Hello all,
I was requested to explain, on behalf of Spotware Systems, more about cTrader, our ECN trading platform.
I see a lot of confusion on the boards with regard to how trading platforms treat users. Many traders believe that all platforms can manipulate trades in way or another, and traders have come to accept the situations the original poster is describing as the norm (injecting prices into the market, rejected orders, custom delays and frequent slippage).
We’ve been asked to take part in this discussion to explain how we at Spotware Systems and cTrader operate.
cTrader and our automated trading platform, cAlgo, are true ECN currency trading platforms. liquidity providers stream fully executable prices from to the platform (LPs are major global banks like Barclays, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, Nomura, BNP Paribas). These liquidity streams comprise our full depth of market against which your trades are executed. It should be stressed out that this is an automated process without any human intervention. Brokers cannot manipulate in any way the stream of prices coming from LPs.
I would like to answer the original poster’s points one by one:
- Virtual dealer pt1 - a demonstration of Virtual Dealers "Delay" setting, shows how to automatically create slippage with every market order
Our backend (cServer and cBroker GUI) makes it technically impossible for brokers or third party developers to create any kind of plug-in – regardless of whether it’s malicious or not. We just don't offer this option. cBroker has no custom delay setting at all – we are proud to offer the fastest execution available on the market through are proxy cloud, and guarantee that all traders equally receive the fastest execution speeds and reliability.
This video shows how a broker can easily inject prices into the market to create spikes of various sizes and if needed hunt your stops. This feature is rarely used in the industry at this time. There are much more advanced plugins and tools offered by a number of software companies, whos main purpose is to make a Brokers life easier.
Our backend works completely automatically, with no dealer intervention possible. Our no dealing-desk setup is permanent, unalterable and unconditional – the choice does not belong to the brokers. There is no dealing desk – period. The dealing desks of Brokers offering cTrader can only modify or open positions for individual user accounts through telephone requests –and all order modifications can be viewed in your history log. Broker manipulation is impossible.
This video demonstrates how a brokers Dealing Desk operates. It can accept/reject/hold your orders or create some slippage for you.
cTrader does not permit dealing desk intervention. That means no dealing desk offering cTrader can ever accept / reject / hold your orders. There are no re-quotes and orders are passed to Liquidity Providers through the system automatically and indiscriminately.
This video shows, how easy it is to modify orders. You open them at one price, but at any given moment, they might change it. So if you ever been paranoid about someone modifying your orders, you might have been right
Brokers can only modify orders by connecting to the actual cTrader client terminal using temporary login credentials for individual client accounts. This is normally carried out through the telephone, where traders are requesting assistance due to technical difficulties or no internet access. All modifications to client orders done in this way appear in the trader’s history log – and brokers cannot in any way modify orders through the back end.
I’d like to conclude by stressing that it is our vision to change trading for the better – to free traders from the risk of malpractice and general misconduct under the market-maker model – and introduce a new standard of fast, transparent trading in a live environment. No more spread betting between client and broker.
I will be at your disposal for any questions about cTrader. For More information please visit
Spotware Systems ECN Forex Trading Platforms and Solutions
Alex K.
