eztraderjr

I made a mistake on the URL for Lava on the IB site. Here is the exact URL and I will try to correct this with a hyperlink below. http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/exchanges.php?exch=lava&showcategories=STK&ib_entity=llc http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/exchanges.php?exch=lava&showcategories=STK&ib_entity=llc Lava's direct site is simply Lavatrading.com

Interesting that this is drawing some attention so many years later. The trade (or lack thereof) took place in December 2009. I took a screenshot and it captured my 3 monitors. I have cut 3 images from this to keep my user information and superfluous information out of the image. Let me state again; this was a stop market order. There was plenty of depth. It was a mistake on the part of IB who passed the buck to Lava (and for those who think that was a typographic error, here is a link on IB's webpage with Lava information [url=http://http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/exchanges.php?exch=lava&showcategories=&ib_entity=llc]http://http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/trading/exchanges.php?exch=lava&showcategories=&ib_entity=llc[/iB Lava page]). As for the images, first I have an image of the active order. For those familiar with IB, you can tell it is active because it has a "C" there in case I want to cancel the order. Below that active order is a market sell order that was not transmitted. I usually had a stop market active order in case of system failure and also had a market sell order ready to transmit if I wanted to exit quickly. In this case, I had left for a couple of minutes and came back to find that the market price had already passed through my stop price. Since it was a stop market, even if there was not enough depth to execute immediately, you will see that the level 2 screen provided indicated that it should have filled. The level 2 screen is from the same 3 monitor capture. I would like to point out that the data feed for this was not IB in case anyone wants to contest any of my claims here. I preferred the level 2 information provided by Ameritrade and had kept a small amount of money in that account so that I could use Quotetracker and obtain the full 17 days of intraday data (otherwise limited to 3 days of intraday data). Again, all 3 images are from one captured image and cropped to prevent some other data from showing. The last image is just the chart of BAX at the time. I am not sure exactly when the price went through my stop level, but it was not a significant amount and I actually watched it for a couple of minutes to 1) take a screen capture to send to IB and 2) see if it would reverse again. In my mind, there was an error on the part of IB and I would be compensated for this mistake. If it reversed and went back above my stop market order, I would still report this to IB, but would not expect any compensation, just a chance to capitalize on their mistake. It unfortunately did not reverse and I canceled the stop order and closed with a market sell order. I was not concerned with the amount of money that I lost. It was only $12. I was testing a new trading concept and had small quantities in place. These were daytrades as well, so I was only away from the computer for a few minutes and was already in a profitable trade. In the end, IB did not reimburse me any money and said that their small print indemnified them from errors. They further said that to prevent risk of loss, I should monitor my trades. What? I had always thought that responsible traders put stop loss orders in to mitigate risk. Guess I was wrong. Had this been a large loss, I would have pursued further. The fact that it was only $12 made me pass on filing with any other entity. That account is no longer open, but I once again have another account with IB that I watch closely. So far, all of my stop losses have been executed properly

My stop was not a stop limit, but a stop market order. It did not reside on my computer, but was set with IB through their software. The stop price was hit, but the market order did not execute. Yes, if this was a stop limit and price went through the limit price quickly, then that would be a reason for the sell order to not execute; however, a market order should have executed and did not. IB blamed Lava and said they do not honor stop market orders that don't execute.

I am only reading one blog and it is from a gentleman who I found in Sierra Charts forum. He trades NQ and posts his idea on what he thinks will happen during the day as well as the areas where he will look to trade. Then he actually posts many of his trades (you can see them in the DOM portion of Bracket Trader that he shows). He uses a lot of different charts but is uncanny in nailing the turning points. Usually hits at least one or two 8 point or more trades a day. Futures Journal

I had a similar incident with IB about a year ago. I daytrade, but put in a stop in case of Internet problems. Stepped away and then came back to my trade to see that I had gone through my stop a few minutes previously but no trade executed. The stock (can't remember now the ticker) had plenty of volume so no issues with getting filled and was a tight spread with both bid and ask below stop price. I gave it a few minutes longer since price began to move up again and I also caught a snapshot of my IB screen that clearly showed the stop order with a current price well below so I could send it to IB. Again, this was not an issue of a poor fill or lack of market participants, just no fill whatsoever. When price began to fall again (slowly since it was not a volatile stock) I manually closed and then contacted IB to recoup some money. I clearly showed them that I could have filled at my stop price since the time and sales screen showed many trades at that level. Now mind you, I was not too concerned with the dollar loss since I was testing a new strategy and was only out 12 bucks, but I was very concerned about what could have occurred with a large order and a reliance on my stop. IB refused to refund any money. They blamed Lava and showed me their policy which stated that they were not responsible for any of these losses. I fought a little bit but stopped short of filing a complaint with FINRA or the SEC or whoever it was I could file with. Anyone else have any problems with a stop not being filled? Any recourse taken?