FXCM -Fraudsters!!

[Ranmal Goonetilleke]

Hi Everyone,

I am an active trader and have been trading with two brokers - HOTFOREX and FXCM, while I have been with HOTFOREX for longer and find them to be extremely good and trustworthy in terms of execution, slippage, spread, etc icannot say the same about FXCM.

As a matter of habit i put identical trades with both parties at the very same TIME, VOLUME, ENTRY PRICE etc . On the 4th of April (04/04/2014) I placed a BUY LIMIT trade on GBP/JPY at a volume of 1.0 and @ 171.810 (the exact time was 12:20) on both HOTFOREX and FXCM. (therefore IDENTICAL TRADE with bot brokers!!) the HOTFOREX ticket no was-#23858884 and FXCM was #3713485.
When the US Payrolls news was released about 03 HOURS later my trade on HOTFOREX was taken at the entry price of 171.810 and about 5 minutes later i was able to close it with a USD451 PROFIT! No sooner I had closed my order with HOTFOREX I switched to the FXCM platform and was totally SHOCKED to see the trade had not been executed in spite of the entry being reached and passed by a huge margin!!!
I contacted FXCM and asked they -WHY? to which as usual they asked me to open a case (Audit) and assured me they would respond in 2-5 working days!
After 10 Days, (last night) their audit responded to me saying that the trade was not executed 'cos I did'nt have the necessary liquidity behind the price for the trade to be executed!!! This is inspite of having more than USD10,000/- in excess of the required margin!!!
What is even more amazing is that I had the same liquidity on both HOTFOREX and FXCM and if USD10,000/- was not enough to execute this trade then what is???!!!!
I am painfully writing all this because I DO NOT want other traders to be ROBBED by FXCM!! I have all the proof including screen shots of both platforms showing the disputed trade, time , value, Ticket numbers etc!! I would be glad to send this and the email responses and 'chats' to anyone who wants CONCLUSIVE PROOF that FXCM are nothing but a bunch of white collar crooks!!
Meanwhile I am taking this up with the FCA -UK

Please tell everyone you know to prevent this from happening to them too!! (for further clarifications please mail me at ranmalpg@gmail.com)

Happy Trading!

Ranmal

 

[Pharaoh]

Send a PM to Jason Rogers and ask him to join the discussion. He's FXCM's representative here.

 

[Master Yoda]

Jason of FXCM said last time they are have positive and negative slippages and you say that the trades weren't executed

Someone is not telling the truth here

 

[Jason Rogers]

Hi Ranmal,

While I can't discuss specific details regarding your account on a public forum, I would like to address a point of confusion.

their audit responded to me saying that the trade was not executed 'cos I did'nt have the necessary liquidity behind the price for the trade to be executed!!! This is inspite of having more than USD10,000/- in excess of the required margin!!!
What is even more amazing is that I had the same liquidity on both HOTFOREX and FXCM and if USD10,000/- was not enough to execute this trade then what is???!!!!

If the Trade Audit Committee told you there was insufficient liquidity for your limit order to be filled, they were not referring to the amount of money in your trading account. They would have told you that your account had insufficient margin if that was the case. Insufficient liquidity means there were not enough sellers in the market at 171.81 to fill your limit order to buy. Keep in mind that you were trading during NFP. During news events like this the price can jump around very quickly with little trading at any given price. If there were 8 million GBP/JPY in limit orders to buy at 171.81, but only 5 million GBP/JPY offered by sellers at that price, then the first 5 million worth of buy orders in the queue would get filled while the last 2 million would remain unfilled due to insufficient liquidity.

Jason of FXCM said last time they are have positive and negative slippages

Eddiger makes an excellent point!

FXCM is currently one of the only brokers to offer positive slippage (AKA price improvements) on both market orders and limit orders. That also means that unlike some other brokers, FXCM offers true limit orders on all our platforms including MT4. A true limit order can only be filled at the specified price or better (positive slippage), so if the market spikes down to your limit price but pops back up before your order can be filled, then your limit order to buy will have to wait until more sellers come into the market at the price you wanted. By contrast some brokers treat limit orders on the MT4 platform as Market-If-Touched (MIT) orders rather than true limit orders.

There are pros and cons to each approach. With true limit orders you can be certain that if your limit order is filled, it will only be at the specified price or better. With MIT limit orders, your order is more likely to get filled but runs the risk of getting filled at a worse price. I'm not saying that's what happened here, and I don't want to speculate on the order types used by another broker. In the end, it could just be the case that your other limit order was earlier in the queue therefore got filled on the price spike down to 171.81 during NFP.

My main goal here is to address your concerns about whether your limit order was treated fairly by FXCM. A key benefit of trading on our No Dealing Desk (NDD) forex execution is that you can be confident we're not taking the risk on the other side of your orders. We offset your orders one-for-one with our liquidity providers. That means if your limit order got filled and you made hundreds of dollars on the trade, it would not hurt us in the least. We make our money off the trading volume by adding a pip markup to the spread which acts as a commission. If anything we want your limit orders to get filled because that's more trading volume for us.

It does us no good for you to have missed out on this trade, but in the end, we can only fill you at a price that's available from our 10+ liquidity providers. It's important to understand that during news events like NFP, liquidity is generally lower than during normal market conditions. Whether your order is at the front of the queue versus the back of the queue can make all the difference between getting filled or not in such situations.

As I mentioned previously, I can't discuss your specific account details on this forum but only speak on general points such as how liquidity can impact limit order execution. However, if after reading the above, you still feel that your trade audit should be reviewed , I encourage you to email our Compliance department (compliance@fxcm.com). They can look into your case further, if you dispute the findings of the Trade Audit Committee.

 

[ada1976]

The Financial Conduct Authority fines FXCM UK £4 million for making ‘unfair profits’ and not being open with the FCA
Published: 26/02/2014 Last Modified : 26/02/2014


The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Forex Capital Markets Ltd and FXCM Securities Ltd (“FXCM UK”) £4,000,000 for allowing the US based FXCM Group to withhold profits worth approximately £6 million ($9,941,970) that should have been passed on to FXCM UK’s clients.

Please read final notice explains everything. FCA Final Notice 2014: Forex Capital Markets Limited (FXCM Ltd) and FXCM Securities Limited (FXCM Securities) - Financial Conduct Authority

 

[Jason Rogers]

Please read final notice explains everything. FCA Final Notice 2014: Forex Capital Markets Limited (FXCM Ltd) and FXCM Securities Limited (FXCM Securities) - Financial Conduct Authority

Those interested in seeing the complete discussion can visit the following thread: FXCM announces settlement with FCA

 

[ada1976]

Hi Jason,

I don't think FXCM are Fraudsters. Over the years you guys are trying so hard ( transparency above all ) to give us good services. Despite all of this efforts FXCM failed to stay away from negative headlines. What I want to know is that why can't you guys get it wright. I am sure you must be fed up by now.

 

[chaosscrem]

Hi Jason,

I don't think FXCM are Fraudsters. Over the years you guys are trying so hard ( transparency above all ) to give us good services. Despite all of this efforts FXCM failed to stay away from negative headlines. What I want to know is that why can't you guys get it wright. I am sure you must be fed up by now.

agree totally

 

[Robert Halterman]

I don't work for fxcm, but I do use their desktop platform, including MT4. For 3 years that I have used it, I never ran into problems such as yours. Every broker has varying degrees of slippage and unfortunately, you may had got caught within fxcm's slippage. As an added note, I do not trade high impact news release with my fxcm broker for this reason. However, I have been extremely profitable trading quiet markets. Although fxcm does have slightly higher spreads, I am still able to scalp quite proficiently.

 

[ilearn2t]

Hello Ranmal Goonetilleke

Jason Rogers (FXCM Representative) suggests that the

Trade Audit Committee told you there was insufficient liquidity for your limit order to be filled

he then goes on to explain

Insufficient liquidity means there were not enough sellers in the market at 171.81 to fill your limit order to buy

you on the other hand state that the price

passed by a huge margin

Can you give us some details on the "high" "low" of this currency during this period.

Jason Rogers does mention it happened

during NFP

can you confirm this by giving us a date and time is issue involves.


Hello Jason Rogers

Hi Ranmal,

If there were 8 million GBP/JPY in limit orders to buy at 171.81, but only 5 million GBP/JPY offered by sellers at that price, then the first 5 million worth of buy orders in the queue would get filled while the last 2 million would remain unfilled due to insufficient liquidity.

Despite high volatile periods in Forex trading, I did believe that all brokers fill the "order" at the next closest possible tick (price), am I missing something

Good luck
Liz