A disputed fill is admin, not a crusade.
I screenshot the ticket, the chart with timestamps, the deals tab row, and the server clock. Then I send one calm message with those four attachments and what I think happened: slip, reject, or misclick. I do not stack adjectives. I do not threaten. I wait for a numbered reply. If the amount is small, I sometimes log it and move on rather than burn an hour for a pip.
Drama turns a cost event into a second job. Documentation either fixes it or teaches me something about the path. Both outcomes beat a forum rant.
A few things I learned the hard way. Send the message the same day, while the server logs are fresh. Quote times in server time, not your local clock, or support will spend the first reply correcting you. And be honest when it was your own misclick; I have had one adjustment granted mostly because my earlier messages were accurate and boring.
If the reply is vague, I ask once more for the trade server log entry. If that is refused, the broker scorecard gets a note and I move on with my morning.
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Documenting a disputed fill without drama
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LondonScalper
- Posts: 965
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2026 7:54 am
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Shadow Trader
- Posts: 976
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Re: Documenting a disputed fill without drama
The four attachments are the right core, and I'd add the terminal's Journal tab lines for that order. MT5 logs the request and the execution down to the millisecond, so the gap between click and fill is in black and white.
Before sending anything I sort the dispute into one of two piles. A stop becomes a market order once triggered, so a few pips of slip on a stop in a fast move is usually just the deal I signed up for.
The pile worth an email is a fill outside the broker's own candle for that minute, or a limit filled worse than its price. Those are yes or no questions, and support tends to treat them that way.
I also put the slip in money in the first line, something like 1.8 pips on 2 lots, about $36. It sets the scale and stops the message reading like a grievance.
Your point about small amounts matches my threshold of roughly one pip on normal size. Below that it goes into the broker scorecard and nowhere else.
When you ask for the server log, do you quote the order ticket or the deal number? A partial fill once gave me two deals for one ticket, and the first reply only covered one of them.
Before sending anything I sort the dispute into one of two piles. A stop becomes a market order once triggered, so a few pips of slip on a stop in a fast move is usually just the deal I signed up for.
The pile worth an email is a fill outside the broker's own candle for that minute, or a limit filled worse than its price. Those are yes or no questions, and support tends to treat them that way.
I also put the slip in money in the first line, something like 1.8 pips on 2 lots, about $36. It sets the scale and stops the message reading like a grievance.
Your point about small amounts matches my threshold of roughly one pip on normal size. Below that it goes into the broker scorecard and nowhere else.
When you ask for the server log, do you quote the order ticket or the deal number? A partial fill once gave me two deals for one ticket, and the first reply only covered one of them.
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Shadow Trader
- Posts: 976
- Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2026 5:19 pm
Re: Documenting a disputed fill without drama
LondonScalper, one piece of evidence that ends most arguments quickly is the broker's own tick history. In MT5 the Symbols window has a Ticks tab where you can request every tick for a time range, so I export the minute around the fill and highlight the nearest bid and ask.
If my fill sits on a price that never printed in that export, the email almost writes itself. If it did print, I usually drop the dispute, because support will pull the same ticks and reach the same answer.
I also keep a running list of every dispute, not just the ones that got paid. Over the past year I sent nine, and the three that were adjusted were all limit fills or fills outside the candle, none of them stop slippage.
That list changed how I write the first message. I now name the category in the opening line, since it saves support a round of guessing.
On the prop side the route is different, because the firm is the one you deal with. Have you found firms willing to adjust a fill, or do they only step in when it caused a rule breach?
If my fill sits on a price that never printed in that export, the email almost writes itself. If it did print, I usually drop the dispute, because support will pull the same ticks and reach the same answer.
I also keep a running list of every dispute, not just the ones that got paid. Over the past year I sent nine, and the three that were adjusted were all limit fills or fills outside the candle, none of them stop slippage.
That list changed how I write the first message. I now name the category in the opening line, since it saves support a round of guessing.
On the prop side the route is different, because the firm is the one you deal with. Have you found firms willing to adjust a fill, or do they only step in when it caused a rule breach?