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

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
272

My recent post questioning the validity of Caveman forex�s signals stirred up a chest thumping response from the Cro-Magnon community and like the cavemen from those Geico commercials they are up in arms over the stereotypes the Savior heaped upon them.

Therefore, the Savior has agreed to give the Cavemen a chance to defend their honor. I hereby am announcing �The Caveman Forex Challenge.�

Every Wednesday between 8-9pm Eastern Standard Time Caveman Forex posts a free trade off their signals:
http://www.cavemanforex.com/WednesdaysFreeForexPicks.html

The Savior will be placing these trades on his own Hotspot demo account to test the validity of the signals and the Savior will report the outcome of the trade the following day. The Savior will do this for several months (let�s say three) and then officially give Caveman Forex either the Thumbs UP or Thumbs Down sign.

Alright you homo erecti, the whole trading community is watching you now. I�m giving you guys more publicity than you have ever had before so this is your big chance or else it�s back to caveman�s crib for you!

YouTube - Caveman’s Crib

273

Agreed� a level playing field is all we ask.

We can either do it with Wednesdays over the next 3 months or every day for the next 3 weeks. It�s all the same� your choice.

You had us scratching our collective uni-brows with your delayed response so with the interest of putting this to bed in a timely manner, we sent the last two trading days signals �prior to the market� to Sweet Pip.

We felt her post #262 on 5/30/08 indicated to us and everyone watching that she was a person with integrity who does the proper due diligence and was certainly on the skeptical side.

The last 2 days results can be seen at Password Protected Page

Now for those of you reading this, who think this is a contradiction regarding our feelings on posting past results, re-read the above paragraph. The 2 emails Sweet Pip received from us with the past 2 days signals are time stamped and were sent, we repeat �prior to the market�. I�m sure she will post them for verification if needed.

The above link is password protected. The password is �truth�.

Mr. Savior, if you choose to go Daily vs. Wednesdays, than this will be for your eyes only and the password will be changed as soon as you let us know where to email you the new one.

The signals for the following day will be posted there by 9:00 PM Eastern.

We thank you in advance for informing all who are watching on your various forex travels.

Btw � re: cavemancrib� those guys are just actors… real cavemen were Birkenstocks.

Sincerely,
Cavemanforex.com

274

There has been a lot of pissing and moaning about the new law requiring forex dealers to have $20 million in adjusted net capital to stay in business.

Yet very few of the firms now affected by the law seem to have done much to stop it or modify it. At some point you have got to take responsibility for your own business. Everyone in the industry knew about this law. Yet where were the company press releases? Where was the organized lobbying? As Bob Dole once said “where’s the outrage?!”

No. Instead you could hear the crickets chirping in the forex industry. Everyone acted as if nothing was going on. The response from smaller brokers seemed to be “maybe if we’re real quiet they’ll leave us alone.” If Washington only hears the NFA’s side of the story well then that is who they are going to believe.

If you want to blame someone for the passage of this law, blame the Forex Dealer in the mirror.

“Forex Dealer In The Mirror”

I’m Gonna Make A Change
For Once In My Life
It’s Gonna Feel Real Good
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The Collar On
My Favourite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin’ My Mind
I See These Forex Dealers In The Street
With Not Enough To Capital to Meet
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To See Their Needs

A Summer’s Disregard
An unregulated IB shop
And A One Money Manager�s Soul
They Follow Each Other On
The Wind Ya’ Know
’Cause They Got Nowhere To Go
That’s Why I Want You To Know

I’m Starting With The Forex Dealer In The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The Forex World
A More Competitive Place
Take A Look At Yourself
And Then Make A Change

(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)

Forex Dealers Been A Victim Of
A Selfish Kind of Love
It’s Time That They Realize
That There Are Some with No
Adjusted Net Capital
Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They’re Not Alone?

A Willow Deeply Scarred,
Some trader’s Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream

They Follow The Pattern Of
The Charts, Ya’ See
Cause They Got No Place To Be
That’s Why I’m Starting With Me!

275

Sing it, MJ! :smiley:

276

Does one anyone know firms that DO meet the capital requirements?

277

You’ll find the latest data here:

Financial Data for FCMs

278

Week one of the Caveman Forex Challenge is in the books. Our friendly neighborhood Neanderthals gave out 12 free trades last Wednesday. It was not one of Caveman�s better weeks according to their own grid which shows them losing -5 pips overall on all their trades. However, due to risk/reward ratios and a slightly different price feed that resulted in the Savior making money on a trade the Cavemen lost on we made a $348.39 profit overall in our demo account as four trades went in our direction and four trades went in the other direction.

Tonight a new batch of trades will be published. You can find them here if you wish to play along: Wednesday’s Free Forex Picks

CFTC Update: I have not heard anything yet about the new forex dealer rules. However, CFTC should be releasing their net capital report this week. Stay Tuned.

279

Last year Finex was investigated by the SFBC in Switzerland, however, they were not closed for fraud as was indicated in a post titled �The Dead Pool Graveyard.� It appears that Finex was bought out by Varengold FX thus bringing the investigation to a close. Details of the merger can be found here:

http://download.varengold.com/varengold.de/download/VG-Finex_Press_Release-us_customer.pdf

The Savior regrets the error.

280

The new net capital numbers are out. These numbers are more important than ever due to the new law requiring all forex dealers have $10 million in adjusted net capital by the end of September and $20 million by May 2009. Here is the link to access the report:
http://www.cftc.gov/stellent/groups/public/@financialdataforfcms/documents/file/fcmdata0408.pdf

The following firms have net capital below $10 million

Advanced Markets $5,041,000
Bacera $5,370,000
MG Financial $5,886,000
CMC $7,089,000
Forex Club $7,562,000
Easy Forex $7,741,000
Hotspot $7,783,000
Friedberg Mercantile $8,053,000
MB Trading $8,381,000
Ikon $9,418,000

In particular you will notice that three firms are far below the upcoming increase to $10 million. Advanced Markets, Bacera and Money Garden. In fact, they are struggling just to meet the current $5 million net capital requirement with Advanced Markets a scant $41,000 above the current law! That kind of capitalization does not inspire much confidence and traders really need to beware doing business with them.

The following firms have net capital below $20 million

GFS Forex $11,376,000
Alpari $11, 766,000
IFX $12,362,000
ODL $12,995,000
CMS Forex $14,085,000
I Trade FX $16,054,000
FX Solutions $17,628,000
PFG $19,369,000

The following firms have net capital above $20 million

Interbank FX $21,367,000
GFT Forex $64,288,000
Gain Capital $66,314,000
FXCM $73,603,000
Rosenthal Collins $76,571,000
Oanda $163,136,000

As always conduct your due diligence and make sure the firm you are trading with will be able to comply with the new law.

281

The receiver for FXLQ released their latest report to the court and it is chock full of eye popping revelations. http://www.robbevans.com/pdf/forexlqreport02.pdf

Revelation Number 1) the Estate is short two million dollars.

Revelation Number 2) the receiver was able to further confirm that FXLQ had used a fake bond to prop up their adjusted net capital.

Revelation Number 3) FXLQ had been violating their adjusted net capital requirement as early as October of 2006.

Revelation Number 4) FXLQ paid over a quarter million dollars out to the Gray School of Irish Dance.

WTF?

Under Tab 30 is a schedule of receipts totaling $251,500 that the Gray School of Irish Dance received from FXLQ, FX ARB, Robert Gray, TMA, and Forexify between April 21, 2006 and December 24, 2007. As the source of all of these funds was FXLQ, it is perplexing why payments to the Gray School of Irish Dance were routed through other entities.

Talk about getting your priorities screwed up. Here is a company that continually cannot meet its adjusted net capital requirement sending out huge chunks of change to what appears to be a dance school in CT? Gray School of Irish Dance Welcome

Hey I love Riverdance as much as the next Irishman but you�d think you would make sure your books are in order before cutting cheques to the tippy toe jumping set.

The good news for customers is that the receiver is recommending customers being fully reimbursed before other creditors. This apparently includes Interbank FX who is owed a whopping $10 million. Judging from IBFX�s plummeting net capital (almost below $20 million) they sure could use the dough.

Expect the FXLQ saga to last through the summer as the receiver continues to dig through mounds and mounds of paperwork, unexplained expenses and dodgy offshore bank accounts�

282

Click the school’s “Faculty” link and see the names of the `1st two directors. Was Big Bob funding some relatives?

283

it sure looks that way!

284

so does this possible shutdown only applies to NFA regulated brokers ??

285

yes only nfa firms

286

Does anyone have a comments on I trade fx’s decreasing capitalization over the last 4 months based on the ctfc’s website. in January it was over 33 millions and now it is just over 16 million, a 50% reduction?

Thanks,
Ken

287

How come no report on Cavemanforex Challenge week 2 and week 3?

288

Hi there,
I’m just getting started with forex. Can you tell me if a company called finanzas forex out of panama is a scam? My buddy just invested 60kus. I’m trying to do some research before I do anything with them. thanks in advance

289

sorry troggy, i’m falling behind

290

never heard of this firm. in panama? you can do better my friend.

291

No Mas! No Mas! Like a bloody and battered Roberto Duran the folks over at Rosenthal Collins are giving up on MT4. This weekend they dropped a bombshell on their clients:
Tradewview not part of RCG?! as of today

Dear Valued Client,

From day one, Tradeview has worked to offer clients optimum trading solutions, by offering the familiar Metatrader 4 platform with sophisticated enhancements to the software. Our dedication has been to provide the latest trading technology by offering clients an unprecedented link to the biggest liquidity pools in the world. In doing so, we cultivated a new kind of FCM - one with a focus on innovation, and a relentless devotion to the best technology.

By creating our systems with this focus, we gained the ability to make fast changes in the most robust 24 hour market in the world. Every Tradeview client can rest assured that they will have access to the best possible solutions as soon as they become available.

We founded our partnership with Ikon GM based on our need for aggressive technical restructuring. Supporting 24 hour-a-day trading requires intensive support, and most FCMs are forced to outsource their technology needs. By joining Ikon GM, we are able to eliminate 3rd party solutions by utilizing their in-house technology company which specializes in network trading, and utilizing the latest market innovations. For our clients, this means we have direct control over our platform, and the ability to develop and test more advanced solutions in response to ongoing demand.

In addition to maintaining the best trading solutions, Ikon GM has a distinguished regulatory history. Since the firm?s original inception in 1999, Ikon Global Markets has maintained an exceptional record, which is an ethical priority we share.

By combining forces, Tradeview will continue to improve upon the promise we make to our clients: Providing optimum support, execution, and trading solutions that are unrivaled in the industry. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us at our RCG office or our new office at Ikon Global Markets.

RCG Office: 212-437-1870
Ikon Office: 212-482-8275

Regards,

The Tradeview Team

Anyone who spends time on the bulletin boards has gotten to know Tradeview Forex as they have spent gobs of money advertising their wares. Yet it appears they were never able to get MT4 to work proficiently and as such are simply walking away for the whole failed experiment. One Tradeview customer on the forex factory thread referenced above states:

Well, considering what it has been like trading with Tradeview’s MT4 platform all last week, a change for the better was needed. There have been numerous outtages to put up with and not to mention requotes during normal market conditions, invalid price messages, and not to mention when you enter an order the order does not go through and instead an “order accepted” message pops up and with no confirmed order. The message would sit there forever so one would have to cancel it and try again, but then one would get trade text is busy message. To circumvent around that you would have to close down the platform and re-open it and try all over again. That would cost you seconds and many pips. One night I could not close any orders and had to phone them in to close. The IT department has had their hands full rebooting the server and trying to fix the problems.

Tradeview says there were numerous problems related to hard coding from their 3rd party vendor for the STP technology. Problems that they could not get support for to fix.

While Tradeview should be commended for knowing when to call it quits I must take issue with this notion that Ikon has a “distinguished regulatory history.”

Last fall Ikon merged with Royal Forex Trading, which had a poor regulatory record and was sanctioned by the NFA right before they gave up their FCM license due to the fact they did not have the necessary capital to stay in business.

Second, both of Ikon’s principals were former principals of Coes FX. Right after they left Coes FX became the subject of numerous regulatory actions by both the NFA and CFTC resulting in a quarter million dollar fraud settlement and the closure of the firm.
CFTC Settles Foreign Currency Fraud Action Against COES FX Clearing, Inc.

Third, sources have informed me that many of the clients that Ikon will be receiving from Tradeview were formerly the clients of One World Capital. One World was the poster child for undercapitalization and blew up last year just as the $5 million capital requirement was kicking in.

In short, Ikon seems to stick its fingers in an awful lot of cookie jars and it they aren’t careful they may get their pudgy little digits stuck in one soon.

Finally, they are $10 million below the $20 million capital requirement set to kick in next spring.

So to those MT4 traders out there who chose Tradeview Forex because they were well capitalized I say buyer beware. Ikon is not Rosenthal Collins. It may be time for you to shop around again…