IBFX closed out my trades, need your advise for this!

[haupool]

Hi, wondering if anyone can help advise. I think IBFX scammed me.

Here’s the story,

I’ve about $1494 in my trading account with IBFX, I opened 2 trades, each 5 mini contracts/lots, margin leverage is 1:100

What happen here is IBFX has closed out one of my trades without my consent, and lost me $208.53. The other 5 mini lots still opened and only suffered few pips loss.

At first I thought I still have like $1200+, why did they close my trade?? So I go and re-open the trade again. Next few seconds, they closed my trade again and lost me another $32.57.

I rang them, the guy blamed me for not understanding how to trade and how margin works. I never receive margin call/email to warn me to take action. They just closed out my 5 mini lots twice. I still have over $1200+ that time. Do I just get scammed by them?

Another thing I noticed, when I looked at the transaction history (attached). They lied about the closing time on my trade. Eg, that say 9.45am and closing time at 10.47am. That was a lie. The trade closed itself as soon as I opened and took away $32.57 from my account.

I closed out my last 5 mini lots and took out the loss and decided to close out my account with them. Of course I rang them for help about withdrawing money. The guy just kept on saying, the instruction is on the website and refused to help me to fill out the form that didn’t ask for my BSB or where to put my BSB. So I just filled out and hope they will withdraw the rest of my money back to me.

My understanding is if I have no money left, the broker will have the right to liquidate my position without my consent. While still have over $1k+, or if I’ve reached over the margin limit. Shouldn’t they send me a margin call or email to warn me?? So I can take action, if I don’t take action then they have the right to close my trade?? BTW I didn’t receive margin call from them .

Anyway, I’ve traded with 2 other brokers, never experience like this before. Because if the broker closed out your trades and took away the spread money whenever there’s pips loss. Repeat few times, your account will go ugly very quickly!

I just want to know if I’ve been scammed by IBFX or all brokers they will do the same in my case?

Please advise! Thank you.

 

[tech/a]

How did you open an account with only $1500?
It's about $12,000 now I think.

I only trade indexes.
1 FTSE contract you need approx $8k
5 I'd need 40k in my account.
10 $80k

Same with every broker

 

[haupool]

A lot of brokers offer mini account and high margin leverage 1:400. So you can open an account with as little as $1 and trade small. 1 mini contract = $10k. with a magin leverage of 1:100, I only need $100 to trade 1 mini contract.

Strange, my other 2 brokers, they never close out my trades while I still have money. I only receive margin call once from 1 other broker which I trade stock to take action on a trade, or they will liquidate my position. My other broker I trade Forex for 2 years never had once closed out my trade while I still have money left. hmm..

You probably open a standard account which requires a lot of capital???

 

[peter2]

Required Margin: EURxxx trade (EURUSD ~ 1.3000) = $130 for 1 mini-lot (100:1 leverage)

If you opened 2 x 5 mini-lot trades then the required margin would have been 10 x 130 = $1300

This is almost as much as your equity ($1474). This leaves no room for the price of EURNZD to fall. I notice that the EURNZD fell about 50pips during the UK session. As the price dropped your equity must have gone below the 100% threshold which automatically triggers the margin call liquidation. There is no courtesy call to inform you that you should top up your account. The backroom will close down enough trades (at random) to restore your account above the threshold.

When you started another 5 mini-lot trade, the required margin increased once more to $1300, above your equity (~$1200). This probably triggered the second auto liquidation.

If my numbers and assumptions are correct then there was no "scam".

 

[>Apocalypto<]

Required Margin: EURxxx trade (EURUSD ~ 1.3000) = $130 for 1 mini-lot (100:1 leverage)

If you opened 2 x 5 mini-lot trades then the required margin would have been 10 x 130 = $1300

This is almost as much as your equity ($1474). This leaves no room for the price of EURNZD to fall. I notice that the EURNZD fell about 50pips during the UK session. As the price dropped your equity must have gone below the 100% threshold which automatically triggers the margin call liquidation. There is no courtesy call to inform you that you should top up your account. The backroom will close down enough trades (at random) to restore your account above the threshold.

When you started another 5 mini-lot trade, the required margin increased once more to $1300, above your equity (~$1200). This probably triggered the second auto liquidation.

If my numbers and assumptions are correct then there was no "scam".

what he said, you hit a margin threshold and the system auto closed you.

 

[haupool]

Thank you both, I think I misunderstood how margin works.

May I ask if I choose 1:200 for the margin ratio? Could that have been avoided? the margin threshold would have been 50% and not hit 100% right??? and my trades would still be opened???

What's the disadvantage of having 1:200 over 1:100 margin ratio???

 

[TulipFX]

Thank you both, I think I misunderstood how margin works.

May I ask if I choose 1:200 for the margin ratio? Could that have been avoided? the margin threshold would have been 50% and not hit 100% right??? and my trades would still be opened???

What's the disadvantage of having 1:200 over 1:100 margin ratio???

Yes, a higher leverage would have seen you ok. The disadvantage is that you are tempted to trade lot sizes too big for the account.

 

[WestCoastWizard]

Margin calculation gave me a problem early on. My principle is to use a tight stop loss with the biggest leverage you can get. This way, leverage only affects your winning position and not your losing position.

And just be mindful also that brokers have complete access to your trades and your margin condition. If you read their disclaimer carefully, they reserve the right to interfere and manipulate their price to their liking, especially since IBFX is not an True ECN broker. I would never show my stop loss and take profit to my broker. I use hidden TP&SL EA to manage my trade.