Worldspreads - in administration - 16th Mar 2012

[ukoptions]

Oh no!

I can't get my money out.

Worldspreads have gone into administration after finding accounting irregularities.

This also affects their white label counterparts:

TwoWaySpreads
Victor Chandler Financials
TrendWatch Asset Management
Agincourt Spreads
Ladbrokes Financial Spreads
Spreads.gr
Sterling Markets
Fitzdares Financial Spreads
JN Spreads
Alpash Patel Spreads
Squaremile

You may have been indirectly trading with Worldspreads if you have an account with any of these.

Worldspreads Limited special administration | KPMG | UK

If you haven't received a letter from the administrators (expect to see "KPMG" on the outside of their letter), then let them know that you had some money deposited with them.

There's nothing to do but sit and wait for them to decide how much of your money they will eventually send you.

:-0

 

[The Leopard]

Wow. Those deadbeats had a lot of white labels.

 

[potshot]

I believe all spreadbetting companies have to hold clients money in a seperate account for this very reason a company going into adminstration to protect clients funds.

 

[pboyles]

I believe all spreadbetting companies have to hold clients money in a seperate account for this very reason a company going into adminstration to protect clients funds.

Yes they must do that by law. However this lot and MF Global (and probably many others) don't seem to have bothered. In the real world that is called breaking the law and would result in people going to prison, in the financial world its just an irregularity and nothing will come of it.

The public will be refunded up to a maximum amount and whatever they had deposited above that will be gone for good. Of course it will take months to get anything back.

 

[potshot]

I had £50 with them so it won't be the end of the world for me but for others who opened platinum account and anybody with money with WS I hope they will their money back.

 

[The Leopard]

I had £50 with them so it won't be the end of the world for me but for others who opened platinum account and anybody with money with WS I hope they will their money back.

What was a platinum account?

 

[potshot]

What was a platinum account?

£5000 deposit and zero spreads on a number of markets.

 

[kasamavic]

A platinum a/c is if you kept over 5K in it and you could get zero spreads, but they charged you £1 to open and £1 to close the trade, so if you did £2pp stakes it was pointless really, coupled with the fact they charged you stake size to roll overnight so at £2pp it would cost £2 per position as opposed to doing the daily 2 point spread and about 50p in overnight charges.

They did give a free £5 bet on my birthday though up to a max of £200 profit. One advantage to it. lol.

 

[The Leopard]

Oh, OK. I had nightmare visions of people being invited to set up 50 or a hundred grand accounts.

Worldspreads, another glorious chapter in the long and honourable history of the bucket shop industry.

 

[Sidekicker]

Yes they must do that by law. However this lot and MF Global (and probably many others) don't seem to have bothered. In the real world that is called breaking the law and would result in people going to prison, in the financial world its just an irregularity and nothing will come of it.

The public will be refunded up to a maximum amount and whatever they had deposited above that will be gone for good. Of course it will take months to get anything back.

Aren't the auditors supposed to check segregated accounts?

 

[Ross Spur]

From years ago I had accounts with WS and a couple of their white labels. I'm pretty sure there was a few hundred quid in them. Not quite the end of the world, but anyone know how you find out now the websites are closed down?

 

[The Leopard]

From years ago I had accounts with WS and a couple of their white labels. I'm pretty sure there was a few hundred quid in them. Not quite the end of the world, but anyone know how you find out now the websites are closed down?

Probably contact KPMG or whichever bunch of effectively state-funded vultures has been appointed to pick over the bones, gorging themselves before passing whatever miserable pittance is left to the creditors.

 

[Sidekicker]

From years ago I had accounts with WS and a couple of their white labels. I'm pretty sure there was a few hundred quid in them. Not quite the end of the world, but anyone know how you find out now the websites are closed down?

you will get a letter from KPMG and they will process the refunds and also any FSA protected amounts.

 

[Ross Spur]

you will get a letter from KPMG and they will process the refunds and also any FSA protected amounts.

Yes, I've had two letters so far, but they don't detail what might be in the accounts. Maybe I should pretend I'm P Cruddas and just donate it to charity.

 

[scose-no-doubt]

Or use it to lobby @ chequers

 

[The Leopard]

Might want to get Brown-nose Swan to help with that.

 

[fishee]

The £2/trade for "zero spread" Platinum traders was introduced mid January - presumably intended to get traders to up their stakes and/or stay in positions longer, necessary to avoid losing trades if you're a small player (less than £5 stakes) that most private traders are.

But WS will have lost many - thousands probably - of accounts from those without an extra appetite for risk and this must have ruined their cash-flow with all those £5k deposits gone.

Perhaps this was an attempt by WS to reduce costs by shaking off minor players and short-term scalpers who were not conducive to their balance sheet, which resulted in more of an exodus than they'd planned for.

- Go 4 pts and £s will follow

 

[Sidekicker]

More likely, their crap IT systems lost money and they had no accounting records.

 

[ukoptions]

Worldspreads - in administration - FSCS to the rescue?

Looks like FSCS will probably eventually cover accounts up to £50,000.

Marvellous thing, those compensation schemes.

Too bad for traders with live positions that were forcibly closed on the day - strange kind of stop loss.

But good, I guess, if their market subsequently went against them.

I know some platforms report the alleged number of current longs and shorts at any particular time on any day - crowdsourcing meets trading.

I guess that would make contrarian trading pretty straightforward if that set of customers were representative of the entire market.

Metrics out of apparent calamity? Every cloud ...

:innocent:

 

[kasamavic]

I'm not happy that my open positions were closed at a loss and i'm trying to find out under what authority they were able to do that.

IF WS couldn't trade then as far as i'm concerned all bets should be off, not just take your money ( i don't suppose those that closed for a profit are complaining) It was hardly unforeseen as the bosses at WS knew what was coming and we should get back what we had on deposit irrespective of open positions.

So if anyone can offer constructive advice as to the legalities or small print where it says they can take your money i'd be obliged.