so i am 21 years old living in Toronto. i study at university of Toronto. decided to open an account with oanda(i researched at found it to be the most reliable). However, my application was not approved and i was told this is because i am a “student”. as anyone experienced this before? and can anyone suggest a good broker if i cant make my way into oanda?
Most brokers do a “client suitability” test to see if you are suitable for trading their products. In your case, it could due to several factors why you weren’t approved from financial reasons to knowledge concerns of FX.
I’m sure its fairly common in well regulated jurisdictions for speculative financial accounts to be unavailable to persons with no income.
And if you would have told them you were a retired millionaire, how would they have known you were a student. You are not Amoral enough to make money trading, you must put aside you parochial viewpoints of “Truth” and get on with making money.
The Ever Amoral VIPER
If you follow this advice, I wish you good luck with the whip-lash injury claim too.
What do I do then?
The curse of being a student.
I have seen you around. Amazing posts by the way 
The companies I have traded with over here demand some proof of income as well as the usual stuff like ID, proof of address etc. This is both against them taking advantage of ill-informed novices but also to comply with anti-money laundering laws.
You could talk to the company and see what you have to do to comply with their requirements. Its in their interests to help you open an account if its possible.
and why do you think you must be absolutely honest when you tell your broker your life circumstances?
is there any law that says "brokers are gods, the church and the government in one person (financial holy trinity [lol]) and you will be doomed if you are not 100% honest?
men. just invent some crap. the only reason your broker refused you is because you are a poor student and “bucket broker number xyz” perceived you as “not worth their time” since there isnt enough meat (money) to get out of your death body.
tell them you are a student who inherted 150.000 from his grandpa and want to try their brokarage with a tiny sum before you invest more and you will see the red carpet beeing rolled for you.
1 Like
This is all fine until you have made quite a lot of profits and decide to withdraw them. This is the time when they’re going to have to hand over actual cash. This is the time when they start to dig into your details. This is the time they will ask for documentary proof of this and that which you said on your application. And this is the time when they will say they regret to inform you that you are a dick and while they will refund your initial deposit, no profits are coming your way. You dick.
slightly more complicated than that.
with profits at hand i suggest you consult a expensive lawyer. actually consult KPMG or one other of the “Big Four” (or is it still the big five? who knows- keeps changing) auditing firms. they have lawyers at hand- and trust me, once a broker sees the KPMG shorting or the PwC in a mail letter threatening them to forcefull foreclosure- you will get money withdrawls even more than you got on your account balance.
No. Once a broker has evidence that you said XYZ in an application for an account but cannot produce documentary evidence, then you are sunk. Sure they’'ll let you trade, its no skin off their noses to let unrealised gain build up in the account. But wait till you want to withdraw the profits. You won’t even find legal representation.
wont find legal representation? a lawyer cleans your shoes if the money is right. i never heard a lawyer saying “save the money we cant sue on this case”.
trust me, you will always find a lawyer. and a lawyer always finds a reason to sue someone.
anyways. brokers (depending on the country you come from) are liable to stick to the laws and regulations of their country of business. in pretty much all countries i know the regulations are that the client must be informed about “xyz” (usually risks) but nowhere that a client must be refused by any other reason than that he is not 18 or (thats a big “or”, since we are not debating this topic here) the client tries to engage a european brokerage while he is a USA tax liable person (then problems can occur, but those can be solved as well). or- (thats a big “or” as well) the client might be engaged in money laundring for specific entities/persons (government sanctioned people like moscow politians sanctioned from US/EU governments) or the client might be associated with money laundring/financing terrorist entities.
the only reason your broker can refuse to pay you out is if you falsified your documents (ID), opened a bank account on a invented person or entity, you evidentily frauded your broker (must be proven by broker). But even on falsified ID or issues regarding USA tax liability the broker can not (and will not have any interests) in banning you from withdrawing funds. he will have interests in getting rid of you as a client and forcefully close your account and pay you out the balance (including all gains/profits you made). if you falsified your ID, all you need to do is prove who you are and that you are not on the US/EU sanction list, not associated with terrorism or funding such style, that you are not associated on interpol with financing/money laundring of criminal organisations- and your broker will still oay you out with all your profits.
my comment about the big four is what hurts the brokers. nowadays you cant operate any public listed company without beeind audited by one of the big four. once one of them puts a broker on a “difficult list” banks will stop making business with that broker.
and now just to make sure i dont catch “smart” comments like “brokers refuse you if you dont have 50k or some regulatory necesarry documents”- we are exclusevely talking about retail client brokers here. not about the real brokers.
If you obtain an account by making a false declaration to a broker, they can refuse to pay you profits from your account if you cannot corroborate statements you made to them in obtaining the account. They don’t have to prove you lied in order to do this, just that you cannot prove what you said when you applied. Likewise if you didn’t inform them of a material change in circumstances subsequently.
In addition, at least in the UK, they may pass details to the police who may take a criminal prosecution in respect of obtaining services by means of a false declaration. This happens all the time to people who make an exaggerated or bogus insurance claim.
Advising traders on this forum that they can void their contracts with brokers through falsification of their personal details is the most irresponsible thing you could do.
I just wanted people reading this comment to know my issue has been resolved. After applying to several brokers, the only one willing to accept me were Questrade. So i went with them. To the person i suggested i invent something up, i am afraid i have no such skills. Last week, the only sentence that came out of my mouth when my professor asked about my late assignment submission was " sorry, i couldn’t catch the bus in time". assignment was due weeks ago…
Anyways Happy trading Everyone!
1 Like