I have always niavely wondered when using software like MT4 what the broker can see their end, I presume that they can see our charts and indicators that we use if they wished? Just out of curiosity does anyone know if this is possible? Very interesting as I have always wondered, I would assume so as the MT4 software communicates directly and loads/unloads all templates/indi's etc at startup/discon.
What does the broker see?
- Thread starter Tauranga
- Start date
Broker Shmoker they dont do anything but provide the shiny facade, the dark liquidity providers are the clever ones with their "transparent" execution platforms like 'Gold i', these are the sneaky ones that manipulate price at the front end, the brokers rely on them to do their dirty work, they structure it this way for one reason and one reason only, non accountability.
MT4 (don't know about other platforms) shouldn't do what you're thinking about, Tauranga. Aside from the fact that your charts aren't what would make them money: your real, posted Orders are what does that. Which, as foreigner points out, is where the actions happens that go against you. MT4 data should only be stored in your client, on your computer.
Now, if you are using a Broker's VPS, it's very likely they could get in and look at your Charts, but they really don't have any reason to. It's the real Orders that are worth something to them.
Now, if you are using a Broker's VPS, it's very likely they could get in and look at your Charts, but they really don't have any reason to. It's the real Orders that are worth something to them.
Yeah, just to back up what others have said: The broker doesn't see nor care about your charts, indicators, etc... they can't see that sorta thing.
They can see if the order was submitted via an EA, as part of the order message sent to the server includes both an EA number and order "comments" (which a lot of EAs use.) That doesn't mean they know the specific EA you're using, just that it's an EA submitting or modifying the order.
To detect nasty EAs they don't want running on their feed, a broker will go a step further and match the execution patterns of your account against known profiles of bad EAs. An example of this would be latency arbitrage.. so seeing an EA submit and then close orders with an average hold time of just a second or two, with a hit rate north of 90%, would probably trigger a red flag and call the account up for review. (In this case, if the broker is A-booking your orders, they don't actually care that you're making money, they just care about protecting their relationship with their liquidity providers.. or if the broker is B-booking, then they care about losing money.)
They can see if the order was submitted via an EA, as part of the order message sent to the server includes both an EA number and order "comments" (which a lot of EAs use.) That doesn't mean they know the specific EA you're using, just that it's an EA submitting or modifying the order.
To detect nasty EAs they don't want running on their feed, a broker will go a step further and match the execution patterns of your account against known profiles of bad EAs. An example of this would be latency arbitrage.. so seeing an EA submit and then close orders with an average hold time of just a second or two, with a hit rate north of 90%, would probably trigger a red flag and call the account up for review. (In this case, if the broker is A-booking your orders, they don't actually care that you're making money, they just care about protecting their relationship with their liquidity providers.. or if the broker is B-booking, then they care about losing money.)
Thank you very much guys for the replies and detailed information, that is very good information to know thanks. Just to share also the feedback with you, I had some time free time after the market yesterday and being curious I thought it would be good to have some feedback from the brokers also, so I contacted several representatives at different brokers via live chat on their websites and they all said exactly the same thing, that the broker cannot see any of our MT4 templates or indi's but however they can see EA's if they so wished to do so via the orders. Thanks again for your replies guys.