Are Your Funds Safe? NFA to Shut down small forex fcms

[Truthy]

That seems strange that MBtrading/EFX is so undercapitalized. They are one of the consistently highest rated brokers out there, so I don't know what to take more into account, capitalization or reputation. For example, FXCM has an excellent capitalization but there are some horror stories out there about stop-hunting and trading against their customers.

[Roddy Howald]

Great link Forex Savior on the CFTC's report on funds under management.

I can't help but notice what a small amount is in the US. Even FXCM with all their advertising efforts, which in many respects I do not believe even meets the NFA's standard concerning misleading information, has any large investors. I'm just trying to point out that they can't have even one significantly large investor if they haven't even broke the $100M USD level. In the U.K., FXCM would be a small company forex outfit. According to this report, it almost appears that none of these guys are all that safe.

So if the big players don't put their money in these companies, should we?

[forex savior]

Originally Posted by Roddy Howald

Great link Forex Savior on the CFTC's report on funds under management.

I can't help but notice what a small amount is in the US. Even FXCM with all their advertising efforts, which in many respects I do not believe even meets the NFA's standard concerning misleading information, has any large investors. I'm just trying to point out that they can't have even one significantly large investor if they haven't even broke the $100M USD level. In the U.K., FXCM would be a small company forex outfit. According to this report, it almost appears that none of these guys are all that safe.

So if the big players don't put their money in these companies, should we?

you have to remember that the forex industry is still very new, what ten years old? These firms haven't had the time to grow into multi-billion dollar companies like schwab but since most of the large firms have institutional investors I would feel comfortable trading with an Oanda or FXCM.

[forex savior]

President Bush will officially veto the farm bill today per Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is expected to veto the "bloated" $280 billion farm bill on Wednesday, a White House spokeswoman said.
Spokeswoman Dana Perino said the five-year bill was "bad for American taxpayers." Farm leaders in Congress say they can override the veto and enact the five-year bill as law.

Congress may initiate an override vote as early as this evening. We are nearing the end game now.

[forex savior]

So many scandals, so little time. Late last year Felix Homogratus the infamous “Forex Bastard” of forexpeacearmy.com fame got swept up in an international sting operation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security. (See Complaint Document: http://www.pipwizard.com/pdf/marriag...-complaint.pdf )

Apparently forex bastard was dating and harboring a Russian vixen (photo here: Pair arrested in green card marriage that resulted from Web ads - Los Angeles Times) who had participated in marital fraud. This Monday Yuliya Mikhailovna Kalinina started serving a four month “home detention” sentence and will likely face deportation according to the San Jose Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9113354

SoCal woman who posted online marriage ad sentenced
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 04/30/2008 08:46:28 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES—A Russian woman who was found guilty of marriage fraud for paying a man to get a green card has been sentenced to four months in prison.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Yuliya Mikhailovna Kalinina, who was also found guilty of one charge of aiding and abetting, was ordered Wednesday to serve four months home detention and begin her prison sentence on May 19.

Kalinina, who faced up to five years in federal prison, could be deported after she is released because she is a convicted felon.

Benjamin Adams, the man who responded to Kalinina's online ad offering prospective husbands up to $15,000 to marry her, was sentenced April 7 to two months in prison for marriage fraud and making a false statement.

Kalinina testified during her trial that she didn't know "green card marriages" were illegal.

It is one of the most bizarre stories I have covered to date. Ms. Kalinina put up an ad on Craig’s List stating she was willing to pay $300 a month and a total of $15,000 to marry someone to get that golden ticket to America. CNN ran a story on it at the time:
'Green Card Marriage' ad nets arrest - CNN.com

Sure enough there was some down on his luck bloke out there foolish enough to take her up on her offer. That Wally Brain would be Benjamin Adams. Kalinina's live-in boyfriend, Dmitri Chavkerov, an Internet-ordained minister, wed the two defendants.

Who is Dmitri Chavkerov? According to EuroMoney Dmitri Chavkerov is none other than Forex Bastard:
http://www.euromoneyfix.com/Article....icleID=1853868

Dmitri you magnificent bastard! Not only are you a forex bastard, but you’re an ordained minister too?! What a true Renaissance man…

Nice of you to also take Yuliya off Benjamin Adams’ hands and put her up in your swinging pad, where I assume she is now serving her four month “home detention” prison sentence? Now that’s an easy piece of prison time with built in conjugal visitation rights included!

So is this the end of the notorious forexpeacearmy? According to a thread at Elite Trader titled “Felix Sells Out” MB Trading has cut its ties to Forex Bastard and torn up their IB agreement with him: Forums - Felix Sells Out

But Forex Bastard is nothing if not resilient. Over the years he has hosted a slew of forex related websites and changed his name more often than Prince:

Forexbastard.com
Forexpeacearmy.com
Kingofforexsignal.com
Forexfreedom.com

But it will be hard for the Bastard to re-invent himself in light of this story. Google Forex Bastard and Dmitri Chavkerov and you’ll find a bucketful of blogs designed to bring down the Bastard, most notably: Attacking Forex Market which makes some hair raising allegations that imply that the Bastard is not just running his own little websites but also pulling the strings behind a whole host of actual forex dealers.

Such is the nefarious influence of Forex Bastard that he has spawned a whole series of paranoid blogs that insist he is some kind of one man Freemason Society (or Stonecutter Society if you prefer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdaRuTwWl9I).

If that isn’t enough to warn you off from forexpeacearmy there is this very insightful video by a trader who demonstrates how the reviews at forexpeacearmy are bogus and not worth the pixels they are printed on: YouTube - Forex Scams - forexbastards.com

It’s a mad, mad, mad forex world we live in. Thank heavens all these guys have to get licenses in the next few months. This insanity has got to stop.

[forex savior]

D’OH!!!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Lawmakers scrambled Thursday to fix a clerical error that derailed an effort to override President Bush's veto of a $300 billion farm bill.
Congress may have to revote on a $300 billion farm bill due to what Democrats called a clerical error.

The House of Representatives voted 316-108 Wednesday to override the president's veto, but shortly after the vote, lawmakers learned that a "not particularly controversial" section of the bill was accidentally omitted from the version that Congress sent to the White House, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland.
The discovery prompted concerns from Hoyer's Republican counterpart that the override vote was improper.

"What's happened here raises serious constitutional questions -- very serious," said Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "I don't see how we can proceed with the override as it occurred."

Hoyer suggested that the section left out of the original bill -- authorizing trade and food aid -- could be approved by both houses of Congress and sent back to Bush, "either to be signed by him or vetoed by him, and we would consider it in that context."
But late Wednesday, a Democratic leadership aide said the House likely will hold an entirely new vote on the complete farm bill, move it to the Senate for a quick vote and send it to the White House -- where Bush is likely to let it die without his signature during the Memorial Day recess.

Democrats said the matter stemmed from a clerical error. But Republicans pounced on what they called a "fiasco," which they said would require a temporary extension of the current farm bill.

[forex savior]

The veto was overridden and the CFTC is now at work implementing the new law passed by Congress. CFTC has just issued a press release touting what the new law does:
CFTC Applauds Enactment of Agency Reauthorization Legislation

• Enhances agency authority over off-exchange retail foreign currency fraud by:

1. Clarifying that the CFTC’s anti-fraud authority applies to certain retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions (also known as the “Zelener” fix)

2. Creating a new registration category for retail foreign exchange dealers and requiring registration for those who solicit orders, exercise discretionary trading authority, and operate commodity pools with respect to off-exchange retail foreign currency transactions

3. Imposing minimum capital requirements for futures commission merchants and retail foreign exchange dealers that act as counterparties in such transactions.

And so it begins. The following firms do not currently meet the upcoming capital requirement increase to $10 million which will take effect 120 days from today:

Advanced Markets $5,100,000
Bacera $5,500,000
Money Garden $6,600,000
Easy Forex $7,200,000
MB Trading $7,700,000
Hotspot $7,700,000
Forex Club $7,900,000
Friedberg Mercantile $8,000,000
CMC $8,300,000
Alpari $8,800,000
Ikon $8,800,000

[uptick]

good stuff. thx forexsavior.

[forex savior]

One of the fastest growing markets for retail fx trading is in China. The only problem for forex dealers is that currency trading in China is illegal. The Chinese Government routinely rounds up underground forex dealers and introducing brokers but just as with the old prohibition laws the trading public seems to just ignore their communist masters and keep on drinking that moonshine.

But currency bootleggers beware: if you get caught you may wind up in a stank Chinese prison sewing sneakers together for Nike or stitching hula shirts together for Wal*Mart.

Such are the fates now of dozens of former introducing brokers for Northfinance and Forex.CH after a series of raids in mainland China.

Of course, no one should be surprised that Northfinance has once again gotten into legal trouble. They have long been an industry rogue and their recent purchase by FX Pro has done little to rein them in. But this does not bode well for Forex.CH, which is a Swiss based broker already reeling from the new banking laws in Switzerland that may put them out of business. It is going to be a lot harder for them to meet Swiss capital requirements now that their boys in China have been pinched:

Íâ¹ú¹«Ë¾Ë½¶ÒÍâ»ã ÍâÍø³´»ãÁ÷ʧ¼¸Ç§Íò-Íâ»ãƵµÀ-ºÍѶÍø
·¸×ïÍÅ»ïÀûÓÃÍøÂç·Ç·¨³´ÂôÍâ»ã30ÒÚÔª_ÐÂÎÅÖÐÐÄ_ÐÂÀËÍø

Since most people can’t read Chinese I’ll summarize below:

On May 12, Shanghai police arrested a Russian citizen, who was the chief representative of North Finance, in addition to personnel from Northfinance’s IB, marketing, operations and accounting departments. According to Northfinance’s Russian flunky, there were more than 40 IBs working for NorthFinance, and each IB had to bring in more than 20 accounts to maintain their IB status. NorthFinance took RMB as client deposits, and all the money went directly to the flunky’s personal account, over 20 million RMB is now sitting in his frozen account.

On May 22, Shenzhen police arrested 13 people, all of whom were referral agents for GFX Capital Markets. From 2004 to 2007, they introduced a total of 184 clients to GFX. Forex.CH rebated $40 USD for every transaction, and clients had to pay an extra 80-100 RMB per trade. According to the prosecutor, clients made money in the beginning, but they all lost in the end. The referral agents avoided detection all these years by masquerading as a software company selling FX market analysis.

As I said before, China doesn’t play around. If they’re lucky these agents will be sent to a prison factory to spray lead paint on cheap Hannah Montana dolls but if they’re unlucky, well… take a read through Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago and you’ll get the picture.

Now, knowing the manner that companies like GFX and Northfinance do business and knowing that they have been unregulated for many years why on earth would anyone open an account with such an outfit?

[Forex Troglodyte]

How can you say the claims are false? Have you actually used Cavemanforex? If so, show us your proof. If not, your baseless and scandalous accusations are without merit.

Originally Posted by forex savior

While we await the President’s veto I thought I would pass along one of the funniest forex related websites I have seen in a while. It is called Caveman Forex.
Caveman Forex

The troglodyte running this website claims to be selling a winning “formula” guaranteed to make traders rich. Says Caveman Forex, “Due to the nature of the Cavemanforex formula, the success rate of these trades ranges from 60% to 70%. This ultimately gives me a profit ranging from 200 to 500 pips, sometimes more.... EVERY WEEK!”

Uh huh.

And get this. He’s only selling this secret formula for $89! As Don Corleone once said to The Turk “Why do you come to me? Why do I deserve this generosity?”

I’ll tell you why, because it ain’t generosity. You’re more likely to earn money betting on Eight Belles to win the Triple Crown this year than you are trading the forex market based off signals given to you by the cast from the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But I give Caveman Forex points for showmanship that’s for sure!