My personal experience as a 54-year-old retail trader from Pakistan

I am writing this because I want Exness, its management and the relevant financial regulators to understand what I experienced and why I believe the Gold membership and EXD reward system influenced my trading decisions in a harmful way.

I joined Exness with trust. I believed I was using a professional trading platform where membership benefits and rewards were intended to provide value to customers. As I progressed toward Gold membership, I became increasingly interested in maintaining my status and receiving more rewards.

At the time, I did not fully appreciate how strongly the expectation of future rewards could influence my decisions. I kept thinking that if I continued trading, maintained my membership and increased my activity, I might receive more benefits.

That hope became an important reason I continued trading.

1. How the reward system influenced my decisions

In my experience, the membership and reward structure created an expectation that continuing to trade could bring additional benefits. Rather than concentrating only on whether each trade was appropriate for my financial circumstances, I was also thinking about my membership status and the rewards I hoped to receive.

I wanted to maintain Gold membership. I wanted to increase my EXD rewards. I believed there might be more benefits available if I continued.

I now question whether I gave too much importance to those incentives and whether the conditions and limitations were sufficiently clear to me.

I am not claiming that every reward programme is automatically manipulative. My allegation is that, in my circumstances, the combination of membership status, the hope of additional rewards and my continued trading influenced my behaviour in a way that I now consider harmful.

I want Exness to examine how its programme was presented to me, what information I received, and whether I was given a clear understanding of the actual benefits and the conditions required to obtain them.

2. I borrowed money while trying to maintain my membership

This is one of the most painful parts of my experience.

I am 54 years old. I am not a wealthy investor with unlimited money to risk. Every amount matters to me.

Yet I continued trying to maintain my Gold membership and pursue additional rewards. I borrowed money while doing so. I was acting with the hope that continuing to participate would bring benefits, but my financial situation became more difficult.

Looking back, I ask myself why I continued. One reason was my expectation of receiving more rewards and benefits. I now believe that this expectation affected my judgement.

I understand that I made my own trading decisions. I am not asking Exness to pretend that market risk does not exist. But I believe a fair investigation should also consider whether the company's membership and reward incentives encouraged me to continue trading when I was already under financial pressure.

A reward that encourages a customer to keep pursuing the next benefit can become harmful if the customer does not fully understand the costs, conditions and risks involved.

I want to know whether Exness considered these risks when presenting its membership and rewards programme to ordinary retail customers.

3. My losses increased, but my hope for rewards continued

I noticed that my losses increased after I obtained Gold membership. I began to question whether my pursuit of status and rewards was helping me or keeping me engaged in trading when I should have stopped.

The possibility of receiving further benefits remained in my mind. I wanted to improve my status and obtain more rewards, and I continued trading with that expectation.

I now believe I placed too much trust in the programme. I should have focused more on protecting my money, but the hope of additional rewards became part of my decision-making.

This is why I describe my experience as manipulation through incentives. I am explaining how I experienced the system and how it affected my behaviour. I want Exness and regulators to investigate whether the actual design and presentation of the programme support or contradict my concerns.

I am not claiming that Exness directly caused every individual trading loss. I am asking whether its incentives contributed to decisions that increased my exposure to financial risk.

4. The EXD cashback problem made my concerns worse

My trading account is 24000015219.

During my recent conversations with Exness support, an agent confirmed that I had 22.48 EXD available in my account.

I explained repeatedly that I had been trading for several days but was not seeing the USD cashback I expected. I asked why my EXD was not being applied to the trading costs I had already incurred.

Initially, support explained how EXD cashback normally works. I was told that eligible trading costs could be offset by EXD and that cashback would be credited according to the programme's conditions.

However, that did not answer my specific question about my own trading history.

I was later told that no EXD had been used against the spreads on the trades executed on my account. I had also received a notification for $0.04 cashback, but that was not the missing cashback I was asking about.

I asked Exness to calculate my eligible spreads and commissions over the previous three days, explain why the EXD had not been applied, and manually credit any cashback I was entitled to receive.

Instead, my issue was referred to another team for review, and I was told that I would receive an update later.

I am still seeking a clear explanation.

If 22.48 EXD was available, why was it not used on eligible trades? Was there a setting I needed to activate? Were my trades ineligible? Was there a technical problem? Or had I misunderstood a condition that should have been explained more clearly?

These are reasonable questions. I want answers based on my actual account records, not another general explanation of how the reward programme works.

5. Why I now question the whole reward programme

The cashback problem is not the only reason I am concerned. It has made me question the broader relationship between Gold membership, trading activity and the expectation of additional benefits.

I was trying to increase my rewards and maintain my status. I believed continuing to participate would bring further benefits. I borrowed money while pursuing that goal, and I experienced increasing financial stress.

Now, when I ask why the EXD was not applied to my trades, I am told that the issue must be reviewed by another team.

From my perspective, I was encouraged by the prospect of rewards, but when I needed a clear explanation of those rewards, I could not get an immediate answer.

This has damaged my trust in Exness.

I want the company to explain how the membership programme is intended to work, what incentives are linked to trading activity, what restrictions apply, and whether its communications could lead a customer to overestimate the benefits or underestimate the financial risks.

I also want the company to examine my account history before and after I obtained Gold membership. That review should include my trading activity, deposits, withdrawals, losses, reward eligibility and the information presented to me.

6. Is there one standard for financial companies and another for ordinary customers?

I am an ordinary retail trader from Pakistan. I do not have the resources of a major financial institution. I cannot afford to keep depositing money or taking further trading risks just to find out why a reward was not credited.

When a customer complains, a company should investigate the actual facts and provide a meaningful response. A customer should not have to repeat the same question to several support agents without receiving a clear answer.

I believe financial companies have a responsibility to make incentives transparent and to ensure that customers can understand the conditions attached to them.

I want the relevant regulator to examine whether the rewards and membership programme was presented fairly, whether its conditions were sufficiently clear, and whether my experience raises concerns that deserve further investigation.

I am not asking regulators to accept my allegations without evidence. I am asking them to examine the evidence and determine whether the programme and the way it was applied to my account complied with the rules governing the relevant Exness entity.

7. What I want Exness to do now

I request that Exness:

Investigate how Gold membership and EXD rewards influenced my trading decisions.

Review the information, promotional messages and reward conditions presented to me.

Compare my trading activity, losses and costs before and after I obtained Gold membership.

Provide a complete calculation of my eligible spreads, commissions and EXD cashback.

Explain why my available 22.48 EXD was not applied to eligible trades.

Manually credit any outstanding cashback I am entitled to receive, if permitted under its procedures.

Consider refunding my trading losses to the extent that an investigation establishes that misleading information, errors or other misconduct materially contributed to them.

Consider appropriate additional compensation for substantiated financial harm, borrowing-related costs, distress and inconvenience attributable to established wrongdoing.

Provide a formal complaint reference number and a reasoned written response.

I do not want to deposit more money or place more trades to resolve this issue. I cannot afford further losses simply to pursue rewards that I believed were available to me.

8. My message to the CEO and regulators

I trusted Exness. I pursued Gold membership and rewards because I believed they offered benefits worth working toward. I now believe that the expectation of those benefits influenced me to continue trading and contributed to decisions that harmed my financial situation.

I am asking Exness to investigate whether that experience reflects a problem with the way its membership and rewards programme was designed, presented or administered.

I am asking the relevant regulators to consider my evidence and determine whether the programme was fair and compliant with the applicable rules.

I am 54 years old. I borrowed money while pursuing these benefits, experienced losses and suffered significant emotional stress. I want my experience to be examined seriously—not dismissed simply because I am an ordinary customer with a small account.

I accept that trading involves risk. But I do not accept that the existence of trading risk removes a company's responsibility to explain its incentives clearly, apply its reward rules correctly and treat customer complaints fairly.

I want answers. I want the cashback I am entitled to receive. I want Exness to review my losses and consider compensation where justified by the evidence. And I want regulators to examine whether other retail customers could face similar problems.

My allegation is that the Gold membership and EXD reward incentives influenced me to keep trading in the hope of further benefits, even as my financial situation worsened. I want that allegation investigated fairly and independently.

This is not a demand for special treatment. It is a request for transparency, accountability and fair treatment.

An ordinary trader's trust should not become a source of financial harm.

— Abdul Salam, 54 years old
Pakistan
Exness trading account: 24000015219