On the 25th I was short 4 contracts and sleeping cozily in my bed when to my horror I discovered that my stop market orders were never filled once the price had penetrated the stop intraday. I got a "remote connection error" in the orderbook (while I'm asleep and two hours after my stop had been "active"). My 5R became a -2.28R trade extraordinarily quickly. I called up my broker (MB trading) last night and after some phone calls they investigated it and called me back saying the problem was at the exchange and that the exchange just doesn't fill you sometimes. They refunded my brokerage fees ($1.5), and said the only thing I could do was to set alerts when my orders don't get filled and immediately call their risk/trading department. Unfortunately that is not possibly for me as I'm still working part-time and am not always there to monitor my trades. So I doubt I will be continuing to position trade (short-term holdings for a few days) this market at the current time. Does this happen often on futures exchanges (which ones)? has anyone else had a similar experience? How is it possible that a stop is just "cancelled" once the stop price is exceeded?
That is horrible. What platform are you using? Are you sure that your orders actually made it to the eCBOT, where you actually able to see them in the book or DOM? Did you ever check the status of your orders on your platform and see that they were "working"? Where the stops entered as a day only order rather than a good til cancelled order and get cancelled at the end of a trading session?? For an electronic market the only explanation would be that your orders never made it to the eCBOT. I trade the eCBOT metals regularly, and that has never happened to me, but I always check to see my orders are working and are in their book. I would expect this from the COMEX floor, but just can't see it on the eCBOT. I think your broker is full of crap to tell you that the exchange just doesn't fill you sometimes, thats bunk. Probably your order never made it to the exchange - either your fault or your brokers. If I were you I would contact the exchange yourself and see what they have to say, maybe you could work something out like splitting the loss with your broker, or at the very least having them give you several / many free trades in the future and then I'd drop them once you used up your free trades.
This is why I never leave a future position unattended and close everything after 4PM EST. I'm a Navy Seal and my line of work requires unusual over extended schedules. If I can't be there babysitting the position, I would rather not trade. Incognito
That is Globex is it not? Globex stop orders are not resident with the exchange, they reside with your broker, or apparently sometimes they don't..... you might do better if they resided on your machine and an alarm went off when they were hit, you could check that they were executed... your broker would have less shot at screwing things up it seems......
Metals trade on the eCBOT platform which is the same as LIFFE. The system for CBOT only recently started supporting stop functionality on the matching engine. A lot of the systems used to offer the functionality whereby they would hold the order on the server and only release to the exchange as a market (if a stop) or a limit (if a Stop Limit) once the trigger price was reached. I wouldnt bet against MB still doing it that way. If so, they are maybe not being totally honest with you.
I'm not sure if its globex.. I sent the guy I was speaking to an email a few days ago, asking if he could put what he said to me in writing so I can better assess / put it on record. I have not received any reply.
I've had similar experiences in the grains. They were primarily my fault as I presumed by stops would carry over to the overnight and they didn't. I've learned the hard way. I close out my positions if I can't be there. I work another job as well so i've switched to shorting theta in deep out ag option spreads. That's something you don't have to baby sit.