A 5% penalty applies when you withdraw without what Errante calls significant trading activity. It applies again if you deposit and withdraw without trading in your first three months. Your contract never says how much trading is enough.
Why this matters
Put in $1,000, change your mind, and Errante can keep $50 before you place a single trade. You cannot check the test, because the number that decides it sits on a page Errante can change without asking you.
Exhibit 1Every flagged clause gets its own number so you can point at this one. The number does not change, so a link to it keeps working.CriticalHow much this clause can cost you, in our reading. Critical can take your money or your profit. Warning can delay or limit it. Notice is simply worth knowing before you sign.Rarely seenHow ordinary this wording looks next to the contracts we read. This is our reading of the clause, not a count of other brokers.5%The figure this clause puts a number on, taken from the broker's own words.
The Company has the right to charge a fee/penalty for withdrawal without having traded. Specifically, in case of a withdrawal request (i) without significant trading activity, or (ii) when traded with us for arbitrage, or (iii) without trading activity during the first three months since the day the account was initially funded an additional fee/penalty up to 5% will be charged.
What it costsThe same clause worked out on a round number, so you can see it in money or in days. It is an example, not a quotation.A $1,000 deposit withdrawn before you open 2 lots costs $50. You get $950 back, having never traded.
Firms licensed by the FCA and CySEC must give a retail client the costs and charges of a service before that client trades. This contract fixes the charge at up to 5% and sends the reader to a web page for both the rate and the trigger.
Errante is not licensed by these regulators, so this is a comparison of practice, not a finding of any breach.
Our readingOur own comment on the clause, not the broker's words. Anything we quote is marked as a quotation.Recovering a payment cost on an untraded deposit is common. Charging a percentage of the whole withdrawal as a penalty, with the qualifying volume set on a marketing page rather than in the contract, is not.
- Only applies after Exhibit 2This clause only bites once the other one has been applied.The penalty turns on a phrase Errante defines two different ways, so you cannot work out in advance whether you owe it.
- Worse together with Exhibit 17Read these two clauses together. Each one costs more because the other exists.Errante advertises a bonus that requires trading while this clause penalises you for not trading enough.