This broker, headquartered in Glendale, California, is a CFTC-regulated futures and forex broker, and a member of the NFA. Their website states that forex leverage is limited to 50:1 (as dictated by the CFTC). So, how do they manage to skirt the CFTC regulations on hedging and FIFO, or “other BS” ? Having their own MT4 platform doesn’t explain it — the CFTC regulates [I]brokers, not platforms.[/I] Please explain.
Also, I’ll be interested in the answers to HyperScalper’s questions.
I had a word with ATC, and they do the “smart thing” which is that their MT4 platform does not limit operations to FIFO, and it is all handled with a “FIFO Compliant” statement as a Back Office function. THIS IS THE RIGHT WAY TO DO IT. Also I looked at their spreads, and they are excellent, slightly better than Tradersway and Tallinex.
Historical note: Back when FXDD offered us white labelled Dukascopy, they provided FIFO compliant statements, but our actual trading operations on the platform were unrestricted. This is the CORRECT way to handle FIFO, as it is an accounting standard only.
I did not try “intra instrument” hedging, since that isn’t interesting to me anyway, but their DEMO platform does not prevent placing an opposite side Limit order while in a Long position, so I guess it’s permitted also. Again, this is translated to an eventual FIFO compliant statement for accounting purposes through the Back Office.
Have not opened a LIVE account, as we are doing that elsewhere for the moment.
They have a “deal based” (i.e. standard) MT4 platform implementation (not “net position”), so EA’s should not have to be modified. It appears that Limit Order placement is unrestricted, as in inside the spread if you wish.
So, from what I can see, other than the 50:1 restriction on leverage, versus up to 500:1 for some offshore brokerages, this ATC platform appears excellent. They haven’t “customized” their MT4, and state that the accounts can be traded via Generic Metatrader 4, which is what interests me, since I am using the NJ4X.com framework based upon a Generic terminal.exe.
So, ATC looks very good and may “ease the pain” for those (like me) who want “unpolluted” Forex trading, despite the leverage restrictions, which are not a big deal in the big picture.
I am going to fund my account with Berndale Capital on Monday and begin trading with them. I make withdraws weekly (if I am in profit for the week) so I will keep everyone updated as to how it is going with withdraws. Couple of things to note…
They require a minimum of $2000 to open an ECN account which is quite a bit more that the other brokers on the list.
According to their website they only offer leverage up to 1:400. It says that “international clients will be subject to a default of 1:100”. I currently have an email into them to find out if 1:100 is the max leverage offered to international clients. I only use a max leverage of 1:200 so if 1:100 is the max allowed I may not fund the account…will update once I hear back from them.
It appears that the only method we have for deposit and withdraws will be by wire. When I opened the account they sent me an email with funding instructions and the only method offered was by bank wire. I’ll keep everyone up to date with how it is going.
I can speak of LMFX only, because I don’t have an account with Berndale Capital. I don’t know how a broker can be qualified as a member of Group 1 in the thread, but I am very pleased with the services offered by LMFX. Everything appears to be professionally done and the whole backend which they call Connect is very interesting. I haven’t experienced any issues so far with their platform. Customer support is very friendly and helpful. If you are interested in other specifics I will try to find out the information.
I believe it is extremely courageous of LMFX to expose themselves publicly to our questions, along with Jack72’s experience with them. I would say at the very least they deserve a spot in group 1.
• [B]Berndale Capital[/B] (Australia) and [B]LMFX[/B] (Macedonia) appear (so far) to meet the criteria* for inclusion in Group 1 of our List.
If any of you guys [I]who haven’t yet chimed in here[/I] have an opinion (pro or con) on either of these two brokers, the next couple of days would be a good time to share your opinions here. Let’s set a deadline of, say, Tuesday morning, 0800 GMT, for additional comments.
After that time, if there is no consensus [I]against[/I] these two brokers, I will add them to our List.
Making room for the addition of 2 new brokers in pages 1 and 2 of our List will require re-formatting the whole List — as I’ve mentioned before, we are banging up against the Babypips forum size-limit of 15,000 characters per post. To work around this limit, I will remove all of the links which currently appear at the bottom of each broker listing (where it says, “For more information…”), and I will find a new place to list all of those links.
So — assuming that Berndale and LMFX get added to Group 1 — when you visit the List next week, it will look a bit different.
• [B]ATC Brokers[/B] (US)
This is not an offshore broker, so they do not belong on our List. However, because they seem to offer a [I]partial[/I] remedy to the burdens the CFTC has imposed on clients of U.S. brokers, I think that discussion of ATC Brokers in this thread is entirely appropriate.
Generally, we don’t spend time here talking about U.S. brokers. However, in the case of ATC Brokers, there’s a good reason to make an exception.
To be included, a broker simply needs to be (1) offshore, (2) willing to accept U.S. residents as retail forex clients, and (3) acceptable to those members of this thread who choose to express an opinion.
Before I dive in with LMFX, I am curious to know the withdrawal methods available to US clients. Many a times you learn there are much fewer withdrawal options once you open a live account and attempt to withdraw in comparison to the list you see on the main site.
The minimum deposit of $2,000 with Berndale especially with possibly only 1:100 leverage, is too much for me at present to be parked at a single broker. However, I like the idea of supporting all options.
I just heard back from Berndale Capital about the leverage they offer. They DO offer 1:400 to all clients. Will be funding my account with them on Tuesday (can’t wire funds tomorrow due to holiday). Will keep everyone up to date as to how it’s going with them.
Thank you for your interest in LMFX. Due to the AML(anti money laundering) policy that we follow the withdrawal method has to be the same as the deposit method. However if you are using a Credit/Debit card for depositing funds to your LMFXConnect wallet we can only send back the initial amount of the deposit to the card and all of the profits can be send to you via wire transfer. I hope that answers your question. If you have any other questions we will be more than happy to assist you.
LMFX,
First off, appreciate your participation on this thread.
I downloaded the demo account to get a sense of your offerings. Overall, looks pretty good to me, but I do have one question. Do you have plans to reduce the minimum trade size on some of your CFDs in the future?
For example, min trade size on grain (corn, wheat) CFD is 5000 bushels – that’s a full size futures contract, pretty tall order for most retail traders.
While Berndale Capital seems like a nice fit, I want to caution that they are not supposed to be taking US clients and are definitely under the ASIC (and thus CFTC) jurisdiction. It is a matter of time until they are found out and all US accounts are closed.
I know that this alone cannot exclude them from the list on page 1 right now, but it is something to consider. If you tend to hold trades for longer periods of time it is best to remember that you may need to liquidate everything without too much notice. They seem like a nice option for now but will soon be removed and added to list two just like ForexFS - with whom I traded for 6 months before they stopped accepting US.
Thanks for the kind words! I will forward your question to the management and will come back here tomorrow with an exact answer. Meanwhile if you have any other questions about our services I will be more than happy to assist you.
I was looking around on the LMFX website and can not seem to find out what type of broker they are…ECN/STP, Market Maker etc. Unless I am overlooking it I can not find it anywhere.
Something to note…
I sent them an inquiry yesterday asking about this and have yet to get an answer to my email. I used the contact page on their website. As far as can tell they do not have a way to “chat” with someone either.
Had an account with ATC funded with $50K. They are IB of FXCM. Duting the Swiss news back in January 2015, FXCM almost went bankrupt, and I would have lost all my account money, maybe get cents on a dollar back. US citizens have no guarantees for any amount of your account money. You get cents on the dollar, during bankruptcy.
Now I have a Pamm $ account with Tallinex, and Euro account with MyFXChoice. So far, so good, the only thing with Tallinex, the spreads got wider lately, and with FxChoice they have a weird way of calculating commission, it is not a flat fee. Sometimes you pay 7 euros, sometimes 10 Euros per lot with pair like GBP/USD, but the spreads are pretty good.
Hello Guys 1st time here let me explain I’m from U.S. so i opened Live account with Berndale capital its excellent service no requotes super fast executions cust service very good & fast even account managers they will call u making sure everything is smooth very low spreads on pro ECN so way better than other i have tried so rest assured .