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RESOLVED
October 2017 Update: 2 of the 4 cases against LiteForex have been fully resolved. In the other 2 cases, the FPA has seen evidence that the funds have been returned to the accounts of the clients.
All other terms of the FPA Scam Finding have been met.
The FPA now considers all issues regarding the previous Scam Finding to be resolved. The scam finding is lifted.
The FPA thanks the CEO of LiteForex for her efforts to fix all of these problems.
LiteForex
Why are you causing so many problems for your clients?
Why are you causing so many problems for your clients?
LiteForex has some interesting items in their Terms of Service. Originally, their rule 6.8 was...
In case the price change is related to the difference between the last instrument price before the market closing and the first instrument price at the opening of the market, or is connected with the news release, and increases profits by more than 10% of the Equity, the Company reserves the right to adjust financial result of such transactions to an amount proportional to the difference in the prices indicated above by means of funds deduction with a following comment. In some cases, the Company can set limits of less than 10% of total deposit to the minimum profit change.
This means that if a trade makes a large, successful news trade or is lucky enough to benefit from a weekend gap, Lite Forex would confiscate any profit above 10%. LiteForex even reserved the right to confiscate profits of less than 10%. The rule makes it plain that LiteForex doesn't bother to fully hedge themselves over weekends. If they did, the amount gained or lost by traders would be passed on to the market.
The FPA considers this to be a license to steal and made LiteForex aware of this. One outstanding quote by on the subject by a senior member of the FPA's forums was...
The very idea that any broker should have a right to arbitrarily cap profit% on trades is blatant evidence of fraud.
Recently, LiteForex.com revised rule 6.8 to...
In exceptional cases, in the event of sharp gaps between the opening and closing prices or when trading upon the release of news, the results of trading operation (both negative and positive) can be adjusted by the Company, if clients’ order was executed only in part or rejected by Company’s counteragent. The adjustments will be made in proportion to a volume of conducted orders and with an appropriate commentary.
The FPA considers this to only be a small improvement. Again, LiteForex appears to not be covering itself over weekends. It also would appear to lack liquidity around news time. In the opinion of the FPA, LiteForex should either permit news trading or ban it completely. Instead, the company says it will make commentary if it takes money away from traders. If there is a real issue with an order not being filled properly, a trader should be shown evidence to back up any removal of profits, not just be provided with some commentary.
Many brokers complain about bonus hunting. The problem is that even a single small trade in opposite directions from the same IP is all the evidence some brokers need to take action. LiteForex declined to consider that 2 traders sitting side-by-side at a cyber-cafe could get into an argument over which way price will move next. The best way to settle such an argument is to place opposite trades to see who profits and who loses. True bonus hunting requires large trades designed to move the entire balance from one account to another. Few people would bother to do this for one small bonus. Most would then match up a second pair of accounts, then match up the winners from each pair to move the deposits and bonuses from at least 4 accounts into a single account.
LiteForex not only didn't show sufficient evidence of trades designed to move all money from one account to another, their representative claimed that the account launched paired trades from 2 IP addresses. One of those addresses was inside of LiteForex.com's headquarters.
A few years ago, a very large percentage of brokers would let clients trade any way they liked, but would then do a compliance audit before processing withdrawals. The results of these audits often were the removal of large numbers of profitable trades. In some cases, the trades clearly violated a broker's terms. In other cases, little information was given. At least these audits usually only took a week or two. The FPA had hoped that the forex industry had moved beyond this sort of thing.
LiteForex had a client placed under some sort of investigative audit since May. No details were given over what triggered the investigation. The most the FPA and the client could get out of the company was that an answer would be available sometime soon. After the case went to a vote, LiteForex's representative accused the client of having 2 accounts and bonus hunting. Neither of those accounts were the one that was supposed to be the subject of the investigation.
Lite Forex finds it too easy to take profits and to accuse traders of misconduct. Lite Forex seems to find it too hard to provide any evidence that relates to the accounts being disputed.
The FPA tried very hard to avoid giving LiteForex a scam finding. Many deadlines for answering questions and providing evidence were extended. Other than a small improvement in the wording of rule 6.8, and the resolution of 1 out of 5 FPA Traders Court cases, LiteForex has done nothing to show the FPA that they are serious about fixing issues experienced by their clients. Instead, it appears that clients can have money taken away without valid reasons or evidence being given.
Regretfully, the FPA now feels the time has come to warn traders that LiteForex is a scam. We hope the company takes a serious look at its handling of these issues and decides to improve itself.
FPA Scam Finding Against LiteForex.com
FPA Traders Court Case 1
Original Complaint Thread for Case 1
FPA Traders Court Case 2
Original Complaint Thread for Case 2
FPA Traders Court Case 3 (Resolved)
Original Complaint Thread for Case 3
FPA Traders Court Case 4
Original Complaint Thread for Case 4
FPA Traders Court Case 5
Original Complaint Thread for Case 5
FPA Review Page for LiteForex.com