An old case with EUR/CHF on FXCM

[fyang]

It is my first time here. I have an old case, which now I finally had some time to deal with. On 2011-09-06, SNB brought EUR/CHF from ~1.12 to 1.20 in just a few minutes. I had an EUR/CHF short position. The stop loss was at ~1.15, but the position was closed at ~1.18. My account went negative, and FXCM, with whom I was trading, adjusted to 0.

I looked into second chart, after the stop loss was triggered by a spike, there was 2 or 3 seconds, when the price was pulled back at the 1.13-1.14 level. But the position was not closed at either time point (i.e. neither at the spike nor during the 2 or 3 seconds pull-back). It was closed a few seconds later when the price reached 1.18 level after another spike.

I made an audit immediately, but FXCM insisted that it was because of the low liquidity, rather than their technical delay. I asked them to prove this, they told me liquidity was confidential. I submitted this case to financial ombudsman, and now is still waiting for my case to be reviewed.

How do you think of this? Any opinions and suggestions?

 

[RP1]

I would be interested to hear what the result of your case is . Brokers rightly or wrongly blame low liquidity on these issues .

 

[fyang]

From the 14.2 M dollars fine, it seems FXCM have a tendency to deny problems. After the audit, they only gave me very brief explanations, just saying there was no problem. When I asked for more information, they more or less just copied what was posted on their web page. They also said if they adjust for me, then it would be unfair for other traders with the same situation. Only after I repeated that my question was why it was closed so late, they started to say something specific to my case, that is, at that time point, almost no provider had a counter order around that very price, which resulted low liquidity. Then I argued if they could not show all the relevant orders at that time point, then they could not convince any trader who suffered such a loss. I also asked them, when the liquidity was not enough, if there was a queue where each order stands to be executed. If so, how the priority of each order was determined? What is the priority of my order? Then they replied that what I asked belonged to commercial secrets, which they would only consider to show to authorities, e.g. financial ombudsman. Then I submitted my case to financial ombudsman, and now as said before, I am still waiting for my case to be dealt with, have been waiting for about 8 months.

 

[Pharaoh]

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