Erroneous Trade On IB's Forex.

[kotika]

you have to understand the culture on the broker's end. they consider the customer a sucker by default, since (rumour says) 95% of traders eventually fail. they are in the position to know exactly how many do.

the reason they sometimes hear your demands for corrections, is that they dont want you to give up and quit before you've blown your capital and they can still make some more in commissions and more important kickbacks from forex dealers.

if you want a litle bit more fair system, why not trade CME currency contracts? big traders dont like their limits and stops exposed on globex, but you should do fine with CME hosted orders...

do the elders on the board agree?

 

[ddunbar]

I've been doing well with Forex for a year, 6 months of which had been at IB. This is the first problem I've had with IB. I'm fairly certain that the matter will be resolved in my favor. IF not, well... might have to jump ship.

FOREX is not as wild these days as it was when it first came to retail. This particular erroneous trade is most bizarre and is without question an errant matter with IB's system.

My hope is two fold. One, that I'll be reimbursed for the loss. And two, that IB will fix whatever bug is in their system that caused this "freak" trade.

 

[kotika]

i didnt mean to insinuate that you or anyone in particularly will blow it, i was just making a point about brokerage employee attitudes...

 

[IBj]

Quote from ddunbar:

Original Trade entered via IB's TWS on 4/20/06:
Bracket Order:
Parent: Buy Stop LIMIT - Buy 100k eur.usd @ 1.2348 Lmt 1.2346 Stop
Child: Sell Limit - Sell 100k eur.usd @ 1.2358 Lmt
Child: Sell Stop - sell 100k eur.usd @ 1.2335 Stp
EXECUTION:
Buy of 100k eur.usd @ 1.2320 Time/date - 13:55:23 04/20/2006
Sell of 100k eur.usd @ 1.23125 Time/date - 14:45:55 04/20/2006
etc

The reason this is taking so long is we couldn't figure it out at level 1&2 so it is under review at the developer level. But we (IB) are unnecessarily commingling 2 issues in our handling:
(1) figuring out what happened at the software level. On first glance, it seems like there was some software error, perhaps as was suggested, that the stop attribute was not properly handled. This may take some time to identify and resolve, but should have no bearing on resolving ...
(2) addressing the client's loss. It looks like this was an IB sourced problem, so the client should not (and will not) lose money on it.

We will address item 1 in our own time and not hold up the client, and item 2 is already being processed.

 

[ddunbar]

Thank you for the swift resolution and prompt attention to this matter. I'm most pleased that this anomalous event is being looked into further in order to make IB's systems more robust.

I will admit that my confidence was shaken but has now been restored and in fact has increased. Errors, even freak errors do occur. That's just a fact of life. But it's in how customer service and technical staff of a brokerage deals with them that matters.

I will go on record and say that this matter has been dealt with admirably and satisfactorily.

Many thanks.

 

[kotika]

actually, is this reimbursement a matter of discretion and good will, or is there some small print somewhere which says they are not legally liable?

i vaguely recall reading that, in so far as losses from lost orders go, they are not liable. is this correct? Your case is of course a little more serious, in that there are actual losses from mishandled orders as opposed to losses from orders not executed, but the difference is rather ambiguous...


still all this reminds me of how Jesse Livermore was trading at a bucketshop later in his carreer and how they guaranteed that the price at which he'd be filled would be the next print coming from the NYSE. for a whole year he was able to get them to honor this guarantee, until they realized he was able to arb them by sending orders simultaneously to them and the exchange. He mentions also that nothing is more damaging to a bucketshop than rumours of not returning customer funds, followed by not sticking to the guaranteed "good execution".

forex market IS todays bucketshop.

 

[Bitstream]

Quote from IBj:

The reason this is taking so long is we couldn't figure it out at level 1&2 so it is under review at the developer level. But we (IB) are unnecessarily commingling 2 issues in our handling:
(1) figuring out what happened at the software level. On first glance, it seems like there was some software error, perhaps as was suggested, that the stop attribute was not properly handled. This may take some time to identify and resolve, but should have no bearing on resolving ...
(2) addressing the client's loss. It looks like this was an IB sourced problem, so the client should not (and will not) lose money on it.

We will address item 1 in our own time and not hold up the client, and item 2 is already being processed.

Quote from kotika:

i didnt mean to insinuate that you or anyone in particular qwill blow it, i was just making a point about brokerages employees attitude...