Is something going on, or just bad luck?

[Grogy]

Trading with IBFX on 7/23/10, at 12:05 GTM, I bought 1 EURUSDm at 1.29069 and was margined out the same date at 13:22 GTM at 1.27956, down 111.30. At 13:22 on my 1 min chart, the low was 1.27942 and then it reversed and eventually went up to 1.29 a few hours later. Was this bad luck, bad margin or something else. It seems more than coincidental that it should fall 112 pips, margin me out, and then reverse 1 pip later. Opinions will be appreciated.

 

[Pharaoh]

It's possible that they had a bad tick. Contact them on Monday, and again on Tuesday to ask.

Also, never ever trade so that a 100 pip drop can give you a margin call. It's an invitation to disaster.

 

[fxfrench]

Trading with IBFX on 7/23/10, at 12:05 GTM, I bought 1 EURUSDm at 1.29069 and was margined out the same date at 13:22 GTM at 1.27956, down 111.30. At 13:22 on my 1 min chart, the low was 1.27942 and then it reversed and eventually went up to 1.29 a few hours later. Was this bad luck, bad margin or something else. It seems more than coincidental that it should fall 112 pips, margin me out, and then reverse 1 pip later. Opinions will be appreciated.

I would say it was was luck. A bad price feed spike would happen instantly, not over several hours. On my broker the low was 1.27930 (its normal to have a difference between brokers in a non centralised market) so the IBFX low was within the realms of possibility.

And like Pharoah said, if 100 pips down can destroy your account, you are not using proper risk management. As a rule I would use a maximum of 0.1 lots (10k of base currency) per $1000 account balance or better yet, 1/2 of that. That way you could lose 1000 pips before margin call. You are likely using at least 10x an acceptable level of risk.