Worldspd Share Discussion Threads

[taximania] 21/3/2012 13:25

total cash deposits seems sensible , that would avoid all argumants over prices , profits , missing trades that the client said was profitable but i stand to be corrected.
it has to be either total deposits or account valuation at the point at which they cancelled all trades but if they go down that route it could get even more ugly imo , i would then by arguing over at least 3k ..the difference between the prices that my trades were closed at and what they opened up at ....then there is always the mid price ...

[madasafishman] 21/3/2012 13:17

taxi/all
do you think that the deposit you mentioned means just cash or will include the margin as well.............my profit was a few thousand up so am gutted if that is the case..especially as they would have closed my spread bet at considerable profit

[volsung] 21/3/2012 12:59

I'm going down the town now. I may (and I repeat 'may') have a sandwich. If I don't have a sandwich I may (and once again Iwould draw your attention to the term 'may') have a big dirty burger with loads of ketchup and chips and a big carton of coke (and not the namby pamby diet stuff neither.)

[taximania] 21/3/2012 12:42

madasafisherman:
i have beentold most likely outcome is return of deposits only , good if you are down bad if you are up , i have asked the question on here a couple of times but couldnt get an answer ...they certainly not going to honour any positions that were held after they closed them and i wouldnt mind betting there are a lot of disputed figures , i had a missing trade that was in the system (according to twoway) but not showing on my statementthat was worth 3k to me ...there is no way i will ever see that again .

Someone who posted earlier had been thru this before but he didnt elaborate on how they arrived at the final figures for your account ....i dont even agree with the final 'closing figues ' as they were not done at the market price probably costing me a few 0000 but that a can of worms i fear .

[madasafishman] 21/3/2012 12:33

i have a trading client account with worldspreads and had positions open making profit
apparently we are covered upto 50k etc see below but just wondered if that only includes cash in the account or the profit made on open positions still in play

"The good news is that WorldSpreads' clients can expect to get at least some of their money back. The first £50,000 held in each client's account is covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. But, even though the financial watchdogs have said this is a priority, the timing is uncertain. "We're probably not talking days or weeks here, but months," said one industry insider to the Investors Chronicle."


i feel there is no coincidence here that the 20th was rollover day for them they emailed me the previous week asking if i wanted to rollover spreadbets which i did
sodoes anyone know if its your total balance we will get back on the 50k protection scheme or just cash in the account

i knew buying shares in companies was a risk obviously and have had them go bust before but didnt think this would/could happen to my using the term loosely stockbroker

[ducatiman] 21/3/2012 10:04

apparently they have been closing out positions, explains some of the unexplained share price moves in a few areas.

[m.t.glass] 21/3/2012 10:01

...Barriers between client funds and those used by the company for its own account were first breached at least three years ago, according to sources close to the ­matter... (Daily Express)



If that's true, it doesn't sound like raiding the clients' money was just a desperate attempt to square some recent trading anomoly.

[mikeja] 21/3/2012 06:59

One thing I am not clear about is whether the £16.6m cash which KPMG have talked about includes shares held by WSPR as hedges.These exist or at least existed I believe ay the time of the suspension.One or two of my holdings were in lightly traded stocks.Some clarity would be helpful

[m.t.glass] 21/3/2012 06:27

More than 80pc of staff working at failed spreadbetting group WorldSpreads have been made redundant and told they will not receive salary payments owed to them this month...

...The group of 52 City workers were informed of their fate on Monday by administrators at KPMG, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Staff were told that they will need to apply to the Government's Redundancy Payments Office for compensation - which can take several weeks to pay out.

A spokesman for KPMG said: "We can confirm that, unfortunately 52 staff from Worldspreads Limited have been made redundant as administrators wind down the business.

"Around 12 have been retained to help with the wind down. KPMG is helping staff made redundant, who will need to claim wages owed through the Government redundancy scheme." ......

...KPMG has said there will be no actual sale of the business, although some of its software and data centre assets could be sold.

ETX Capital is thought to be among the interested parties although experts have warned it may be hard to sell client data as spreadbetters typically gamble with more than one provider.

"It's very hard to gain market share by buying client lists full of people that already bet with you," one well placed source said.

Clients at the company have set up an action group following its collapse.

Experts fear WorldSpread's collapse will lower consumer confidence in financial services providers such as brokers and spreadbetters. Segregated customer accounts are meant to ensure that client money is not "commingled" with company money.

Simon Bevan, head of Fraud at BDO, said: " When it comes to client funds there is no room for light touch regulation. Such businesses should be subjected to onerous regulatory oversight. This approach should be taken to any area where the potential fraud victims are individual investors or customers."


See full article at

[mikeja] 20/3/2012 19:52

Thanks SC.
Have made and lost fortunes over 50 years in the market,it makes one philosophical,have found Zen Teachings a great help.In this my life has been truly blessed.
For me this is the writing on the wall,time to hang up ones boots.
The same teacher said,'When people are unsympathetic to you and the world does not go as you wish,this should be a help to detachment from the repetitious cycle of becoming and decay,gaining and losing".

[wexboy] 20/3/2012 19:41

Worldspreads crazy 'zero-spreads' ads/boast: I didn't even dig into this, I just thought it was another stupid part of their ill-fated expansion strategy.

But I'm somewhat curious now - is anybody aware of how Worldspreads proposed making money from zero spreads?! Or is this integral to this whole collapse?

[volsung] 20/3/2012 18:17

I've taken any spare cash out of my s/b accounts. If it has happened here its probably going on at one or two others. They just haven't been rumbled yet. Take care.

[the ballcock] 20/3/2012 17:56

CITY of London police have been asked to investigate an alleged fraud at spread-better WorldSpreads.

The company was put into administration late on Sunday after a £13m "black hole" was found in the accounts, putting around 15,000 clients – mostly retail customers – at risk of losing almost half their money.

Administrators KPMG said clients were owed £29.7m, which should have been held in a segregated customer account, but that the group's total cash came to just £16.6m. It appears that WorldSpreads broke the golden rule that client money should not be "commingled" with company money.

Despite the missing funds, KPMG is hopeful that clients will get all their money back. Clients had on average just £2,000 each on balance with the company, well below the £50,000 automatic protection given under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).

The FSCS, funded by the financial services industry, will be liable for any shortfall after recoveries made by the administrators. At its peak, the Dublin-based company, which listed on Aim in 2007, was worth about £40m. Shareholders are not expected to recover anything. WorldSpreads had no loans bar a small working capital facility.

The sudden collapse and allegations of fraud raised questions about the sudden departures last week of chief executive Conor Foley, WorldSpreads' founder and largest shareholder, and its finance director of eight years, Niall O'Kelly.

Mr Foley released a statement, saying: "[He] wishes to make it clear that the first he learned of these issues was on Friday morning last, at the same time as the rest of the board. His decision to step down earlier last week was completely unrelated to these issues."

Mr O'Kelly had originally tendered his resignation in February after a profits warning. At the time, the company said it "maintains a strong balance sheet with net cash of €7m [£5.8m]".

The collapse of WorldSpreads will also pose questions for its auditors, Ernst & Young. E&Y declined to comment yesterday.

Rivals are now believed to be considering offers for WorldSpreads' client list and technology platform. It had recently embarked on an aggressive global expansion, with moves into South Africa, Israel and Europe. ETX Capital is reported to have already held discussions with KPMG. It is not clear what will happen to the company's 66 staff, most of whom are based in London.

KPMG will retain them "to support the orderly wind down of the business", but it said "unfortunately, redundancies are likely". The Financial Services Authority is investigating the "accounting irregularities" and has asked the police to look at the situation. The police declined to comment.

[and then] 20/3/2012 17:39

Should have been named 'Wouldspreads'

[wexboy] 20/3/2012 16:20

Yeah, a pound or a million pounds, it's not going to do much either way

[samuelchristo] 20/3/2012 16:11

mikeja,

As I understand it describing your WS losses as 'major' is somewhat of an understatement. All I can say to you is that your comment above is exemplary and you set a fine example for many who might have lost money here and elsewhere in these corrupt markets.

No doubt your approach to life, rather than your finances, has thus far afforded you a wonderful existence. I wish you the very best going forward.

Cheers.

SC

[m.t.glass] 20/3/2012 15:33

Wex - I wouldn't expect ETX to pay anything at all for WS - beyond maybe a token £1 plus a later sum contingent on certain outcomes.

[wexboy] 20/3/2012 15:06

Yeah, it's rare, but we were there in Jan - English Market, Waterstone's & HMV (before they disappear..?!), a few shops, a nice lunch, a great pub or two (oh, and an ace turkish kebab!). And I owe the good lady a night or two in Kinsale some time. I'll give you a shout whenever we plan to make it again.

[liarspoker] 20/3/2012 14:37

Hi Wexboy - contact me the next time you are coming to Cork and we'll meet up. My contact info can be found at www.Market-Swings.com

[wexboy] 20/3/2012 14:30

Hi folks,

Faced with two Irish company scandals (Worldspreads & Siteserv) in a single day, I had to write this:



Any transaction with ETX is v touch and go, in my opinion, they might pay a knock-down price for some technology - but I don't expect anybody will 'buy' the clients (on the expectation they will quit/scale down their trading, or migrate to the biggest player(s)). I certainly wouldn't expect them to pay a price anywhere near the size of the black hole here.

Wexboy

[staverly] 20/3/2012 13:56

Just got back, too late to download R&A as KPMG have removed everything .... Has anyone got a pdf of current annual report? Thanks

[m.t.glass] 20/3/2012 11:46

"..Comparing Spread Betting can confirm we were approached by a marketing executive at Worldspreads in February with the offer of an affiliate deal, highlighting just how sudden the failure at the company was..."

[m.t.glass] 20/3/2012 11:39

I too am retired now. I too tend to shift cash balances back to my bank if no imminent activity planned. Several hundred quid trapped in WS for the moment, rather than thousands. I mostly use IG for sbets, and only used WS for stocks that IG didn't offer.

[llados] 20/3/2012 11:27

Thanks MTG, but for my own peace of mind I guess I will send an email to register my situation. Luckily not a lot down, being retired and needing immediate income, I was in the habit of always transferring cash when gained, good practice as it turned out. I will miss the guys who dealt with my account, (not the directors of course), but don't know whether to open a SB account elsewhere. L.