FuturesBetting - closing down - any views ?

I've just received an e-mail which I'll paste below :-


IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT- ALL FUTURESBETTING.COM CLIENTS

RE: Closing of all client positions and repatriation of client funds


This is official notification that all clients of FuturesBetting.com must close out their spread bet positions with FuturesBetting.com by 15.30hrs GMT today, Friday 14th March, 2008.

Any position that is not closed out by clients by the time stipulated above, will be closed out by FuturesBetting.com between 15.30hrs and 16.00hrs GMT today, Friday 14th March, 2008.

All funds on deposit with FuturesBetting.com will be returned to the bank account held on record for each client; process commencing Friday 14th, 2008. The funds returned will reflect the full value of each account as at 16.00hrs GMT on Friday 14th March, 2008 and will reflect any profit or loss associated with the closing of all positions.

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It is with regret that FuturesBetting.com has had to take this action; however it is the priority and responsibility of the firm, as a regulated entity, to protect client funds.
The reason for the decision to require all clients to close their positions is because the Company can no longer meet its capital adequacy requirements. Unfortunately FuturesBetting.com has been caught up in the financial crisis of Global Trader Europe and a significant proportion of the company’s resources have been ‘frozen’ along with that of all of Global Trader Europe’s other clients.

We have informed the Gibraltar Regulator of the situation and have agreed that the Company will cease trading with immediate effect.
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If you have any questions in relation to the closing of positions and/or the repatriation of client funds, please contact us on 00350 47310. Alternatively you can email customer services at [email protected].

A client update with more information will be sent out in due course.

Yours sincerely

The Board

FuturesBetting.com





Any comments anyone ?

they are closing down so any positions held will be closed at a profit or loss.

You now need to limit your exposer as quickly as possible for damage limitations.

The company they trade with has gone into liquidation so instead of them doing the same and you losing all your money they have decided to close all client positions so at least you get some back.

Good Luck.

P.S, If you are dealing with them you need to give them a call as oppose to posting on a board and asking for advice or response, seek the truth direct from the horses mouth. It could be too late otherwise.
Act now.

I'm gutted. Great platform. Does anybody know if there are any spreadbetting services that are similar?

Bollox, deffo one of the best out there, client monies safe.
Silly sods prolly had a client fail to meet a margin call (guess)
I'm with Burble, anyone know a direct access spreadbetting company?

Good to see that FB's site is still up and running and apparently ready to take new accounts!

I was also with FB. Good platform and always helpful and friendly when you call them. The other DMA spreadbetting platform is two way markets. Overall it looks quite similar to me.

If anyones had any expereince with them I'd be interested to hear.:?:

Two way market were actualy a company that offered Futuresbetting platform on their behalf and don't have thier own software. I actualy went to twoway first and ended up with FB.

I think FuturesBetting will try to re-group and start again as there was no other company like these guys, they have everything in place and all they need is an investor to invest.

I also know for fact that there was no problem with any client and margin issue. thier risk management is very thight and I have many times tryed to get into new positions and have been rejected by the risk system because of lack of money in my account,

I called them as soon as I got the email from them and they were very sorry and sad about the situation. They are doing everything by the book and want to keep the good reputation incase they regroup.

If any of you guys from Futuresbetting are here and reading this message, good luck guys chin up.

I agree with the sentiments above. The platform was great and hope they reform using the same software.

Just to follow up on this thread, I received all my money from them yesterday which was obviously a concern given other market events over the week-end.

apples10 said:

Just to follow up on this thread, I received all my money from them yesterday which was obviously a concern given other market events over the week-end.

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Same here.

Good to here you got all your money back.

I dont think there was a trader on here that wasn't concerned on your behalf and was hoping you'd be o.k, after all, it can happen to any of us at any point.

Good news for you both.

I moved from the hapless and inept CS to Fb and never looked back. They were honest, helpful and had a great platform. I received all of my funds on Wednesday and I am sad to see them gone.

zuke said:

I moved from the hapless and inept CS to Fb and never looked back. They were honest, helpful and had a great platform. I received all of my funds on Wednesday and I am sad to see them gone.

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Can't help feeling that with all this support and goodwill towards FB, they'll be back sooner rather than later...:clap:

Just got this email from Futuresbetting:

FuturesBetting.com News

FuturesBetting.com is pleased to announce that the Company is in advanced negotiations with a 3rd party financial institution, with regard to re-launching the business.

When these negotiations reach a favourable completion, to include approval by the financial regulator, clients will be able to re-fund their accounts and start spread betting again.

The team at Futuresbetting.com would like to thank our clients for all their patience and support during the last 4 weeks. We will endeavour to keep you in touch with progress and look forward to being able to service you spread betting requirements again soon.

The FuturesBetting.com Team

The only problem I found with them was their greedy commission charges, didn't workout viable for me to pay the commision on top of the spread they were charging - With the soon launch of 2way futures Currenex spreadbet platform with just 0.5 on the spread MAX spread charge on top of market spread, I see no reason to trade with Futures betting and paying 1.5 on top of market spread.

fibbinstarchi said:

The only problem I found with them was their greedy commission charges, didn't workout viable for me to pay the commision on top of the spread they were charging - With the soon launch of 2way futures Currenex spreadbet platform with just 0.5 on the spread MAX spread charge on top of market spread, I see no reason to trade with Futures betting and paying 1.5 on top of market spread.

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Er, hang on a sec, the "Spread they were charging" was the market!

The comm rapidly came down after 25 round trips a month. Personally I viewed the EUR100 as a kind of "fee" for using the platform + tbh.

A Dashing Blade said:

Er, hang on a sec, the "Spread they were charging" was the market!

The comm rapidly came down after 25 round trips a month. Personally I viewed the EUR100 as a kind of "fee" for using the platform + tbh.

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You missed my point - Futures Betting commissions worked to be 1.5 on top of the spread, if you find this reasonable and would rather pay that than nothing on top of usual market spread as with the usual Sbet companies (but have delayed fills in most cases) or pay 0.5 spread on the new to be realised Currenex DMA spreadbet platform with 2way futures then be my guest, I don't care either way, let's hope they manage to stay afloat this time, and if they go belly up again, let's hope the traders get their trading money returned.

1.5 a round trip?
It was around 1 which, as I said, came down considerably after 25 round trips. Imo, if the odd 100EUR is such a burden then you shouldn't be trading.
You want to trade with some mickey mouse spreadbet company then be my guest.
You want to DMA with the same latency as Reuters & Bloomberg (I personally tested it) then FB was the one to go for.

A Dashing Blade said:

1.5 a round trip?
It was around 1 which, as I said, came down considerably after 25 round trips. Imo, if the odd 100EUR is such a burden then you shouldn't be trading.
You want to trade with some mickey mouse spreadbet company then be my guest.
You want to DMA with the same latency as Reuters & Bloomberg (I personally tested it) then FB was the one to go for.

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LOL, it all depends how many lots you trade, FBetting worked out to be expensive in relation to true DMA. I'm not getting into a slanging match with you, IMHO FBetting could lower their commissions, if not, it may go broke again, either way, there's no chance I would trade with them with their track history, they are simply a bucket shop, here today, gone tomorrow, sod that.

If you were to read the reasons properly, you would see that they had lack of regulatory capital due to Global Trader freezing their assets. On what basis do you call them a bucket shop? Maybe they are one of the few honourable companies who would rather pay their client funds back before getting into a situation where they are unable to pay client funds back. And from reading other threads many clients would start using them without hesitation in the future. You do seem to be pushing this currenex system. Maybe you are working for 2way futures?

I'm not working for anyone but myself, just letting traders know that there's an alternative to FBetting with lower commissions who hasn't got bust already.