Recent content by stevespray

Obviously we don't know all the details on this but it seems to me that the firm involved may struggle to defend this. I've had a quick read through the firms T&Cs and although the firm specify that they have the right to restrict trade size (based on margin) and to give margin calls etc their...

More details emerging regarding the size of the trades. Looks like it was a CFD based account. Had it been a real brokerage account then the exchange would never have allowed such positions to be opened without the relevant margin in place...

Valbury Capital client 'wins' £8.8m but then has bets voided. https://www.ft.com/content/46eff974-7470-11e8-b6ad-3823e4384287 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/21/trader-builds-5-billion-position-after-realizing-it-wasnt-a-demo.html

Just to add my two pennies worth... A number of years back I had a substantial income (winnings) from spread betting. I also ran my own business which incidentally is completely unrelated to the financial industry. I duly told my accountant about the winnings which dwarfed my taxable income...

In my experience most firms will argue about the way that they 'normally' do things. This CHF event is a rare occurrence - so the firms will argue that 99.9% of the time they follow what is set out in the various documents. They'll argue that no document can cover all scenarios and therefore...

Fair comments. I'm sure everyone actually appreciates your input from the firm's side of the fence. As an aside, do you have any ideas regarding clients who might have been left with negative balances after the Jan15 fiasco? What's the word in spreadbetting circles on the pro side? I'm not in...

Isn't this a bit 'off topic' in terms of this particular thread? To be fair (to all the SB / CFD firms out there) didn't the clients take on the risk when they traded on a forex pair which was being heavily fixed / manipulated by a very vocal central bank?

I've had dealings with the FOS and they aren't particularly strong because they have a weak understanding of how markets work. There have been successful cases but there is a requirement to 'puppy walk' the FOS staff through all the aspects of a particular case - this takes time but pays huge...

Some great points in there. I do try to see things from both sides of the fence. In terms of the 'binding contracts'... If such a matter ever reached court then they would be binding in nature. That is to say that the client would generally be very successful in enforcing such a contract...

Are you from a spread bet Co? In my opinion the issue is not one relating to a 'bad price' as such; the price clearly dropped through the level of the stop loss and was filled after slippage. In order for the trade to be reversed the firm would have to show that the trade was either 'palpably...

I agree with that. In this case spreadbet firms offer 'over the counter' derivatives which can only be traded at the individual firm's venue. I don't think that MiFID comes into this discussion directly. The issue at hand appears to be an issue of 'off exchange pricing' when prices on an...

I don't feel that my argument falls short. Barry's stop loss was filled as price broke through his stop level - nothing wrong in that respect. In my opinion the price which the client was filled at did correctly reflect the price of the underlying in the few seconds which it took price to pass...

I disagree - there is clearly 'a basis in law' since Barry had his stop loss filled (after a certain amount of slippage) before the fill was reversed some time later. The T&Cs make it clear that orders are not valid and binding until acceptance has occurred - in this case the stop loss WAS...

Keep fighting this... Hi Barry, I've had issues like this with various firms over the years. Fight them and you will get your funds returned. You have a very strong case because they actually executed your stop loss order and filled your position. That constitutes, in law, a legally binding...

I strongly suspect that it was the firms hedge position which killed them. They probably realised a long time ago that clients were simply picking off the low hanging fruit it terms of trading in line with 'the peg'. So in order to mitigate losses the firm has to hedge in line with the client...