DanC

As you may be aware, there has been a recent proposal from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which would, among other things, reduce the leverage permitted for CFDs and spread betting. If the proposal goes through, you’ll need to put more money on your account to trade with us, in some cases up to ten times more margin. Click here to share your views on the FCA's proposal now. The FCA is seeking to raise conduct standards across the industry, to ensure fair outcomes for all UK clients – something which IG fully supports. However, we think there may be tools that could better help the FCA do so, such as limited-risk trading to prevent clients from losing more than their initial deposit. German and French regulators have suggested this measure too, and we believe it might be more effective than raising margins for all. As well as increasing margins (ie reducing leverage), the FCA has proposed: Firms must disclose their average client profit/loss, and use standardised risk warnings: This seems sensible to us. We believe in transparency and we think it is really important that people understand CFDs and spread betting before they open an account. No bonus promotions allowed: This appears to be a good measure. We don’t think bonus promotions should be an important tool for winning clients. A full review of rules relating to binaries: The FCA believes that the inherent features of binary bets make them inappropriate for many retail investors. We believe binary bets and binary options are a useful tool for retail traders, if they are marketed and sold responsibly. You can read the FCA’s full proposal and suggested leverage limits here. This gives you an idea of what IG think, but what’s really important is what you think. It’s essential that the FCA receives opinions from everyone involved in the industry – especially traders. The FCA has put together a simple form to enable you to share your views easily. Click here to share your views now. If you prefer, you can also contact the FCA by email at cp16-40@fca.org.uk, or by letter to: CP16-40 - Wholesale Conduct Policy Team Strategy and Competition Division Financial Conduct Authority 25 The North Colonnade Canary Wharf London E14 5HS We’d also appreciate any comments or thoughts you may have below. Thanks, Dan

Hi  You can find our response to the FCA Consultation Paper on our group website here. Dan

Hi all Apologies for the ProRealTime issues overnight. I can confirm it's resolved now, and we're now making sure steps are taken to prevent this in future. For those of you running ProOrder automated strategies, these were not affected. I'm also going to make sure we note these major issues here in the Community, because we know this is an important place for information on our service status. Sorry this hasn't happened in this instance, but I'll ensure we'll keep you updated here going forward. Thanks all Dan

Hi , Thanks for your suggestion, I can see why some clients would find this information useful, especially when they are on the move and unable to access the L2 Dealer platform. I'll be sure to pass your comments to our platform development team for their consideration. Many thanks, Dan

Hey , The development team at ProRealTime are keen on both of the suggestions you have provided (the one in this post and also the suggestion provided here). They can see the value in being able to launch a system on a watchlist and have also recently had a similar suggestion for the Screener tool too. As they are already in the test phase of 10.3, they'll not be able to include it in this version, but will look to incorporate this into Version 10.4. The ability to read and set parameters on Backtester in code is likely to bit a lot more difficult to implement, however the team will look to see if this can also be incorporated in 10.4. Thanks, Dan

Hi  I'm afraid at present there aren't any plans to reduce our minimum fees in order to allow clients to live test equity strategies. In the meantime I'll also ask ProRealTime for an update on the paper trading option. Thanks, Dan

Hey , As with your other ProRealTime feedback post, this has also now been escalated to the team at ProRealTime. Thanks, Dan

Hey @Stef, Apologies for the delay in responding to a number of your posts. I've now escalated this to ProRealTime and await their feedback. Once I have any news from the team, I'll be back in touch. Thanks, Dan

Hi all, Thanks for the estimates and thoughts on NFPs, always interesting to read! The figures came in at 156k for those who haven't seen yet and , I think your guess may have been the closest we've ever had, so congratulations! Have a nice weekend all! Dan

Hi , Can you please run the Screener again and leave the results window open. If there are still incorrect markets returned, can you send a Help > Technical report via the Platform and we'll ask ProRealTime to investigate. Thanks, Dan

Hi Stef, Thanks for your post. We're still looking into this for you and I know we've also been in contact by email. We should hopefully have an update for you in the next few days. Thanks, Dan

Hi , Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with your data feeds. Just to confirm, after activating the ASX data feed, are you still seeing the 20 minute delayed sign, as shown below? Thanks, Dan 

Thanks for the guesses so far! Some analysis from  on the upcoming figures below. You can read the full article here. "Friday’s jobs report will be the subject of much speculation within the trading community, with the figures pored over for any sign that the US is more or less able to withstand a rate rise in 2016. At a time when political uncertainty is rife, there are mixed messages going into this release, with the potential for firms to ease off hiring with such a cloud looming over the economic future of the US. By and large, as US unemployment falls, so the expectations gradually fall for the payrolls number as the improvements become more marginal. With that in mind, the ability to post circa 180,000 jobs for the forthcoming months would by and large be perceived as sufficient for a December rate rise. However, the big question is whether we will indeed see such a jobs market as we move into the forthcoming months."

Hi , You can add Shares to your account by visiting My Account > Datafeeds and activating the necessary feeds. You may also need to fill out the appropriate forms at the following link: https://www.ig.com/uk/investments/share-dealing/important-documents Thanks, Dan

Hi , Our next step is to see if we can get Volume for equities on spread betting ProRealTime accounts. Once we have been able to do this, we'll turn our attention to FX volume on ProRealTime! Cheers, Dan