Does anyone have a pic of the Russell 2000 TFZ1 on a 5min chart for today? (10/14/11?) Im under the sneaking suspicion my broker is hunting stops! Does anyone ever experienced this from their futures broker? Ive heard of forex brokers doing these shady tricks but not futures brokers.
I doubt it's your broker .... I think its more that /TF is just far more "jumpy" than the /ES in terms of the price action, so if you run a tight stop on the /TF you can get stopped out pretty quick.
mostly I just scalped, but I noticed the market was in an uptrend so I put on 2 ES with a stop way the hell down there and pretended I was a position trader. It just so happened that it was a very big down day. I even walked away from the computer and watched the whole thing on CNBC. Every few seconds the Dow or S&P index would scroll by and sometimes it would be up a tick or so but mostly it was down. Hour after hour. Finally, about an hour before the close I was mercifully stopped out after a huge big move down, like 6%, then the market started recovering a little bit. I don't know if they still do this, but back then you could get a report from the merc, and there sure as shit, the absoulute low for the day, was my two piddling ES contracts, I mean at the absolute low for the day, my 2 contracts traded. Only two contracts traded at that price.
i call those 'fuck prints' cause it feels like you just got fucked. happens to me all the time. someone always has to be the low or the high of the day. today it was you. there's no conspiracy going on. the market and your broker don't give two shits who you are or where your orders lie feels even worse when you're the 52 week high or low edit: sorry oldtime, i thought you were the OP and wondering if you were getting hunted
i avoid the problem and buy the low of day. sometimes, to avoid boredom, I sell the high of the day. try it sometime, its funnnnn
52 week and I would change the locks on my doors because thery are definitely after me. And I think they specifically pick on little guys with small size.
That's an excellent point. Part of the issue could be the product you are trading. The TF is going to move quicker/faster than the ES most of the time. Where a level will hold on the ES like a beauty, the TF will not only test it, it will run thru it (and grab breakout entries, stop reversal guys) and then proceed in the direction you intended. Try comparing same entries on the ES or YM and see if your trades would have been alive if just placed in a different market. And if you think your broker is after you, then change brokers. Keep in mind that for your broker to take your 1 lot out, they have to push the ENTIRE TF market to get there. Futures are not FX bucket shops, everyone gets the same quotes. So your broker would have to plow through the entire market to take your 1 lot out.
they won't do it to the big boys. Too afraid they might get caught. The only time they will risk moving the whole market is to get my one contract because they know the only thing I will do about it is post on ET. It goes like this, all the brokers get a phone call, "hold off buying for while, oldtime just put in a one contract sell stop." I've seen it happen a million times. As soon as I buy everything just drys up until they take my stop out and then all buying resumes as normal. You can fool them by trading big size. You may lose a lot more on the trade, but at least they are afraid to gun for it.