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Contract reading

What LINE FX legally published, but does not want you to read

Every clause below is published by LINE FX itself, on its own website, today. The finding is not that the text exists. It is the distance between what a client is shown and what a client agreed to. Read from its own documents on .

Contracting entity: LINE証券株式会社

sole discretionaccount restrictionshidden feeliability exclusionmargin calloutagebonus lockcomplaintsconflict of interestcost disclosure

LINE FX is a properly licensed Japanese broker with zero commission and a full public archive of its past documents. Its system failure policy is the problem. LINE FX takes orders over the internet only, and it keeps that rule even when its own platform breaks. It can also void a fill it later judges wrong, and it lists the profit you lose that way as something it will not pay back.

Back to LINE FX

Contract risk

Harder than average
5.5/10

Where this contract sitsHow far this contract goes, overall. Under 2 is nothing beyond the ordinary; 6 to 9 means several clauses put money you have already earned at risk; 9 and above reads as designed to make payout refusable.

0510
CriticalClauses that can cost you money you have already earned or deposited, or that remove your ability to challenge it.
4
FlaggedEvery clause worth knowing about, at all three severities. Ordinary terms that every broker has are not counted.
10
DocumentsHow many of the broker's own legal files this reading is based on. Each one was downloaded and hashed on the date shown.
17
ContradictionsPlaces where a promise the broker makes in public is not kept by the clause that governs it.
1

How the 10 break downThe same flagged clauses, split by how much each one can cost you. Severity is our reading of the clause, not the broker's label.

Critical4
Warning4
Notice2

The numbers in this contractFigures taken from this broker's own clauses, so the labels differ from broker to broker. The four in the panel above are the same on every report.

1 of these 1 figures comes from a clause we rate critical, which means it can take your money or your profit rather than only delay it.

Critical100%Account limit. Jump to the clause this comes from.Your loss can pass your deposit and become a debt

What the documents say

10 clauses worth knowing about, worst first, each quoted from LINE FX's own files

01

LINE FX takes orders over the internet only. Its system failure policy keeps that rule even when its own platform is the thing that broke. It will not take your order by phone or email instead.

Why this matters

If the platform fails while you hold a losing position, you have no second channel to close it. LINE FX treats the profit you lose that way as an opportunity loss and will not compensate it.

Exhibit 1CriticalRarely seen

LINE FXにかかる注文は、インターネット上でのみ受付けるものとし、システム障害発生時においても、原則として、電話・電子メール等のその他の方法による注文の受付けは行いません。
Clause 3. システム障害時における受注等について in LINE FXシステム障害時の対応
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference
Our own capture of terms2.line.me, taken on Sep 7, 2026No phone dealing when the trading platform fails (clause 3. システム障害時における受注等について)Visit this page on the broker's siteDownload the full size image file
Set against a regulated standard: FCA (UK)

Firms licensed by the FCA must keep business continuity arrangements so a retail client can still act on an open position when the main channel fails. LINE FX states the opposite, that it will not accept orders by any other method during a system failure.

LINE FX is not licensed by this regulator, so this is a comparison of practice, not a finding of any breach.

Our readingA fallback dealing channel exists for one reason: the failure of the primary one. This policy removes the fallback at the exact moment the primary channel stops working, and states so in advance rather than leaving it unsaid.

  • Worse together with Exhibit 4An outage you cannot trade through, on an account where losses can pass your deposit, turns a stuck position into a debt you must settle in cash.
02

LINE FX closes your positions when your margin ratio falls under 100%. It warns that this can still leave a loss bigger than the cash you put in. You must then send the shortfall in.

In plain words

Negative balance protection is a limit that stops you owing more than you put in. Without it, one fast market move can leave you owing the broker money on top of your deposit.

Why this matters

You can come out of a weekend gap owing LINE FX money rather than simply losing your balance. It also says heavy load on its own systems can stop the loss cut running on schedule.

Exhibit 4CriticalStandard wording100%

決済等により損失の額が差し入れている証拠金の現金残高の額を上回った場合は現金不足となります。現金不足となった場合は、お客様は速やかに当該現金不足の額以上の現金を入金する必要があります。
Clause １２．現金不足金 in 取引ルール
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference
Our own capture of terms2.line.me, taken on Sep 7, 2026Your loss can pass your deposit and become a debt (clause １２．現金不足金)Visit this page on the broker's siteDownload the full size image file

What it costsAt the 4% margin rate LINE FX quotes, ¥100,000 supports a ¥2,500,000 position. Any loss past your cash balance is money you owe, not money you have lost.

Set against a regulated standard: FCA (UK), ESMA (EU), FSA (Japan)

Firms licensed by the FCA and under ESMA rules must give retail clients negative balance protection, so a retail account cannot go below zero. Japanese rules take a different route, capping leverage and requiring a loss cut, and LINE FX states that a shortfall remains payable by you.

LINE FX is not licensed by these regulators, so this is a comparison of practice, not a finding of any breach.

03

A price LINE FX quoted and filled can be cancelled afterwards if LINE FX decides it was far from the market. The trade is then treated as if it never happened.

Why this matters

Profit from a fill LINE FX later calls a bug rate is written off rather than paid. Its outage policy lists that exact situation among the losses it will not compensate.

Exhibit 3CriticalHarder than usual

提示価格が市場実勢相場と大幅に乖離している等、合理的に誤りと判断される場合には、当該提示価格は無効とし、当該提示価格に基づいた約定が取り消される場合があります。
Clause １４．その他留意事項（2）約定の取消 in 取引ルール
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference
Our own capture of terms2.line.me, taken on Sep 7, 2026LINE FX can void a fill it later calls an error (clause １４．その他留意事項（2）約定の取消)Visit this page on the broker's siteDownload the full size image file

Our readingCancelling a trade struck on a plainly wrong price is ordinary. Naming the profit lost that way as a non-compensable opportunity loss, in a separate document, is what pushes this past the usual wording.

  • Worse together with Exhibit 2A cancelled fill you do not query in time becomes a cancelled fill you have agreed to.
04

After a system failure, LINE FX may ask you to confirm whether your trades need correcting. Miss the deadline it sets and it treats your silence as accepting the screen as it stood. No correction is then made.

Why this matters

The document never says how long you get. LINE FX picks that deadline itself, case by case, so you cannot know it before an outage happens.

Exhibit 2CriticalHarder than usual

この場合、当社が指定する期限までにご連絡がない、または過誤処理の要否を確認できないお客様については、過誤処理前の画面表示について追認いただいたものとみなして、過誤処理を行いません。
Clause 4. 注文の取扱いについて in LINE FXシステム障害時の対応
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference
Our own capture of terms2.line.me, taken on Sep 7, 2026Silence after an outage counts as accepting the error (clause 4. 注文の取扱いについて)Visit this page on the broker's siteDownload the full size image file
Set against a regulated standard: FCA (UK), CySEC (Cyprus)

Firms licensed by the FCA and CySEC must give a retail client a set period to complain, published in advance and measured in months. LINE FX leaves the period to be named at the time and takes no answer as agreement.

LINE FX is not licensed by these regulators, so this is a comparison of practice, not a finding of any breach.

  • Worse together with Exhibit 3LINE FX decides both whether your fill was an error and how long you have to argue about it.
05

LINE FX advertises on its front page that every fee is ¥0. Its trading rules put the bank transfer charge on you when you fund the account by ordinary transfer. Quick deposit from seven partner banks is free.

Why this matters

Funding by ordinary bank transfer costs you your own bank's charge on every deposit. LINE FX covers that charge only on the quick deposit route.

Exhibit 7WarningStandard wording

・お客様専用の入金口座への振込みに係る振込手数料はお客様負担となります。詳細については、振込元の金融機関にご確認ください。
Clause １３．入出金（1）入金 ２）銀行振り込みで入金 in 取引ルール
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference

With no commission, the spread is the whole price you pay

LINE FX charges ¥0 commission, which makes the spread the entire cost of trading with it. That spread is fixed in principle only from 9:00 to 5:00 the next morning, and several pairs including TRY/JPY have no fixed spread at all. LINE FX also widens it around data releases and market shocks.

Cost disclosure1 clause flagged

Commission is ¥0, so the spread is what you pay LINE FX to trade. It is fixed in principle only between 9:00 and 5:00 the next morning. Some pairs, TRY/JPY among them, carry no fixed spread at all.

Why this matters

Trading between 5:00 and 9:00 costs you a wider spread than the advertised one. LINE FX also widens it around major data releases and market shocks.

Exhibit 8WarningStandard wording

※スプレッドは市場の急変時（震災などの天変地異・各国中央銀行の市場介入・その他外部要因）や市場の流動性が低下している状況（米国東部時間午後5時前後・年末年始・クリスマス時期など）、重要指標発表時間帯などにより、スプレッドが拡大する場合があります。
Clause スプレッド in 取引コスト（手数料・スプレッド）
Downloaded from the broker's site on Open the reference
Set against a regulated standard: FCA (UK), CySEC (Cyprus)

Firms licensed by the FCA and CySEC must disclose costs and charges to a retail client before they trade. LINE FX does publish its spread table and its exceptions, on a page separate from the front page claim that every fee is ¥0.

LINE FX is not licensed by these regulators, so this is a comparison of practice, not a finding of any breach.

LINE FX pays cashback from your fourth month, not your first

The LINE FX cashback program returns ¥1 per 10,000 currency units traded, starting three months after the month you applied. A separate new account benefit covers the gap. The doubled ¥2 rate needs ¥500,000 in cash at the New York close on the 15th of the previous month, and LINE FX can end the program without notice.

Rebate timing1 clause flagged

The LINE FX cashback program pays ¥1 for every 10,000 currency units you trade. It starts only three months after the month you applied. Doubling it to ¥2 needs ¥500,000 in cash on a set date.

Why this matters

A separate new account benefit covers your first months, then the ordinary rate takes over. LINE FX can change, pause or end the program without telling you first.

Exhibit 6WarningStandard wording

FX口座申込月の3カ月後以降のお客様
Clause 対象条件 in LINE FX キャッシュバックプログラム
Downloaded from the broker's site on Open the reference

What happens, and when

The stages this clause runs through, taken from the broker's own document
TriggerWhat the broker may then doClause
Application monthThe cashback program does not apply. A separate new account benefit covers this period.各特典の対象取引期間
End of the second month afterThe new account benefit period closes.以下の場合、キャッシュバック対象外とします
Three months afterCashback begins at ¥1 for every 10,000 currency units traded.対象条件

When the platform breaks, LINE FX gives you no other way to trade

LINE FX accepts orders over the internet only, and its system failure policy keeps that rule during its own outages. The same rules say a loss can pass the cash you deposited, leaving a shortfall you must pay in. LINE FX also warns that load on its own systems can stop the loss cut running at the intervals it set.

Losing control1 clause flagged

LINE FX can raise your margin requirement and cut your order limits when it sees a trading abnormality. It can also act when it only thinks one might be coming. No test is set for either.

Why this matters

A higher margin requirement on positions you already hold pushes you closer to a forced close. LINE FX does not have to show you what the abnormality was.

Exhibit 5WarningStandard wording

当社にてLINE FXの取引に異常があると認める場合又はそのおそれがあると認める場合には、次のような取引規制を行うことがあります。
Clause （10）取引規制 in 取引ルール
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference

LINE FX is your counterparty, and its policy never says so

LINE FX sells over the counter contracts, so the firm itself stands on the other side of every position you open. Its conflict of interest policy names two general categories of conflicted trade and never states this one. The only place cover banks appear is in the system failure policy.

In plain words

On a principal basis, as your counterparty, means the broker takes the other side of your trade itself. Your loss is then the firm’s gain, so it has an interest in how your trade ends.

Who takes the other side1 clause flagged

LINE FX is the other side of your trade, because these are over the counter contracts with the firm itself. Its conflict of interest policy lists general categories and never says this in plain words.

Why this matters

Unless LINE FX passes your position to a cover bank, your loss is its gain. The policy does not tell you which trades it hedges and which it keeps.

Exhibit 9NoticeStandard wording

お客様との間で利害の対立または競合が生じる取引
Clause 2.対象取引の特定・類型化 in 利益相反管理方針
Downloaded from the broker's site on Open the reference
Set against a regulated standard: FCA (UK), CySEC (Cyprus)

Firms licensed by the FCA and CySEC must tell a retail client when the firm is dealing as principal against them. LINE FX discloses the conflict through the product name 店頭, meaning over the counter, rather than in the conflict policy itself.

LINE FX is not licensed by these regulators, so this is a comparison of practice, not a finding of any breach.

A real Japanese registration, and cover only inside Japan

LINE証券株式会社 is registered with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau as financial instruments business operator number 3144, and belongs to the Japan Securities Dealers Association and the Financial Futures Association of Japan. It states that it serves residents of Japan only. Complaints can go to FINMAC, which it names and describes as a public third party body.

Licence and redress1 clause flagged

LINE証券株式会社 holds a Japanese financial instruments business registration, Kanto Local Finance Bureau number 3144. It says it serves people living in Japan only. Complaints can go to FINMAC, an outside body.

Why this matters

You get a named regulator and an independent complaints route, which many offshore brokers cannot offer. You get no cover from either if you live outside Japan.

Exhibit 10NoticeStandard wording

当社は日本国内にお住まいのお客様を対象にサービスを提供しています。
Clause サイトフッター in 金融政策・各国見通し
Read from the broker's site on Open the reference

Where the marketing and the contract disagree

A promise made in public, set against the clause that governs it

01

The front page says every fee is ¥0, while the trading rules put the bank transfer charge on you for one of the two ways to fund the account.

Said in public, in Japanese

LINE FXはあらゆる手数料が0円！

Word for word in English: With LINE FX every kind of fee is ¥0!

Japanese front page of line-sec.co.jp/fx, under the heading 取引コストが安い, meaning low trading costs

In the contract · clause １３．入出金（1）入金 ２）銀行振り込みで入金

・お客様専用の入金口座への振込みに係る振込手数料はお客様負担となります。詳細については、振込元の金融機関にご確認ください。

The documents this reading is based on

17 files, all published by LINE FX. Each shows when we read it and a fingerprint of its wording.

WIKILIX keeps the copy of each file it read, and does not republish it: what is published is the fingerprint of its wording. Download the file yourself and hash its text, lowercased with runs of whitespace collapsed, and a matching fingerprint means the wording quoted above is still the wording LINE FX publishes.

How this reading was done

Every clause above was read out of a document LINE FX publishes itself

This reading was published on .

Documents
4 of 17downloaded from the broker's site, and 4 read in full
Pages opened
45pages walked to find those documents, footer links included
Older copies
1earlier versions downloaded
Marketing pages
9public pages set against what the contract says

Who the contract is with

LINE証券株式会社

LINE証券株式会社 trades as LINE FX and signs itself LINE Securities Corporation in English. It holds a Japanese financial instruments business registration, 関東財務局長（金商）第3144号, and belongs to the Japan Securities Dealers Association and the Financial Futures Association of Japan. It states that it serves people living in Japan only. Trading is 店頭, meaning over the counter, so LINE証券 is itself the other side of your position unless it passes the risk to a cover bank.

Quotations are copied verbatim from the documents named above, with the clause number and the page each one came from. Where a clause is quoted in another language, the original is shown first and the English is a translation.

The plain-language parts, what a clause means for a client, how ordinary it is, and how it reads against a regulated standard, are WIKILIX's analysis and are labelled as such on every card. This is a reading of public documents, not legal advice and not an allegation of wrongdoing.

In fairness, and what we could not check

A reader who knows the edges of the work can trust the middle of it

LINE証券 publishes about 31 dated past versions of its trading explanation document and 36 old and new comparison tables going back to 2020. Any client can see what changed and when. Most brokers publish nothing like this. Trading commission is ¥0, LINE FX pays the transfer charge on quick deposits, and a withdrawal asked for before 15:00 is dated the next business day. The firm names FINMAC as an outside complaints body and states plainly that FINMAC is not one of its affiliates. Its outage policy also corrects execution errors in the client's favour, not only its own: where a trade filled at a worse price than it should have, LINE FX credits the difference.

We could not open LINE証券's PDF documents. That includes the 店頭外国為替証拠金取引の取引説明書, which is the bundle holding the pre-contract disclosure and the FX account terms, so the binding contract itself was not read. Everything quoted here comes from the HTML documents we read on LINE証券's own site: the trading rules, the fee and risk page, the system failure policy, the conflict of interest policy, the complaints page and the cashback terms. We did not read the privacy policy, the solicitation policy, the demo trading terms or the two derivative risk booklets. LINE証券 hosts these documents on LINE group addresses, and every one we cite is linked from the footer of its own site. The broker publishes an old and new comparison table dated 3 August 2026, but it is one of the files we could not open, so the latest revision could not be compared line by line.

How to check any of this yourself

Every quote above links to the LINE FX file it came from. This is what to do with it.

Open the three stepsFind the words in the source, work out the fingerprint, and read what a difference does and does not prove.

Open the source and search for the words

Every quote has a link under it. Open the file, or the web page, and search it for the words we quote. The clause number next to the quote tells you where to look.

If the words are not there any more, the source may have changed after we read it. That is worth knowing too. We keep the date we read it, and a code worked out from its wording, so the quote stays checkable.

What a fingerprint is

A fingerprint is a code worked out from what a source says. Change one word and the code changes completely. We keep two codes for every file we read, and the panel on each source shows both.

The first is the code of the exact file we downloaded. The second is the code of its wording alone, with capital letters lowered and runs of spaces collapsed. When the same words are saved as a new file, the first code changes and the second one stays the same.

Only the first code can be worked out on your own computer. Save the file, then run one of these, putting the name of the file you saved where the example is. The panel on each source prints the command with that source's real file name already in it.

macOS or Linux:
  shasum -a 256 the-file-you-saved.pdf

Windows:
  certutil -hashfile the-file-you-saved.pdf SHA256

The two codes are different from each other, and they are not meant to match. Comparing one against the other proves nothing.

What a difference means, and what it does not

A different file code on its own proves nothing. A PDF saved again with a new date inside it is a new file saying exactly the same thing.

A different wording code means the words themselves changed. That is the one that matters, and it is why we keep it.

Even then, a change is not proof of bad faith. Companies update their documents. What this report says is what the document said on the day we read it, and every quote carries that date.

A source that is a web page and not a file has no file to save, so only the code of its wording is shown.

How this report is made

Every clause quoted above comes from a document LINE FX publishes on its own website, downloaded and hashed on the date shown, with the clause number and page recorded so any reader can check it. We do not allege anything the documents do not say, and we do not judge LINE FX on anything other than its own published terms and its own public marketing. Where a clause has a qualifier that softens it, the report says so. Last read Sep 7, 2026.

If you represent LINE FX and a clause has changed, been withdrawn, or is being read out of context, tell us and we will re-read the documents and update this page. Corrections from the broker are welcome and are published with the reading they change. Contact us.

This is a reading of a contract, not legal advice and not a ruling on LINE FX. Whether its licence is real and current is a separate check on the broker profile.

Back to the LINE FX profile