Compliance – Insuring Integrity of Trades or Outright Theft?

[vetejan]

99% of brokers are scam

... So why should they have this right? They won't return you any money, not even a pip when they steal it from you: And they are doing this all the time! I didn't vote - there should be '0' option or '1 day' maximum. Especially because they nullify (just doing one of their dirty jobs) trades just in case of withdrawal.

 

[macendared]

No time at all

I didn't vote since I don't agree with brokers nullifying any trades. The point has been well made in previous posts, that they don't nullify losing trades, why then nullify winning trades.

My vote would be for no time at all.

 

[Zet Fx]

New undercurrents evolving within the FPA?

'Currently FPA database offers 15236 reviews of 1222 Forex Companies. Not only it's the largest database of this sort available on the web, it's also famous for its quality.'

Let's see: 'How far back should a broker be able to nullify trades?' (!)

I'm worried who is FPA siding here with running such a poll or is it that they just 'innocently' forgot to include: 'at no time at all' as the 1st answer? Now the results of the poll will be interpreted as: more than 80% of us- traders agree that's it's ok for the broker to nullify our trades (within 2 weeks)at its discretion because:

- we used off-market quotes;
- resorted to scalping;
- hacked into their system;
- turned profitable trades;

What kind of crap is this?!

Is not having your trades that are more than 2 weeks old nullified going to make you feel better if from now on your broker 'cleanses off' profitable trades from your balance sheet every fortnight?

I remember when this site was called 'Forex Bastards' and it's slogan was: 'Don't let the bastards steal your money!'.
Are we being reeducated here because advertising revenues started going into the heads of people who once united forex traders so we could together get the very same thief-brokers off business?

Hope the FPA will have the integrity to re-run the poll...

 

[Merlin Brasil]

Is it a contract or not?

I'm about to move from Demo to Live trading and was not aware of how widespread this problem apparently is.

The simple view is that getting a price and committing one's trade by clicking on Buy or Sell or Close constitutes a legal and binding contract on both parties. Apparently, this isn't the case???

Would this apply to ECN brokers as well as bucket shops?

I'd agree with my IT friend above that *any* problems can or should be spotted fairly immediately and could then be adjudicated almost in real time.

If you'd allowed the choice, I'd have opted for 1 Day, at most. There's more than enough profit at the brokerages to allow for beefing up the Compliance Division, if needed.

With the vast number of transactions, I'd also wonder how a Compliance 'specialist' would go about verifying each and every transaction. Additionally, would this specialist be rewarded for the number and/or size of transactions they disallow, thus making them biased?

If a transaction does not consist of a contract, then what IS it?

Once one moves into Live Trading, I can think of no issue more critical, and I laud FPA for taking it on.

Regards,
Merlin

 

[ChrisEccles]

Alternative to the poll

Rather than polling FPA members for an "opinion", would it not serve
all of our interests better if each member approached his/her broker
right now, and obtained some kind of policy statement relating to
retrospective auditing/cancelling of profitable trades ?
-
These statements, and the names of the individuals making them on
behalf of the brokerage, could then be posted here for all to see.

-
Chris

 

[PipStar]

I didn't vote because there is no way I would allow a broker 2 weeks to audit my trades. To think that there is an option for even longer is just ludicrous. 3 days is the maximum I would allow. In actual fact, a trade should stand unless there is an error in pricing.

Only bucketshops audit winning trades on withdrawal. Reputable brokers only correct for incorrect prices or out of market price spike errors.

Here is the question: Which brokers audit and cancel winning trades? Answer: Poltek, Instaforex, FXOpen and of course a few other bucket shops like them.

Who as far as I know, doesnt audit and cancel winning trades? Example: FXDD, IBFX, FX.Com, FXCM. Although they are by no means perfect.

You see what I mean.

 

[TheRogue]

I'm still demo trading and had no idea such a situation was so widespread as it appears to be from these posts. I'm of the opinion that a deal is a deal. If the brokerage doesn't have all its ducks in a row, it has no business being a brokerage. And being the final arbiter of whether a deal was honest just begs for one sided opinions. Money has a funny way of making folks dreadfully biased. I also agree with the opinion above that the poll should be rerun with "no time at all" as a choice. Without that, the poll is already biased against the traders.

TheRogue

 

[ChrisEccles]

....Reputable brokers only correct for incorrect prices or out of market price spike errors.

That's probably partially true, PipStar.

But, how many instances can you cite, where your broker has retrospectively
corrected the spike which knocked out your stop-loss, and given you back
the profit you would have made when your trade ran to target ? ?
:unhappy:

-
Chris

 

[wisconsinae]

Audits

I agree with the responses saying they shouldn't be able to audit period. Why are we bothering then to even trade if they can arbitrarily pick off the good trades and take our money. They need to stand by what their system puts out. I have not had this exeprience yet. However, I haven't made any money either. All I end up is even. If they would like to have people do business with them, they must honor the trades. Otherwise, there is no point to this game. It is just a one way street into our pockets.

 

[Stony]

I don´t see any justification of changing trades after they have been closed. It is the responsibility of the broker to make sure that the data shown to the trader is correct. If a mistake happens, the trader has to be informed immediately and a solution of the problem has to be discussed.

When I started to trade Crude Oil in very short terms (scalping???), my broker called and told me that my trading style was inappropriate considering the small spread of only 6 pips, and thereafter raised the spread to 18-20 for Crude Oil. Former trades remained unaffected. That´s fair and ok with me, and that´s the way it should be, I´d say.

Stony