One customer accuses XTB Romania of unjustly canceling some of his trades

One customer of XTB is accusing the brokerage firm of unjustly canceling a number of his trades closed at a substantial profit, claiming that they were performed at the wrong price.

The company claims, however, that the cancellation of the trades was done according to the provisions of the "Rules for providing the service of executing the buy or sell orders of the rights of ownership, and the maintenance of the accounts for cash and rights of ownership instruments by X-Trade Brokers DM SA", according to a letter sent by the ASF to the client, in which the position of the broker is mentioned.

The customer in question tells us: "I've been with XTB since 2010. In 2013, since the beginning of the year, I won several hundred thousand lei, but had losses of a similar size on the EURCHF pair.

In September 2013, at Monday's exchange rate, I executed several trades, at various times of the day, from the morning to the evening, at over 23 distinct times of the day, on the EUR/RON pair.

The company subsequently cancelled 63 of my trades claiming that they were systematically executed at the wrong price. The profit made on the daily trades was 327,000 lei, but the cancelled trades amounted to 320,000 lei".

According to the customer, the earnings were even recorded in the monthly statements, but those were subsequently modified as well.

The representatives of XTB told us that they can not comment on the situation reported by their customer: "Unfortunately, we are unable to respond to your enquiry, because as a regulated and authorized investment firm, we are subject to the obligation to keep the professional secret, and we are therefore unable to reveal any information concerning our customers.

Also, we are not even allowed to confirm whether a person is a customer of XTB or not, without a written authorization in that regard, as per the stipulations of the law".

The customer considers that it is hard to believe that "the brokerage firm quoted the wrong prices for an entire day". According to him, the rules stipulate that a wrong price would be ten times the spread, whereas in his trades, the earnings were at most four times the spread.

The customer, who did not agree to have his identity revealed, says that his trades have never been cancelled before, and has filed a complaint with the ASF in that regard.

The ASF's response was that, in order to resolve his petition, it has requested clarifications from X-Trade Broker Dom Maklerski SA - the Bucharest Branch.

On five pages, the ASF detailed the position of XTB, but doesn't seem to have conducted its own review of the situation.

According to the reply sent by the ASF, XTB said that it has complied with the regulations and that in the case in question, all it did was restore the initial state of things, as it did not withdraw any money from the customer's accounts.

The customer says that the position of XTB is nonsensical, because the brokerage firm has admitted that it has cancelled his winning trades. According to him, canceling those trades meant precisely the withdrawing of the earnings from his account.

In closing, the ASF tells the petitioner to address to it any additional questions should he feel that additional clarifications are needed and that the opinions expressed by the brokerage firm do not match the facts.

The ASF did not specify whether any actions are required in this case: "As for your enquiry concerning the review of the company's behavior towards investors, we want to inform you that the ASF will continue to exercise its authority, within the limits of its authorities, and will enact any appropriate measures".

The end of the ASF address is apotheotic: "As a general rule, it is our opinion that on an individual level, it is necessary for every client to play an active part in protecting their own interest by accepting/setting the terms and conditions which will govern their relationship, in mutual agreement with the brokerage firm, in order to avoid this kind of disagreements or diverging interpretations of the terms stipulated in such contracts".

In other words, the ASF is advising investors to protect themselves.

The client of XTB considers that the response of the ASF is condescending.

"I went to the regulator. They could have told me that I was in the wrong, or that XTB was in the wrong. But they aren't saying anything. What is the role of the ASF?"

The customer told us that he is considering other solutions for recouping the money from the cancelled trades.

He also told us that initially, the brokerage did not cancel the losing trade he had made that night, but that it later refunded the amount lost on that trade to his account.