
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I would be interested in seeing Alpari UK's response to all of the above, and am VERY interested in seeing if Alpari UK will make a clear statement about whether or not they employ the virtual dealer plugin.
 
I would be interested in seeing Alpari UK's response to all of the above, and am VERY interested in seeing if Alpari UK will make a clear statement about whether or not they employ the virtual dealer plugin.

Yes, Pharaoh.

I'm also waiting for a down-to-earth honest response from them.

BTW, a few forumners sent me links to watch video clips of actual Virtual Dealer Plugin in Action
(by courtesy of someone who works in a large broker company).

You could have already seen them. Nevertheless, for the interest of other fellow traders I thought it's
good to let every trader here see for themselves the truth of how unscrupulous brokers (large and small) use such tools to
scam us left, right, centre, top down, and will lie through their teeth by explaining away all weird problems traders encountered.
I'll provide the link in my next posting.

Thanks, Pharaoh. All the best!
 
Real Virtual Dealer Plugin In Action - by courtesy of someone who works in a large broker company to warn the FX trader community

Hi brothers and sisters,

I was given several links to watch Real Virtual Dealer Plugin(VDP) In Action - by courtesy of a good Samaritan who works in a large broker company to warn the FX trader community of unscrupulous brokers

Some of you may have already watched it some time ago. However, for those who have not watched this video before, I urge you to watch it.
I was told that this video link had been removed several times due to threats by the VDP vendor.

After watching the video clip you would be able to associate and identify any weird encounters in your trading you had before or are encountering now and in the future,
scenarios as shown in the video and as encountered by me (please see my earlier posting here at this link: Caught by Live Platform Video Clips - How Alpari UK subtly forces you into paying multiple folds more pips than their published spreads!).

Should this link again be removed, please let me know, and I'll provide another. I urge brothers and sisters here to spread the word and this link around to caution other brothers and sisters in the trader community of such real unscrupulous practices by FX brokers (large and small).

Click and Watch the Real Virtual Dealer Plugin in Action



This video will show you live how brokers set the following using the VDP:

1. Edit and Change history of drawn candles
2. Fixing mess after Stop Hunting
3. Order Rejection and creating Slippages
4. Stop Hunt by Injecting and Modifying prices
5. Setting Slippage time, and with the min. and max. allowed profit/loss preset in pips

I recalled my dad telling me sometime ago that one of his programming peers once told him that his employer (a large broker company)
had assigned him to write a program having the capability to display fraudulent prices on any targeted (flagged out) trader to cause
him confusion and to Stop his trade out. He did but quit after that out of guilty conscience. Now, we see that the action listed in Point 1
above can be used to achieve this easily by the VDP like a breeze.

You will also be able to easily associate all the weird encounters I have reported to Alpari-UK (occurring only after I started to recoup about 70% of my initial losses with 90% Win trades by scalping) are obviously the work of a VDP.

I also heard that a few brokers have already been fined by the NFA for several hundreds of thousands of dollars for using the Virtual Dealer plugin to cheat
traders, yet they still denied any wrong doings despite the NFA verdict. Hope that Alpari-UK would be next to be fined. We traders should get together to continue
our fights against these unscrupulous brokers who scammed our hard-earned money. One effective way is to spread the word fast to caution the traders
community to boycott such brokers the moment weird scenarios like what I've encountered started surfacing. Traders could also record live platform trading
activities like what I did as proofs, or use software like the 4XSentinel to detect any VDP activities.

Below is also one of many other complaints and suspicions brought up by some other traders about Alpari-UK using the VDP:

--------------------------------

Aplari uses the Virtual Dealer Plug-in for MT4

I had an account with Alpari Uk for around 3 Months. I've been trading for around 5 years, so I'd like to think I know what I'm doing.
Alpari has very good spreads, not the lowest out there but very competitive. EUR/USD was 1.6 pips around 80% of the time.

I recently closed my account after a trade that proved to me that aplari is using the Virtual Dealer Plug-in for MT4. I haven't complained to them about the trade as I see no point, it wasn't a terrible loss. I just want others to know of my suspicions.
The trade I opened was around news time, I happened to click on the wrong order, buy instead of a sell, happens rarely but it does, and I accept this to be my mistake.

However what happened to my order was what botheres me. My order was held for around 10-15 seconds, after the price had moved against me I was executed at the price I clicked. You'd think this is great, they give good fills, well I'm telling you it's only on orders that you will make a loss on. As soon as I realized I clicked the wrong price I tried to open an order in the opposite direction hoping I would instantly hedge the position. I was only executed on the losing order and the opposite order had been re-quoted.

Having read about what the virtual dealer plug-in is capable of doing, this exactly fits the description. The plug-in delays your order and checks against the real market price, if the price has moved against you it executes you, if not it re-quotes you.

This could happen for any trade depending on how they have it set-up.
Now a company won't publicly admit to using the plug in so no point in asking, we're simply left with our suspicion.
Alex I, FPA 2011-02-09

Source: Aplari uses the Virtual Dealer Plug-in for MT4

--------------------------------
 
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