My Success with Finspreads

I won the competition in October. Nearly every trade I have made since then has lost me money. Today Finspreads are phoning up asking me for £300 or they will close my account, even though the contracts for Advanced Fluid Connections PLC, do not run out till March. I am £150 in debt and they want extra to cover the position to, just incase they fall more.

Looking forward for Trade2win to go back to the old first prize of free level 2 with ADVFN or something that is not to do with gambling.

The contracts are not up till March and June. £85 long at 5.6p per point expires March, and £100 long at 5.6p per point expires in June. This means I do not have to pay Finspreads anything until the expiry dates, if AFC do not come good by then. Although Finspreads want me to settle with them now and close the trades. From now on I refuse to speak to them and if they close my account without my permision they are liable.

I just logged onto my account to discover they have closed the positions before the contract dates. They are liable now and I am seeking legal advice to hopefully claim compensation.

triggerhappy said:

From now on I refuse to speak to them and if they close my account without my permision they are liable.

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You say you're £150 in debt with them. Do you mean you've faced a margin call for £150? Unfortunately, the way s/bs work, you need to fund your margin whatever the expiry date of the bet. This is partly to make sure a client doesn't have his eye so far off the ball that a trade maturing months away tanks and lands them in trouble. Of course this isn't altruism on the s/b's part, they want to make sure you can cover any losses as they occur. Similarly, if your trade was in profit you'd be able to withdraw cash while the trade was running, so long as the margin remains covered. If this is the case (it might not be, not sure what your actual situation is), then they're perfectly within their rights (as stated in the 'small print') to close your account.

You need to talk to them - refusing to speak to them won't help.

Aah, just saw your last post. Looks like its too late to talk to them. Before you look at legal advice (ie costng more money) you need to look at the small print of your account with Finspreads - from what you've written above it's almost certain that they're within their rights to close your positions.

Sorry its turned out badly for you - we've all had rotten trades that have cost us money (I've got one on at the moment...) - turn it into a learning experience...

triggerhappy said:

I just logged onto my account to discover they have closed the positions before the contract dates. They are liable now and I am seeking legal advice to hopefully claim compensation.

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Sorry to hear you have had a margin call on your account. They are not liable because you owed them money and didn't pay the costs to keep the position open.

Just because a contract doesn't expire until a given date doesn't mean you can 'wait and see' what happens.

If you are in a loss with it, you have to cover that loss in the meantime if you want to keep it open and 'wait and see', if you are in a profit it doesn't mean they can give you the money in the meantime either untess you have cash in your account that isn't needed for the margin. You can only get at the profit when you close the position

Thanks for your replys. The balance owing to them after they close AFC at a slightly better price of 3.8p, was £127.41. I came clean with my mum, and she helped me out, and lent me money for the month. I will not be going into this matter in more detail now I relize that is the way spreadbetting works.

Just be careful with trading small penny stocks, as when I traded bigger stocks there was never this concern of running short. I have even kept my account with them open on a 0 balance now, hoping that oneday in the future I will be able to afford to put some of my own money into it. I still prefer the idea of spreadbetting more than online internet casinos. But online poker is still more fun.