I Lost Money After Trusting Garanti BBVA Investment Advice
The date I marked as a dark day in my life is 09/04/2025 — the day I first spoke on the phone with Ö*** Ç*** K**** from Garanti BBVA’s Balıkesir / Western Anatolia / Investment department. Her business card says “Senior Investment Products Manager,” but I suspect that must be a printing error; I find it hard to believe Garanti BBVA would give such a title to someone so disconnected from and uninformed about the markets.
Let me briefly explain why I think this way: On that dark day, she called me claiming to be my investment advisor (though I doubt she’s even qualified to sit at a reception desk). She gave an incomplete explanation of daily credit for trading, which I said I didn’t need. Since I was already satisfied with the branch manager and my representative at Garanti BBVA’s Anafartalar branch, I assumed the investment side would be just as competent and gave it a chance — I wish I hadn’t.
You can listen to the recordings of our conversations; her incomplete explanations are all there. She recommended a stock and was so confident that even when I said I’d buy ₺1,000,000 worth, she insisted on going straight for ₺2,000,000. Her overconfidence and pushy attitude surprised me, especially in today’s market conditions — and the result was disastrous: a loss from day one and daily interest added on top. I tried calling her the next day but couldn’t reach her. A new customer had just opened a position and was losing money — she should’ve informed the client. I called again, still no answer. The gentleman filling in for her was even ruder, saying things like “Then just sell it.”
I trusted my own market knowledge, waited, and eventually exited with a profit. But thanks to Ms. Ö***’s confident advice, I’ve suffered significant losses over the past two months. She and her supervisor, M***** T***, offered an absurd justification for the damage they caused: “Well, you have losses in your other stocks too.” The thing is, I made those investments with my own money and deliberately positioned them long-term, so temporary losses are acceptable to me. Besides, I’ve made serious profits before through my own decisions. What they fail to understand is that my apparent losses are actually gains from profit-taking — which is none of their concern in the first place.
