Profitable scalpers and the quiet change in how some brokers treat them
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 8:14 pm
Plenty of traders report the same experience. Results are good for months, then fills start to deteriorate, spreads seem wider and rejections appear.
Whether that's deliberate depends on the broker. Firms that internalise orders profit when clients lose, so consistently profitable clients are a cost. Some respond by moving them to a different pricing group, adding execution delay or tightening terms.
Evidence is hard to establish from the outside. Execution quality varies naturally, and perception is biased. The way to separate impression from fact is data. Compare slippage, fill times and spreads across periods, and check whether the change coincided with a profit milestone.
If the data shows a clear shift, options include asking the broker directly, moving to a firm with transparent ECN-style execution, or splitting activity across brokers.
It also helps to read the terms about account review and execution adjustments, since they often reserve the right to change conditions.
One more angle is to keep a small control account at a different broker running the same system. If the control account keeps its fill quality while the main one degrades, the cause is not the market, and that is useful evidence for any later conversation.
Has your execution quality changed after a profitable period?
Whether that's deliberate depends on the broker. Firms that internalise orders profit when clients lose, so consistently profitable clients are a cost. Some respond by moving them to a different pricing group, adding execution delay or tightening terms.
Evidence is hard to establish from the outside. Execution quality varies naturally, and perception is biased. The way to separate impression from fact is data. Compare slippage, fill times and spreads across periods, and check whether the change coincided with a profit milestone.
If the data shows a clear shift, options include asking the broker directly, moving to a firm with transparent ECN-style execution, or splitting activity across brokers.
It also helps to read the terms about account review and execution adjustments, since they often reserve the right to change conditions.
One more angle is to keep a small control account at a different broker running the same system. If the control account keeps its fill quality while the main one degrades, the cause is not the market, and that is useful evidence for any later conversation.
Has your execution quality changed after a profitable period?