"it would be filled if the trade went against me and was moved out of price range when it moved up and they wouldn't fill it"
Hiya Jrowl1! Sounds like you were using a provider of synthetic CFDs. DMA (direct market access) CFDs would avoid the problems you experienced.
If you had used a DMA CFD provider then your ASX trades would have gone immediately into the actual market. (In my experience, my DMA CFD trades on ASX stocks usually go faster into the market than my ASX share trades via a broker).
DMA CFD providers make their money in commissions, borrowing fees and margin interest. DMA CFD providers do not profit from the misfortunes of their clients. Their commissions are generally lower than brokerage fees would be for the same trade via a share broker which, depending on which share broker you use, can be an advantage of CFDs over share trading.
The two main advantages of trading DMA CFDs instead of trading shares are that many stocks can be shorted and there is substantial leverage available. Otherwise, trading DMA CFDs is very similar to trading shares, because in both cases actual shares are bought and sold in the market. Also, in addition to trading in stocks, CFD platforms may provide access to the main indexes, commodities and currency pairs.
Of course, because of the leverage, with CFDs you can lose money faster than trading shares, which is what seems to happen to many traders, and hence causes much unjustified criticism of CFDs. You never hear about the CFD traders who make money faster than trading shares (who knows, maybe there aren't very many).
For monitoring the markets, there is no real difference between trading DMA CFDs and trading shares. The same trading platforms are applicable to both, for example Iress is provided by some share brokers and also by some DMA CFD providers.
I do not wish to offer any recommendations or comparisons, so please DYOR to choose your own DMA CFD providers, share brokers and trading platforms
(20min delay)