I feel robbed by etx capital and I don't know what to do. Any advice?

barrymong

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Hi folks,
I recently placed a trade with etx capital, it was unfortunately on 15/01/15 (the day of the Swiss cap lifting announcement) but I feel what they have done to me is extremely unfair and I can't believe it's not illegal. Thankfully, I was only trading £1 per point. At approx 2am I bought CAD/CHF at a price of 0.8536 and my stop was placed 29 points away at 0.8507. At 9.30am the market fell through my stop and I was stopped out at 0.8473 for a loss of £63.50 which is almost 35 points past my stop level. I was obviously disappointed but I could just about live with it. I was just glad that I use stop-losses and upon watching the news, I was happy to be out of the trade. However, the next day I received an email from etx capital informing me that due to 'THEIR' incorrect pricing 'THEY' accepted my trade at the wrong price so they would be reversing the trade. They reversed it and instead of being at a loss of £63.50, I was at a profit of £63.50. I was confused! They then reversed the trade AGAIN and instead of being in profit, I was at a loss of £896.80 !!! Not only is that 867 points past my stop, it was also done the day after the trade was closed! I spoke to etx capital and the guy told me they could do things like that after volatile days. How can anyone potentially make money from trading if brokers can do that? I have lost all confidence, not only in etx but in trading in general. If I bank £500 profit in 1 day how can I feel happy knowing that they could take it from me the day after? How can I ever trade with etx capital again after this? They haven't even offered me a good will gesture! I don't know if this is usual behaviour from brokers and I don't know what to do. Any comments would be appreciated.
 
Sorry to hear that Barry especially as I'm an ETX customer myself . I hope it all gets sorted .
 
There has been a lot of discussion on this forum regarding situations stemming from the Jan15-SNB action.

Have you managed to read through a lot of those threads? You might be able to talk/PM about it with other forum users who are going through similar situations, rather than starting from scratch.

Sorry to hear about your situation and good luck with it.

PS I am also an ETX customer - I wasn't in a trade that day - but I remember getting an email from ETX on the 16th January warning me that they were going to review all the executed trades and potentially make adjustments. I agree with you that the game is going to be difficult to beat if the brokers pick and choose which executed trades are going to be adjusted.
 
Sounds outrageous but there is clearly a lot more information behind this they haven't yet passed on to you. Interesting to hear about progress from here on but you have no choice but to fight this. All I can say is that the couple of SB firms I have used have been very responsive about issues like this when I have challenged them - on an occasion when I had made an error, they provided fulll price data to prove it, and I was indeed wrong: on two other occasions when another firm made pricing errors, they reinstated my account/trade.

But the point is ETX might be just flying a kite and if you don't object they may happily keep the money. If you do question this, they may back down without even an argument. Immediately register an objection by email and confirm in writing, keep a copy, mention the FCA.

Get your money back and close your account.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for your comments, I'll keep you updated on any progress I make. I have already made a complaint by email and they have 8 weeks to give me an answer, it's been about 4 weeks so far. I have been checking out other brokers and a lot of them are advertising 'no re-quotes' and 'negative balance protection' or even 'negative balances cleared',so it gives me some hope that there are honest, customer friendly brokers out there.
 
Thanks for your comments, I'll keep you updated on any progress I make. I have already made a complaint by email and they have 8 weeks to give me an answer, it's been about 4 weeks so far. I have been checking out other brokers and a lot of them are advertising 'no re-quotes' and 'negative balance protection' or even 'negative balances cleared',so it gives me some hope that there are honest, customer friendly brokers out there.
Sorry to hear about your loss. I think you will have a fair chance at getting this decision reversed, this as they gave you twice information on the actual outcome of the trade. The swiss currency shock is something we don't get very often and I am quite sure the brokers say the same, you were just plain unlucky being in it at the time it happened. Overall during the 10 years that I have been trading CFDs and SB there have been surprisingly few incidents on my part, and they have about all except one case been settled satisfactory.

I also trade with ETX and will continue to do so until they misbehave, but at the moment nothing points in that direction.
 
fight with every bone in your body through every avenue possible ...........there must be plenty of trader support groups now in motion and working together to fight this - find them
 
Well folks I've had my reply from our friends at the ETX BUCKET SHOP and they have told me that it is basically all my fault and they won't be refunding my account or even clearing my negative balance.
ETX trading system prices are not true market prices so therefore trades that were executed by the trading system were replaced with trades executed at the first available rate when the market stabilised.
My price that was accepted and executed by the ETX trading system was not available in the true market and was therefore rebooked with the correct price.
They basically told me to stop whinging because these are ETX terms and conditions and that I agreed to them.
They also told me that "we have determined the outstanding negative balance of £175 is due and payable to us".
I placed a trade and was expecting a potential loss of £30. I have lost almost £900 which put what was left of my small account into the red and I now owe them. They said that other brokers may clear negative balances but ETX are not going to do anything of the sort.
It's funny really that they have made so much money off me over the years and they could have made a hell of a lot more but instead they have decided on taking a small 'win' and have now lost a client.
In a way I'm glad this has happened now because it was only £1 per point and if it had happened next year or the year after it may have been £5 or even £10 per point. I learnt the hard way without learning the really hard way!
Is it too much to ask for an honest broker that allows me to buy at one price and sell at another without all this nonsense?
I WILL NEVER TRADE WITH ETX CAPITAL AGAIN AND I ADVISE ANYONE THAT DOES TRADE WITH THEM TO BE WARY OF THEIR (IT'S NOT OUR FAULT) T&Cs AND TO START LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BROKER BEFORE IT HAPPENS TO YOU!!!
 
Dry your eyes

Well folks I've had my reply from our friends at the ETX BUCKET SHOP and they have told me that it is basically all my fault and they won't be refunding my account or even clearing my negative balance.
ETX trading system prices are not true market prices so therefore trades that were executed by the trading system were replaced with trades executed at the first available rate when the market stabilised.
My price that was accepted and executed by the ETX trading system was not available in the true market and was therefore rebooked with the correct price.
They basically told me to stop whinging because these are ETX terms and conditions and that I agreed to them.
They also told me that "we have determined the outstanding negative balance of £175 is due and payable to us".
I placed a trade and was expecting a potential loss of £30. I have lost almost £900 which put what was left of my small account into the red and I now owe them. They said that other brokers may clear negative balances but ETX are not going to do anything of the sort.
It's funny really that they have made so much money off me over the years and they could have made a hell of a lot more but instead they have decided on taking a small 'win' and have now lost a client.
In a way I'm glad this has happened now because it was only £1 per point and if it had happened next year or the year after it may have been £5 or even £10 per point. I learnt the hard way without learning the really hard way!
Is it too much to ask for an honest broker that allows me to buy at one price and sell at another without all this nonsense?
I WILL NEVER TRADE WITH ETX CAPITAL AGAIN AND I ADVISE ANYONE THAT DOES TRADE WITH THEM TO BE WARY OF THEIR (IT'S NOT OUR FAULT) T&Cs AND TO START LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BROKER BEFORE IT HAPPENS TO YOU!!!

Black Swans happen. Unfortunately, one happened to you. Next time you know you should read the terms. Time now to move on. Good luck.
 
It's funny really that they have made so much money off me over the years and they could have made a hell of a lot more but instead they have decided on taking a small 'win' and have now lost a client.

Many clients, I'd think. (Not that they're alone, there.)

I wonder whether they've read this thread, or whether you've suggested that they ought to?

I suspect that in "the general scheme of things" this may be very small fry to them. Nevertheless, technically within their rights though they may be, it clearly doesn't do their reputation any good at all, to put it mildly. Perhaps especially over such a small case? You'd think, in the circumstances, that some kind of goodwill gesture, at least, wouldn't kill them? But then again, maybe they have 100 other cases like this?

(Pace Neil, above, I wouldn't be walking away yet, myself.)

Edited to add: ETX is the one that used to be called "TradIndex", isn't it?
 
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Well folks I've had my reply from our friends at the ETX BUCKET SHOP and they have told me that it is basically all my fault and they won't be refunding my account or even clearing my negative balance.
ETX trading system prices are not true market prices so therefore trades that were executed by the trading system were replaced with trades executed at the first available rate when the market stabilised.
My price that was accepted and executed by the ETX trading system was not available in the true market and was therefore rebooked with the correct price.
They basically told me to stop whinging because these are ETX terms and conditions and that I agreed to them.
They also told me that "we have determined the outstanding negative balance of £175 is due and payable to us".
I placed a trade and was expecting a potential loss of £30. I have lost almost £900 which put what was left of my small account into the red and I now owe them. They said that other brokers may clear negative balances but ETX are not going to do anything of the sort.
It's funny really that they have made so much money off me over the years and they could have made a hell of a lot more but instead they have decided on taking a small 'win' and have now lost a client.
In a way I'm glad this has happened now because it was only £1 per point and if it had happened next year or the year after it may have been £5 or even £10 per point. I learnt the hard way without learning the really hard way!
Is it too much to ask for an honest broker that allows me to buy at one price and sell at another without all this nonsense?
I WILL NEVER TRADE WITH ETX CAPITAL AGAIN AND I ADVISE ANYONE THAT DOES TRADE WITH THEM TO BE WARY OF THEIR (IT'S NOT OUR FAULT) T&Cs AND TO START LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BROKER BEFORE IT HAPPENS TO YOU!!!
Sorry to hear about their decision not to reverse the negative balance in you account. I thought they might consider it after giving you a correction twice. Nevertheless, if they gave you the next available price in the underlaying asset, they have not really done anything wrong. Other companies have taken the other route of correcting negative balances due to the extreme CHF currency move, but apparently it was too much money involved for ETX to consider. Trading highly leverage products is a risky business and one must be aware of that if things goes really bad, one might end up as in your case owning them money.
 
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I might sound harsh but the broker is correct. They must have experienced some liquidity issues and your trade was closed at a price that did not exist. They rectified it 24 hours later, that's what happened when you get such slippage and it is in EVERY broker terms and conditions without any exceptions. This is part of trading. If you were in true ECN conditions you probably would have gotten a bigger slippage.
 
this **** is scary, how are there no protections against this? a stop is a stop is a stop, the companies should protect people from this.
 
this **** is scary, how are there no protections against this? a stop is a stop is a stop, the companies should protect people from this.

It doesn't work like this at all. A stop and a take profit are never guaranteed. I am a bit lazy to get into this but if at your stop loss price there are no buyers or sellers (depending if you are short or long) then it would not hold and the next available price will be the stop or take profit. The only brokers that could offer some 'protection' are market makers because they control the market price. But at such events like EURCHF no one is protected. I am very surprised no one wrote this. The broker is 100% right and yes, it is a terrible experience but this is the market.
 
I know but my main issue was being told that after the trade was reversed I was at a profit of £65 and then it was changed to a loss of £65 and then it was changed AGAIN to a loss of almost £900! That is taking the **** no matter what anyone says! I was continuing to trade throughout the following days because I thought I had the funds in my account and then all of a sudden my account got wiped and my open trades got closed and I was then in debt. I think anyone would be annoyed but like I said before thank god it was a relatively small amount compared to what it could have been.
 
I know but my main issue was being told that after the trade was reversed I was at a profit of £65 and then it was changed to a loss of £65 and then it was changed AGAIN to a loss of almost £900! That is taking the **** no matter what anyone says! I was continuing to trade throughout the following days because I thought I had the funds in my account and then all of a sudden my account got wiped and my open trades got closed and I was then in debt. I think anyone would be annoyed but like I said before thank god it was a relatively small amount compared to what it could have been.

Jell02 has right however barrymong is right aswell they should had informed him with the correct information and going back and forth
 
Jell02 has right however barrymong is right aswell they should had informed him with the correct information and going back and forth

The guy that informed him made a mistake with the amount. Many people that do not know the market made mistakes and that includes people the broker hires. It was a mistake which was soon corrected. Many traders lost on EURCHF but many, many also profited. Those that were short USDCHF or EURCHF made a lot of money.
 
this **** is scary, how are there no protections against this? a stop is a stop is a stop,

No it isn't. It's an order and no one can control where it will be filled.

All the spread bet whiners have no idea that these issues are much worse in the real market.
 
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