Negative balance protection is a policy, not a law of nature

[Shadow Trader]

Plenty of brokers advertise it, regulators in some regions require it, and a lot of traders assume it covers everything under every circumstance.

It covers a lot. It doesn't always cover the same things everywhere. Terms vary by legal entity, by country of registration, and sometimes by account type or client classification. A "professional" client label, an offshore entity or a promotional account can quietly remove the protection without any announcement.

Gaps are exactly where it matters. When price jumps through a stop with nothing in between, a balance can go below zero for a moment, and what happens next depends entirely on the paper trail and on whether the broker chooses to enforce its right to collect.

The only way to know is reading the clause itself, not the marketing summary.

Has anyone read the negative balance clause line by line, and did the wording match what the sales page promised?