Easy Equities suspended trading

terencej said:
100% correct. They have a trading platform called GT247.
Easy equities is geared more towards investing rather than trading. And in the last 24 hours people were trading Lonmin like crazy.
Click to expand...

I watched this whole saga unfolded and actually signed up with them myself. Looking at their platform I was actually wondering about this and thought that this type of trading was not possible.

What I did was to invest in two other companies though. Did not invest much, but did through in a few hundred to test their system.

ToxicBunny said:
Which is entirely fine, but say I had held Lonmin shares for 2 years, and today I decided I wanted out... they wouldn't let me get out, even if the pricing was a bit out of whack.
Click to expand...

And that is exactly my question. If I bought 1000 shares in a company today and I want to buy out in 5 years time, will I be prevented or limited?
 
Thor187 said:
I did. They weren't able
Click to expand...

Wait, what???

That's a huge freakin problem then. If their system can't handle due to massive price fluctuations so they say you must call in to make a trade with a broker and you can't.....

Well that's a serious problem now isn't it???
 
I have up until today really enjoyed using the EE platform but for some reason something is telling me that their reason is not kosher.

I am struggeling to explain what I mean but its something along the lines of being a middleman with a time delay and something going wrong along the way and not being able to cover themselves when it came to people wanting to sell most of their lonmin shares today.

I dont know if this is even possible but something is feeling a bit off.
 
The_Mowgs said:
Why suspend trading when you clearly state on the platform that the peice is not live but a 15min delayed price?

It should be MY choice and MY choice ONLY when I want to press the buy or sell button seeing as its MY money...
Click to expand...

Because their margin risk increased. They're profiting on the spread from you guys (called spread capture and there's a lot of it on 15min delayed pricing quotes). They have direct to market level 2 trading data and can see the orders being filled, as well as block trades coming in. They can also spot counterparty if they're smart and can identify market makers and algos switching on. They can also trade on the up and downside against your buy or sell, and use leveraged hedging instruments. They realised they had too much exposure on a single asset and volatility went through the roof, and called it.

This is why working with reputable brokers is best...
 
Last edited:
DJ... said:
Because their margin risk increased. They're profiting on the spread from you guys (called spread capture and there's a lot of it on 15min delayed pricing quotes). They have direct to market level 2 trading data and can see the orders being filled, as well as block trades coming in. They realised they had too much exposure on a single instrument and volatility went through the roof, and called it.

This is why working with reputable brokers is best...
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification. So am I on the right track or does their excuse sound reasonable seeing as I dont really know these things too well and am only speculating.
 
The_Mowgs said:
Thanks for the clarification. So am I on the right track or does their excuse sound reasonable seeing as I dont really know these things too well and am only speculating.
Click to expand...

Well, no. It's not reasonable in my opinion. They suspended trade entirely when this was not the market playing field. You guys, due to EE, played today with one hand tied behind your back because they cannot get their margin risk under control, and because they simply felt they were over-exposed. The suspension of trading excuse is not the reason - it's the excuse they're peddling...
 
DJ... said:
Well, no. It's not reasonable in my opinion. They suspended trade entirely when this was not the market playing field. You guys, due to EE, played today with one hand tied behind your back because they cannot get their margin risk under control, and because they simply felt they were over-exposed. The suspension of trading excuse is not the reason - it's the excuse they're peddling...
Click to expand...
Thanks very much, appreciate it.
 
Toothless said:
If you want to do live share trading, buying and selling on the spot, EasyEquities is not right for you. Rather go elsewhere and create an account with your bank, or something like PSG where this is possible.

It seems to me EasyEquities is a better option for those who invest in the long term. But, that being said, if I purchased 1000+ shares in a company today, will I be able to sell the shares in 2 years time in one day or will there be limits places by EasyEquities?
Click to expand...

We understand that but there is a 15 minute delay in place for this and we are willing to accept that. What is unacceptable is them suspending trading as they see fit, independent of the JSE...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
We understand that but there is a 15 minute delay in place for this and we are willing to accept that. What is unacceptable is them suspending trading as they see fit, independent of the JSE...
Click to expand...

I am totally with you on this. This is also a concern for me. Because, I expect to invest around R250k a year and if I want to sell my shares in 5 years time, I may also be met with a message that trading is stopped due to the volumes involved. Nobody wants to invest with any brokerage where you are not sure if you could sell your shares and get your money back. So, yes, that is a concern.

But, I would like to hear from them what they have to say about a user who wants to sell a million Rand worth of shares in any company at any given point in time. Besides, I am sure in their T&Cs there are clauses allowing them to do what they did, which we all agreed to.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
We understand that but there is a 15 minute delay in place for this and we are willing to accept that. What is unacceptable is them suspending trading as they see fit, independent of the JSE...
Click to expand...
Soon as trade opens and ee allow it I'm cashing out and closing my account, if what dj says is true I'll find a better way of doing this or just not bother. That was an amusing 2 day experiment. I feel let down and disappointed.
 
Isn't this only applicable for fractions of shares? I thought that if you had enough for a whole share it would vest in your name? If only one of the bigger banks could offer us fractional share investing.

/edit
I guess if you're trading you'd still need to use them to sell given the time frames and all.
 
The_Mowgs said:
I have up until today really enjoyed using the EE platform but for some reason something is telling me that their reason is not kosher.

I am struggeling to explain what I mean but its something along the lines of being a middleman with a time delay and something going wrong along the way and not being able to cover themselves when it came to people wanting to sell most of their lonmin shares today.

I dont know if this is even possible but something is feeling a bit off.
Click to expand...
The 15 min time delay is standard practice on all platforms. Live pricing costs extra on almost all of them. This is thanks to the JSE.
 
@justinpearse . Please pm your internal conplaints handlers contact details as i would like to lodge a formal complaint
 
JustinPearse said:
Hi Ladies and Gents,

I’ve just come back from a discussion with our risk department and the short answer is that we did force a suspension in trading on the platform today, but this was done to ensure we managed a potential risk to our clients.

As you're all aware, EasyEquities is not an online trading platform and does not offer live pricing, but offers 15 minute delayed pricing instead.

Today there was extraordinary execution risk where Lonmin was concerned because:
1.The market (JSE) was suspending trade in that instrument intermittently throughout the day. During those suspensions you would not have been able to trade in the share anywhere
2.There were also massive price fluctuations that could have created big differences between the prices clients expected to execute the trade at (as they would have been seeing 15 minute delayed prices on our platform) and the actual price of the execution.

Due to these factors the only way we could reduce this risk to clients was to suspend trading on Lonmin on the platform and guide clients to our broking desk (which we did via a clear message on the page).

This way, our trading desk could advise clients on live pricing and execute the trade for them to avoid the risk of large disparities between the prices clients were expecting and what they may have received when receiving the trade confirmation, had execution been available on the platform.

Best regards
Justin
Click to expand...
1. You already state on your site (on the selling page even) that the price is delayed. Trading on the delayed price is my risk to take. Put a bigger warning message if you must but DON'T stop me from trading.

2. If I had phoned your desk I would've been able to trade? Is this correct?

3. As in my OP, I still think somehow you guys scored from us today.
 
Hamster said:
1. You already state on your site (on the selling page even) that the price is delayed. Trading on the delayed price is my risk to take. Put a bigger warning message if you must but DON'T stop me from trading.

2. If I had phoned your desk I would've been able to trade? Is this correct?

3. As in my OP, I still think somehow you guys scored from us today.
Click to expand...
When I called (mentioned in this thread) I was not allowed to trade.
 
T&Cs from your site:
GT247.com acts as an agent for the issue of whole shares, where the investor is the registered owner of those shares, entitled to dividends, participation in corporate actions and all the economic benefits and risks associated with share ownership.
Click to expand...
So having purchased whole shares, are we not entitled to trading in the same manner as if we had registered on gt247.com? Did we not buy whole shares? You make it perfectly clear here that we undertake the risk of share ownership, so why did you guys halt trading as you saw fit? It's not like we bought partial shares...
 
If EE halted trading to protect clients does that mean clients don't get the option to set a price and only accept offers at that price? That's how I trade, I lock a price and change it manually if the share price changes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X