Dear All,
Thank you for everyone's patience. The reason for my delayed response was due to awaiting GK's (golfkings) permission to include chat transcripts, order numbers (No MT4 obviously), and correspondences with our support team as I believe this is all relevant to the many issues he has raised. As of the last correspondence, GK does not think this is relevant so I will respect his wishes and keep my explanation as generic as possible.
A few things prior to the trade issue(s) GK has raised:
1. I'm confident that FXPRIMUS has one of, if not the best Support staff in the industry. They are more than capable of addressing this and every issue. My team explained very clearly and concisely the issue to GK, explained leverage, margin, etc. and GK's margin call specifically. I am very critical of my support teams answers and am constantly evaluating them, and the response given to GK was as good as it gets, in my opinion. I did not see a shred of evidence exhibiting anyone talking down to GK or treating GK as a "school boy" as he stated, and apologize that GK took their step by step clarification as anything but explaining to GK exactly what happened with the margin in his account to result in a margin call. As I stated earlier on this thread, the only reason I'm taking the time to address this personally is that my name was mentioned, and there is no reason to "hide" behind my support staff.
2. In terms of GK's insinuation that FXPRIMUS somehow targets traders with high winning percentages. Without responding with a simple "no we don't" statement, rather, I invite everyone to visit our website, navigate to News - Promotions - then click on the Top Trader Contest banner. I will not post the direct link out of respect of FPA's policies, but i hope everyone takes the time to view the video and also view the % gained by our top 20 clients over a 45 day period.
3. Regarding GK's statement,
"And I made a credit card deposit the evening before all this happened. And you know when I did get the money on my account? - 30 Minutes after my trades were killed. What more should I say"
Our policy on credit card deposits is and always has been within 1 business day of receiving from our credit card processor (most of the time done in less than 12 hours). As you have requested I not share specific information about your account, all I can ask of you GK, is to check the time the previous credit card transactions were credited to your account, and you'll find that each and every one of them was in the same time frame. I don't understand your statement, and 100% reject the notion or insinuation that the deposit to your account was delayed on purpose.
4. The trades that GK has noted and the charts that he has noted appear to all be in Gold (XAU/USD.) As I'm sure we all know, Gold volatility is and has been for months at an all time high. Just Monday, there was the largest variance from the high price to the low price in the history of Gold trading. This volatility leads to abnormal price spikes, widening of the spread, and moments of illiquidity. Let's face it, Gold trading is awfully tricky right now, there is a large amount of money to be made, but unfortunately this comes with a higher than normal degree of risk.
@ Raham- In reviewing some other threads on FPA, I see your name has popped up a few times lending your 2 cents on FXPRIMUS. We appreciate you and all of our customers, and hope you remain a customer for a long time to come.
@ yeemeng - I appreciate the kind words, and I'm sure you can attest that since you've been with us since pretty much the very beginning, that we are NOT perfect. We make mistakes, and unfortunately given the fact the nature of this business, we will make mistakes in the future (hopefully not many
What sets us apart in this industry, is that when we make mistakes we correct them and ensure that if any money was lost as a result of the mistake, the client is reimbursed, credited, etc. Please take a look at the most recent post in the FPA Broker forum by a Vincent in Singapore to show just the latest proof of this. There is too much competition in the Forex industry, to not operate in this manner.
@ Pharaoh - Noted on the suggestion, and might do this in the future…thank you!
@ Ceo-Jy - As mentioned above, there is no reason for me to hide behind my support staff. Appreciate the words, however!
@ kantungemas - I'm not quite sure how I can prove this….I'm not a very good looking guy, so posting a picture of myself apart from what is on our website, might scare some people
5. Finally, let's get to the trade in question, which closed 8/26/2011 @ 17:00 as a result of a margin call. This is directed towards GK:
If you look at an economic calendar from 8/26, you'll see @ 17:00 the US Federal Reserve Chief began speaking. You'll see that not only Gold, but also currencies and our other CFD's started acting volatile at this time and stayed this way for the 30 minutes or so that followed. This is not uncommon when the US Federal Reserve Chief speaks and during other news events such as Non-Farm Payroll, US Fed Decisions, etc. What occurs during these events, is that banks widen their spreads due to the uncertainty in the market and the fact that they do not want to take on any unneeded risk. I agree the spread widening is not always "fair" so to speak to traders, as I'm a trader myself, and have been on both the right end and wrong end of spread widening in my trading career. Unfortunately, like slippage, this is part of trading, and is what makes trading a somewhat challenging endeavor.
In looking at your trade, there was indeed a 5.21 pip spread on Gold at the time of your execution. This type of spread, while wide, is not unheard of for Gold, and I've seen it this wide before this instance and after. Also, the tails that you refer to, are not out of the ordinary either and appear to be a result of the volatility in the market in those few minutes of time. In reviewing your trade history, it does not show that you had any trades executed during the bars showing the tails…are you simply inquiring due to the difference in our feed as opposed to the other 2 brokers you noted? As I'm sure you are aware, there are many brokers and many sources of liquidity. As noted above, this was during an economic news event, and I'm quite sure if you surveyed every broker and every source of liquidity you would see some pretty significant variances. I don't' necessarily feel that comparing the spread of 2 other brokers is an accurate representation of what "actually" should have occurred during the market in those few minutes.
I have taken the liberty to double check with our institutional liquidity sources and can confirm that the spread during the time of your trade execution and the "tails" the moments afterward were indeed valid, and I would not be in the position to direct my finance team to issue you a credit or reimbursement.
In closing, while my hunch is that perhaps each and every answer to your inquiries will not be received well by you, I would like you to know that I have looked into your issue personally and have spent quite a few hours in doing so. I feel my support staff acted professionally and were very courteous with you and our trading platform performed flawlessly during the times in question. The issue was the illiquidity and volatility in the market, specifically in Gold, and the lack of sufficient equity in your account to withstand such volatility, and that was the reason for the Margin Call.
I'm at your disposal for any additional questions, or any additional questions from anyone on this esteemed forum.
Regards,
Terry Thompson
President-FXPRIMUS
