Due to a regrettable technical error that occurred on 27.08.2018, long EOS positions were closed by mistake. The incident happened during a one-time configuration procedure, in which a system error triggered an instruction to ‘take profit’ on all long EOS positions. We were able to quickly identify the problem and promptly issue notifications about the event on the platform, as well as personally to our clients who were affected by the error.
We worked as swiftly as possible to minimise any negative effects to our clients and issued updates that kept the eToro community informed every step of the way. We would like to reassure you that we take this event very seriously and appreciate your patience and understanding while we bring this matter to a resolution.
What steps are being taken?
System errors do occasionally occur, unfortunately, no matter how careful we try to be. That said, however, we always strive to learn from such errors and constantly refine our systems in order to avoid any incidents as much as is humanly possible. To this end, we have enhanced our protocols for existing and future code development and improved the QA (Quality Assurance) process.
Restoring EOS positions
If your EOS position was closed in error, a new position has been opened for you at the same (or slightly better) rate at which the original position was closed, with the new trades holding the same number of units as the original position. As you would expect, no spreads were charged on reopening these positions.
Clients whose EOS positions were closed and then reopened, may notice that while the trade unit size remains the same, the equity invested is different. Please be assured that your exposure to EOS is exactly the same as your initial purchase. The difference in equity invested is simply due to the change in EOS’s value from the time the original position was opened.
Understanding Value vs Price
The value of every position on every instrument on eToro is represented by a simple formula: Number of Units X Current Price = Value.
Here is an example in order to illustrate:
If you purchased 10 units of EOS at $10, and the price later dropped to $5, your overall value is 10 EOS X $5 = $50. Not $100.
If you close your position, you will ‘realise’ a $50 loss, but still retain the ability to purchase the same number of EOS units (10) as before.
If you choose to buy again, you will retain the same level of exposure to the price of EOS as you had in the initial purchase.
Other cases and their resolution
In some instances, EOS positions were reopened and spreads were inadvertently charged. We have refunded these spreads and the relevant users were notified.
In other cases, we were unable to reopen the EOS trades due to insufficient funds in the affected user’s account. These users received compensation according to the following calculation: the difference between the closing rate of the closed position(s) and $6.4, which was the rate at the time plus a little extra room to allow for market fluctuation.
In regards to copied EOS positions which were closed, we approached this process in the manner that we deemed to be most appropriate, which was to maintain the copy proportionality originally in place within the copy relationship. Users who received fewer units as a result of restoring the copy ratio were refunded the cost of the spread on the relevant positions.
If you are a client who was affected by this issue and have any additional questions, please open a ticket with our customer service team, and we will be happy to assist you. Please note that the response time may be slightly longer than usual as we handle each case individually, but be assured that one of our agents will get back to you as soon as possible.
We thank you again for your patience while we bring this matter to a satisfactory resolution, and apologise for any inconvenience it may have caused.