OSCARDAX

I think that IG definately 'make' when traders lose. I mean why hedge all 'excess' trades if you the broker (IG) know that the majority of people lose - it does not make sense. As caseynotes says they may split the traders into book A & B. But again why hedge people you KNOW will lose ? Yes, that would decrease risk but lose substantial profits. IG are far too profitable to make money from just the spread - to me it sounds ridiculous. Their statement someone highlighted in this thread is highly ambiguous. If 10 people place trades and 9 lose and they risk say £100 each - where does the £900 in losses actually go ? CN seems to be saying hedged in the underlying market....I say it stays with IG all along in basically 'Bank of IG' - hedged only when their is significant excess in 1 direction or when major 'players' are staking bets imho.

Interesting conversation about HOW IG operate. I have to agree with Larry trading here. IG always say they do not take the other side of the bet. BUT the fact is when you trade with them you are absolutely not in the real market, your money stays with 'Bank of IG' - so far as I am concerned if you lose they win and vice-versa. As Larry said you are placing a trade or a bet against the data feed that IG supply - that's it. There is no one on 'the other side' of your trade. The only time IG put it out to the real market is if their risk model requires that, i.e. everyone is taking one side, short or long. Again as Larry states we are NOT in the 'real market' we do not provide liquidity ! WHY should IG care about matching another client to the 'other side' of your retail trade ? They KNOW all retail traders lose anyway. If I place a 'long' trade on the DAX and lose when spread-betting, where is that loss going, WHERE EXACTLY ? It goes to IG, are you (Caseynotes) saying it goes to the other IG client taking an opposing trade, i.e. someone that went 'short' ? Bearing in mind 80% of retail traders at IG lose WHERE are all those losses going ? ANSWER: TO BANK OF IG. CaseyNotes says ' IG matches buyers to sellers' that's a nice 'theory' ...again all the money stays with IG as we, the spread bettors, are NOT in any real market at all. You mention CFD's above and how they correlate with SB but again CFDs are not the real market they (brokers) just copy (via data-feed) the cash and futures market. As you correctly say CFDs are taxable for the rest of Europe to trade with. I have not got a problem - like LarryBoy - about how IG operate, but as far as I am concerned Larry is right, all the trades when SB'ing stay with IG ONLY inc. all the trades / bets placed and monies stay with them. If you loose they win. End of. You can call that 'taking the other side of your trade' ... I personally do not, as it kind of implies that they are 'cheating' their Clients which they are not. Again they do not need to: ALL retail traders lose (80 - 90%).

Day trading ! you are funny. You have better survival hopes running directly in front of a red bus and making sure you are simultaneously shot in the head whilst ensuring that Jack the ripper is waiting to assault you. Day trading...its fun....Let me know before Jack gets to you.....

Yes of course - they do NOT make money from trading, if you could why sell a book / a course / a tip-sheet? ALL BS. Trading IS brutal. Totally. There is no logic in it at all, no one knows how the market will move, the only ones that MAY know that are the big boys who move markets. I dont think a lot on here even know they are not in any real market ! Again to make money you need IMHO a big £100k PLUS account.

Matey how is anyone on here going to know that ?! What happened at 2.55pm..... could be a million reasons. BTW if you think you are going to get an 'edge' listening to the 'news' or reading US Stats, you are deluded. Really.

Yep. more like 95% of people. Remember lots just break even only. That leaves 5%. And out of that only 1-2 % IMHo actually make money because they have the 'knowledge' via experience and MONEY. You need a large account to make money, otherwise pocket money, unless you start gambling.

hello

Yes totally crazy. Yesterday Friday early evening I deliberately placed a GS on my Algo (I usually do not) to see what would happen. The order was rejected because not enough margin in my account - which was good actually and teaches you something there & then: Don't fund account too much. BUT if that margin WAS in my account my Algo with just a 50 point stop, that I am requesting is 'guaranteed' (by ticking their box) will likely be completely over-ruled by IG, the Algo hence would 'run' with me thinking I have a '50 pt GS' in place when the REALITY is I have a stop that is a whopping 1,050 points away ! (10% of GER30 yesterday). This is totally mis-leading and the fact you are not even informed is shocking. If you are running an Algo you are not next to a screen to notice this change in stop levels - IG say nothing in the hope this massive stop gets hit and you are screwed totally. No warning to you at all, no email , no text nothing. I then switched ion the Algo WITHOUT a GS and it initiated, but I noticed the margin required, was way above my 'normal margin' (5 times as much). So I called IG last night and was told " After 4pm on a Friday we increase the margin on the GER30" when I asked for further clarification the phone cut off 3 times whilst talking to him, no attempt to call me back. I have to call again Monday 27th April. The disappointing thing here is that IG just implement rules as 'we go along' with a deliberate non-proactive stance to ensure you LOSE money. And they do not. This is grossly unfair and un-ethical. Finally IG should remember under Financial Conduct Authority rules they are not allowed to "carry out practices that are detrimental to the financial interests of others" which is certainly happening in this case.

thats good advise, I have already lodged a complaint as I have written on this forum about my automated system having a guaranteed stop that actually is NOT guaranteed by IG at all apparently. They IG just over ride your algo and implement their own stop level. they do not tell you at all and worse still YOU are liable if that 1000 pt stop gets hit (on the DAX / GER30). Oscar

Yes all this is wholly unacceptable, They IG, do not seem to have any clearly defined rules in place. For example after I placed a GS which I normally do not and saw that it was placed, by IG over a 1000 points away on the GER30 last week and as I have said they say they've changed 'the rules'. then last week my PRO REAL CODE was stopped bcos it did not meet their "min. stop distance rule" conditions - like it always did, so I get that. So sometimes they implement the old system of stopping your strategy which is correct and now they say they just implement THEIR stop level ! I am currently awaiting their official response but at the moment literally you cannot leave positions open the weekend or even weekday night,. as if your trade got triggered and went against you - without you knowing - your stop can be up to a 1000 points away. You wake up the next morning and you are at a loss of 1000's ££. Shocking.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF TRADING, where a demo account is never the same. You may want to see my comments about so called ' Guaranteed stops' on automated trading systems like pro-order.

Hi there Not sure about your GS feature on FX but I have complained to IG officially the other day about their rules about GS on automated systems that run, in my case thats Pro-Order. I had been running this last year for 8 months till October. Basically when they changed their 'Minimum stop distance requirements (MSDR)' your automated system would close down if it did have a stop that was less than their MSDR rule - all good there and understood. BUT I ran that same strategy last week on a Friday and placed a GS on the pro-order by ticking the box. When I looked at my screen, shockingly, my 'Guaranteed Stop (GS)' was a whopping over 1000 points away! As they had a rule at that time that the MSDR was 10% of the DAX / GER30. I quickly closed my automated system down as there is no way at £10 pp (or whatever value to be frank) that I am going to take that kind of massive £10,000 risk on a small trade with a TP of <30 points. I immediately emailed them - as usual after 1 week no response. I called them on Saturday 18th April. Apparently they have changed the rules ! There is no update for you the trader, no email, no text no change in their T & C's. Nothing. Basically according to an IG rep, the rule is that if you have an automated system and place a stop thats "GUARANTEED" - It does not matter, they apply their own stop which COMPLETELY over-rides your one. You get NO warning of this and are apparently - shockingly - liable financially if this stop gets hit. According to the IG rep, this change was a 'long time ago' - nonsense I told him as up to October 2019 this was not happening. Also according to him this rule change was bcos some people had opened positions and when there was a change in the MSDR rule their positions were closed out and IG had to refund some of them. So IG's solution to this : Just ignore the clients algorithmic rules totally and apply a stop the trader is not aware of and if the trader gets caught out, tough. When I explained to IG that I run an algo BCOS there are rules that must be obeyed and if they are not that algo must be closed down, I just got the 'I will talk to someone and let you know'. He also told me that no one else had complained ! Really I said, you mean no ones complained about you not abiding by a 'GS' and being liable for thousands with NO warning...let see. The whole situation running an algo now with IG is VERY worrying to say the least, and there does not seem to be any process in place to warn you of this - for example last Friday I only by chance noticed this. With an Algo running the idea is you are not mean't to be 'tied to your screen'. Let see their official response. Oscar / UK

do these dividend days only apply at / from a certain time ? I auto-trade btw.