Class Action Lawsuit Against FXCM

Nicely written Usfx

You are telling me that I can't trust the BBB?!?..........

First of all, 7000 posts over how long? Second, what has number of posts on FF have anything to do with profitability in the market?? Regarding "Flash trades", could it also be possible that they happen to be extremely high volume trade(s) that happened in a very short time that skewed the market, especially when they show up across all totally different brokers' platforms?? Are you sure they are really "flash trades" that FXCM just choose to pull off??

A trader can wait all he/she wants to do something if he/she wants to but the sheer time and volume of the huge losses that he/she accmulates in the mean time questions the validity and the truthfulness of his allegation. When if you are a trader trading your own hard-earned dollars in this fast-paced FX market, and you are seeing your losses mounting everyday, even if you don't suspect that the broker is doing anything wrong, why didn't he pull out the money and stop or try another broker?? If he could wait for that long over the YEARS with FXCM sitting on his mounting losses, was it really FXCM screwing him excessively and deliberately with their price/execution manipulations and software problems or is he just a very bad and undisciplined trader?

Slippages, exeuction delays, software problems happen with all brokers and in ALL markets. We have all seen them and experienced them some time in our trading career. Are we going to sue the entire financial industries fo them? The issue here is whether they were excessive, deliberate and system on FXCM's part. If these things just happened due to circumstances beyond FXCM's control, there is no case.


You can't judge and make assertions on brokers' practices just based on isolated incidences. I have had three fills on just ONE standard lot and I am with an ECN broker. When the liquidity is not there, it's just not there. When there is only 15 standard lots on offer, and you want to buy 50 standard lots, you ARE going to have multiple fills if you put in a Limit Order and slippages if you put in a Market Order, especially during low-volume hours or news time. That's basic market force demand and supply at play, nothing to do with brokers.

Agreed.

Nope ABC news is. I am just passing the information along. Make up your own mind.

Just in case you did not get it, I was being sarcastic.......

I'm not saying that the BBB is any saint but it does not hurt to give them a call, the worst scenario is that nothing will happens.

FXDD got slammed with a lawsuit also, thats the "trend" situation I was talking about. And I'm not saying that it already started but it could be the beginning of something.

Pretty much all institutions that are supposed to protect your rights are corrupted. I was the first guy here on FF to tell people that the leverage trend was down and spread trend was up and that was nothing they can do about it. And I did it because I knew that this thing was coming from the very top.

Now this fight with brokers id different, retail traders have a chance if they act before the beast gets too big.

Calling the BBB may end up being futile but at least put you in the solution instead of the problem side....

Myself & a few in our group have had exactly what this situation quotes, to wit our group has lost over 6 figures dealing with the company in question, error messages, lock up's etc.
We no longer deal with them.

Ok, I couldn't tell as it sounded to me like you were asking me a question. I find alot of people surprised by that because the BBB has been around a long, long time and so many companies use the tag line "I'm an AAA member with the BBB" in order to easily sell you.

So one must question how much money various companies have paid the BBB for such a rating. Because if high ratings are given for cash paid, the rating system isn't what it's cracked up to be.

If you can't trust the BBB, it goes to show you there's not much of anyone you can trust these days. It's the generation of the scam, one is born every 15 seconds.

"We make money the new fashioned way." We steal it from you without your knowledge until it is too late for you.

Maybe this company is owned by FXCM lol. Unbelievable. And their slogan states 'Start with trust'!! Start with a big steaming pile of bull shit more like! There are more scammers in the USA than there are in Nigeria.

Let's hope William Sanders shorted the stock before filing the lawsuit.

Lmao.

And the proof is that the CFTC is filing several lawsuits against forex scammers in the U.S.A almost every week.

Sell these fuckers while you still can

Any updates on the lawsuit? When are they going to trial? Hope FXCM won't settle.

Yeah, and do not deposit funds and open account with any FOREX broker anymore! Doing so, we will bring them to the edge of bankruptcy! It is time of global revolution

We all hope there is no settlement and it goes to trial. Should these claims be proven it will lead to a big clean up of the forex industry and it's about time.

Yup, Agreed! But if the claims are not proven in court, the poor guy is gonna be stuck with a $150,000 loss AND huge pile of lawyer fees.

Well, I'm afraid you'd be in for a strenuous exercise to find out who owns the BBB.

Many offices are independantly operated. In my own mind it's 21st century mob business. Instead of shooting you for not paying, they just give you an F.

I have to give them credit though, it's probably the best scam there is right now and the least you would suspect. Only in america can you have a non-profit organization that is paying the upper echelon a 6+ figure salary and they do absolutely nothing for it.

Any class action lawsuit only favors the lawyers. MSFT has been thru countless class action lawsuits and the resulting penalty is usually so many dollars off a new purchase or a rebate if you find your receipt for a product that was purchased yrs ago long before any hint of a class action lawsuit.

The bean counters come up with a figure as to what the settlement will cost the company but that's only if the consumer meets the demands on their end.

I know forex is a bit different, but rarely does a class action judgement do anything for the consumer. (it's pennies on the dollar and worth nothing.)

If the guy brings the lawsuit by himself and wins then he opens the door to more lawsuits brought by others. That is the only method that stings.

There is one important lesson to learn for anyone new who wish to play/trade Forex.

All retail brokers are middlemen between financial streams of (relatively) small traders and real forex market. In between, there are ZILLION OF DEALS that have nothing with REAL MARKETS.
Broker's software algorithms monitor internal buys and sells orders, as well as, general situation on REAL MARKETS, so participating traders GET ILLUSION that they are part of trading streams where many small lots are aggregated toward tradeable lot which goes to the REAL MARKET.
As idea, there is nothing wrong with that, retailer should do that and charge commission.
In reality, commission is much less important to retail broker than OPPORTUNITY to execute deals per own algorithmic criteria when no REAL MARKET is involved at all, consequentelly, execution of deal is easily made in favour of particular scenario that makes much bigger profit for broker retailer than commissions and pure spreads.
The lack of clear, firm rules and regulations enables forex brokers to tweak platforms in way that is not very obvious and definitelly not easy traceable by average small trader.
Bigger or real FX pro traders are totally aware of such situations and they can actually see the difference, but not to extent to have hard proofs of wrongdoings.
Key point is that REAL FX MARKET is fluid and there is no one single benchmark FX rate at any given moment of time. There are deals between interbank participants that differ from mainstream deals at the same time and depending on marketplace such differences occur naturally.
Retail brokers (specially advanced ones) have accesses to variety of marketplaces simultaneously and with advancement of softwares they get more and more capabilities to match REAL MARKET conditions with their own execution to avoid clear proof of playing against any single trader.
When situation becomes particularly congested and somehow too difficult to be executed in both 'reasonably manipulated fashion' and 'in line with profit-making criteria' than various strange things enter into picture like platform glitches, slippages, re-quotes and all range of nasty inventions that make final balance aligned to broker's expectation.
It should be mentioned that market situation can create troubles to brokers, too, so it is additional moment when brokers are forced to compensate for their problems with traders losses.
It SHOULD BE CLEAR to any small, non-pro trader that before he becomes capable (financially, as well as, by experience) to trade in more direct way with access to 'institutional' marketplaces (without retail brokerage involved) he will be a victim of all aforesaid and final price paid for transactions done will be way higher than it might or it should be. This higher price turns to increase of overall risk for each particular trade and can became not only reduced profit or increased loss, but can ultimatelly cause margin call and loss of deposit.
All, and again in bold ALL RETAIL FOREX BROKERS are doing same, only degree of their manipulation differs. There are more sophisticated ways to rip traders or it might be very primitive.
Whole point is that aggresive advertising, sick promotions and unbelievable lack of common sense drive craziness and people continue to play on something that is very well thought money making machine for broker companies and their owners.
From my experience with FXCM, DBFX or Oanda here we have typical, a bit more sophisticated, but nevertheless same scenario when broker indeed does trade on REAL FOREX MARKETS (like Deutsche Bank, EBS etc.) and to some extent follow the concept of aggregating small streams toward tradeable lots (what is function of broker).
The key to catch brokers in playing dirty would require an accesses to same REAL FOREX markets, millions of deposits, adequate high-speed connections and deals executed under identical circumstances (in theory still it can be minor difference, but in reality it would be enough well indicative).
It is totally beyond retail level trader and it requires small traders to BECOME MUCH LOUDER and to IMPOSE REGULATORS to invent mechanismus to do that.
I think that it would be worth to some rich individual trader to accomplish something like that at expense of arranging sophisticated electronic trading system involved during several months with necessary funds invested to real FX trade and group of lawyers that will prepare whole thing in details to avoid typical broker's excuses on non-existence of proofs.
Suing giants as FXCM, DBFX, OANDA, FX Pro, FX Solutions and similars with hard proofs what they did to manipulate interests of trader will ultimatelly pay back the multiples of such investment and in addition force regulators to do something with that.
Bottom line is that more loud noise should be created and whenever suspect emerges the traders shoulds simple leave the broker (withdraw all funds simultaneously), before everything is clear.
Active standpoint and resistance to bad practices is only way to improve things in FX retail industry and likely that the price to be paid will be several bankruptcies of big brokers.
FXCM might be the first of adequate size (independently if traders have firm proofs at the moment or not).
There are so many voices raised that big scandal would simply help traders to show lazy regulators what is going on, as well as, to warn others on possible consequences.
One way or another, advice would be to close accounts with FXCM (I did it some time ago) and spread information as wide as possible.
There is nothing like total transparency and clear, simple and firm rules that will help FX community to become fair for both sides of the business.