OK. I like T212. Pretty happy with it. However,… I’ve had a problem and it feels like I’m on a completely different wavelength to T212 support…
So I opened 8 limit buy orders on different stock. Each buy order reserved sufficient cash for it to execute so no issues. There was, however, still an unreserved free cash in my account. Two of the limit buy orders were for stock priced in Euro (actually for the same company just at different execution price if the price dipped). The other 6 limit orders were all for stock price in GBP on LSE.
So I decided to use the unreserved free cash left in my account to buy some other stock which I did as a market order based on value (ie not quantity). This still left a very small amount of free cash in my account. All fine.
Then a few seconds later I got 8 notifications that all 8 of my limit orders were cancelled/revoked because of insufficient funds and I then had a healthy cash balance in my account due to the orders being cancelled and the reserved funds being released. I couldn’t understand why the orders were cancelled so I contacted customer support. All of the orders obviously reserved sufficient cash to execute when the orders were placed.
The first explanation I got was that the gbp/eur exchange rate had changed and that had changed the cash requirements for the orders so they were cancelled. I pointed out that 6 of the orders were in gbp and thus the gbp/eur rate was irrelevant and for the other 2 cancelling 1 order would have released enough funds to cover any requirement on the other. I then got a second explanation that said that after I placed the market order the price for that stock (that I was buying with the market order) changed before execution so it executed at a different price causing the cash in my account to go negative. I pointed out that the market order wasn’t an order for a quantity it was for value so if the price had changed it would just have affected the quantity of stock purchased not the total value of the order and the order executed at exactly the value specified (to the £0.01p) and still left a very small positive cash balance in the account. Customer support then went back to the explanation that it was the fx rate changing that meant all orders had to be cancelled. I said what about the orders in gbp? The answer I got was “the system worked correctly”.
It wasn’t a big deal. I was at my pc, saw the notifications, had a load of free cash in my account because of the orders being cancelled so could place them again. However, a little frustrated that I feel that I’m on a completely different wavelength to T212 on this. IF there was any issue, all that was needed was for one fx based limit order to be cancelled or on hold. The gbp orders were completely covered at all times by funds that the system had blocked/reserved. Thus I see no reason for those orders being cancelled.
Am I missing something or being daft here (both possible)
I’ve located the correspondence with our team and would like to go through the case step by step. I can see that the initial pending limit orders were placed on the 12th & 13th.
After they’d been placed, you executed several Market Buy orders, which took away from the free funds required to execute the pending limit orders. As a result, they were cancelled because the required funds to keep them exceeded the available free funds in your account at the time.
That’s not true. If I place a limit buy order the system reserves the funds to execute that order. I cannot use those funds for other orders (limit orders or market orders). If the limit order is in GBP for UK stock on the LSE there is nothing that can change that can affect the fact that sufficient cash has been reserved to execute that order. However, if an limit order is placed where the stock is priced in a currency other than GBP (ie Euro) then a change in the underlying fx rate can affect the cash requirements for the limit order (a good justification for having support for multi-currency within the T212 account). I did have a limit order that was for stock priced in Euro. However, my point is that if the fx rate changes affecting the cash requirements for THAT limit order then I understand that the system might cancel the order but all of the GBP based orders are still 100% covered by reserved funds and do not need to be cancelled or modified or touched in any way. Thus the issue is why did the system cancel 6 limit orders all for UK stock priced in GBP which had reserved cash to execute all of them?
I had two issues: firstly GBP orders were cancelled completely unnecessarily. Secondly when I raised this I was given several different explanations some of which weren’t true (that the price for my market order had changed during its execution affecting the cost of the market order)
As a feature suggestion: 1) have multi-currency so I can hold a cash value of $/Eur which I can then use to cover limit orders in those currencies and 2) in foreign currency limit orders include an option to include fx fees and rate changes so if the rate changes the order simply buys less stock (just as price changes do now). It seems a simple solution to include fx changes in the limit order meaning that a foreign currency order never needs to vary its reserved GBP cash.
Appreciate the detailed explanation. We’re reviewing your account and the orders you’re referring to, so we’ll update you once we have more information.
noted. Feedback is always welcome, so if you have any other suggestions feel free to share them with us.
First and foremost, thank you for providing us with the full details of the case - that’s much appreciated.
We did a thorough review of the case again and can confirm that the value of the pending orders was slightly higher than your free funds, resulting in the cancellation of those pending orders. However, we’re planning improvements in the area. When we apply those improvements and in scenarios like yours, only part of the orders should be cancelled to release the required capital.
noted. Feedback is always welcome, so if you have any other suggestions feel free to share them with us.