‘Trainee trader’ sues to keep £10m profit

♦ A “novice” trader who made £10million in profit after making a huge trade under the impression he was only simulating has taken legal action against a British firm after it refused to let him keep the money.

Harouna Traoré is suing Uk-based Valbury Capital after it seized earnings he made while using what he believed was a demonstration platform.

The day trader opened a £20,000 account last year after using simulation trading software to practise dealing in equity futures, according to the Financial Times. A couple of weeks into the training, he placed a £1billion order for securities, before realising he was losing more than £1million on a live system. In a bid to recoup his losses, he carried on trading, making a profit of more than £10million and building a $5billion (£3.8billion) position in US stock futures.

Valbury claimed that Mr Traoré was in breach of his contract and that his holdings were “void and cancelled”.

In January, he filed a writ against Valbury in a Paris court as a consumer, claiming it owed him £10million.

The Indonesian-owned firm is expected to argue that Mr Traoré is a professional, and that the case should not be heard in France, which offers higher protection for consumers.

Robert Falkner, a partner at Reed Smith, the law firm acting for Valbury, said: “We are familiar with the spurious allegations made by ... Mr Traoré (a seasoned market risk analyst formerly employed by Reuters), which are strongly denied as wholly without merit and will be vigorously contested.”