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After a fill that didn't match my chart, I ran a second broker's terminal next to mine for a week and compared EURUSD M1 data at the open.

• Opens and closes of M1 bars were within 0.2 pips in most bars.
• Highs and lows differed more, up to 1.5 pips, mostly in the first minutes after 08:00.
• A few spikes appeared only on one feed.

This explains some fills. A stop sitting 1 pip beyond a high can trigger at one broker and not another.

I now place stops a little further from obvious extremes and don't treat a single feed's wick as gospel.

The claim that brokers hunt stops is among the most repeated in forex forums. The truth sits somewhere in the middle, and it's less dramatic and more annoying than either side admits.

What's real: price does tend to move toward clusters of stops, because those orders create liquidity. Large players need someone on the other side, and a cluster of stops provides it. This happens in all markets, with no conspiracy needed.

What's real, part two: a broker with a dealing desk sees client stops, and a few have been caught widening spreads or spiking quotes to trigger them. Regulators have fined firms for exactly that.

What's folklore: that every spike through a level was engineered against one particular account. Most accounts are far too small to matter. A single retail stop is invisible next to the flow of a major pair.

The test is simple. Compare the spike on the broker's chart with a second independent feed. If the spike appears only on one, it's a feed problem. If it appears on both, it's the market.

How was a suspected stop hunt verified here, and did the second feed show the same spike?