How much capital do you have in your forex account?

Are there people who actually trades with more than $ 100,000 capital or
even $ 1M in here ? if so what lot sizes do you trade and how much do you risk per trade ?
So far I’ve been successful making 5-10% a month with small capital
Im hoping to increase capital in the future. However
I’m concerned if brokers can be trusted with large amt of funds. I mean, can you trust them as you can with B of A or Wells ? (even they only insure up to $ 250K) These brokers are well known, such as the FXCM and claim they have millions of dollars in assets… but can you trust them ? I know am 100 % responsible for losses/profits but can I wake up one morning and the broker files bk or something and I lose some or all of the capital ?

I trade from US with Oanda and even if they can insure anything, I would not put more than 20-30k in their system at a time.

As far as I am aware, CitiFX (Citibank) is the only broker in the U.S. that maintains FDIC insured deposits. Someone correct me I’m wrong.

I have $2000 in my forex trading account at present.

I have nearly $3k. I speculate with minilots since I am a noobee in the Forex arena. :smiley:

if you have $100k or $250k, you don’t deposit it with the broker. you deposit it into a custodial bank which hopefully is insured the same way as BoA / WF / etc, and your broker connects to your bank account to verify / settle / add / remove the funds after your daily trades.

Interactive Brokers also offers FDIC insurance as well as private insurance up to $2 Million in cash.

it is sensible not put all your trading capital with your brokers, regardless of reputation.
crazy times right now.

Your frustration is understandable. But there is a way to change things for the better. I’d encourage you to contact the CFTC (I’ll add a link once I hit 5 posts) and leave a public comment asking for greater protections for retail forex customers. A variety of ideas are being considered by CFTC (Insurance, greater disclosure requirements, etc…) that could make a big difference for retail forex traders.

I am trading with 3 brokers, all not more than 20k, so i guess i have no worries about them eating up my money, hehe

I simply put a sensible amount with my broker, enough to cover trades, then have my principal fund with a bank, and I trade 1% of the combined total per trade. So I am risking a lot more than 1% of what is deposited with my broker (who might think me mad!) but just 1% of my overall account.

I spread my trading among 3 Forex Brokers. Mainly for spread reasons.

If one broker is getting way out of hand in the spread, then I can place the trade with one of the other 2 Brokers.

This also is some protection in the event a Broker goes bust.

sounds like a plan. :slight_smile:
I hope their actions will bear fruit in the near future.

Two new developments in the last few days indicate that regulators are trying to get out in front of the safety of funds crisis that has gripped the futures/forex industry. However, these reforms may not extend to the retail forex market.

On Friday the National Futures Association approved a new rule requiring all Futures Commission Merchants to grant real-time, online access to FCM bank accounts. This rule is in response to Russ Wasendorf’s bank statement forgeries which had fooled regulators for 20 years. The language specifically references FCM’s and we are currently checking to see if Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDs) will have to comply with the rule as well. FXCM’s position is that RFEDs need to be more transparent, which is why we also support a rule requiring all FCMs/RFEDs to fully disclosure their financials to the trading public.

The second development came last Thursday at a meeting in Chicago, as reported by the WSJ, in which the CME was reportedly “softening” its opposition to an insurance fund for futures traders. Again, however, no mention of extending such protections to retail forex traders was made.

Futures Industry Leaders Discuss Insurance Fund - WSJ.com

While both of these development are positive, the negative aspect to them is that retail forex may very well be over looked. This is why we are strongly encouraging the trading public to contact the CFTC and leave comments about the need to further protect retail forex traders. Traders can leave comments using the link below:

http://comments.cftc.gov/PublicComments/CommentForm.aspx?id=1250

Aside from the above, make sure your money is kept in trust for you by the bank that the broker uses. This way you get the money you are entitled to whatever happens to the broker. And if the bank goes bust any deposit protection scheme will then apply.

There must be many retail traders with $million accounts, just like there are businesses with $million bank accounts. Money has to sit somewhere some of the time and hopefully in one of these: WORLD’S 50 SAFEST BANKS 2012 | Global Finance

I have over 200k in my trading account and am quite happy with it being there. I use a broker that has been in business for many years and is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has its accounts fully audited.

just out of curiosity… are you profitable trader ?

how many years?

are you familiar with Lehman Brothers?
PFGbest?
are you aware of what happened to them?

you still need to be on guard in these crazy times.

Hi, I have some $40000 in my 2 accounts and i earn it in 2.5 years with starting balance of $5000 only. I know few traders who are trading on $1M account. I use to take risk not more than 6% of my account and always wait for my point to open the trades, after careful analysis. This is market for those who give the respect to it by learning good strategies and in timely market movement.

I got 17500 eur on trading account and my risk is max 0.8% per trade 140 eur no less no more and I am only trading cable