Mirror accounts as evidence in a dispute

[Fairman]

Mirror accounts as evidence in a dispute

A fill looks wrong. The broker says it was fine. With no independent record, the argument goes nowhere.

An old trick among experienced traders is running a second, smaller account at a different broker, or capturing a separate feed, to document what the market was doing at the same moment. If the feed shows 1.1042 and the fill on the first account was 1.1051, the gap is documented.

The evidence is only as good as the timestamps. Synchronized clocks and logs from both platforms, plus screenshots with visible time, make a stronger case than a verbal complaint.

It also keeps the conversation with the broker civil. Instead of "the fill was manipulated", the message becomes "the feed from provider X showed this price at this millisecond, and the fill was this far from it".

Most disputes are never settled in the client's favor, but a well-documented one at least gets a real answer.

Which kind of evidence has actually moved a broker to change an answer?

[Amanhasnoname]

I've only had one dispute go my way, and it was because of evidence much like you describe. I was running a small second account with another broker mostly for comparison, and a stop on my main account filled about seven pips past my level during a quiet morning with no news. The other feed never traded anywhere near that price.

What worked was sending a plain, polite email with two screenshots showing the clock, the order ticket number and both prices at the same second. I didn't accuse them of anything. I just asked them to explain the gap between their fill and what the wider market showed. About a week later they adjusted the fill and credited the difference.

The complaints I made without that kind of record went nowhere, which taught me a lot. Now I export my trade history with server times every Friday, so if something odd happens I'm not trying to reconstruct it from memory weeks later.