statistical analysis using log files - broker issues?

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Hi guys,

I know this is maybe slightly out of context, but I think you guys are probably the most likely to provide an answer.

On my live broker account, when I am manually trading, sometimes I will receive Off Quotes. More and more these days - at first I had absolutely none for a few months. Now many a day. An analysis of the logs indicate the trades were not done during news time / volatile times, which is further backed up by the fact that cross-correlation in my logs between off quotes and requotes shows absolutely no pattern. So I feel this is not an issue of volatility. And additionally, I trade on an extremely slow moving market pair (possibly the slowest).

What is also looking strange to me is that the Off Quotes timestamps are within 1000ms of the close order execution request. It is like it is being automatically "Off Quoted". In one instance this occured three times to the same order, under or equal to 1000ms of close order, with each attempt spaced approximately 20 seconds to 1 minute apart. This seems quite long for an off quote error to persist under 'natural' market conditions?

I should also point out that the only trend I can find so far is that when I first started to trade, I screwed up and lost a bunch of money - happy to admit that. I wisened up and my strategy was solidified and I started making solid profit. When I recovered all the money I lost - ie the turnaround / breakeven point happened to be within 24hr when I started recieving off quotes. (is that the faint odor of seafood I smell?...)

I want to collect as much information as possible to see if i can figure out why this might be occurring, can anyone suggest other information I should be collecting/analyzing, or perhaps if there is an EA out there that collects all info (ticks/spreads/volumes plus order attempts etc) so I might do a more in depth analysis?

cheers,

sera

 

A) Ask your broker to release their server log files to you (with the external quotes) to explain the off quotes

B) check maybe with forexpeacearmy.com (FPA) if anyone has laid a complaint with your broker

C) if you fail to get a satisfactory answer, consider laying a complaint thru FPA or the broker's regulatory body

 

Hi brewmanz,

Thx.

a) I'll give that a go soon but am currently letting things cool off - I think i pi**ed them off a bit, when I started requesting information from them regarding another issue (that I already had, but was much easier for them to obtain/organise) - to which they refused, to which I gave them that information in spite (and proof of concept), they promptly disconnected my communication mid-sentance. (another reason I am not happy) I think I am in the 'annoying customer' list so I will give it a week or two.

b) Firstly, every review site, i guarantee you will have more "thumbs down/scam" than thumbs up - because people voice their opinion when they are angry most of the time. I have checked lots of review sites and people say they are rubbish. But, people say every broker is rubbish. Plus (dont quote me on this) but I believe FPA is run by someone who ran another site that ran into some huge legal issues re: FX, combined with site sponsors, I dont see it as being a very neutral site - too much bias.

c) Got regulatory body's number on speed-dial as so to speak ;) But I want to make sure I first have a firm case otherwise it will just serve as to p**s off my broker more.

Regardless, I think i am done with market makers. ECN (or in a pinch, STP) seems like the safest way to roll these days. I feel like market makers literally are a casino - the house doesnt like it if you win too much ;)

 

(I don't think I've ever seen someone self-censor the word piss before)

Your broker isn't going to "cool down", the customer notes are a matter of their records and it won't matter if you call today, next week, or a month from now. Whoever takes your call is going to pull up your file and immediately see whatever notes have been logged in regards to you as a customer, good or bad.

If you have cause to believe the broker is up to no good then there is no reason whatsoever to delay relaying your concerns to the regulatory body in your country. The regulators will require, not merely request or ask, the broker to provide their records regarding off-quote issuance to you and they will cross-reference that with the off-quote issuance rates for your broker's other customers during the same time period.

If the broker has been doing anything questionable with your account, for any reason, it will be fairly obvious to the authorities once they have cause to investigate the broker.

But the more time you let pass before filing a complaint the more likely the broker will get away with the excuse "we don't keep detailed off-quote logs for more than 30 days" etc and there won't be anything left to act on. (your records are not proof because you can edit the log files and fabricate them to report anything you like)

Regardless of whether or not you have a firm case, you have already crossed the trust threshold with this broker. If you can't trust your broker to be fair and unemotional regarding your account then you really are the idiot in the equation because they have your money and you are the one that made that possible and continue to do so.

Customers have the right to be emotional, it is their money and they are the one's making the broker money. Broker's do not have the right to get pissy and emotional, if they do then that should be all the feedback that you need to indicate you need to get your money (while you still can) and get yourself to a broker that actually conducts itself like a brokerage.

 

Heh, i censored it just because I wasnt sure how professional the forum was, i have no problem saying piss, personally :P

And yes, thinking about it, "once a bad guy always a bad guy" - i'm probably going to be annoying for life, so yeah. I've already made enquiries as to switching to ECN/STP style broker, which is hopefully going to be a bit more fair about things.

I'll start looking into contacting the regulatory body of the broker, but I just hope that with this limited amount of data that I actually have a case. That said yes, I distrust the broker now and will look at emptying my account shortly.

thanks for the comments :)

 

seravitae,

It may be worth mentioning that the Off-Quotes error actually has very little to do with price......it is not the same as a re-quote. Generally this error occurs when there is a problem with the broker. It may be worth asking you broker what the problem is from their side. Sometimes at rollover time, as an example, there are bone-fide reasons why your trade cannot be accomodated and the terminal is simply rejecting the trade request, which is probably why it feels like an automatic "Off-Quote" . That said, if it happens all too frequently, it is indicitive that there are too many technical problems(I wouldn't think that they are messing with you, simply unable to deliver) and the broker needs to tell you what they are doing to rectify it.

I seem to recall having an incident with one broker where one of the currency pairs was missing from the server. That in itself was not a big deal, but what affected me was that this currency pair was required to calculate rates for cross currency pair trades and because it was missing, I continually recieved off quotes errors. I think they fixed it eventually by providing me with alternative servers.

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