I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of our respective US Representatives & Senators aren’t even aware of how this horrific piece of legislation (Frank - Dodd) has negatively affected the freedom & ability of every US citizen to earn a living as a trader. This facist regime, along with their minions in Congress and the bureacrats they’ve empowered have simple gone too far and this crap must first be stopped and then repealed or amended! They may have the regulatory power to dictate to and force their will on domestic brokers, but it’s beyond belief that this kind of power can extend abroad. We’ve all seen just about every off-shore broker that once gladly accepted US clients cave in one by one to the CFTC and now we’re like a bunch of leepers. Who would have ever imagined that being a US citizen would be a such a curse and grounds for this kind of international discrimination? Maybe it’s too late, nothing can be done and we just have to try and play by their ridiculous rules or quit … but maybe not, at least without a fight. The House of Representatives currently has a large Republican majority and many of them are newly elected and conservative. Although the Senate is still controlled by the Dems, there are now also quite a few newly elected, conservative Republican Senators there, as in my state (PA). Perhaps if someone who is adept at writing and very familiar with the all the nuances of this legislation would craft a letter that addresses these issues, it could be posted here and in other forms. This letter could then be copied and sent out by those of us that still care about liberty & freedom to all of our respective Representatives & Senators. I’m certain that many of them are not even aware of this intrusive government overeach. Best case, we luck out and one of these letters happens to reach a patriot in DC that still believes in a government that is for the people, by the people & of the people and something gets done on this - worse case, at least we tried and are no worse off than we are now. Thoughts & feedback on this welcome!
I took my time to download and install the Investors Europe MT4 platform to check on their spread values for our list. Their EUR/USD spread averages at 1.5 while GBP/JPY does not appear to be available as an instrument with their MT4. I will ask them about it. Most other pairs are available though.
I have also gone to the CySEC (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission) website’s warnings section. A very interesting place indeed. There I have found warnings about the following brokerages that appear on our list:
I believe these should be duly noted on our list. Thanks in advance, Clint!
Thanks, Jacob, I’ll add those alerts to the List later tonight.
I noticed the apparent absence of the GBP/JPY from the pairs menu on the Investors Europe website, as well.
Seems odd to me. Please let me know if you find any more info.
I have already heard back from them. They’ve informed me one should open the GBP/JPY chart through the Market Watch by selecting “Show All” there first. I have thus managed to check their GBP/JPY spread - it’s 3.3 on average.
Added to the List.
Also, just to sum up the July 16 aftermath:
-
Foreign brokers that are also banks (Dukascopy, MIG Bank, Saxo Bank, ACM, dbFX) ceased to accept and service the US customers effective July 16, 2011 (this deadline was outlined for them in the initial US CFTC regulations adopted in October 2010).
-
The SEC-regulated brokers that are not CFTC-regulated (Interactive Brokers, Charles Schwab etc) have been granted a one-year extension to opearte under the old rules until the new retail Forex rules are introduced for them by their regulator - the SEC (the US Securities and Exchange Commission).
-
Other than that, not a damn thing happened to the US CFTC-regulated brokerages that continue operating on the regulations adopted by the CFTC in October 2010.
IMO, there has been too much fuss about the scale and scope of the next portion of new regulations which never materialized. To me, the current rules for the CFTC-regulated brokers are final (or, at least, final until repealed), as taking them one step further would simply kill the retail Forex industry in the United States.
HY Markets is out.
http://www1.hymarkets.com/cusagreeme...20Business.pdf :
“If it comes to our notice at any time that you are resident in the United States, Hong Kong or any other country in which we consider that the provision of the services contemplated in the HY Markets Customer Agreement is prohibited, we shall have the right to suspend all activity in the Account and to take the following action: …”
Plus, get this:
“if the Account is in credit and if the amount is more than the initial amount deposited, the amount deposited will be refunded as mentioned in a) above. The treatment of any remaining balance will be resolved by our Compliance Department.”
In other words, they might confiscate your profits!
(sorry I put this in the wrong thread originally)
This in interesting from City Credit Capital in London: One of the first foreign brokers I have heard of that says they will accept U.S. accounts, but subject to U.S. Regulations. My guess is that they are in reality handing off U.S. residents trades to a U.S. affiliate.
Welcome to City Credit Capital Live Chat. Please wait for a City Credit Capital representative to respond. We will be with you shortly.
You are now chatting with 'City Credit’
City Credit: Hello and welcome. How may I assist you?
Me: Do you accept U.S. accounts?
City Credit: Yes we do subject to US regulations on trading
Me: Thanks!
Last
(sorry I put this in the wrong thread originally)
Ask them what maximal account leverage their US customers can get - that will answer your question.
Bucks…I am tending to agree with Brave…Africans fleeing to Gibraltar…well lets assume its true…its kinda obvious, look at a Map where else would they go from Morocco, Gibraltar and Spain are obvious choices.
As regards the claims of Gibraltar…not a place to keep money…again i have to sau hmmmm.
Ive done some searching and it appears that the majority of the UKs Gambling and online gaming and casinos are all registered and licensed out of Gibraltar, these are multi million dollar companies, not sure they would be there if not safe.
The Gibraltar regulator seems to follow almost identical rules for clients safety as the UK FSA…again understandable given their ties to UK.
Lastly far from finding evidence of Gibraltar being shady I read the International Monetary Fund review of Gibraltar that states…An IMF review found that Gibraltars banking sector was totally compatible with 27 of the 30 applicable international norms, and largely compatible with the remaining three…they went on to say "these are among the highest standards of supervision attained by any country in an IMF review"
Which again makes sense sine it appears all Gibraltar has to offer is Financial services.
Right - all of the Mediterranean countries including Italy, Spain, and France have refugee flow challenges from the South to deal with - it does not mean anything. Of course people from the poorer South are going to try to migrate north. I did not understand from the start in what way this was supposed to be a negative.
The list of Investment Dealers at
FSC - Regulated Firm Listings
is interesting:
Bank J Safra (Gibraltar) Limited
Bondpartners International (Gibraltar) Limited
Credit Suisse (Gibraltar) Limited
EFG Bank (Gibraltar) Limited
Investor Services (Gibraltar) Limited
Investors Europe Limited
Jyske Bank (Gibraltar) Limited
Lloyds TSB Bank (Gibraltar) Limited
Logistable Limited
Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch Private Bank Limited
ProSpreads Limited
Quay Financials (Gibraltar) Limited
SG Hambros Bank (Gibraltar) Limited
The Royal Bank of Scotland (Gibraltar) Limited
The Royal Bank of Scotland International Limited
Turicum Private Bank Limited
Thanks. I will remove Hy Markets from the “yes” list.
I do not invest money in regions where:
1.) There are political instabilities or issues.
2.) Corruption is usual business.
3.) I do not know enough regarding the business there.
4.) There is no regulation authority other than from local business authorities.
5.) It would cost me an expensive flight ticket to get there to get my money back.
If any one of those criterias are met, I stay away. There are other choices where I can invest my money with less question marks rising.
Regarding those refugees I am with you. It was just to show that it is close to an northafrican border, but rhose refugees were not the core element of my decision.
What you do is of course not related to anything what I think or decide as it is your money and not mine. 
I can’t grasp how the CFTC lunacy overshadows a major limitation of US trading. That being that Americans are in the wrong time zone for many currency pairs. To trade the cable, for example, it behooves one to be living in the time zone of concern which includes Europe and Moscow. Trading in the US is analogous to being lobotomized and amputated, unless one moves offshore and nightowls in a city that never sleeps like New York. The CFTC rulings along with ban on precious metal trading and currency-flight taxes is just acknowledging that the best days are behind the USA, as currently realized. The politicians who now win US elections there are those who deliver their constituency {liberals, teabaggers} to their campaign contributors {banksters, oligarchs}, just as in most third-world backwaters. I would think it more prudent for the middle class to read the writing on the wall and foment protests like Greeks (which won’t happen) or relocate. Americans could also acknowledge their leaders have acquired odious debt, of which they are not in turn obligated to repay. But Americans en masse invariably lean towards myopia and corpofascist propaganda so that is a pipe dream. In short I think everyone reading this thread knows subconsciously that the CFTC snafu is simply the tip of a continental iceburg miring citizens in debt, contracts, and fascist laws bent upon squashing any real freedom from those serving the elite. At some point self-preservation has to kick in, as is did in the American Revolution fought over the Currency Act.
I can’t mention the American Revolution without revealing the lies and mindless delusion in which Americans subsist. Americans have been lied to and brainwashed to say the American Revolution was fought over tea! No, the war was about the Currency Act. There’s even an idiot collective which bought the lie wholesale, calling themselves the Tea Party. They may as well have [B]IDIOT[/B] tattooed on their forehead. A link for those interested BANKERS GONE WILD - HOW THE US GOVERNMENT HELPED WALL STREET GANG-RAPE AMERICA’S MIDDLE CLASS | WHAT REALLY HAPPENED
No clue about the hubris over African immigrants. I doubt the CFTC or the FOREX market cares. :28: So I would ask people in this thread to think long and hard about their increasingly toxic environment, and whether they should perhaps instead learn a language and get out of Dodge. Many nations have little inclination to care how you make money or how much you make, unlike the USA.
Truth is, to figure all this, one doesn’t even need to get that far. It’s the old good “the rich vs. the poor” story. Luckily for the US gov, the poor in the US are also largely dumb (hence, they are poor), so the rich can rule in any manner they please. The CFTC doesn’t even need to enforce their restrictions on foreign brokers that have been put up for the poor - the media-upheld negative image of the abroad perfectly does the job.
How come this thread was closed yesterday in the afternoon?
Hello, I guess because bhs and I had a “dispute”. However, nice to see that thread is open again and I definitely am sorry for any inconveniences. Have fun and may everybody find it’s best brokerage!
Following Bravehost’s comments on rich vs poor: Or, might that be the reaction when the rich (Wall Street) see the money-flow changing direction from stocks to Forex? Here are some quotes from a CNN Money article: “Day Trading the Euro in Your Pajamas”
Lydia Idem-Finkley said she was a stock trader for most of her adult life – until she gave birth to her first daughter. Becoming a mom was one of the main reasons why Finkley says she no longer trades stocks. Instead, she took advantage of her sleep deprivation and moved into the 24 hour, seven-day-a-week world of currency trading.
“We would stay up all night looking at currency charts because neither one of us could sleep,” she said.
Finkley is one of the roughly half a million investors in the U.S. who have switched from trading stocks to trading currencies in the past decade.
Currency day trading was essentially a non-existent market less than 10 years ago. But retail investors now make up 8% of the daily volume in the $4 trillion forex market, according to the Aite Group, a financial consulting firm.
It’s a unique demographic too. Currency traders are increasingly younger - with two-thirds of them under the age of 50. A higher percentage of females trade currencies than stocks as well.
“In the late 1990s, you didn’t need to trade forex because you got the volume and volatility you were looking for in stocks,” said Raghee Horner, a South Florida-based trader who has traded currencies for the past 10 years. “Now if you’re really looking to trade volatility, you have to look at currencies.”
‘Traders’ reasons for switching over to currencies vary.’ Finkley said she found tracking a single country’s economy easier than trading stocks, where an investor has to monitor economic conditions but also the details of what goes on in a major corporation. Others said they like the off-market hours that forex trading allows as well.
‘I know the reason sounds trivial, but having access to a dynamic, liquid market at any time is particularly intriguing to traders,’ said Glenn Stevens, CEO of Gain Capital, the parent company of Forex.com. ‘You don’t have to compartmentalize your day around trading hours.’ July 21, 2011 written by Ken Sweet CNN Money
Seems to me that continuing along the lines of ‘beat them’, instead of ‘join them’; will only result in most US Forex traders going offshore. I find it hard to imagine they don’t understand who the real losers will be. It’s a global market in a global world - no longer US-centric…
Just wanted to say thank you to all of the contributors to this post. You guys (some knowingly, some not so) are making this world an even better place to share!