IC Markets - public statements vs individual traders

Since this seems like the right place, I want to see if anyone else is in the same boat.

Shortly after the CHF issues , of which I unfortunately had a position, IC Markets sent me an email stating CHF trades are under review as their computers messed up and offered pricing that was not actually avaialable. I had about 30 points of slippage, which was acceptable, however now it is going on several days with this cloud hanging over me, wondering if my balance will crash art any moment.

However, at the same time, 2 seperate emails have come out stating how they weathered the storm just fine. Of particular annoyance is the statement today which includes the following :

"Despite the significant volatility during the announcement we were able to maintain pricing during periods of low liquidity."

They seem to be trying to have their cake and eat it to....reassuring potential or non-affected clients that everything is hunky dory, meanwhile cleaning up their mess in the background, potentially at the expense of their existing customers. If my computer goes haywire one day and I make an order at some price that loses me a bunch of money, I would imagine IC Markets would not be forgiving....however their system screw up seems to be their customers' collective problem.

Is anyone else in the same boat. I will include full messages below.

First one :

Dear Client,


This email is concerning the CHF position(s) on your trading account and the prices streamed across the CHF pairs that have affected you today.

Today at 11:30 platform time (GMT+2) the Swiss National Bank removed the floor at 1.20 on the EURCHF currency pair which caused extreme volatility in all CHF pairs and the market in general. Over this period we saw spreads widen significantly which in turn caused the activation of price filters to stop pricing. Once pricing stopped on our main Integral price feed our backup price feed from Currenex was allowed to price. It was at this time that some liquidity providers were able to stream erroneous prices to ICMarkets and execute client trades at prices they shouldn’t have.

Today IC Markets will be amending the prices on trades done across the CHF pairs with our liquidity providers. Once we have had these trades amended we will begin the process of adjusting clients accounts. This may include but not be limited to the actions below:

• Reinstatement of positions where appropriate and possible
• Amendment of open/close prices on trades
• Assessment of client portfolios closed due to insufficient margin
• Adjusting client cash balances to reflect the actions above

IC Markets staff will be working as fast as possible to complete the above and restore trading accounts to their correct state. We appreciate your patience as we complete this.


Kind regards,

IC Markets Trade Desk

and then :

Dear Traders,

We have received a high volume of trade queries in regards to positions on CHF pairs (approximately 11:30, 15th Jan 2015, GMT +2) during unprecedented actions taken by the SNB. Please be informed that we are currently reviewing ALL affected trades on CHF pairs and our team is working as fast as possible to take necessary actions. Trades will be reviewed individually and trades executed on erroneous prices will be adjusted by the most appropriate means. We expect to complete all adjustments by the end of this week.

You can find further information about this in the ‘Company News’ section on our website or through the below link:
http://www.icmarkets.com/blog/2015/0...or-ic-markets/

Best Regards,
Narayan Joshi | IC Markets Marketing

and this beauty this morning :
IC Markets Still Strong
Dear Trader,

The unexpected announcement by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) that it would withdraw the cap on the Swiss Franc’s value against the Euro took many in the industry by surprise and resulted in extreme volatility in the forex markets.

We were surprised by the extreme volatility after the announcement, however fortunately in December, 2014 we assessed the risks associated with this pair and reduced the leverage offered to clients. As a result of this pre-emptive measure we were able to minimise the impact of negative client equity and provide additional protection for our clients. Despite the significant volatility during the announcement we were able to maintain pricing during periods of low liquidity.

The new paradigm in the forex market could be characterized by periods of low volatility followed by extreme episodic volatility as we saw with the Russian Rouble in December and now the Swiss Franc last week. Two such events happening within a month of each other should be considered as a sign of the times. We are expecting more volatility like this although not of the same magnitude throughout 2015. We would like to assure you that we will continue to focus on pre-emptive risk management so that our clients remain unaffected by future volatility.

Our financial position remains strong and above our regulatory requirements with trading unaffected. As always client funds are held in segregated accounts with leading Australian banks NAB and Westpac.

If you have any questions or require any assistance, please contact one of our support team members via Live Chat, email: [email protected], or phone +61 (0)2 8014 4280.

Kind regards,
Andrew Budzinski
CEO

AS one of those effected by their faulty data feeds. I have not received some of the above.
And in spite of trying to find out where my case was at, have received no response.

Tried to live chat with them. I find that's a lot quicker way to get things done because you are talking to a live person and things can get clarified right away. Tried to chat with them after 5:00 PM EST when their daytime staff comes online. I find their daytime staff is lot more knowledgeable and competent. And plus their back office and everything is also open during that time, so if there is anything, the CSR on the chat can liaison with the back office and get things resolved right away.

Good luck!

I have tried the chat 3 times only to be met with standard lines of "doing everything we can", followed by sorry and is there anything else......

I am in the same boat as you Mess7777. In my case, getting margin called at a EURCHF price that never traded anywhere else on the planet but their servers.


Frankly, coming forward on the same day acknowledging their IT mess with their LP's seemed both professional and reassuring at first. But after days of silence and now this new "IC Markets Still Strong" statement, I am beginning to think that they just put on a show and are now trying to get off easy. In particular, that line "Despite the significant volatility during the announcement we were able to maintain pricing during periods of low liquidity." is clearly erring on the side of deception after they were able to provide liquidity at a 2,400 (TWENTY FOUR HUNDRED) pip spread during the event!! You bet they were "able to maintain liquidity", at this rate, who would not want to provide it? Instant profit on the back of your clients. Give me twice that black swan and I'll still quit my job to do it.

The truth is that their LP's and/or the way they managed the quotes flow broke down badly. Unlike many brokers, they had zero volatility kill switch protocol in place which forced them to provide bad quotes (NOT liquidity) while kicking stops and margin call levels left and right at absolutely insane price levels. No matter where you look i.e. broker quotes, specialized press, Bloomberg BGN, Reuters EBS etc... their price spikes and spreads were out of this world which in turn caused tremendous losses that are way out of proportion with the magnitude of the actual aftermaths of the SNB decision.

The bottom line is that they lost control and dragging us along like this does not bode well. Even their introducing agent Ahmerkhan (whom I work with) and Layzards conveniently avoided to notice how I documented this mess in the official IC Markets thread in the commercial forum: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=278085&page=41. I got in touch with one of IC Markest live reps yesterday asking whether they were still reconciling the CHF trades and I got a very informative "Yes we are." followed by the usual "Do you need anything else?". It looks more and more as if instructions were given to silence the issue. I know for a fact that this reconciling and account refunding could have been done days ago as did some brokers such as Axitrader and FX Primus. In the meantime, we are left with no way to manage the risk on our positions and thousands of dollars in undue losses.

I do not know yet if I have to play a different ball game with them but, given the money at stake, I may have to if they do not straighten the management of this madness by the end of the week.

We need to document this mess somewhere. So let it be here and on the official thread. I won't let go, they can trust me on that.

I am in the same boat. Forgot to place a stop and was completly wiped out on prices that did not exist.

I Wont be letting go either. I have already started to assembling evidence to take to the FOS. Orders and their own data don't line up.

I am in the same boat. At that time my account balance is 6825.27 USD and free margin is about 7700 USD. My account only have 0.1 Standard Lot of USD/CHF, but because IC Markets MT4 platform stream erroneous prices and execute my USD/CHF at prices 0.25473 they shouldn’t have, so my account had to blow and all profit orders had to be closed.

Latest Announcement From IC Markets Regarding ECB & QE

This is to inform you about the key ECB announcements expected tomorrow (Thursday, 22nd January, 2015)

All eyes will be on the ECB and Draghi for tomorrow’s press conference (1:30 PM GMT) With the ECB's interest rate decision also being held tomorrow (12:45 PM GMT) and a strong belief held that the ECB will use this meeting to announce details regarding their quantitative easing program. Markets and spreads are likely to be extremely volatile and will widen during this period.

In preparation for ECB's QE/Rate announcement please ensure your account’s exposure is kept to a minimum & is well capitalized to avoid liquidation. IC Markets will be changing the leverage across all pairs to 100:1 during the Asian session tomorrow. Any account with an exposure of greater than 50 times its value will be assessed for liquidation/position reduction prior to the announcement.

The reduced leverage will be effective until 26th of January 2015, post which normal leverage will be assessed on pairs.

WTF did they have to decrease the leverage for so LONG???!!! WHY extend it through Friday and Monday LONG after the press conference??!! And decrease it to 100:1 for ALL pairs??? What's USD/CAD got anything to do with what's happening in europe??? The only chance we can have a bit of movement and make some money and they kill it. *Sigh* What am I going to do with 100:1 leverage, I can only trade just ONE lot. It's just an ECB press conference for chrissake!! We have traded through numerous ECB press conferences, Fed statements fine, what we are going to have leverage reduced every single time when there is a bit of news??!! We were all f***ed by the f***ing s*** liquidity "providers" a.k.a. liquidity stoppers during the SNB, now we are paying for it.

This is called "Changing the rules in the middle of the game" and it's unacceptable.

The first thing I'll do after sending this post is to withdraw all my money and find an other broker.

Done!

I posted this on another thread a minute ago, any help appreciated.

I would like to understand what this announcement (regarding ECB) really means? Unfortunately I lost quite a bit of money since last week's events. My margin level is floating around 130% have .90 lots of shorts on xau/usd which is uselessly hedged with a .90 long around 1300$ levels. (shorts are varied from 1175 - I know - to 1225)

I am worried that my account might be closed due this announcement.

And you know the worst part? Let's assume that they finally decide to reimburse the money that their IT systems allowed to be stolen for a minute. It has almost been a WEEK now that these positions which were wrongfully liquidated - and that should be reinstated - have been floating freely in this volatile market without any possibility whatsoever for you and I to control risk. And if tomorrow for some reason brings our positions to crash even further, you bet it will OUR liability. I have no words to describe how unprofessional their management of the situation is.

Now what are we being served as an answer to these financial issues? More statements showing that IC Markets' utmost priority is anything but that of customer service. I have not even received one follow-up email from them about my inquiry. Contrary to their legal disclaimers disguised as mere "announcements", that goes to show how much they care about the ongoing risk for their clients' balances.

It increasingly looks like their only goal right now is to cover their own a*** going forward. But if they do, I will have to cover mine as well and raise the issue to the proper instances.

They dont answer my inquiries also. Live chat is totally useless and say will take a bit more time to amend accounts.

Eur/Chf on IC markets platform was 0.7455, is this value correct? All other platforms I checked had a low on 0.85 and others even higher!

Good trading with your new broker!

And this is REALLY punishing the traders that still has bit of funds to trade. The traders who have the negative balance won't be able to trade anyway. The traders who are still able to trade now have their hands tied behind their back now and not able to ride the waves and make a bit of money. I can understand them wanting to reduce the leverage during the news time tomorrow. But WHY after and all the way until Monday??!! The majority of the bad bad volatility would've been gone at most 2 hours after the announcement well of course that's gonna depend on when those f***ing s*** liquidity stoppers decide to come back to continue quoting.