Problem This how ICmarkets scams and mislead clients. I lost $28000 (Evidences )

[forexteamau]

This is the story how I was misled and scammed by ICmarkets and lost $28000 ( All my savings plus the money I borrowed to survive their changes) in this financial hardship
I know this company has its own cyber army and white knights who come to their rescue in all forums and reviews but I've had enough trauma and stress and I do not want anyone else rub salt on my wounds. I appreciate your help.

1. I registered my account with this broker in 2017


2. I was dealing with small amount of money these years. trading Euro USD when I had time . Company advertises to contact them for information and assistant so I contacted them twice asking about swap rates for keeping CFDs for long term Once in later part of 2019 and again a few days before my investment.

3. Company did not provide my chat records for later part of 2019 despite my requests and even intially denied having such a chat with me about swap rate in March which I will share the evidence with you in the next post.

But fortunately I had a copy of my conversation with their support before my investment . First time they gave me some fixed rates and told me that swap rate depends on the lot size and even gave me a fixed quotation for keeping stock for a couple of months .

Second time I asked the same questions and they said it depends on the lot size "only" and refer me to a calculator with fix rates and also swap rate blog did not indicate anything about changes. I asked if these rates are calculated daily as you can see and support told me again it depends on the lot size as you can see in the bellow transcript. red highlighted sentences are my questions

4. I opened my Brent position on 13th of March based on information provided to me . I looked for a AUS200 . It had negative swap on both sides. Brent has characteristic of cash settlement at the end of contract and has no risk of going negative unlike WTI so I chose this instrument because interest rate was very low but positive for long position and was getting daily interest rate as advertised during the March.

5. A few days after my investment I contacted them again because I was worried about leverage restriction. live chat they lied to me and misled me again and told me that ICmarkets has never done leverage restriction before and as you can see I even believed them at the end of our conversation.

later I found out they have done it many times with evidence which I will share later but support just gave me false information and said it's very rare and I relied on this info as well

6. On 3rd of April after trump tweet, Market suddenly went in my favor and a large swap about -570 AUD was applied to my account

7. I contacted this broker immediately and told them that I will report the matter to relevant authorities also requested full refund .

This was their reply:

8. Later they made $532.26 adjustment out of almost $570 swap charge . Evidence is available but I'm only limited to 10 screenshot to upload in this post

Then I realized I was still being charged about $100 a day which tripped on Wednesdays. swap rate page changed to negative rate as well as you can see.

9. I logged my complaint with AFCA , I contacted them again and asked them to make sure that they do not have any plan to reduce my account leverage in the future, because Brent price was going higher and market was getting better after OPEC meeting. They did not reply to my question and sent an e-mail as "Acknowledgement" and referred me to their compliance and ignored my question and compliance started throwing $500 for settlement when I had almost $22000 funds with them at that time.

I was also told that complaint takes long time so I opened more trades and was forced to change my strategy to naturalize their swap rate while my complaint was being processed. only 2 days after that on 23 of April, They sent an e-mail that they want to reduce my account leverage from 1:500 to 1:10 at 15 PM server time which was 22 PM my local time but they reduced it in the middle of night around 5 AM ,I could not sleep due to stress and I had only a few hours to borrow money to avoid margin call. Suddenly margin went around 100%. I was forced to close some of my positions in loss ($5000) to survive the margin restriction that night even interest rate increased to almost -15 !

10. Later I contacted other Australian brokers and realized that they were offering highest leverage and did not restrict it . I have their transcripts as evidence. my friend also mentioned that she registered an account with same ICmarkets AU on 28th of April and requested 1:500 leverage and they offered her the highest leverage for energies! she even called them and they confirmed the 1:500 and opened her temporary account. I checked their website and realized there is no way to find out who is affected by margin restriction . website shows 1:500 at all times. they can restrict it for any client they want with unregulated discretion!

11. After I heard the story I contacted the same day and this what they told me.

12. I lost my trust in this broker and closed all my positions in loss because I knew they could have restrict the leverage again in the middle of night while my account was very vulnerable or increase the negative interest rate again to take the rest of my balance and It is very interesting that what ICMarkets replied back in return which I will share it with you in my next post

ASIC keeps sending templates.They have power and money so they can bleed us dry. This is how you get ripped off and I warned you!

 

[forexteamau]

1. This is their main swap page . You can see there is no extra information here

2. I was getting small interest rate during the March till 3rd of April as advertised.

3. This is ICmarket reply when initially denied having such a conversation with me! Basically means if you do not have any copy of support transcript. you cannot prove it later !

4. when I registered with them and thought they were really a "TRUE ECN broker" and they still advertise ECN on google and I prove why they are not and this is false and misleading ad in my future posts

5 This is evidence that support simply misled me and made me to believe that leverage reduction never happened before by ICmarkets! I attached some documents that the broker admitted itself. you can find many of them in the reviews

6. During our dispute, they brought up "Underlying market condition" as excuse to change the swap rate to whatever they want .it is not written on their main website also support team said it "only" matters the lot size for the swap rate and I asked this question twice and their swap blog also does not indicate such information

7. This is the Brent market during the time they reduced my account leverage to 50 times less while they claimed it was "rare" and "never happened before" and provided the same high 1:500 to another client at the same time. As you can see Brent was not volatile during this time and was slowly growing in my favor without any risk

8.This is how they fraudulently claimed that wrong swap was applied on first of April when account was carrying a floating loss of $10500 ! however they admitted themselves in the e-mail in my first post that it was on "second of April" when market moved in my favor and even chart shows that and claimed date and floating balance is all false and misleading.

Now you have an idea who you are dealing with. Their excuses are even worst than Price of Nigeria! This is what you get when you do not use stop loss in your strategy so they cannot hunt you down that way! It's not connected to anywhere. As a client I felt I was paying against the dealer in Seychelles in a rigged game with so many odds . I was better off playing Russian roulette than investing in this broker !

I lost my job due to pandemic, They took all my savings and I'm even in debt. I'm more worried about my family and children in this financial hardship. I'm from Australia and ASIC don't give a damn about these cases. Australian Securities and Investments Commission is a big joke. financial firms have more power over us!

 

[Pheniox123]

Really sorry to hear Forexteamau , the leverage change from 1:500 to 1:10 is a sure killer...especially with no notice period.

Reading all these horror stories with these brokers; no wonder retail traders end up losing most of the time (it’s like we can’t win).

All the best and hope you get a favourable outcome with them.

Pheniox

 

[compu-forex]

Please can you elucidate what your exact accusation is?

It is unclear if you have a problem with leverage or swaps?

Also please upload a full trading statement or better screenshots, as it is impossible to tell what your full exposure was from the current screenshot(15 lots buy & 10 lots sell??).

Also in your correspondence with IC, you refer to usdjpy trades. Please can you explain what that is about?

 

[forexteamau]

Really sorry to hear Forexteamau , the leverage change from 1:500 to 1:10 is a sure killer...especially with no notice period.

Reading all these horror stories with these brokers; no wonder retail traders end up losing most of the time (it’s like we can’t win).

All the best and hope you get a favourable outcome with them.

Pheniox

@Pheniox, Thanks for your sympathy. It does not require much knowledge and it is pretty clear that if you buy low and sell high you can make profit . The Brent market was actually more loyal and went according to my plan and I could be at least in $7000 profit by now but the game is rigged. They start changing the swap rate against you then increase the negative rate. if you do not surrender and close your positions in loss, they will finish you with their last weapon. "the leverage restriction" They have no morals. their customer support lies to clients as you can see and there is actually no one to stop them. Looks like regulators are sided with these gangs. Look they have done it lots of time . they were even on news and they can still get away with that. The system is rotten and corrupt from bottom to top

 

[forexteamau]

Please can you elucidate what your exact accusation is?

It is unclear if you have a problem with leverage or swaps?

Also please upload a full trading statement or better screenshots, as it is impossible to tell what your full exposure was from the current screenshot(15 lots buy & 10 lots sell??).

Also in your correspondence with IC, you refer to usdjpy trades. Please can you explain what that is about?

@compu-forex. As you can see it's pretty clear. ICmarkets support team gives false and misleading information. I contacted regarding swap rate of CFDs two times unfortunately I have only the resent one they even denied having this conversation with me until I shared it. both times I was advised that it "only" matters the lot size for the interest rate and there was no extra information on their page and I relied on this information.

After I opened my long position with 0.5 lot size with %12000 free margin and no stop loss, they started changing the swap to minus and later to -15 and I was paying actually paying about $100 per day which tripled on Wednesdays . I complained about this matter they first ignored me then said swap rate is based on something else and we can change it as much as we can or even turn it to negative against your trade.

I asked about leverage restriction a few days after my investment. They gave me misleading information as you can see told me that leverage restriction "never happened by ICmarkets" and stated as "rare" but after I complained this is what they replied back and I quote, “Margin requirements are highly likely to change continuously". As you can see support told me it was rare and never happened before then later they told me it's highly likely and I realized that it actually happened many times. I don't know about Africa and Cyprus but this is considered false and misleading information to the client anywhere else in the world.

After I complained to AFCA I sent them this e-mail to make sure that they have no plan to reduce my account leverage because swap rates were increasing rapidly to thousands of dollars and it could be another threat to my account balance but market was going in my favor and recovering .They ignored my e-mail and reduced my account leverage to 1:10 only 7 days after this e-mail when I tried to open more trades while they were offering 1:500 leverage to other client at the same time!

So accusation are misleading and deceptive conduct . Giving false information about their interest rate and leverage restriction. as you can see this was not only me . They do it all the time.

I did not reveal any documents and evidences online so they show their true colors during our negotiations . I stopped negotiating with this company because their final offer was more than insulting after I lost $28000 due to their fraudulent actions. My complaint is currently with AFCA but I decided to share my documents because we already exchanged everything.

 

[forexteamau]

After I complained to AFCA . Company repeatedly sent these sentences to me and I quote:

“IC Markets has discretions under the Account Terms which can affect your Orders
and positions. You do not have any power to direct how we exercise our
discretions. When exercising our discretions"

"You should consider the significant risks that arise from IC Markets exercising its discretions"

While company advertises itself as True ECN time to time even on google ad and according to Yahoo finance and investopedia, the definition of ECN apart from being "transparent" is as following :

Yahoo Finance for definition of ECN broker and I quote” This trading model ensures you that there is no conflict of interest, as an ECN broker gets a commission whether you make or lose money”

Investopedia definition “ECN broker only matches trades between market participants, it cannot trade against the client, an allegation often directed against some unscrupulous retail forex brokers"

So what ICmarkets is shouting all the time means that trader and this broker have conflict of interest with each other. That means this is not True ECN or even ECN broker.This is another example of false advertisement and how they cheat clients!

 

[compu-forex]

@forexteamau ,

I am sorry about your loss, but I am not seeing anything here that rises to the level of scam. I understand how traumatic such a loss can be but there are some thing you need to be honest about. 70% of traders lose their money and the 30% are successful because they are willing to examine themselves and find ways to improve. You can rail against the way the system works, or you can learn how it works and how to beat it.......you decide which is going to produce the results.

That said let's examine some issues in your post :-

1. Stop posting "other" peoples experiences and correspondence as it obfuscates the matter;
2. Your entry point into this appears to be with a $21 000 drawdown, or 75% of your account.......in 2 weeks. That does not appear to be IC markets fault, that was bad bad trading. Have you honestly looked at your trading style and asked yourself if you could not have done better;
3. The leverage reduction appears to have made less than $3000 affect on your account, which is hardly earth shattering(you can go to 50% before stopout). Most brokers change leverage on various instruments from time to time. I am hardly surprised IC markets did it on oil.
4. I have an EA that tells me when swaps change because they do.....ALL the time. It is concerning that you do not know this and rely on "chat" to teach you the basics of trading;
5. Hedging is a losing strategy. There is less than zero value in it. It introduces further commission charges and carry charges.It does not protect you from a stopout as you are still exposed to the spreads with even more exposure in lots. Closing your trade would have been far better. There would have had zero effect on your account.

I am sorry about this brutally honest opinion but take it for what it is. I am an experienced trader and I am just telling you what I see. I am looking at a trader that doesn't appear to have a clue about leverage, swaps, hedging or trade management. You are angry and now swinging at the broker. You can rail against my opinion if you like but you will be better off paying attention to what I have said. You will hopefully stop being a victim and move into the winners side.

 

[forexteamau]

@compu-forex, I'm not trying to be mean or disrespectful but if anyone checks your profile and read your posts, you were commenting on anyone who were talking behind ICmarkets back! and I'm OK with that !

1. We should and must use other people's experience and reviews, if I knew this website before investing and had read these comments before and studied further,I would not have lost my investment in this financial crisis.

2. Please be advised that I did not have max $21000 draw-down and I always had at least 12000 14000 % free margin about 10.000 to 12000 K

3. Before leverage reduction if you closely see the screenshots, the used margin was only $100 and after leverage reduction it went to "$4000" used margin and you do not see any risk ? while swap rate is increasing about $100 per day and triples on Wednesdays against my trade ?


4.Company advertises to contact them for information and assistant . of course I trust what company tells me. so now you saying when they lied that leverage reduction "never happened" but it actually happened many times and told me it is "rare" while later they told me its highly likely is no problem and you do not find anything misleading ?The funny thing is that they offered 1:500 to my friend at the same time!


5. Please kindly check the trades and read the whole story, I did not use hedge strategy until the very last days and I only had "one long position" and only a few days before I close my positions I opened more trades then they reduced my account leverage and I knew they could do more. They already told me it could have happened continuously after I complained!

6.I later found out that when I registered my account with the company, there was no talking about swap going negative all of sudden in their terms, you were either receiving interest rate or paying and it stated that it depends on long and short only (buy/ sell) Good on you mate having a EA tells you the changes.

I do not have any problem with you being brutally honest because I've already read your other comments and I do not blame anyone for of course being a fan

 

[marco_mmbiz]

What I can see from your screenshot:
You traded with very high risk; 5 lot per trade on a 30k account is just way too much, especially if you don't use any SL. You already had a drawdown of more than 60%.

For the next time:
Learn how ALL the retail brokers work, and especially your used ones. Learn how to trade like a professional retail trader. Learn what hedging means on your broker and for your account.
Hedging doesn't help much if the drawdown gets bigger and bigger. I see you had a sell open on the lowest point, but started a buy at a much higher level afterwards; hedging doesn't work if you run with more and more trades into minus.
Try to use a maximum of 1 lot for every 100k in your account and don't already start with 5 lot for a smaller one.

P.S.: I attached a PDF with all the info about IC Markets from the ASIC page. Good luck to get your money back from gambling.