Great post, Great thread! Thanks to Clint and everyone else for great information! 
It’s because of this thread I decided to sign up here. I hope I can find more nuggets in here
I have a question regarding a subject that those in this thread might be able to help answer.
As a U.S. citizen/resident, to many others peoples money one would normally need to register as a CTA requiring taking the Series 3 and Series 34 for forex.
Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA)
According to this though, one can be exempt from having to do so if: “You have provided advice to 15 or fewer persons during the past 12 months and do not generally hold yourself out to the public as a CTA or”
IMPORTANT PART But I can’t find any information regarding compensation. Lets say you already trade retail forex and a friend/family member wishes for you to directly manage their account, and you don’t do this for than 15 people, are you allowed to be compensated for managing the person’s account, aka a performance fee?
Many websites seem to have varying information, in which I’ve also seen the number of $250,000 as another limitation to the exemption thought I don’t currently see it listed on the NFA website.
For reference here is another informative link
From more research, some which led from looking into CPO exemptions, I am led to believe that if there is not a maximum aggregate capital amount stated that there is no limit to the amount that can be managed as long as the 15 person rule is adhered.
Also I believe you can receive compensation since it isn’t stated that you can’t.
These were derived from the CPO exemptions that state specifically on these subjects in certain exemptions.
Link: Commodity Pool Operator (CPO)
Also the CTA exemption is also known as “CTA exemption 4m(1)” which appears to be “self-executing” which seems to mean that there is no necessary paper work to be filed to use this exemption unlike certain other exemptions.
Anyone with information on this, it is appreciated if you can share. Still wish I was able to find some sort of definite answer on the “aggregate capital limits” of the CTA exemption if there is one, and whether or not one can receive compensation.
I just want to heap a little more praise on Tallinex for advising their traders to download the Meta4 trading station on to “a root” of the C drive instead of the default option Windows usually offers when downloading the trading station, for those using Microsoft’s Windows software on their computer. I downloaded Meta4 on to a root of the C drive, and my computer not only now provides far, far fewer stalls between price quotes, but it also downloaded the trading station faster.
You would think that some of the other offshore brokers would pick up on this and provide this piece of very helpful, golden advice on their own websites, but [B][I]none of them, not even one [/I][/B]to my knowledge has this good advice on their website, so far. I find that quite amazing.
I would like to add, though, that it might be best to never attempt to defragment any of the discs on your computer since it may adversely affect what is on the C drive. I did that and then my Tradersway trading station froze up afterwards in that it would not receive any more price updates. After doing some gymnastics such as opening a demonstration account, which caused the trading station to receive data again then going back to the real account, it looks like I solved the problem because the trading station is now working fine apparently still using the C drive’s root to more quickly receive incoming price data. My Tallinex trading station was not affected by the defragmentation. Maybe traders should use one computer only for trading, which theoretically will never need defragmentation, and use a second computer, maybe a cheap but good used one, for their other needs.
Just to add about atc its crap i tried if your a scalper it wont work their execution time is a lot sometimes 10 sec & re-quotes a lot they use fxcm crap server its useless im using berndale capital is australia so far excellent cant complain .
Finally, someone agrees with me.
I am going to give Berndale Capital a try I am hearing great things about this broker.
I was planning to test ATC, but after your comments I’ll just pass and stay with LMFX which have been great so far. How about Berndale guys? Is it safe to trade there. I think that they will have problems with ASIC.
I am comparing FX Choice and Trader’s way. I found their swap rate varies greatly. For example, for GBPAUD pair
FX choice: long -1.238, short 0.728
Trader’s way: long -22.88, short 3.08
Two questions
- If I only day trade, does the swap rate apply?
- Given Trader’s way is very high, does it mean it’s not good for swing trade?
No, it is then irrelevant to you.
If your numbers are correct about the swap, then FX Choice would be a better option based on that comparison.
I don’t see much of a difference between pro and classic accounts for fxchoice. If anyone is with this broker, could you elaborate on if classic or pro is better?
ps. Thank you for the detailed thread on forex brokers. I will go with fxchoice because they have a lot of positive reviews.
It depends if you want to pay spread or commission and also how many currency pairs you would like to be able to trade.
In agreement! I’ve been with FXChoice for quite some time, and I am satisfied with their program.
Breaking news
ATC files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Finance Magnates article —
ATC Brokers US Entity files for Chapter 11 in California | Finance Magnates
.
Trader’s Way has some horrible swap rates. I tried bringing it up a while ago and no one else seemed to care. I also sent them an email about it like 8 months ago and there still horrible.
Even if you trade daily and get out of trades generally quick, you can still get caught paying swap fees if your trades are open at roll over. And pray it isnt triple swap wednesday.
Well, it’s a reorganization for ATC and our funds are held by FXCM.
Now, aside from FXCM’s possible vulnerability that they may
not segregate all funds, I don’t think anything is at risk for
our operation, and they intend to continue normal operations
through this reorganization of the financials.
ATC MT4 offers the best retail pricing I’ve ever seen, better
than Dukascopy, with a Direct interface using ATC’s own
computers to FXCM’s liquidity sources, which means high
performance and reliability. This is a unique
arrangement, as far as I know and, having used it “in anger”
for a month or so, it’s an amazing MT4. Intra-instrument
hedging operations are permitted, and limit orders anywhere
inside the spread, no restrictions, etc.
Unfortunately, to my knowledge, ATC’s MetaTrader 4 implementation
is the only “uncorrupted” one available in the U.S. They achieve
FIFO compliance by using FXCM’s back office that rewrites platform
trade sequences to a FIFO compliant statement. But on the
platform, any trade sequence is permitted.
Request for information: If anyone knows
of another US available broker, with an unmodified MT4
platform, please let me know. FXCM MT4, for
example, corrupts the semantics of its MT4 trade sequences
and may require a non-generic MT4. ATC MT4, on the other hand,
is accessible through Generic MT4, which is how we are
trading, using the NJ4X.com framework.
This is why we chose ATC Brokers US for our trading business,
and I hope they will continue to operate normally through the
entire process of reorganization, as is the plan.
hyperscalper
On the subject or horrible swap rates at TW, I also noticed that rollover on Friday is one hour earlier than M-Th. Anyone know why? My live brokers all run until 17:00EST.
More details regarding the ATC bankruptcy filing —
Investor Suing over Losses Led ATC Brokers to File Chapter 11 | Finance Magnates
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Find a Ctrader By Spotware Broker. They offer a lot of features, a platform worth the time to learn.
Hello everyone,
We wanted to post a quick update about the supported payment methods for US residents. Since Neteller and Skrill are not processing deposits for US based traders the only option for depositing for them with LMFX is Credit/Debit cards and Wire Transfer. We wanted to inform you that the maximum single transaction limit for deposits via Credit/Debit cards has been raised to $2500. Our clients can make up to 4 deposits of $2500 every 24 hours. We are working on another e-wallet solution and will post more information here when it’s available.