20 pip spreads on GBPUSD?

My broker FTMO just went to a 20 pip spread at 5:05 pm est on the GBPUSD this is insane. Did anyone else have the same thing happen with their brokers this afternoon? This was a pure broker stop squeeze and intentionally done. I am so sick of these brokers screwing us for every dime.

Hi CeeSo

Welcome to the Factory and also the Music thread.


I quote your very recent post not to be a smart ar$e.

I just found it interesting you posted it about 5 hours earlier than opening this thread.

It is not a problem and also not necessarily contradictory imo.


As I see it when the markets open for the new day at 5:00 est there are NO major centres open yet (maybe Wellington) but Sydney doesn’t open for another hour.

Then Tokyo opens an hour later again, though in my observance it is still safest (for the retail trader) to trade an hour later again at 8:00 est (10am Qld) when a more substantial LIQUIDITY finally hits the markets.

Prior to that if no-one is trading then how can any market be made (inc spread) by the Market Maker without them taking all the unwanted risk (as the MM is the one who must initially take the other side of any trade whoever is trading, before farming it out to a new & counter direction trader, or just hold onto it themselves).

The MM at retail level is a Liquidity Provider (by definition) and may just be a Prime LQ. Who would then aggregate all trades from the retail market before either holding them themselves or moving them up to the Real Market (Interbank & Tier 1 where the banks pay no spread at all).

So at the level you discuss on this thread it may not be your broker who sets the spread but the LQ your broker uses.

You can yourself, as I have, request a list of the LQ’s used by my Broker. And also request a Trade Statement which shows you which LQ opened the trade and which LQ (which can be different) that closed my trade. (These are different businesses from my Broker and can be Googled for verification of their existence).


This shows me that my Broker does not hold those trades in house (bucketing) but puts it out to their “first” level of liquidity that they have access to.

If your broker won’t provide you this information then they may well run a B-Book, which still is not a huge problem imo strangely enough.


So to (finally) answer your question yes my Broker also ran a 20 pip spread this morning on GU like you say FTMO did. My secondary broker ran a 16 pip spread at the same time.


Trading right at market open to me is a “wrong” time (just my opinion). Usually people that are in the market at that time have held their position from the day before and into & past the overnight swap.

Those traders would be wise I reckon to cater for a minimum 20 pip spread at market open in relation to their open trade positions and equity.


Either way, it does happen (the spread widening at market open).

My question to anyone who KNOWS the answer (not just assuming) is do WE as retail traders get the SAME market price (forget spread) as the REAL market (Interbank & Tier 1).

I suspect NOT but cannot find anywhere to view this.

All the best regardless & trade safe.

you should not have more than 0.5 spread on EU and 1-2 spread on GU at the worst time during market open and close.

Wow, it looks kind of weird. I've never seen such a big spread. So what happened there? Maybe it's time for you to think about changing the company, I don't think it could have happened in a regulated brokerage company, only dishonest companies allow it, because it does not fit at least some market standards. I can't even imagine what emotions you had when it happened, it's just unbelievable. I hope that your capital has not suffered significantly after this, because it can be really killing for a small amount. To think - 20 points - I sincerely feel for you. After all, it may not be easy to cope with it.

From what I understand from Tom Williams' book, however much money they have, it can be harmful to raise the price if there are still many sellers, so sometimes the price goes down without volume and then goes up. It is easier to lower the price, which is why when the price drops, it goes faster when I go up.
But I think that this is the competition of all banks, and institutions in the world, are not concerned with varegistas.

Yes, it really does not look realistic at all.
You definitely need to change the company. Don't think that all brokerage companies deserve such a negative attitude, because I am sure that if everything was so bad here, this business would cease to exist long ago.
I think that now you need to get some money out and get some sense of yourself. Because if you start acting under strong emotions now, you're likely to make some mistakes.
Take a little rest, come to your senses and only after that continue working in the market.
I wish you good luck and I hope that this event will not become a reason for your disappointment in the market.

I wonder if they do this every day and/or on other currency pairs? It could just have something to do with the way they process the daily settlement, since that's about the time at which it happens.

That said, it seems a little weird, and it's not something I've seen, either using FXCM or Oanda. But to be honest, I haven't been looking for it, either.

Every day, every pair, only have to go to your platform and find this information, or check your broker website

Watch any NZD pair at that time, trading actually stops, when it starts, spreads are huge, this one time, it coincided with the RBNZ rate decision, WOW

Don't ever believe some random guys on Forex forums, DOH

WHAT IS ROLLOVER?
Rollover is the interest paid or earned for holding a currency spot position overnight. Each currency has an overnight inter bank interest rate associated with it, and because Forex is traded in pairs, every trade involves not only two different currencies but also two different interest rates.
Rollover refers to the interest either charged or applied to a trader’s account for positions held “overnight”, meaning after 5 pm ET.
Now we know what the rollover means, lets get into how it works in Forex.