RESOLVED - Dumped by her broker after 5 years

[Scam Investigations Committee]

UPDATE: GCI and Capital Trader have reached a mutually satisfactory agreement. The FPA considers this issue to be fully resolved.

Dumped by her broker after 5 years

On June 3rd 2009, FPA member Capital Trader complained to the FPA about her IB contract with GCITrading (aka GCI Financial) being canceled with no warning. Between the cancellation of trades and the removal of 2 months of IB commissions, this cost Capital Trader over $10,000.

To make this case stranger, it was GCI that approached her about becoming an IB shortly after she first started trading there about 5 years ago. When FPA Investigator Gerard tried to help negotiate with GCI, He got a single response claiming that Capital Trader was trading “off-market” and that most of the commissions were from her account. The ibpayments office said that she was...

...never in the business of introducing or referring business to GCI, but rather that the agreement was abused to try to earn rebates on off-market trades in the IB's account, and that the only purpose of placing the "trades" was to accrue IB fees, not to actually take positions in the market.

When Capital Trader pointed out that it was GCI who requested that she become an IB and that her trading style had not changed in 5 years, there was no response. Then Gerard asked about why a customer of 5 years standing couldn't get an answer to these questions, GCI's IB Payments office changed from being willing to talk to the FPA to saying...

If there is some standing you have in this matter, please let us know what it is. The ibpayments@gcitrading.com email address is for the use of our introducing brokers and clients. If you do not have a signed Power of Attorney from one of our customers, then we will have to ask you to cease and desist.

Gerard explained that Capital Trader had clearly invited him to assist in trying to deal with this issue in a simple and informal way. Capital Trader also made it plain that the FPA had been invited in to the discussion. He asked if there was another email address better suited to this conversation and was told...

...there is no email address on which you can continue to contact us. Our next step is to report your harassment to your web host's abuse department.

Since GCI made it plain that they were unwilling to communicate - once hard questions were asked, Gerard continued to make suggestions to Capital Trader. She continued to CC Gerard on all messages she sent to the company and never got another reply from them.

We consider breaking such a long-standing business relationship to be highly suspect. We find the sudden change from freely providing information to the FPA to threatening the FPA to be highly suspect. Refusing to provide any real answers to a long-standing customer is at minimum unethical. Since GCI would not provide any more information either to the FPA or to Capital Trader, we have no choice but to take her version of events as the complete truth. Failure to pay money owed to a trader is the FPA's first definition of scam.

The FPA Scam Investigations Committee declares that GCITrading is hereby blacklisted by the Forex Peace Army. We urge traders not to do business with this company. For those who already have accounts there, we recommend that you close them.

We wish thank FPA Investigator Gerard for his efforts on this case. We extend our regrets to FPA member Capital Trader for her loss of funds. We are pleased to hear that she has contacted the regulators in Belize. We look forward to finding out if they really regulate or just hand out licenses for a fee.



FPA Scam Finding

Capital Trader's original complaint

FPA Review Page for GCI Financial Ltd.

.

 

[Pharaoh]

Wow! Over $10k to break up with a broker. Sounds more like a divorce than ending an IB relationship.

 

[nyfxtrade.com]

As well as it sounds like another company lost it's grounds and now trying to gain back their losses by SCAM! 5 Years....? man that's a lot of time to do business with somebody and then go and be treated this way! There is one question that stands......Even if you have a long relationship with a broker you can stilled get SCAMMED??? Well... actually I kind of suspected that.....they decide to retire and that is a wealthy way to do it but like Ernest in FPA says

Fate will catch up to them and fait is never kind....

Wow! Over $10k to break up with a broker. Sounds more like a divorce than ending an IB relationship.

 

[Pyer2]

Off Market - Pfffff

It amuses me that brokers cry 'off market' if the trader makes money from one of their price spikes, yet if your stop loss was blown out by that spike then you can guarantee they will be arguing 'on market'.
I remember once being 1/2hr into a trade and 50 points in profit with FXCM after a NFP and my trade was just suddenly closed at my stop loss. I rang FXCM and they claimed that a spike had taken me out. Now this supposed spike didn't register on the charts nor in my trading platform as it would have hit my stop loss, yet the FXCM representitive insisted that someone somewhere traded at that price and that it was on market. Now do you think the dealers at FXCM were opening up positions 80 pips in profit for anyone that had a limit order at the same price as my S.L. - I don't think so.
I don't think brokers can have it both ways, if a price is presented on a brokers platform then it should be deemed as tradeable. Variable spreads are another con too, as they give brokers the means to stop hunt without triggering limit orders at the same levels.

 

[Hahed1]

GCI Trading or GCI financial or whatever you called your stealing and fraudulent arse company: $10,000.00 is not just a nothing you thought you could swindle Capital trader our member to go and cool your heels in a forlorn hope paradise. We are watching with our eyes wide opened and sternly telling you that you are a nothing but a cheat, lier, fraudster, trust breacher and criminal misapproriator!

we urge you to kindly refund the $10k to your victim immediately, or the battle line is hereby declared drawn! and if you are not the names we called you come online and defend yourself with congent reasons or else you are what you are described of! currently you are the most unclever dishonest unfocused thieves i have seen lately! i guess you call the ponzi scheme grand master to share his evil ways with you so that you will have a first degree in scamminology! YOU have from now till moday next week!

I suggest you change your company's name to INSTAFOREX AND YOU EMPLOY EKATERINA TO HELP YOU OUT IN SOLVING THIS MESS YOU ARE IN! I DO NOT KNOW WHICH ONE OF YOU IS WORST! instaforex or GCI TRADING?

 

[geoffrey]

Re: Dumped By Trader After 5 Yrs

An FPA Member, we share your pains caused by your broker. I think FPA and Gerald have taken a bold step in regards to that. Let's hope the scammers will feel the sting of the actions taken against her and the various contributions our men are and will also be contributing.

 

[SwedenTrader]

SCARY!

If brokers have the power to take your money like this, im not sure I want to enter this business.

What is "off-marked" trading? Is it trading on prices that is different then other brokers or?

 

[Pharaoh]

Some traders run software that checks a faster price feed that what their broker offers. It can place trades that take advantage of the "lag" in the broker price. Doing this violates the trading rules of almost every brokerage.

The problem is that bad brokerages can (and do) use this as an excuse to wipe out perfectly legitimate profitable trades, since it's almost impossible to prove or disprove. In this case, if Capital Trader had been doing it, I think it's pretty strange that it took her broker 5 years to notice.

Personally, I think this excuse is going to lose legitimacy soon. How can any brokerage continue to publicly admit that their price feed is slower than the real market and expect that people will want to keep trading with them? If the delay is large enough to be taken advantage of, the broker should fix this problem instead of blaming traders.

 

[Stony]

I agree wholeheartedly. It´s the brokers´problem how fast he gets his prices, and ít´s my problem how and where from I get my price information. Any argument about this issue is superfluous.:err:

 

[Sigmund]

I feel ya...

Wow! $10k after 5years!
That's terrible. I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
Capital Trader I sure hope you find a better trader.