Broker Problem: Please Help

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by Trader12323, Nov 17, 2007.

  1. My HK based futures broker recently announced they are planning a $24/ annum minimum commission fee on my company account. I’m advised such a commission schedule is highly out of the norm and I’m seeking a way to resolve this.

    Background info:
    Account was set up last year for managing client money (separately managed accounts).
    There were delays (12 months) in funding the account as my seed investors backed out last minute.
    There was no mention of a minimum fee, nor reference to account inactivity during the account set up, nor in the brokers client agreement.
    I’ve incurred costs to the tune of $20K+ in drafting my client legal documents specifically with this broker.

    Any ideas on how to resolve this? The capital raising is still work in progress and will take time. In the mean time I’ve offered to fund the account with $200K personal funds for trading, but they won’t back down on the $24K fee, coming back with ‘if you’re not generating that kind of commission we’re not interested in having you as client’, ‘take the fee is a normal business expense’, ‘you’ve not funded the account for a year, we’re not interested’, ‘we can give you another 6 months then the fee will kick in’, ‘nothing we can do to help’, ‘management decision, can’t be changed’ etc etc etc.

    Since this fee was not detailed in the initial agreement, surely this would be a breach of their terms of engagement? Their 'grace period' of a further 6 months is definitely not enough time to get a new business off the ground. I stand to loose all my legal fees if they don’t back down.

    Many thanks

    Best
    Trader1