Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Been trading with these guys for 18 months with no issues. I use 4 offshore brokers, all on the list. You are correct, commission is .3 pips round turn and spreads are tight. I have watch price go within .001 of my stop several times and not get hit, so I’m pretty convinced they are STP. Withdrawals are quick, usually have next business day. I also use Forex Broker inc for 18 months, trust them more than any of the options here in the US, I withdrawal by wire free of charge (over $500). I have just recently added FX Choice and Assets FX as I believe diversifying my capital is a top priority just in case.

Because of my forced move to Tallinex, which is going pretty well so far, (I will update after running a few RT’s) I noticed in my research that there are several brokers in Estonia. Does anyone here know why Estonia is a FX broker hot spot?

You might be correct, but I’ll take the other side for a moment. Consider:

  • Affiliates are only a percentage of their total accounts. They could write this down as a marketing expense.
  • They only bucket order from affiliates?
  • Other pairs traded have a larger spread (profit)
  • They have revenue from commissions

I’ve seen mostly positive comments about FxChoice. Since you have an account, maybe you could just ask them directly if they bucket orders from affiliates? It would be interesting to see their answer. I’m considering them and appreciate your post. I’ve noted that Tallinex spreads are wider than several other brokers which makes scalping more of a challenge. I’m still tuning my EA’s to deal with their wider spreads.

Estonia was an ideal location for brokers - an EU country that allowed US-resident clients and offered a great regulatory and tax framework for businesses.

Sadly, they decided to make spot Forex a securities product last year and instituted quite unworkable regulatory requirements. Tallinex were able to relocate, but other brokers have either closed their Estonian offices, or remained but registered as securities dealers in more flexible jurisdictions (though they’ve had to terminate US clients as a consequence).

I have also had good experience with the ForexBrokerInc. They withdrew a big profit withdrawal fairly quickly for me in December. However, thus far I find Tallinex website much more responsive. For example Tallinex was unable to accept credit card deposits, the back office website had a notice that popped up saying ability to accept credit cards was down and they would refund any wiring fees while it was down. Proactive in that sense. However I am glad you shared your experience with these brokers and glad your ForexBrokerInc experience has been similar to mine. I hope others can come out and also share, and help us reward brokers trying to give us what we want despite discouraging regulatory pressure.

I’ve been sitting back, reading your posts in this thread, and staying out of the discussion. Lately, I’ve noticed some pretty positive comments about several of the brokers in our List, and I’m wondering —

Are we, as a group, ready to designate certain brokers as “Recommended” in our Offshore Broker List?

And, if so, how would you guys suggest that we choose which brokers to designate?

I’m thinking about re-formatting the List, to make it neater and easier to read. If you agree that the new format improves the appearance, they I’ll go ahead with it, whether you want to start designating “Recommended brokers”, or not.

In the sample new format shown below, I’ve incorporated a tentative “Recommended broker” label, just to see how it might look. Note that AssetsFX is being used simply as an example, because they follow directly after the “Europe” heading in our List.

If you want to designate one or more of the brokers in our List as “Recommended brokers”, but you don’t like the smiley-face emoticon — well then, old smiley will get kicked to the curb.

This is the current format (using the “Europe” heading and the AssetsFX listing as an example):

Europe

• AssetsFX (Finland) — ECN/STP broker — see posts #2078, #2380, #2381, #2392, and #2490 for more info
Platform: MT4. – Min. initial deposit: 200 USD. – Max. leverage: 200:1. – Min. position size: micro lot (0.01 std lot)
– Spreads: variable (from 0 pips) plus commission (5.20 USD round-turn per std lot, or 0.052 USD round-turn per micro lot)Website: AssetsFX
Email: Contact Us � AssetsFX – Tel: +358-40-324-4839

• Renesource Capital (Latvia) —

(etc)

This is the suggested new format (assuming we designate AssetsFX as “recommended”):

Europe

AssetsFX (Finland) — Recommended broker :57:

Type: ECN/STP broker. – Regulator: not regulated. – Parent company: Oy Nettico Ltd (Finland). – Est: 2002
Platform: MT4. – Min. initial deposit: 200 USD. – Max. leverage: 200:1. – Min. position size: micro lot (0.01 std lot)
Spreads: variable (from 0 pips) plus commission (5.20 USD round-turn per std lot, or 0.052 USD round-turn per micro lot)Website: AssetsFX
Email: Contact Us � AssetsFX – Tel: +358-40-324-4839
For more info, see posts #2078, #2380, #2381, #2392, and #2490

Renesource Capital (Latvia) —

(etc)

.

21 minutes worth of chart freeze from Tallinex tonight !!!

First image was when the freeze started, note the time stamp on the vertical line…
Second image is when charts unfroze, note the time stamp on the second vertical line.

Ridiculous !



I have been frozen out on my charts too, this is the first of three times this has happened to me. I do NOT like this at all~

And a second 15 minute freeze just came to an end (see attached charts and the vertical line time stamps).



Yeah, I’m frustrated with that as well. It also happened twice last week on Mon and Wed during volatility. I just PM’d them and they said they were aware of the problem but didn’t offer much of an explanation or say that they could get the problem fixed permanently.

My VPS is on-net with them and also shows missing ticks so I know it’s not an Internet problem. Maybe they’re overloaded by some EA’s? Maybe they’ll blame it on Integral? Since they won’t tell me what’s wrong, all I can do is speculate. What is certain, is that they have a problem and haven’t solved it yet. I hope they sort it out soon.

Well thank Chri*t… I’m not the only one having issues. Some traders have told me to find a new broker but, I’ve had chart freeze issues with Oanda, FinFX and now Tallinex. The images I just posted both happened tonight… no news, no volatility, NO EXCUSE.

Yeah, it happens with all of my brokers on occasion, but it’s starting to get excessive.

I’ll see your GBPNZD chart gap and raise you one GBPAUD.


Friggin’ retarded, isn’t it.

Here’s an aud/usd…


I too have been experiencing frozen charts from Tallinex. Third time this week. All during times when I was about to open a position or close a position. If you are looking to scalp, do not use them. It is impossible to open or close a position when their server goes down, which happens quite often. Of course there is no explanation or any recourse for missed entries or exits.

Guys, it is a server issue that they seem to be having. It is very frustrating (as I have experienced it with other brokers in the past), but I am sure that any losses incurred during this time, they will cover (at least that would be the right thing to do). Just be sure to put a SL in place when the server is not frozen!

One freeze for a mere 20 minutes is very understandable. However three times is a bit excessive so I hope they fix it quickly. I am not using Tallinex right now but can say that it does happen, sometimes more frequently than I would like; it happened at every single broker I have used. My last broker had one that lasted for 5 hours when I had 2 lots open with no SL. Oh man, was that scary. Good thing nothing moved.

Best of luck.

Clint, I do very much like your idea of recommending brokers however I have not yet thought of a good way for rating each one given our (forum) resources in order to classify them as recommended. Perhaps we give you our case for each one and you wear your robes and be the judge? One at a time is brought to the arena to go through its hearing?

Just some quick thoughts, but I do like it. :57:

Thanks for your input, Tom.

I hope we hear from some of the other active participants on this thread over the next few days.

In the meantime, I’ll wait in the weeds.

The inability to close an open position is what I don’t like. However, I must say, I have a hard time believing that “the market didn’t move” during your 5 hour freeze.

Also, I’ve lost money in the past with FinFX due to chart freeze and me being given the price at which the charts unfroze, which was beyond where I had my stop loss set, therefore the loss was more than I had originally risked… and they would not refund the loss.

“The right thing to do isn’t about morality”… “right” means “for whose benefit?”

I am not sure what you are insinuating here.

The markets did not move much at all during the five hours as it was during the first five hours of the Sydney session.

Yes, this is a problem. However the point of my post was to say that we should remain optimistic that Tallinex will stand behind their servers and platforms.