Newbie Broker Question

[tradwins]

O.K. first of all let me say hello, I have a question about a live account.

I am using a STP broker And I placed a couple of trades the other day that Meta trader popped up and said "not enough money " then I adjusted the lot size and tried again (started at 2 then 1.8 ) first one a 13:13 then 13:14 then the same error "not enough money" Finally I drop to 1 lot at 13:15 and it goes through. Now my question is this, I have heard of price manipulation and spikes but never really believed them. But if you look at the pic and the tic chart (1min EUR/GBP) October 15 2009 at 13:13 (7:13a.m. central time u.s) and notice that the trades went through anyway, which concerns me greatly but worse yet is that the price that the 13:13 trade and the 13:14 trade closed at buy the broker for insufficient margin, that the actual price never reached what they closed at according to the candle? I high lighted the close price on both trades and you can see it never made it? So whats Up? Is this a false price feed spike? Hope this wasn't too confusing??

Edited by Admin: Removed a bmp image. Attach a jpg or gif image instead.

[ZTrader]

Can't see your image because it was removed, but it does seem like you may have been trading a little too close to your limit. Never underestimate the ability of a broker to find an excuse for kicking you out of a losing trade.

My feeling is that you need to trade with a wide margin around your positions - both in terms of leverage and your TP/SL levels. That's why I tend to trade longer time frames and go for bigger moves. If you set a SL that's only 15 pips from your position yo'lll find it's far too easy for your broker to cause a hiccup and cut you out. If you have a 100 to 200 pip margin you'll likely never see the problem of broker manipulation.

[miller]

Don't worry about spikes, it is a usual thing to happen when some braking news take place. Just think carefully and analyze before setting a SL