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Date/Time: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 20:31:44 +0000



Post From: The Story of IG Markets and Sierra Chart. Classic Breach of Contract

[2015-09-23 10:20:00]
Sierra Chart Engineering - Posts: 104368
Latest response:
Dear ,

If you can provide me a business case to push this internally then I am more than willing to do so.

IG cannot be expected to move forward with an integration with any entity without a business rationale.

Can you provide me some details such as the below?

· Average volume
· Average number of trades
· Unique clients trading
· Ideally a spreadsheet that details;
· Date
· Time
· Client ID (anonymised, but unique)
· Trade size (either normalised to a single currency, or with a currency identifier)
· Trade direction
· Trade price
· Markets

This is standard information we require all entities to provide us. We have no understanding on the number of clients that Sierra Chart have that wish to use IG as an executing broker.

At no point has anyone confirmed to Sierra Chart that IG will integrate or conform with Sierra Chart for a full integration.

Many Thanks

This is so unbelievable, I am not even sure where to start. Your email response does not make any sense to us. It shows a complete lack of understanding and considers us (Sierra Chart) a broker when we are not.

-IG Markets says:


If you can provide me a business case to push this internally then I am more than willing to do so.

This was already discussed by text and by voice with Daniel at IG markets many times in response to similar questions in the beginning. Refer to post #1. What more information do you need?

This is so basic and straightforward in this industry as to what we are doing. Normally we have brokers coming to us, like Oanda, wanting Sierra Chart to integrate to their services. Not the other way around.

- Why is it that after we have done all of the integration work to the FIX API for market data and trading now you are asking us to give you a business case to push this forward?

In the very beginning before we incurred any detriment you said that you could perform to two of us here at Sierra Chart. And we made certain we had clear confirmation of that before we incurred any detriment. Now you say you cannot.

We made it clear we did not want to have any commissions shared with us. This is one thing that was communicated to IG Markets in the very beginning.

This was the communication from us back in February 2015:

We only require you provision us with 2 FIX connections for us to receive the market data to provide the data to IG markets users and to maintain the historical data. Trading connections will be from each user to your FIX server.

We are not a broker and we have no expectation to receive any income from this from you.

- None of the above email (at the very top of this post) from IG was ever communicated to us in the beginning when we began the integration to the IG Markets FIX implementation.

-If there is not a rationale, why after we (Sierra Chart) explained to you in clear text and verbally, what we require that you said you can support the connection model and subsequently provided us the technical specifications and access to the server for testing.

Once again this was communicated to two of us here at Sierra Chart. Refer to post #1 for this written communication and testimony of the verbal communication:
The Story of IG Markets and Sierra Chart. Classic Breach of Contract | Post: 69346

-Why is it that you have these FIX APIs to begin with, provide us access to the API documentation and a test account, and say that you can provision the FIX accounts to users, and then later say you need a business case? You cannot do that. You must pay us for our development time, or perform.

-It was communicated to two of us, that IG Markets can and will perform to our technical requirements. This should not be difficult. We work with about 10 different FIX connections direct from users to the FIX server. This includes even Currenex and LMAX.

- We are not a broker.

- They say:

This is standard information we require all entities to provide us. We have no understanding on the number of clients that Sierra Chart have that wish to use IG as an executing broker.

We have never been asked for this information ever in the history of our business from any Trading service that we work with.

And why does the second question even matter? Naturally there is going to be new business brought and existing customers retained. If you try to make this so difficult in the beginning, nothing is going to happen.

And once again none of the above information was ever communicated to us in the beginning. IG Markets cannot bring up these requirements now and try to apply it to us when we are not even a broker, and use it as an excuse not to perform.

- We are not your slave and this is not a slave relationship. So you expect us to do all the integration to your IG Markets trading and market data interfaces and guarantee you a certain amount of trading business, for a mere $10-$20 a month that we receive from our own users for Sierra Chart?

There is 0% consideration in it for us with this kind of working relationship.

And we have no idea the volume of trading that people will be doing. We will never have access to that information. And that is something that IG markets should and must know. We (Sierra Chart) are not a broker.


- IG Markets says:

At no point has anyone confirmed to Sierra Chart that IG will integrate or conform with Sierra Chart for a full integration.

Clearly you are acknowledging that promises were made, but not certain promises.

I elaborate on this more here:
The Story of IG Markets and Sierra Chart. Classic Breach of Contract | Post: 69526

In one call IG Markets did express an internal concern that there may be some effort, either one off, or ongoing to provision the FIX accounts to many users. This was an internal issue for them to sort out. I suggested that a user has a minimum account balance just like is required from FXCM.

A minimum like 5000GBP/EUR. So this was something that possibly might have been required.

Although this was merely a suggestion on our part in order to maintain a good working relationship until such time that they have automatic or streamlined provisioning of the FIX connection. Never at any time did they express a condition on providing the FIX orders connection to users until the final breach.

There was a definiteness that they would perform. There was never any doubt about that otherwise we would have never proceeded with the integration and more importantly IG Markets would never have given us FIX technical specifications and test accounts in order for us to rely to our detriment.

Once again it was communicated to myself and another programmer here at Sierra Chart on separate occasions as post #1 indicates that they can support the connection model that we require.

An understanding about the connection model was reached before we incurred any detriment on our side.

And I explained that the business aspect is we are a provider of the trading software and providing the data to the users. We would not have any financial interest in users trading accounts.

And they cannot use a conformance test as a reason not to perform. We have never failed a conformance test.

- There is no other way to express the reality of this other than to say IG Markets position is a breach of contract plain and simple. It simply makes no sense for them to respond the way they had, months later and after we had completed all of the integration. This is irresponsible and damaging to us.

- In June 2015 they communicated to us:


Unfortunately we are make some changes to our API that will take around 6 weeks to implement.

We will not be able to move forward until then.


This confirms their ability and intention to perform. That is abundantly clear!

This was in response to:
Hello Daniel,

We are ready to go to release support IG Markets using the FIX connection.

We will also need one production market data connection for our server.

How will existing and new IG Markets customers obtain the FIX connection to use with Sierra Chart? We need to know the procedure for this.

And I want to confirm there is a minimum balance. Something like €5000 or pounds?


We would like to settle this matter with them for a payment of 3500 USD to us. IG Markets has breached an offer for unilateral contract that we have accepted. They cannot later raise various conditions which were never communicated in the beginning as an excuse not to perform.

Thank you.
Sierra Chart Support - Engineering Level

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https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?l=PostingInformation.php#GeneralInformation

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Date Time Of Last Edit: 2015-10-30 04:58:53