I was sim trading the oil inventory report. I used the "flatten everything" button in NT when I was showing a .42 cent profit on my position.

In the attached photo you can see the 10 range chart. NT shows the candle on which the position was closed, but it also indicates the price is about 50 cents below the candle low and many candles before and after. I know trading news can give strange results, but I clicked the button on that candle. I would expect any price after that to be valid but it never even got close to where the simulator priced at. I'm sure this is just a flaw in the simulator.

My question is, is this same thing possible in trading news in a real live account?

I just noticed price did indeed get back down there but it was about 40 seconds after. For about 20 seconds after I exited with a market order, there was virtually no liquidity. I suppose it is entirely possible it would have executed where shown. So this is why you don't trade news!

chipwitch 

My question is, is this same thing possible in trading news in a real live account?

chipwitch 

I just noticed price did indeed get back down there but it was about 40 seconds after. For about 20 seconds after I exited with a market order, there was virtually no liquidity. I suppose it is entirely possible it would have executed where shown. So this is why you don't trade news!

The reason why liquidity disappears just before a scheduled market data release is that algos tend to react to the data release extremely quickly - way more quickly that any human finger could - so people don't want to be caught on the wrong side.

In general, sim and real-time data tend to produce very different results, especially on extremely fast data.

Regardless of how good or bad any trading platform is, I wouldn't trade CL data releases manually in the way you described. It's a crapshoot.