Spread betting and contracts for differences (CFDs)

Most trading isn't advised. But if you were given advice, and want to complain about what you were given, this is something we can look into for you. 

There are a few things we'll need to consider when looking into your case. We'll look at what information the business had about you before they made their recommendations, as well as what they said about how it would work. 

Even if you selected your own trades, the business would need to assess if they think the investment is "appropriate" for you. That's because this is a high risk activity. 

They'd ask you questions regarding your knowledge about, and experience of, the product or service concerned. If they haven't carried out this check - and if we don't think the account was appropriate for you - we're likely to say that the business has done something wrong. 

Sometimes stop order are carried out at a worse price than you choose. This can happen when the market moves very quickly from above the target to a price much lower than the target. This is called "gapping" or "slippage". 

Often this will happen when the market opens - if the price has moved significantly away from the previous day's closing price. It can also happen when the market moves quickly, such as after the announcement of important news or economic data. 

We'll look at: 

• the terms and conditions, and any other product documents you were given
• what you were told about how stop order would be executed
• what was happening in the underlying market at the time

We'll be unlikely to uphold the complaint if the business made it clear they couldn't guarantee stop orders would be carried out at the exact level you asked for.

But we'll also bear in mind how the business said it would treat the reverse scenario - that is, orders when a trade is executed at a better price than the one you chose. 

If the business kept the profits when trades were carried out at a better price, but passed losses on to you when trades happened at a worse price, we'd probably say the business acted unfairly. This has been something that the FCA has fined businesses for previously. 

An unfavourable market move could mean that you owe more than the amount you’ve staked. To protect against this, the business will need you to maintain a minimum margin requirement in your account.

If your account equity falls below the margin requirement, you’ll need to deposit more money to the account. This is known as “adding more margin”. If you don’t, the business may close some of your positions to prevent you owing them money.

If you put in a complaint with us, we'll look at the terms and conditions to see what the business said they would do if you ran out of margin. This might include whether they would contact you and how, and how they would select which positions to close.

If we’re satisfied that the business acted reasonably in closing your positions, it’s unlikely that we would uphold the complaint.