Interactive Brokers insisting on spiked Fx price

[SunTrader]

Read their website. IB FX has access to 16 liquidity providers with more than 60% of the market share in the global interbank market.

DKK/SEK is not exactly Euro/Yen/Pound levels of exchange. I doubt IB uses anywhere near 16 for this pair.

 

[padutrader]

would any complaint be made if the spike went your way?
but there can be no doubt that forex has practices, that if done in stock markets would definitely attract an immediate jail term before the sun goes down.

 

[padutrader]

i have not heard any other broker complained against here in Et apart from IB. makes me glad i did not fund my account in IB i went with pepperstone

 

[comagnum]

Check the other DKK pairs - big spikes at the same time on other DKK pairs appearing at other tier-1 Fx brokers like Gain Capital & Oanda.

This is clearly not an IB issue.

NOK/DKK -5.8% spike
EUR/DKK -3% spike
USD/DKK -1.7 spike

 

[truetype]

DKK/SEK is not exactly Euro/Yen/Pound

What could OP have been thinking, entering stop orders in an illiquid pair?

 

[Maverick2608]

i have not heard any other broker complained against here in Et apart from IB. makes me glad i did not fund my account in IB i went with pepperstone

Base rate fallacy.

You read a host of complaints on ET against IB. You conclude IB is a shitty broker. I reach the opposite conclusion based on the same observation.

 

[nooby_mcnoob]

Hi there,

Has anyone watched or traded DKK/SEK (Danish Krone / Swedish Krona)

today, June 22, 6:59AM GMT.

A colleague of mine who trades via Interactive Brokers was caught/stopped out at 1.40xx levels in a price spike that lasted a mere 7 seconds and which reverted back to the exact same price before the spike. I checked and neither EBS, Hotspot, LMAX, Baxter, nor Reuters show any such price spike. My colleague contacted Interactive Brokers to file a claim with them and to investigate why he was stopped out.

The IB rep condescendingly insisted it was their liquidity providers and there is nothing they can do. I could not believe when I heard this story and I post here because I like to see whether there are others who witnessed similar stories trading fx with IB and how their issue was resolved. I take it upon myself to post here because I trade fx with IB in pretty large size (we are both non US nationals). It greatly worries me and I will definitely pull my entire account and consider what to do next without IB should IB insist on its claim that those were valid tradable prices.

This is a 2% price spike that lasted 7 seconds, with no economic news releases, no changes in fundamentals, nothing. All other currency pairs did not move at all. This is not the moaning of someone who lost money on a bad trade (I did not even trade myself)..but put yourself into the situation of someone who did, how would you like it when a seemingly reputable broker with whom you have been for over 10 years suddenly moves prices like some of the worst bucket shops and criminal fx gangs?

Please take a look at the following chart and times and sales. (times in Beijing/HK time zone)


View attachment 187592 View attachment 187593 View attachment 187594 View attachment 187595

Was it a stop market or stop limit order?

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

Thanks, will ask my colleague to check

If you dig into your IB pnl reports, you can find out which bank / liquidity provider filled you at the shitty price. That will give you more info to work with when you talk to IB and also you can try to follow up with that bank. But seriously unless it's a huge loss, I don't think it's worth the effort as the probability you can get trade revoked is low. Retail traders are always screwed...

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

That is obviously sane advice and as far as I know my colleague stopped trading with IB altogether until this issue is resolved.

Why did no other broker/platform have this spike?
The only explanation i can think of is that IB is using a single liquidity provider for this pair or a different one from everyone else.

I would avoid trading this pair with IB until you find out why this only happened with IB.

 

[GRULSTMRNN]

Obviously not as on the other side there did not sit any stop that might have been hit. But that is aside the point. I am grateful that my colleague alerted me to this. I trade sometimes 10s of millions in aggregate size with IB in G8 currency pairs and this issue has be on red alert because if I was caught in such nasty market manipulation it would cost me 200k usd per 10m notional. I think those figures are worth digging deeper and investigate what is going on. One thing you said is right though, was this a stock then any alert to regulators would have them crawling all over IB. With currencies one is almost at his own mercy. I am just shocked this is the very first time I ever witnessed that with IB in my over 10 years with IB and I am greatly concerned.

would any complaint be made if the spike went your way?
but there can be no doubt that forex has practices, that if done in stock markets would definitely attract an immediate jail term before the sun goes down.