If Your Broker Insults You, It’s Time To Run

There are sophisticated ways to squeeze money out of you in an elegant way. But even if you aren’t aware of what your broker is doing, once he begins insulting you, well, I hope you can still get your money. Here’s a story.

I’ve recently received an email from a trader that was very upset with his broker. Reading the whole conversation between the two, it seems that the broker wants to blame the trader for violating the terms and conditions. The result is that the client cannot trade and cannot withdraw the money left in his account.

I do not have the tools to verify if the trader is indeed naive or if he indeed violated the terms and conditions. So I won’t publish the names of either sides.

But what I can publish is parts of the conversation. The broker’s customer service doesn’t hesitate to insult the client, more than once:

I really doubt we have a place for you in our family of professional traders.

And it gets worse:

Please, open that link in 10 browser windows, and keep reading it until you finally get the idea, YOU ARE CHARGED SWAPS.  open ten times and read a 100 times

The broker found that the client didn’t send the necessary documents, closed all open positions and  liquidated  the account. The client’s deposit is now the broker’s profit.

As aforementioned, I don’t have the tools to verify if the client did anything wrong. But no client deserves insults.

If you are insulted by your broker, it’s time to run away. If you’re able still able to. In this case, the client was left without his money.

There are still too many scammers out there. Most of them are more sophisticated than this one.

Tip: Before opening an account with an unknown broker, please check out if he’s regulated. Don’t settle for the information in his site, but check out the regulator’s site.

Further reading: How to chose a broker in 2011