Be careful with Acuity Stockbrokers...

Hi Friends

Just now, i was shocked, when i open sold note, Some stocks have been forced sale. Ok let me brief my scenario, I have been mainly dealing with capital trust.

I am with Acuity due to my friend who is one the broker. Generally I don"t buy on credit whit Acuity. After announcement of relaxing credit, i just asked from my broker How much u can allow credit. He said 50% of my portfolio and u can settle with in one month, then i bought some stocks ( exposure about 40% of my portfolio), then on last Thursday He called me and told, his mangers requested to either settle or sell some stocks to reduce the exposure by 10% due to the month end regulator reporting, balance to be settled he can manage it for one month. Then i sold some stock on break-even and some are on small loss.

On Friday I did not get any calls from my brokers or even any other staff, Now the sold note shows the entire balance to be settled has been forced sale with out informing me. Now i called to my broker He said, due to the month end reporting, his manger did forced sale to some of A/c who has out standing. Then i asked that, You should have informed me, He said brokers has a right to do the force sale.

I do not worry, if they sold it on profit or even at break even. But what has happened it they sold of some stock @ very lowest price ( Buyers quote) and this results the huge loss.

Friends pls help to this situation, Can i make a complaint to SEC. As per my understanding, I really do not know whether the broker has a right to forced sale or not, even if he has a right He must have to inform to the clients for the option before selling Am I right.

But nothing was happened to my case. So Friends whoever dealing with Acuity Pls be careful and check with ur Portfolio.

Friends Pls help on this.

seyon, read your "statement of account" they provide. In the back side of the slip you could read under "Unauthorised sales/purchases" what you need. Hope this will help you.

Once this happened to one of my friends. (I don't want to mention the name of the firm)

I helped him to lodge a complaint with the compliance officer, he was unable to help.
Then the CEO, he failed too.
Then we went to Securities Exchange Commission.

Now awaiting a response.

Selling without informing is unethical and unexceptionable!

I agree, selling WO informing is unethical, but brokers are allowed to do so. But I am also maintaining accounts with the two cos. you have stated. Generaly Acuity is bit strict on cr. policy. But yesterday they asked me do reduce my exposure (Not forced, they requested to reduce if possible) as its Month end, in the same time they adviced me to buy the same shares if I am willing to, as then the settlement is in september. My additional cost was onway brockerage. If you are buying credit trade those shares frequently, which will refresh ur settlement dates.

RichDad wrote:Once this happened to one of my friends. (I don't want to mention the name of the firm)

I helped him to lodge a complaint with the compliance officer, he was unable to help.
Then the CEO, he failed too.
Then we went to Securities Exchange Commission.

Now awaiting a response.

Selling without informing is unethical and unexceptionable!

Hi RichDad

What did u do for making the complaint to SEC, To whom we should meet and What are the documents should be submitted. Pls give me a detailed procedures.

Thanks Swan

hariesha wrote:I agree, selling WO informing is unethical, but brokers are allowed to do so. But I am also maintaining accounts with the two cos. you have stated. Generaly Acuity is bit strict on cr. policy. But yesterday they asked me do reduce my exposure (Not forced, they requested to reduce if possible) as its Month end, in the same time they adviced me to buy the same shares if I am willing to, as then the settlement is in september. My additional cost was onway brockerage. If you are buying credit trade those shares frequently, which will refresh ur settlement dates.

As per my understanding even they have a rights, they must have to inform me first, Then i would have given the options to sell some stock which are on profit. Here what was happened is the shares which i have purchased on credit have been sold at very lowest cost.

hariesha, If u dont mind can u share with ur exposure u had before the settlement.

Dear all members,
Never buy shares with broker's credit. It may be a path to a huge loss. Even CSE don't recommend this. (told by an expert of cse)

Hi Seyon

Last Monday(29th) they did the same thing to me. They had sold which I bought on Friday(26th) at a loss of more than hundred thousand.( Not even given 3 working days) I am really disappointed and I didn't call them even.
Really I am having a very bad impression on Acuity and their service. I am planning to change my broker firm.

Hi Seyon,

I think it is better you include all the things happened to you in SEC complaint.
Most of the brokers playing with new SEC rules. SEC also responsible for this bad things.
For the media campaign SEC use the term "retailer credits". But the rule they imposed never mention anything about retailers rights. It is "broker credit". Brokers can do what ever they want with credit. 100% they are given the control by SEC
This credit not for us. That is for brokers. Extremely careful when buying on credit. Don't trust brokers word and be on 0% credit at the month end.
If the broker is fair he should clear credit in fair manner. If you haven't get any credits, broker must clear credit from other clients as well. They must clear credit in equal portions. Check that with SEC whether they are with 0 credit at the end of the month.

Dear seyon,
Report this to the cse. You can get the complaint form from their website. It's better to do this before changing broker firm as some settlement will have to be done. But suddenly change your broker after that because your current broker will no longer support you and will make some more problems. You can register at a new broker firm( I would like to suggest capital trust) without filling inter transfer form which is used to transfer shares under the current broker firm to the new one. You can transfer your shares later. (No need to visit the broker institute again. Simply download form from the broker's webpage and fill it legibly and send it by mail)The other thing other is this method saves a lot of time. The time period of more than 7 days will be needed to fulfill the transaction. It depends on the share variety of your present portfolio.

Its a very sad situation and I see so many have shared their openions as well..

However, this is how I see this;

On brokers part selling without informing you is their unethical manner, but they have every right to do force sell on credit unless u have a written agreement with them on the credit period you can use.

On your part, u've done the primary mistake of taking a higher risk than necessary taking 50% credit.

Now what you can do is;

1) Talk to the Acquity heads and inform your concern and let them know that the deals were done on a relationship and mutual agreements thus what happened was a breach of such confidence as you didnt expect such a poor service from them. If any remedy is not on cardsyou can further elighten them the damage you can do to their good name by word of mouth.

2) File a complain with SEC as advised by many members (but do u have evidence?) so u can set an example an at least it could warn the broker that walk ur talk.

3) Inform as much as friends, collegues and other related parties of this unethical behaviour and also on public forums.

4) Changing the broker would be like changing the pillows for a headache but at least check with your friends on how their broker firms treat them.. I have my uncles that use credit periods of abt 2 weeks solely on their broker relationship even with smaller portfolios. All these things are now depend upon the liquid assets of the broker and my guess is CT & CT smith can live up to it if you really wanna use more than T+5.

Frankly I, now adays, limit my credit exposure to the bare minimum level.. So the max I use may be 30-40K.. It has paid me benefits of not making me worry on a force sell crisis or allowing me to pay the amount that I can afford to pay on a decision gone wrong..
Asha wont give you more than T+3 now adays and max will be strictly T+5..

Dear seyon,
smallville's post is more useful than my post . But remember, that a higher fee will needed to be paid for T+5.

seyon wrote:Hi Friends

Just now, i was shocked, when i open sold note, Some stocks have been forced sale. Ok let me brief my scenario, I have been mainly dealing with capital trust.

I am with Acuity due to my friend who is one the broker. Generally I don"t buy on credit whit Acuity. After announcement of relaxing credit, i just asked from my broker How much u can allow credit. He said 50% of my portfolio and u can settle with in one month, then i bought some stocks ( exposure about 40% of my portfolio), then on last Thursday He called me and told, his mangers requested to either settle or sell some stocks to reduce the exposure by 10% due to the month end regulator reporting, balance to be settled he can manage it for one month. Then i sold some stock on break-even and some are on small loss.

On Friday I did not get any calls from my brokers or even any other staff, Now the sold note shows the entire balance to be settled has been forced sale with out informing me. Now i called to my broker He said, due to the month end reporting, his manger did forced sale to some of A/c who has out standing. Then i asked that, You should have informed me, He said brokers has a right to do the force sale.

I do not worry, if they sold it on profit or even at break even. But what has happened it they sold of some stock @ very lowest price ( Buyers quote) and this results the huge loss.

Friends pls help to this situation, Can i make a complaint to SEC. As per my understanding, I really do not know whether the broker has a right to forced sale or not, even if he has a right He must have to inform to the clients for the option before selling Am I right.

But nothing was happened to my case. So Friends whoever dealing with Acuity Pls be careful and check with ur Portfolio.

Friends Pls help on this.

Seyon,

A quick note. I feel you pain. It is unethical and unprofessional to do what they did but they have the right still. There was no mention of SEC of the removal of T+5. Even my broker said there is no T+5 technically but he himself went againt his word and following T+5.

Many brokers are not meeting liquidity tests. So they can what they did to you.

Becareful to buy on credit with these regulations in a wavy state still. I always try to keep my credit between 3- 10% max even if I go for it so my portfolio will not be massacred in an emergency.

Hope your favorite shares were not sold

Blood suckers. But i can really safe since my broker is really in good terms with me. Basically he is one who wakes me up in the morning. Bartleet. Then again their online trading system really sucks. I holding on to my broker because of my advisor only

I can give you guys my common opinion. Before change broker make sure your new broker is good. I know CT smith very well but they dont have on-line facility. But I can tell one thing dont ever open anyaccount with Asha P----. They are the worst people. They now asked their credit clients to stop trading until December and advised them the market is going to collapse sooner. Even those people recommend to buy shares during the July down market.

Friends, a similar thing happen to me as well.
I called my advisor (Capital Alliance) for some advice on a stock and end of the conversation he casually mentioned that there is credit balance.
The next day when I checked my portfolio only, I realized that a particular stock is missing.
When I called him he is happily saying that he sold the stock to clear the credit with a loss. I didn't make any complaints since I understand CSE and SEC is there only safeguard big investors and not he small traders/investors.
Lessons learn t: (1) Not to exceed credit 10% of my portfolio, which makes disposing at an emergency would not give me big loss.
(2)Never trust the broker.
(3) Don't even trust the advise they give, always do your analysis. For small investors like us they will try to promote stocks they have in their hands.

I am trading with asia securities, their service is quite ok...

Friend, what is happen to you is really bad.
Because of my profession i have contact with almost all the brokers and credit facility is the understanding between the client and the Individual Adviser. I referred the individual adviser particularly where in a broker firm i know one adviser is very concern about the T+3, where as another adviser will call in the 6th day morning ( T + 5 ).

As per the SEC/CSE rules brokers have the absolute right to sell the shares to recover the unsettle period on the 4th day, but here the question arises whether they acted ethically or not, but there is no proof that for you to say they didn't inform.

I didn't have this kind of issue since i normally didn't buy the shares on credit, ( i mean for whatever purchases i did i make sure to send the payment on the end of T+2.

I got two accounts, one with ACUITY and the other with CT Smith. Though I do online trading, I keep touch with my both brokers (CT smith does not have online). They gives me tips and most of them work.

On last Friday I got a SMS from my Acuity broker saying to sell XX amount or in Monday they are going to force sell. I managed to reduce my exposure and informed my broker and and due to that they didn't force sell anything.

What I can say is, keep good relationship with your broker. They sometime can bypass/help you in these kind of situations.

Still broker firms playing with new rule. Always they turn it for their benefits and even CSE don't have better idea what they doing. It seems CSE trying to amend this rule by the Lessons Learned from broker firms...

නඩුත් හාමුදුරුවන්ගෙ බඩුත් හමුදුරුවන්ගෙ...

Jana1 wrote:I can give you guys my common opinion. Before change broker make sure your new broker is good. I know CT smith very well but they dont have on-line facility. But I can tell one thing dont ever open anyaccount with Asha P----. They are the worst people. They now asked their credit clients to stop trading until December and advised them the market is going to collapse sooner. Even those people recommend to buy shares during the July down market.

I cant agree with you on this.. I do even hate this force selling drama but what AshaPhillip practicing is the normal procedure of credit.. The more you use credit, the more u get indebtted.. so when u cant get the expected return u started selling then the shares started fallin in a bear period like this and ultimately most ppl suffer..
So at least if brokers dont allow too much credit the drama will soon be over.. At least ppl will stay with what ever they have not going to earn quick buks sending stocks down..

Not only them, many other brokers even advised buying shares on the down market.. very few I think have identfied the running shares though

What I dont like is the continuous problems with DirectFN.. sometimes portfolio issues, loggin issues, online tradin issues..

bloody Asha phillips call on 3rd day. They telling "if you don't settled credit today, our ### team will sell it in tomorrow morning may be before you are selling".
When they selling they don't care about losses to clients. They sell like crazy

mee yakkunta mase anthima dawasa wenakota credit clear kalama athi. SEC eken kiyala neha 4 dawase ude clear karanna oona kiyala. sathiyakata kalin mata kiwwama mama kiwwa "kahanawanam sell karaganna kiyala"

eeta passe u mata katha karanne neha.

smallville wrote:

Jana1 wrote:I can give you guys my common opinion. Before change broker make sure your new broker is good. I know CT smith very well but they dont have on-line facility. But I can tell one thing dont ever open anyaccount with Asha P----. They are the worst people. They now asked their credit clients to stop trading until December and advised them the market is going to collapse sooner. Even those people recommend to buy shares during the July down market.

I cant agree with you on this.. I do even hate this force selling drama but what AshaPhillip practicing is the normal procedure of credit.. The more you use credit, the more u get indebtted.. so when u cant get the expected return u started selling then the shares started fallin in a bear period like this and ultimately most ppl suffer..
So at least if brokers dont allow too much credit the drama will soon be over.. At least ppl will stay with what ever they have not going to earn quick buks sending stocks down..

Not only them, many other brokers even advised buying shares on the down market.. very few I think have identfied the running shares though

What I dont like is the continuous problems with DirectFN.. sometimes portfolio issues, loggin issues, online tradin issues..

I cant agree with your comments about Asha Pillip... They reduced credit period from T+5 to T+3, They don't care about small investors at the moment...

When I started out trading at cse, I faced a similar problem.y broker sold my shares without informing me.I brought this to the attention of Chairman of the company, who was a classmate. This settled the matter in my favour promptly.

banarahu wrote:I cant agree with your comments about Asha Pillip... They reduced credit period from T+5 to T+3, They don't care about small investors at the moment...

Legally they don't have to do reduce T+5 unless it is month end. Even SEC will not ask about it. This can be help to get a idea about Asha Phillip client service.
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