The wick that only existed on one broker
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 11:47 am
A trader keeps a demo account on one broker and a live account on another, running the same strategy on USD/CAD. One afternoon the live chart prints a nasty 18 pip wick down through a support level, triggering a stop, and then recovers completely within the same minute. The demo chart shows nothing unusual. Just a calm candle that held the level.
The first instinct is to blame the live broker for hunting stops. That is a heavy accusation, and the evidence rarely supports it. Checking a few things tells a different story.
First, the wick was visible in the bid series only, and the ask series had a much smaller dip. That points to a quote problem on one side, rather than a real sale at a lower price.
Second, other pairs with CAD on the same live feed showed a small blip at the same second, while the USD side pairs were calm. A single liquidity source feeding CAD quotes had a momentary fault, or one provider briefly sent a bad price.
Third, the tick count in that minute was ordinary. A real 18 pip fall normally comes with a burst of updates.
Here comes the twist. When the broker's support looked into it, the explanation was not a stop hunt or a fat finger. A price from one provider outside normal tolerance had been accepted for a fraction of a second before the filter caught it. Outcomes of such events differ by broker: some cancel or adjust trades done on obviously erroneous prices, and some do not, depending on their terms.
The lesson for the trader was not the broker choice but the setup. The stop was a plain market stop sitting just under a visible level on a thin-ish minute. Moving it a little away from the obvious level, or using a time-based confirmation before exiting, would have avoided the fill.
Does it help to keep a second feed running for comparison, and has anyone successfully gotten a trade adjusted after a one-feed spike?
The first instinct is to blame the live broker for hunting stops. That is a heavy accusation, and the evidence rarely supports it. Checking a few things tells a different story.
First, the wick was visible in the bid series only, and the ask series had a much smaller dip. That points to a quote problem on one side, rather than a real sale at a lower price.
Second, other pairs with CAD on the same live feed showed a small blip at the same second, while the USD side pairs were calm. A single liquidity source feeding CAD quotes had a momentary fault, or one provider briefly sent a bad price.
Third, the tick count in that minute was ordinary. A real 18 pip fall normally comes with a burst of updates.
Here comes the twist. When the broker's support looked into it, the explanation was not a stop hunt or a fat finger. A price from one provider outside normal tolerance had been accepted for a fraction of a second before the filter caught it. Outcomes of such events differ by broker: some cancel or adjust trades done on obviously erroneous prices, and some do not, depending on their terms.
The lesson for the trader was not the broker choice but the setup. The stop was a plain market stop sitting just under a visible level on a thin-ish minute. Moving it a little away from the obvious level, or using a time-based confirmation before exiting, would have avoided the fill.
Does it help to keep a second feed running for comparison, and has anyone successfully gotten a trade adjusted after a one-feed spike?