Halifax Fantasy Trader error

mdonaldson

I recently started using Halifax Fantasy Trader and have bought shares in a couple of companies. I considered buying shares last night from another company but did not go ahead with it. I went as far as the last confirmation page which gives you the option to Cancel or Confirm the transaction. I DEFINITELY clicked Cancel.

Looking at my portfolio this morning, the shares from the other company I was looking at have in fact been added to my portfolio even though I cancelled it!

Has anyone else encountered an error like this when using fantasy trader? I had thought if I was to actually buy real shares I might have got a share account with Halifax but after this I am not so sure. I mean if you are dealing with real money and you cancel something you expect it to be cancelled!

DevonRaider

Hi, did you get anywhere with this? I've just joined Halifax Fantasy Trader with a view to going live and it's now made three transactions without clicking proceed!

Also, my market value of my two share choices are massively under the closing price of last night. The two choices I made have both increased in market value by 0.03 and 0.34p in my first day according to my Portfolio Overview, yet I've already lost over £330 of my £10K in the summary!

With share undervaluation like this it looks like it will be extremely difficult (impossible?) to make a profit out of any FTSE100 shares. You'd need penny shares with big increases to be worth taking a chance on the stock market. And with my hard earned savings I wont be doing that! I was just looking for modest gains above Bank or Building Society Accounts with a dividend thrown in. Just dont see it's possible in this format.

I've asked Halifax for their opinion.

AnotherJoe

DevonRaider wrote: »

Hi, did you get anywhere with this? I've just joined Halifax Fantasy Trader with a view to going live and it's now made three transactions without clicking proceed!

Also, my market value of my two share choices are massively under the closing price of last night. The two choices I made have both increased in market value by 0.03 and 0.34p in my first day according to my Portfolio Overview, yet I've already lost over £330 of my £10K in the summary!

Look up "bid/offer" or "buy/sell spread". And "dealing costs".

DevonRaider

I'm familiar with supply / demand and dealer charges, stamp duty etc but will educate myself more on bid / ask etc - many thanks for that.

It would appear tho that the fantasy site is delayed from the real share price. On of my fantasy stocks is showing a share price of £16.18 on the Halifax Fantasy site (with my stock market value at £16.02). But the real time share price has fallen to £16.04! The bizarre outcome is that altho the share price has fallen since the opening price of this morning, my loss has now reduced to £144.19 because the system has just updated.

I know it's just a fantasy site but hopefully the real thing is more up to speed. Other threads on this site have said you can use that delay to effectively cheat if you were to stay glued to it. Still concerned about the phantom transactions as well.

coyrls

DevonRaider wrote: »

Other threads on this site have said you can use that delay to effectively cheat if you were to stay glued to it.

Don't be silly, actual trades will always be done at the actual real time price, not at a delayed price. I'd stick to fanstasy trading if I were you.

DevonRaider

My mistake. It was on a different site, the Student Room, where somebody points out there is a 15 min delay. I cant paste the link here. Which would explain the contradictions in share price direction to my overall share value.

Thanks for your helpful comment anyway....

AnotherJoe

DevonRaider wrote: »

I know it's just a fantasy site but hopefully the real thing is more up to speed. Other threads on this site have said you can use that delay to effectively cheat if you were to stay glued to it.

MAJOR LOL :rotfl:

Malthusian

AnotherJoe wrote: »

MAJOR LOL :rotfl:

Just to play devil's advocate, isn't that essentially what those high-frequency traders who pay a premium to rent offices as physically close as possible to the stock exchange and install the most ultra-high speed data cables available in order to receive stock data a nano-second faster than their competitors are doing in real life?

coyrls

Malthusian wrote: »

Just to play devil's advocate, isn't that essentially what those high-frequency traders who pay a premium to rent offices as physically close as possible to the stock exchange and install the most ultra-high speed data cables available in order to receive stock data a nano-second faster than their competitors are doing in real life?

Yes but don't think that is what the OP had in mind and I don't think Halifax offer such a service, unless it's part of their Fantasy Trader offering.

AnotherJoe

Malthusian wrote: »

Just to play devil's advocate, isn't that essentially what those high-frequency traders who pay a premium to rent offices as physically close as possible to the stock exchange and install the most ultra-high speed data cables available in order to receive stock data a nano-second faster than their competitors are doing in real life?

Wasnt there an episode of NCIS that had this as a major plot point? Guy hacked into transatlantic cable (I did say it was a tv show) and looped the feed a few times so he could catch out a brokerage on trades by being nano seconds ahead of them. Something like that anyway.

Malthusian

They've penetrated our code walls. They're stealing the Internet!