ES has been locked since approximately 5 a.m. this morning. You can take a long position but can not exit. You receive a note that you are outside the trade limit. When I was not able to exit I call Switz and they did not know? that you could not exit. They attempted to exit the trade both on a limit and a market order. I am then told the exchange is locked after several attempts by them and that it will be locked as a precaution to stop the market from falling. It is at yesterdays low. What is interesting is that IB / the exchange will allow you to take on a positon but does not advise you the market is locked re exit as current bid / ask. Where is the ethics? Where is a bulletin warning or advising the customer of the current market condition. I / we did however receive a bulletin that all is fine and currently working at IB. W
Please confirm that you were able to take a long position AND that you were not warned that the market was "locked". I think that is what you are saying.
As a trader you're supposed to know how the markets operate. You could have put on a dirty hedge using the NQs. NQ's went limit about an hour later than the Spoos. Kind of too late now for that. I suspect ES will see 770's tomorrow if it breaks any lower at the open.
Yes that is exactly what I am saying. We had several short positions that were exited several hours prior. The new longs were taken on around 5a.m. at that time we had not received the news of the limit lock and in fact it was not until IB Switz tried several times that it was brought to my attention. I find it hard to believe IB did not have that knowledge and if not why? w
It is always easy to look back and say what one could have or should have done. I am not concerned about the new longs, they are small positions of a few contracts. What I am concerned about is that IB's bulletin states all is fine and that there are no issues at IB. They have know now for hours and still not bulletin. To me this is a basic ethics owed to the customer. w
It is your responsibility to know what market limit moves are in the market you trade. It only happens one time though. You never forget. It would be nice if IB's system would caution on opening a position on limit though.
I'm going to have to agree with the nassau on this one. With all of the safeguards IB has in place to kick you out/warn you/etc etc, how hard is it really to have a warning that the market is locked limit down? I use IB as my primary for futures, but for options I use ThinkOrSwim. They have an alert system that I've grown to appreciate very much. It has been blinking red all morning.
I can't think of a reason why any broker would not have a warning pop-up during a locked limit down on the very market that a client is about to place a trade.
Of course as a trader one should know the limit. The futures did not gap down they moved in the same range as it did yesterday. I am not complaining of my position it is small. You win some you lose some. I am stating that IB states all is fine when in reality it is not. We receive bulletins when ecns etc go down. Why would they not send out a bulleting for something as serious as the current situation? w