Honest truth about forex.....
Jason Rogers (jasonrogers)
Member Since Aug 12, 2009
272 posts
Nov 23, 2016 at 07:27
Charles_F posted:Parmenides posted:Charles_F posted:Parmenides posted:
The honest truth is that 95% of us don't make money. We just keep deluding ourselves that we make money (while we kept our losses secret) and keep refueling our account.
You mean for living, over the long term or at all?
I meant for most of us, we either quit and take up new hobby or we keep refueling the account for another go at it.
We follow simple ideas we found in a book read by countless others and decide to trade it. We might do some backtesting on such idea while ignoring that real trading is more than just about picking numbers on where to buy/sell.There is requote, low liquidity or even black swan events.
If the market efficient theory is true( got massive evidence that the market is at least weakly efficient). It means looking for profit's opportunities is very difficult. And looking for opportunities isnt even the trading part yet.
Got your point. When it comes to the profit opportunities, I think they will always be there for us to take them. But it depends on your perspective tot he markets. FX is close to the ideal competition model in my opinion.
You make a great point, @Charles_F
While trading is not for everyone, the opportunities do exist. FXCM's guide on the traits of successful traders explains how the minority who make money overall tend apply certain best practices which the majority ignore either due to lack of knowledge or discipline.
For example, open nearly any book on trading and the advice is the same: Cut your losses early and let your profits run. When your trade goes against you, close it out—better to take a small loss early than a big loss later. But how many traders actually put this into practice?
Historically, this simple adage has been difficult to for most people. Take the EUR/USD. Our data show EUR/USD trades closed out at a profit 61% of the time. But the average losing trade was worth 83 pips while the average winner was only 48 pips. Traders lost 70% more on their losing trades than they won on winning trades. Remember that past performance is no indication of future results.
Why the imbalance? Human behavior toward winning and losing can explain. People don't like accepting a loss, so most will hold onto a losing trade for longer than they should. Conversely, they don't let their winners for long enough, because they want to satisfaction of booking even a profit, and fear it will turn into a loss if they hold out for more.
A key trait that sets the profitable minority apart from the losing majority is that profitable traders tend to have winning trades that are at least as big as their losing trades in terms of pips. Of the traders who followed this rule, 53% turned a profit; of those who didn't, only 17% turned
a profit. Traders who adhered to this rule were three times more likely to turn a profit—a substantial difference.
Nov 23, 2016 at 08:32
I think the key to success in trading is the ability to identify and follow the trends with whatever tools and instruments.
@jasonrogers What you say about psychology is true and it has been extensively discussed all around the web 😄 It's the human nature that stops most of the people to follow these basic rules and ignore the risks. Unfortunately, many brokers make very good profits out of this.
@jasonrogers What you say about psychology is true and it has been extensively discussed all around the web 😄 It's the human nature that stops most of the people to follow these basic rules and ignore the risks. Unfortunately, many brokers make very good profits out of this.
Nov 23, 2016 at 13:24
jasonrogers posted:c3po posted:
For real. FXCM is 'regulated' but they will wait right before a sell off and as soon as everyone gets ther stoplosses set, FXCM jumps their Ask price up 10x like from 3 pips to 30 pips and shreds everyone's stops....and THEN they drop the Ask price again and let all the algos replace their sell orders then they JUMP the Ask line up again 10x and pop all those orders... THEN they drop Ask back to 3 pips and let algos replace orders again, then Jump up again.... rinse repeat...
you can watch thier Ask line jump from 3 pips to 30 about 10 or 15 times until all accounts blown and/or until the sell off proceeds. Total scam cheating bastards. OH BUT THEY'RE REGULATED. by who? a bunch of crooked friends?CliveCampbell posted:
I think this is a classic example of stop hunting.
@c3po and @CliveCampbell, FXCM does not hunt stops.
For Standard accounts (5k minimum opening balance) and Active Trader accounts (25k minimum), we use No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution. That means each client order is offset one-for-one with the best prices from competing liquidity providers. Therefore, we don't profit from client losses or lose from client profits on the NDD model, and have no reason hunt stops.
Furthermore, it's worth noting that we use the same base price for DD execution on Mini accounts (before adding the spread markup) as the base price we use for our NDD execution (before adding the commission). That's a key reason you can have confidence trading with FXCM regardless of the account type you choose.
FXCM and its affiliates are regulated on 5 continents, so it's important to keep in mind that in compliance with NFA rules regarding price slippage and price re-quoting that were finalized in 2012, FXCM US provides daily trade reports to the NFA which monitors and supervises FXCM US's activity including information on the price where all client orders are filled and the corresponding price where those orders are offset with our liquidity providers.
All of FXCM's global trading entities including FXCM UK and FXCM Australia execute client rolling spot forex transactions as a riskless principal with FXCM US, so the same execution standards are applied for all of our clients worldwide. There are no re-quotes at FXCM, and all our clients around the world can benefit from positive slippage whenever it's available. The latest execution stats from January 2015 through March 2016 showed the following:
* 78.71% of all orders had NO SLIPPAGE.
* 12.77% of all orders received positive slippage.
* 8.52% of all orders received negative slippage.
* 50.2% of all limit and limit entry orders received positive slippage.
* 39.9% of all stop and stop entry orders received negative slippage.
This includes data from both the DD execution we provide to Mini accounts and the NDD execution we provide to Standard and Active Trader accounts. It is FXCM's goal to be an industry leader in providing you with transparency regarding our execution which is why we provide these details on our website: https://www.fxcm.com/uk/why-fxcm/execution/?CMP=SFS-70160000000MusRAAS
It's good that you provide clarity on the subject. Based on the facts you mentioned, you got me interested in learning more about the average slippage for that period and if you have more recent data to share with us. Still, I am wondering why FXCM is using the DD for smaller accounts? When it comes to the stop hunting, the information you wrote does not actually prove that FXCM is not doing it for accounts less than 5k. c3po mentioned that that FXCM is waiting for the stops to get set so this means FXCM can see the stop loss levels of the traders if I understood correctly. Is FXCM trading against the traders with accounts smaller than 5k?
It could be good if c3po provides some illustration of his statement so we can all see the case 😄
Trade fast, learn fast, never regret!
Nov 23, 2016 at 19:27
(edited Nov 23, 2016 at 19:48)
jasonrogers posted:c3po posted:
For real. FXCM is 'regulated' but they will wait right before a sell off and as soon as everyone gets ther stoplosses set, FXCM jumps their Ask price up 10x like from 3 pips to 30 pips and shreds everyone's stops....and THEN they drop the Ask price again and let all the algos replace their sell orders then they JUMP the Ask line up again 10x and pop all those orders... THEN they drop Ask back to 3 pips and let algos replace orders again, then Jump up again.... rinse repeat...
you can watch thier Ask line jump from 3 pips to 30 about 10 or 15 times until all accounts blown and/or until the sell off proceeds. Total scam cheating bastards. OH BUT THEY'RE REGULATED. by who? a bunch of crooked friends?CliveCampbell posted:
I think this is a classic example of stop hunting.
@c3po and @CliveCampbell, FXCM does not hunt stops.
I didn't say FXCM hunts stops. i said THEY CHEAT by jumping their Ask line up a factor of 10 immediately before a selloff.
Furthermore the USA government regulators channel customers to FXCM based on the fact that they are USA regulated and naive USA clients think thats a good thing, whereas in fact, the over-restrictive rules are not conducive to increasing acct balance for tiny accounts; the govt agents are no doubt in collusion with this FXCM cheating scam and enforce it. I hope Trump will end yalls scam.
if you have an account big enough to handle their manipulation of the Ask price, then you can succeed shorting, that is if you ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to have big giant stop losses. people in poverty working to scalp to increase a tiny account (and going short as this specific complaint is specific to shorting) with tight managment (tight stoplosses) are lunch for FXCM as hedging is prohibited to US clients so we cant hedge the loss thanks to USA law makers. we have to take the loss.
i guess if you never short and only go long so you dont get raped by the Ask line jumping up then no problem. This though is only one of the issues with FXCM. they are up to other stuff too that make them very unattractive to the small investor.
Nov 24, 2016 at 09:42
c3po posted:
I didn't say FXCM hunts stops. i said THEY CHEAT by jumping their Ask line up a factor of 10 immediately before a selloff.
Furthermore the USA government regulators channel customers to FXCM based on the fact that they are USA regulated and naive USA clients think thats a good thing, whereas in fact, the over-restrictive rules are not conducive to increasing acct balance for tiny accounts; the govt agents are no doubt in collusion with this FXCM cheating scam and enforce it. I hope Trump will end yalls scam.
if you have an account big enough to handle their manipulation of the Ask price, then you can succeed shorting, that is if you ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to have big giant stop losses. people in poverty working to scalp to increase a tiny account (and going short as this specific complaint is specific to shorting) with tight managment (tight stoplosses) are lunch for FXCM as hedging is prohibited to US clients so we cant hedge the loss thanks to USA law makers. we have to take the loss.
i guess if you never short and only go long so you dont get raped by the Ask line jumping up then no problem. This though is only one of the issues with FXCM. they are up to other stuff too that make them very unattractive to the small investor.
Well, to my understanding what you are saying is pure stop hunting. And stop hunting applies to both long and short positions as stop losses can be set to both. I understand that you are referring to shorting particularly, though. What you say makes sense only if the broker trades against the client and is able to see where the client sets its stop losses. I read the questions posted by Ben and it would be useful to all of us to get the answers.
Once again - thank you for raising up this issue.
vontogr (togr)
Member Since Feb 22, 2011
4862 posts
Nov 24, 2016 at 09:57
CliveCampbell posted:c3po posted:
I didn't say FXCM hunts stops. i said THEY CHEAT by jumping their Ask line up a factor of 10 immediately before a selloff.
Furthermore the USA government regulators channel customers to FXCM based on the fact that they are USA regulated and naive USA clients think thats a good thing, whereas in fact, the over-restrictive rules are not conducive to increasing acct balance for tiny accounts; the govt agents are no doubt in collusion with this FXCM cheating scam and enforce it. I hope Trump will end yalls scam.
if you have an account big enough to handle their manipulation of the Ask price, then you can succeed shorting, that is if you ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to have big giant stop losses. people in poverty working to scalp to increase a tiny account (and going short as this specific complaint is specific to shorting) with tight managment (tight stoplosses) are lunch for FXCM as hedging is prohibited to US clients so we cant hedge the loss thanks to USA law makers. we have to take the loss.
i guess if you never short and only go long so you dont get raped by the Ask line jumping up then no problem. This though is only one of the issues with FXCM. they are up to other stuff too that make them very unattractive to the small investor.
Well, to my understanding what you are saying is pure stop hunting. And stop hunting applies to both long and short positions as stop losses can be set to both. I understand that you are referring to shorting particularly, though. What you say makes sense only if the broker trades against the client and is able to see where the client sets its stop losses. I read the questions posted by Ben and it would be useful to all of us to get the answers.
Once again - thank you for raising up this issue.
Guys,
it may be perhaps better to use hidden stop loss instead accusing broker of such practice as it is very difficult to prove it.
Nov 24, 2016 at 10:37
Well, to my understanding what you are saying is pure stop hunting. And stop hunting applies to both long and short positions as stop losses can be set to both. I understand that you are referring to shorting particularly, though. What you say makes sense only if the broker trades against the client and is able to see where the client sets its stop losses. I read the questions posted by Ben and it would be useful to all of us to get the answers.
Once again - thank you for raising up this issue.
Guys,
it may be perhaps better to use hidden stop loss instead accusing broker of such practice as it is very difficult to prove it.
No, you are missing the whole point.
A hidden stop will NOT prevent FXCM from manipulating their ask price up a factor of TEN right before a selloff.
thats like me having a loaf of bread on the shelf all week priced at $3 (relative to a 3 pip spread all day for example every day in middle of week) then just as the cashier rings it up, by the time you walked from the bread isle to the cashier the price increased to $30! BUT THERES NO RETURNS AND ITS ALREADY charged to your card. you cant do anything a bout it except go find a more honest broker, which is real easy to do in the case of FXCM.
its simply manipulation of the customer to make money and its fraud and they are colluding with somebody in the US government to regulate this sort of obscene behavior. I hope Trump catches wind and puts them in their place.
Nov 24, 2016 at 10:45
CliveCampbell posted:c3po posted:
I didn't say FXCM hunts stops. i said THEY CHEAT by jumping their Ask line up a factor of 10 immediately before a selloff.
Furthermore the USA government regulators channel customers to FXCM based on the fact that they are USA regulated and naive USA clients think thats a good thing, whereas in fact, the over-restrictive rules are not conducive to increasing acct balance for tiny accounts; the govt agents are no doubt in collusion with this FXCM cheating scam and enforce it. I hope Trump will end yalls scam.
if you have an account big enough to handle their manipulation of the Ask price, then you can succeed shorting, that is if you ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to have big giant stop losses. people in poverty working to scalp to increase a tiny account (and going short as this specific complaint is specific to shorting) with tight managment (tight stoplosses) are lunch for FXCM as hedging is prohibited to US clients so we cant hedge the loss thanks to USA law makers. we have to take the loss.
i guess if you never short and only go long so you dont get raped by the Ask line jumping up then no problem. This though is only one of the issues with FXCM. they are up to other stuff too that make them very unattractive to the small investor.
Well, to my understanding what you are saying is pure stop hunting. And stop hunting applies to both long and short positions as stop losses can be set to both. I understand that you are referring to shorting particularly, though. What you say makes sense only if the broker trades against the client and is able to see where the client sets its stop losses. I read the questions posted by Ben and it would be useful to all of us to get the answers.
Once again - thank you for raising up this issue.
you also miss the point. Let me ask you this, if you open a buy, do they jump the ask price up a factor of 10 between the time you order and the time your order is filled? No they dont, why? because its too obvious.
Whereas, during a sell, often people dont even have the ask price showing, as who would expect spread to jump from 3 pips to 30 pips for about 20 times immediately before a selloff?
Its a very quick jump of Ask price up from 3 to 30 pips to pop everyones sell stoplosses. How is that relatable to going Long--once you put in your order you can forget spread, you already paid it. but for Sells, you dont pay the spread until you close the trade. and you close it at the Ask price right? if the broker jumps their ask price up a factor of 10 or 20 to hit your stoploss, then how is relative to going long? its not, not at all.
Ill bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions.
Nov 24, 2016 at 11:09
(edited Nov 24, 2016 at 11:28)
CliveCampbell posted:togr posted:
Guys,
it may be perhaps better to use hidden stop loss instead accusing broker of such practice as it is very difficult to prove it.
Interesting point, thanks for sharing!
you work for FXCM dont you. You are trying to bury my post. The above post is totally irrelevant and NON interesting compared to what im saying
...... ok ill put it in my signature and reply to everything you post.
'I would bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions by unfair manipulation of their Ask price by a factor of x10 just before a selloff to close the orders and pocket the money.'
vontogr (togr)
Member Since Feb 22, 2011
4862 posts
Nov 24, 2016 at 12:49
c3po posted:CliveCampbell posted:togr posted:
Guys,
it may be perhaps better to use hidden stop loss instead accusing broker of such practice as it is very difficult to prove it.
Interesting point, thanks for sharing!
you work for FXCM dont you. trying to bury my post. ok ill put it i my signature and reply to everything you post.
'Ill bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions.'
Nope I do work only for myself (I have some guys under my IB but IcMarkets.)
What I was trying to say is to fix the issue instead of complaining
Nov 24, 2016 at 12:58
c3po posted:
you work for FXCM dont you. You are trying to bury my post. The above post is totally irrelevant and NON interesting compared to what im saying
...... ok ill put it in my signature and reply to everything you post.
'I would bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions by unfair manipulation of their Ask price by a factor of x10 just before a selloff to close the orders and pocket the money.'
Hey, wait a second, wasn't it me saying that what you said is a classic example of stop hunting? It is good you expose such practices and you have my support for that. I'm not trying to burry anything...
Nov 24, 2016 at 13:08
CliveCampbell posted:\c3po posted:
you work for FXCM dont you. You are trying to bury my post. The above post is totally irrelevant and NON interesting compared to what im saying
...... ok ill put it in my signature and reply to everything you post.
'I would bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions by unfair manipulation of their Ask price by a factor of x10 just before a selloff to close the orders and pocket the money.'
Hey, wait a second, wasn't it me saying that what you said is a classic example of stop hunting? It is good you expose such practices and you have my support for that. I'm not trying to burry anything...
its NOT STOP HUNTING. Its DECEPTIVE ASK PRICE MANIPULATION.
Nov 24, 2016 at 13:09
(edited Nov 24, 2016 at 13:17)
togr posted:c3po posted:CliveCampbell posted:togr posted:
Guys,
it may be perhaps better to use hidden stop loss instead accusing broker of such practice as it is very difficult to prove it.
Interesting point, thanks for sharing!
you work for FXCM dont you. trying to bury my post. ok ill put it i my signature and reply to everything you post.
'Ill bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions.'
Nope I do work only for myself (I have some guys under my IB but IcMarkets.)
What I was trying to say is to fix the issue instead of complaining
I'm not complaining. I'm setting the record straight for the original poster here (and everyone else) that its NOT 'market manipulation' but for example an individual broker may be shady such as FXCM CHEATS the small and new investor by unfairly and deceptively manipulating their Ask price immediately before a selloff just in time for all investors (specific to small accounts/ small investors/ new investors with tight sell stoplosses under 50 pips) to set their stoploss so they can steal the persons money by jumping the Ask line up and closing their order.
the only way to fix it is to not go short if you're using a small stoploss, but how else can the small investor make money than by using small stoplosses? using big stoplosses with a small acct against these crooked brokers will never generate money worth the time investment.
vontogr (togr)
Member Since Feb 22, 2011
4862 posts
Nov 24, 2016 at 15:25
c3po posted:CliveCampbell posted:c3po posted:
I didn't say FXCM hunts stops. i said THEY CHEAT by jumping their Ask line up a factor of 10 immediately before a selloff.
Furthermore the USA government regulators channel customers to FXCM based on the fact that they are USA regulated and naive USA clients think thats a good thing, whereas in fact, the over-restrictive rules are not conducive to increasing acct balance for tiny accounts; the govt agents are no doubt in collusion with this FXCM cheating scam and enforce it. I hope Trump will end yalls scam.
if you have an account big enough to handle their manipulation of the Ask price, then you can succeed shorting, that is if you ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH MONEY to have big giant stop losses. people in poverty working to scalp to increase a tiny account (and going short as this specific complaint is specific to shorting) with tight managment (tight stoplosses) are lunch for FXCM as hedging is prohibited to US clients so we cant hedge the loss thanks to USA law makers. we have to take the loss.
i guess if you never short and only go long so you dont get raped by the Ask line jumping up then no problem. This though is only one of the issues with FXCM. they are up to other stuff too that make them very unattractive to the small investor.
Well, to my understanding what you are saying is pure stop hunting. And stop hunting applies to both long and short positions as stop losses can be set to both. I understand that you are referring to shorting particularly, though. What you say makes sense only if the broker trades against the client and is able to see where the client sets its stop losses. I read the questions posted by Ben and it would be useful to all of us to get the answers.
Once again - thank you for raising up this issue.
you also miss the point. Let me ask you this, if you open a buy, do they jump the ask price up a factor of 10 between the time you order and the time your order is filled? No they dont, why? because its too obvious.
Whereas, during a sell, often people dont even have the ask price showing, as who would expect spread to jump from 3 pips to 30 pips for about 20 times immediately before a selloff?
Its a very quick jump of Ask price up from 3 to 30 pips to pop everyones sell stoplosses. How is that relatable to going Long--once you put in your order you can forget spread, you already paid it. but for Sells, you dont pay the spread until you close the trade. and you close it at the Ask price right? if the broker jumps their ask price up a factor of 10 or 20 to hit your stoploss, then how is relative to going long? its not, not at all.
Ill bet if you balanced their book, FXCM gets 100% of their revenue from this scamming small and new investors short positions.
Do you mean ...Its a very quick jump of Ask price up from 3 to 30 pips... spread widening?
It could happen but if your stops are hidden how can broker stops hunt them.
Guys do you have any evidence or something?
Nov 24, 2016 at 15:37
@c3po Whatever you call it, I agree with you that this is manipulation (cheating) by the broker. IMHO, If a broker knows your stop loss levels, it can manipulate the price and kick you out of the market no matter what position (short or long) you open. The more people like you expose such manipulations, the better.
Nov 24, 2016 at 16:31
(edited Nov 24, 2016 at 16:34)
togr posted:
Do you mean ...Its a very quick jump of Ask price up from 3 to 30 pips... spread widening?
It could happen but if your stops are hidden how can broker stops hunt them.
Guys do you have any evidence or something?
yes spread widening. considering a 3 pips spread for the last 6 hours and you see a selloff coming in the next few minutes, if your stoploss is hidden the broker still knows its there with hundreds of other people's at the logical place you put stoploss such as before the last fractal or something, the broker still knows its there. if you see a 3 pip spread and put Stoploss at 30 pips to be safe, and the Ask jumps up to hit your 30 pip Stoploss....
or could FXCM broker be popping up the Ask price on individual platforms? Such as Bid stays same for everyone but each individual's Ask price jumps up just to their own stoploss on their own personal MT4 platform on their machine? I know MT4 Server has some sneaky tricks but that would be excessively fraudulent and someone should go to jail for that. thats pretty unlikely though.
vontogr (togr)
Member Since Feb 22, 2011
4862 posts
Nov 25, 2016 at 09:01
Guys a lot of brokers widen spread especially during high volatility.
Even so called fixed spreads are being stretched.
Even so called fixed spreads are being stretched.
kieran (snapdragon1970)
Member Since Sep 12, 2015
1948 posts
Nov 25, 2016 at 12:40
c3po posted:You could try to put your stop somewhere else apart from the obvious place , you could trade after the spike has occurred , lets say your looking at eur/usd the obvious place was 06000 to take a trade so lets say most went short from this level , say we had a stoploss of 20-50 points the most obvious push would be at least 100 points to take out stops, but looking back on the 1hr chart you can see the final spike almost lines up with the support on the 23rd major sell bar, it takes it out by a few points, that's a signal but not always , that's when I would go short. That's an example, I'm sure you can see eur/usd is in an up trend even though eur sentiment is negative.togr posted:
Do you mean ...Its a very quick jump of Ask price up from 3 to 30 pips... spread widening?
It could happen but if your stops are hidden how can broker stops hunt them.
Guys do you have any evidence or something?
yes spread widening. considering a 3 pips spread for the last 6 hours and you see a selloff coming in the next few minutes, if your stoploss is hidden the broker still knows its there with hundreds of other people's at the logical place you put stoploss such as before the last fractal or something, the broker still knows its there. if you see a 3 pip spread and put Stoploss at 30 pips to be safe, and the Ask jumps up to hit your 30 pip Stoploss....
or could FXCM broker be popping up the Ask price on individual platforms? Such as Bid stays same for everyone but each individual's Ask price jumps up just to their own stoploss on their own personal MT4 platform on their machine? I know MT4 Server has some sneaky tricks but that would be excessively fraudulent and someone should go to jail for that. thats pretty unlikely though.
"They mistook leverage with genius".
SaltyWaters
Member Since Mar 22, 2010
247 posts
Nov 25, 2016 at 17:54
(edited Nov 25, 2016 at 17:56)
c3po posted:togr posted:
Do you mean ...Its a very quick jump of Ask price up from 3 to 30 pips... spread widening?
It could happen but if your stops are hidden how can broker stops hunt them.
Guys do you have any evidence or something?
yes spread widening. considering a 3 pips spread for the last 6 hours and you see a selloff coming in the next few minutes, if your stoploss is hidden the broker still knows its there with hundreds of other people's at the logical place you put stoploss such as before the last fractal or something, the broker still knows its there. if you see a 3 pip spread and put Stoploss at 30 pips to be safe, and the Ask jumps up to hit your 30 pip Stoploss....
or could FXCM broker be popping up the Ask price on individual platforms? Such as Bid stays same for everyone but each individual's Ask price jumps up just to their own stoploss on their own personal MT4 platform on their machine? I know MT4 Server has some sneaky tricks but that would be excessively fraudulent and someone should go to jail for that. thats pretty unlikely though.
I guess I know what you mean. I've seen it happen, not only with FXCM but with other brokers too. I'm not sure they are targeting individual platforms though, I think they do that in general or/and maybe randomly, and they are not just after your stop loss, they are after your entry points too by opening your trade very far from where you saw the price when you decided to enter the market (always look at the spread before entering a trade). I've seen a 50+ pips spread for a short and at the same time 3 or 4 pips spread for long and the amazing fact was the market was quite death, not moving at all but for around an hour this was the case - if he price moved 1 or 2 pips down the spread will increase to 50 pips in no time , if it move 1 or 2 pips up the spread would be 3 or 4 pips only. I looked around for news to justify the reason behind it but couldn't find a valid one. (That reminds me, that was one of the reasons I left FXCM back in 2010.)
The biggest I've seen from another broker (back in 2008) I can not recall their name, it was a screenshot shared by another fellow trader was a stop loss taken down by a 200 pip spread (it was not a spike, it was the spread).
In regards to manipulation, one can see sometimes within the same broker if you have multiple accounts and you have the platforms open in the same computer the price and the spread sometimes varies from platform to platform. Or if you have the same EA with the same strategy running in more than one account, one platform may open a trade while the other doesn't.
Hidden SL and hidden TP may help but if it's within the range it will be taken down. One may be lucky when it comes to TP but not when it comes to SL.
You can still beat the bastards if you have a good strategy and you know how to control your emotions.
