WHADDAYA GONNA DO?

                                   If Forex-Metal Were A Car

WARNING!! This post contains floor trader talk from my days in the pits. If you find cursing objectionable, then leave now and come back tomorrow. My head is about ready to explode.

It all started innocent enough early on Wednesday; we got long GBPAUD and started to wait. The problems started when I went to change my stop level.

Dealer: “Ummmm yea, I don’t think I’m going to let you do that; you can’t change your stop.”

Me: “WTF is going on?”

So instead of changing the stop level, I now want to cancel my stop entirely.

Dealer: “Ummmmmm yea, you can’t cancel it either; I don’t want to let you cancel your sell stop. [Hint: I may need it later for my own purposes.]

Seriously folks, at this point I am totally incredulous that the platform will not allow me to change or cancel a sell stop. Why? What possible purpose could there be for these actions? Well but of course, the dealer is getting ready to run the stops and he needs sell stop orders below the market in order to get long. [And by proxy of course the brokerage house has no problem with this because they are most likely getting a “rebate” for allowing it to happen.] Some biz world we live in isn’t it?

You think I’m pissed yet?

At this point, the plum/yellow lines are crossing and I go to liquidate our long position. However, after I click the liquidate position button, our positions are not liquidated and closed; no, the fucking asshat dealer instead gives us a new short position. We are now hedged!!

[As I told the morons at Forex-Metal later; don’t fucking insult my intelligence by suggesting I hit the sell button instead of the “close position” button. I know the difference.]

OK, NOW I’m pissed!!

This sets off a chain of events that still hasn’t been totally resolved even after 3 days.

Meanwhile, the market turns on a dime and starts rocketing upward, the plum line easily passes over the yellow line, and so it’s time to get long again, even though I’m still hedged up on the first position.

When I click the buy button at market execution, here is the following message I get from the order box [meaning the dealer of course]. “Your order is outside the requested quote, please try again.” After I “try again” about 15 times and get the same message, guess what?

AM I PISSED YET?

So, bottom line is I’m hedged up on one position and the dealer won’t allow me to get long either. What the fuck am I supposed to do here? Sorry for the French, but I’m really at a loss to explain this, except to say my thoughts about Forex-Metal are that I wish I was the bird making the deposits.

Now, Forex-Metal [FM] tells me 3 things which you will be interested in; 1) the stops issue is due to a “freeze zone” they have in effect for Replitrader accounts, 2) I am wrong and I hit the sell button by mistake instead of the close position button, and 3) I am hallucinating with respect to the re-quote issue because there is “no way” I can get re-quoted on a market execution order. Wanna make a bet?

Did I or anybody know they [FM] had instituted a “freeze zone” for Replitrader accounts? When did they inform me of this? What is the scope of this zone, and who sets it? Why was I not informed this was in effect?

 

Please, I’m NOT Stupid

When you sit back and think of this, it’s pure bullshit. When you arbitrarily set a zone of pips away from an existing position that nothing can be done once set into motion, you invite the dealer to screw you by not letting you out of your position until he can take financial advantage of you. Why would a brokerage house allow this? Hint: only if they had a financial interest in the outcome with the dealer.

It wasn’t until early this morning that I was satisfied, after talking with FM, that the order tickets wouldn’t be screwed up beyond recognition. I had earlier refused to allow them to make adjustments, telling them, “you guys have done enough damage already”.

In a week that the algorithm really performed well, raking in huge profits, we lose a few bucks due to brokerage house shenanigans. Losing $40 - $50 bucks doesn’t concern me as much as the behavior of FM. They are using the Thanksgiving Holiday as cover, blaming it, as the reason nobody has adequately responded to my concerns going forward.

We’ll see what they say on Monday, but as of right now, I’m definitely not a fan of the way they have behaved and responded to us.

I have instructed my staff [starting today] to scour planet earth for offshore brokerage houses that can meet our standards and expectations. Stay tuned everyone.

So, I sit here and the only thought that keeps popping into my mind is, “Whaddaya gonna do?”

Have a great day everyone.

-vegas