GUILTY Case# 2012-043 | glittle56 vs www.gregssuccesssignals.com/

[glittle56]

Original FPA Traders Court Submission:

I am submitting the case against: www.gregssuccesssignals.com/

My Case is: Greg Stefaniak provides a Signal Service which mirrors his personal trades. The EA attached to my MT4 account allows the user to set a multiplier of the base lot size traded by Greg. This determines the lot size to be traded. Greg's base lot size is 0.02
I ran the Ea for 3 weeks using the minimum lot size and I monitored Gregs trades very closely. I realised that he was using a variation of Position Trading/Hedge Trading/Grid Trading using no stop losses. I have studied this style of trading for some time now and I completely agree with the principle of using hedged positions as an alternative to Stop Loss Orders because of Broker interference when Stop Losses are present. Greg seemed to be controlling the DD very well using hedged positions well balanced between Long and Short exposure. The largest lot size entered during this period was 3 times the base lot.
So on April 6th I decided to increase my multiplier to 10 which was a base lot of .20 as I had a $10,000 account I determined the risk to be quite safe. Then as things were going well I increased the multiplier to 15 or 0.3 base lots.
It was from the 17th April the trouble began. The GSS signals were trading the GbpUsd and Greg had already opened 2 short positions @ 0.2 lots on the 16th April. On the 17th he opened another short position for 0.3 lots. The GbpUsd started rallying and Greg opened a 4th short position on 19th April for 0.9 lots or 3x base which was not unusual based on past performance. Then it got worse as the GbpUsd continued to rally the 5th short position was opened on 20th April at 6x base at 1.8 lots which hadn't happened before. I received an email from Greg where some members had written to him worried about the DD but he said not to worry it was under control and he knew what he was doing. I let the trade run not wanting to interfere with Greg's plan and he then opened a 6th short position on 23rd April at 2.0 lots almost 7x base. This was capped at 2.0 lots because the Maxlot setting was default at 2.0 and Greg's setup video said not to touch this setting. I wondered why he was not buying the rally but I trusted that he knew what to do. Then the last straw on 27th April Greg opened the 7th Short position for 2.0 lots again which meant every pip was now costing $74. My account was on $12,500 after I added funds because I got a margin call. I left the program running on my vps server over the weekend and Monday morning my broker had closed all positions as the GbpUsd had gapped up which completely wiped out my entire account of $12,500
Since I have reported this incident on the review forum to warn other people I have had statements from other traders which show that the trades placed on my account did not appear in their account so they did not lose any money. If Greg is mirroring his trades to all his clients how can everyone be receiving completely different trades?
Also, Greg did not disclose the fact that he was going to use a martingale type approach during a trend where he would just keep doubling the base rate in a countertrend, nor did he offer any information in the setup video or FAQ regarding the recommended safe lot size to use and the recommended account size.
For him to wipe out such a large account trading at 7.4 lots when he was authorized to trade at 0.3 lots is criminal. For me to receive different trade signals to other members is fraudulent.
Greg has had ample opportunity to explain this on the Forum or write to me personally but he had done neither. I hope you can help me

I have submitted trading records of my own which show GregsSuccessSignals trades in the comments column.
Scotty is a GSS affiliate who submitted his trade history in the Review Forum
Andrew Fraser submitted his Trade records to me personally by email.
Jacek submitted his trades to me personally also but I couldn't upload these. Jacek had no trades that matched mine on the same dates.

New thread in the Scam Alerts Folder:

• https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/19965-gregs-success-signals.html
  

Review is submitted by Graeme on 04/27/12

The company was first contacted about the issue on 04/27/12 the last contact was on 05/03/12

Details: Something is wrong.

The biggest drawdown we had was $1000. How could you lose $12,000. What DivideRate were you using?
Do you use fixed lots?

I'm sorry to hear about your losses and of course I'll refund your order but something is not right.

Regards,
Greg

It's Greg Stefaniak here. Graeme, first of all I'm really sorry about your losses, but the lot sizes you were using were way too big for the acccount size you were trading with.

We trade micro lots on a long term basic so DD from time to time is not a big issue, as long as you use the right DivideRate for your account size.

Again, I'm sorry and I wish you all the best.

Greg

I'm really sorry about your loss but you set GSS up in a wrong way and it looks like you were using the broker
that doesn't allow micro lots. This is the reason you lost your money.

The biggest drawdown we had ever was $1000 and I cannot be blamed for what happened.

You were aware of the fact that trading is risky, and losses can occur.

I wish you all the best and I'm here if you have any additional questions.

All the best,
Greg

Company representatives' emails: Greg Stefaniak <support@ultimateforexclub.com>

 

[Pharaoh]

Does your broker allow microlots?

 

[glittle56]

Yes. When I first started with GSS I set the EA to trade at the base lot of 0.02. For the first 3 weeks everything was going very well and my confidence grew in Greg's ability to trade so I started to gradually increase the lot sizes up to 0.3 lots as I had quite a large account of $12,000. What happened between 16th April and 27th April was completely out of character and this is the strange thing. The real issue here is that during this period Greg stopped trading my account in the same manner as everyone else's account. I have not found anyone who had the same trades I had and therefore their accounts were not wiped out. The issue is not my leverage level as Greg was trading 7 Short positions at 7.4 lots rather than at 0.3 lots which is what he was authorized to do. Even on micro lots if other members received the same 7 sell positions I did, anyone with an account of less than $2,000 would also have been wiped out. Many members start with accounts of less than $500 so you can see the problem here. I believe it is fraudulent to send me trades different to what is sent to the other members. What do you think?

 

[Pharaoh]

Is there a reason why Greg would deliberately send you different trades than what he sent to other subscribers?

 

[glittle56]

Something has obviously gone wrong. I am not in control of the program, Greg is. But that is the crux of the whole problem. This error has cost me $12,000 and I would like Greg to account for his actions as he was the one trading, not me. I did not interfere in any trades by altering TP levels or closing trades prematurely. Greg assured everyone that he was in control and he knew what he was doing (as stated in his email) I am hoping that you may help in getting to the bottom of this. Have you had an explanation from Greg? He is the only one who can answer these questions. He is offering the service and therefore responsible for the outcome in my opinion. The broader issue is also that if he can do this to my account, then he can do it to other peoples' accounts in the future. So if he is going to continue running this service he should be made to answer these questions. The trades in my account are a matter of record. The trades in the other members accounts are a matter of record. I'm not sure why you are asking me to explain this fiasco when I was not in control of it at all. Can you please get Greg to explain how this has happened. If he can't, then he should not be in control of hundreds of accounts taking $47 per member per month. With 200 members he is making $9,400 / month. He should be able to restore my account for the losses he caused and then we can end this.

 

[Pharaoh]

I think we need to invite Greg into the discussion.

 

[glittle56]

Greg is the only person who can explain what has happened. He hasn't responded to anything that I have written which is a worry. If you can get him to explain I would be very grateful.

 

[glittle56]

I have just received another email from a GSS member named Brett who has lost 50% of his $15,000 account because the Euro is in a sharp downtrend and Greg is up to his usual performance buying Euro as it is falling, progressively increasing the lot sizes and then blaming the person for not having enough money to sustain the Drawdown. I now have a list of people who have lost significant amounts and the list is growing rapidly. I think the FPA as a responsible watchdog needs to investigate this Greg Stefaniak seriously before he ruins more peoples' lives. Here is another message I received from Uwe which is a bit sad and makes me a little angry about what's going on.
Uwe
May 16, 2012 at 5:37 pm · Reply
Gream, I sent you yesterday 11:10 am Sidney time a link to my mt4i-stats where you can see the signals I get from Greg. At the moment a have the choise to see how I loss all my money in the account or fund my account with my last 1000 usd and hope that´s enough to survive the drawdown. I don´t now how deep erusd and gbpusd will fall and how to save my deposit. You are in the lucky situation that you can go to work. I´m so deathly sick that I cannot work. And I hoped with Gregs Signal I could get an income. Not for me. For my highly skilled children and the expensive advancement.

 

[glittle56]

Pharoah, Is it safe to assume that you have sent Greg an invitation to explain what has happened? It has been over a week since your last post and there has been no feedback at all. Rather than me jumping to conclusions, can you please let me know what is happening. Thanks

 

[AsstModerator]

I'm the one who issues the invitations. I've just sent a reminder to Greg. I've asked him to post here or in your thread in Scam Alerts. I also offered to mediate via email. If he doesn't respond in a few days, this will go to the Open Cases folder.