Advice on rogue pricing

Hi,

Last night there was a huge deal of volatility in the GBP/JPY in the SB company I use. At the time, I was selling on huge spikes above where the market was trading. I did this because the market was in freefall and sharp moves up looked like a great selling opportunity.

After an hour I had cleared just under £1,000 profit in about 10 trades.

This morning I logged in and the money had all been taken out of my account and the message read something along the lines of: "Refunded due to rogue pricing"

I have seen similar opportunties before and made money from it but never had it refunded. Although, I never made even half of what I made this time. I presume a lot of people did this last night and the company probably had to react. Can anyone advise if there is any legal redress for this? Is it worth contacting their Compliance officer? The FSA? Has anyone had any experience with this before?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Gammajammer, thank you for your quick response.

I don't think these were genuine market rates. I was getting bid above 247.00 constantly around 22.50 last night.

The price would then be offered, seconds later, for around 246.00 - sometimes a little higher, sometimes even lower.

The fact that I could take £1,000 at £1 and £2 a point demonstrates the volatility.

I have heard stories from traders that have had this though and argued that the SB company has a contractual obligation to honour the price it gives.

I don't want to sound greedy it's just that trading that last night nearly gave me a coronary and it's soul destroying to see it all taken back.

Bad luck mate

GammaJammer said:

I'm willing to bet you that if you read the small print you'll find that these companies have absolutely no obligation to honour the price in the event of them quoting, for accidental reasons, an off market rate.

Just like if you walk into a store and find a plasma TV worth £1000 and some muppet has accidentally fired his pricing gun and marked it at £29.99 - you can argue all you like with the manager but you know you're not getting that TV, and ultimately when you walk out the store you know all you were doing was trying your luck.

Forget it, move on, stop hunting for a free lunch.

GJ

Click to expand...

I appreciate your analogy, but it is flawed in terms of the legal differences between an invitation to treat and a settlement of a debt (said debt being owed by the spreadbetting company due to the contract). I agree that most likely this contract will exclude trades made at an off market rate. Perhaps the grandparent was wondering if it was within his rights to enforce those bets. Maybe the SB firm in question should stop quoting bad prices? How often do we see "huge spikes" in the underlying? This is beginning to gel with other posts I have read on these boards containing allegations that SB firms deliberately run stops....

Of course, I am not alleging anything of the sort. If DMA brokers can make sure the price feed isn't broken, why can't the SB firms to the same, except perhaps it is to their advantage to misquote? Just postulating here - I am sure the SB companies would not attempt (and would have no legal right) to enforce losses as a result of bad price also.

An unfortunate experience, and a real shame to have to give profits back. Perhaps we should have a thread regarding our treatment by the SB firms? Perhaps it would be helpful to have some indication of which companies are generally good, and which are not.

trader_dante, when all the money was taken from your account, did they call you to explain why? Did they make efforts to advise you that there may have been a flaw in their price feed and that debits would be made in accordance with contractual provisions which make bets on bad price unenforceable? Did they apologise and offer you some sort of assurance that this wouldn't happen in the future? Aside from their rights under a contract, did they deal with the manner effectively from a customer service viewpoint?

A "pricing error" occured again last night.

Took £254 in a short amount of time.

Woke up and found trades scrapped this morning and money taken from my account - once again with no warning!

But here is the annoying part - trades implemented at the RIGHT PRICE were also scrapped becauuse I EXITED at the wrong place.

I tried arguing that surely if they wouldn't honour my EXIT price, then they would reopen the trade at my initial entry point because that was an accurate price, had been filled and a confirmation note received.

Hmmm let's have a think? Shall I fill you from a great entry last night at £7 a point with the market now trading this morning up and heavily in my favour?? Don't bet on it.

This is starting to thoroughly p*** me off! What the f**** is the point of quoting a 24 hour market if you can't trade it??? And what if you are in it already, see the volatility and want to get out?? Is it right that your whole trade would be voided because the offsetting trade was at a false price??

Bucketshops.