Incorrect Last Price for some stocks

I've often noticed that on the 'My Portfolio' page, under 'Stock I Own' that sometimes two consecutive stocks on my list have the same Last Price(to four decimal places).
It's always seemed a bit more than just coincidence to me, anyway I investigated today by checking the actual Last Price of both stocks and found that the second stock on my list has been incorrectly given the Last Price of the stock above it.
Also there was a third stock further down the list which had also incorrectly been given the same Last Price.

I have screen shots to prove it which will make it easier to understand - where should I send the screen shots?

Geoff

Hmmm, I cannot find an example of this. The "Last Price" column for all stocks on my "My Portfolio" page matches the "Last Price" row on the details of the corresponding stock. I trust you're not looking at the current orders on the stock page?

maybe i'm wrong...check ROYAL.HEIR.2013 and tell me what the last trade price is...the graph doesn't seem to match the last price displayed on that page

ok there's a hard to see vertical line that drops straight down which might go to .7914.
However in the chart below the graph if I hover over the far right hand end of the chart it shows a price of .8022

Also look for the same thing for SPEAKER.2013.LSMITH

Now look at RBA.6NOV12.NC.

It has the same Last Price and looks to me that it's correct if you check out its graph and the chart below the graph...looks like somehow the other two stocks have inherited its Last Price

Hey Feijoa

You need to be a bit careful looking at the graphs - the history API doesn't provide trades in the order executed, for trades with the same timestamp (ie, let's say you bought 100 at various prices, the history will be random, as far as I can tell, rather than lowest first), so the graphs looks a bit strange when there are long periods between trades.

I posted about this a few weeks back, but that post has mysteriously disappeared. The straight lines are more like 'high/low' ranges, and the lines between vertical lines are basically wrong, most of the time (since they're starting/ending at the wrong prices).

Also worth considering that the iPredict market maker probably tends to use the same price points. You'll notice that the unfulfilled orders are all at the same price points, so it's not that strange to get the same prices to 4 decimal places.

I'm not saying that there *isn't* a bug, just that it's not as strange as it seems.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2012 02:44PM by Hamish.

ok thanks...maybe it's not a bug, i'm not sure...if it is a bug it's a low priority one

Looking at your examples, I'd say Hamish's explanation would be right. The problem is with the API that the graphs fetch their data from not returning simultaneous trades at different price points in a reasonable order. They're a bit difficult to use as-is even without this problem (as you pointed out - the vertical bars right at the end cause some problems).