Thanks Jason, but let me ask, why shouldn’t any brokerage offering a DD option using tighter spreads as a carrot, not be considered a red flag for engaging in a corrupt business model? Other than becoming a go-between with a direct conflict of interest, what trader could possibly benefit from such an arrangement and how? Also, US traders looking for offshore brokerages allowing higher leverage, the option to hedge and scalp, are required by FXCM to fake temporary residency in unregulated territories such as found south of our (use to be)border, in order to open an account with their fxcmmarket.com branch. Maybe I’m wrong, but FXCM is the only brokerage I’ve dealt with that forces traders to satisfy this suspicious requirement. Just because I want to trade instruments not allowed by my corrupt government, doesn’t mean I’m willing to embrace corrupt practices. This is yet another red flag regardless of all the nifty bells and whistles FXCM has constructed.
The above are a couple of observations beyond FXCM’s comparably loose spreads. These for me are deal breakers, otherwise I’d open an FXCM Market account instantly with so many good features going for it, though less important than my concerns.
No Vanessa, they are not telling you to be unethical, they are telling you what you need to do be legal. I do the same thing when I tell people to get an off shore IBC. You are not braking any laws, just getting an identity outside the US. It is a smart thing to do not an immoral act. Now I don’t know anything about fxcm first hand, I know they have been around as long as I have and several of our traders use to use them. never heard anything terrible but they are not being deceptive when telling you to get an off shore residency, they are just being your friend.
I think your recent comments about FXCM’s dealing desk option were a bit heavy-handed. FXCM is not interested in abusing you, or any other customer, with a “corrupt business model”.
Here are 4 pages from the FXCM website, in which they discuss the pros and cons of their [I]standard[/I] non-dealing-desk execution protocol, and the pros and cons of their dealing-desk [I]option.[/I]
I think you will agree that they have done a pretty complete job of disclosing the facts about the dealing-desk model vs. the non-dealing-desk model, greatly facilitating due diligence on the part of their clients and prospective clients.
I have had accounts with FXCM since before Straight-Through Processing (STP), and ECN brokers, even existed — in other words, since the time when all retail forex brokers were market-makers, operating dealing desks. Those days are sometimes referred to as the “wild west days” of retail forex; and, to be sure, at that time there were some shifty brokers who were more than willing to use their dealing desks to steal from their customers.
To the best of my knowlege, FXCM never tried anything like that on me. And, since that time, I have learned to ignore the bad-mouthing of FXCM that appears from time to time on the internet, because that bad-mouthing simply does not reflect my years of experience with this broker.
I continue to use FXCM’s standard STP execution protocol; because, based on the way I trade, there is no compelling reason to switch to the dealing-desk option. But, I would have no qualms about switching to that option. I trust FXCM to treat me as fairly in the future as they always have in the past.
Your way of trading apparently is different from mine; and, for you, a pip difference in spread evidently has a significant impact on your results. If you were considering a U.S. broker, I would not hesitate to recommend FXCM’s dealing-desk protocol (with lower spreads) to you. However, if you are totally hostile to U.S. brokers, and intent on doing all your trading offshore, I certainly understand that sentiment. I am, after all, the guy who started this thread with some heavy-handed comments of my own, directed at the CFTC.
In all my experimentation with offshore brokers, I have always maintained U.S. accounts. It isn’t an either/or situation. In my view, a reputable U.S. broker has some advantages over an equally-reputable foreign broker. But, at the same time, it’s nice to have an established relationship with a trusted offshore broker, and be able to move everything out of the U.S. on very short notice.
Regardless of the offshore relationships that I forge, I will continue to trade my FXCM accounts until such time as totalitarianism in this country threatens their existence.
In my opinion the only thing wrong with FXCM is the regulatory regime under which they are forced to operate. Get rid of Obama and the Obama regime, get rid of the obscenity known as “Dodd-Frank”, and get rid of Gensler and the little nazis at the CFTC — and there would be no particular reason to look offshore for a retail forex broker. Free-born men and women would be free to trade as they see fit, with the best brokers they could find anywhere in the world. And many of those free-born men and women would conclude that you can’t do better than FXCM, no matter where you look offshore.
Also anymore info on PaxForex or FXVV? Seems many of the Brokers that accept americans are very marginal.
I’d like to go offshore again, as i lost ACM and Swissquote many years ago. Although i live mainly in eastern europe, being an american keeps me from these brokers. Any guidance would be appreciated. I have options, to trade under my wifes name, but i prefer to keep my trading accounts transparent. Thanks for any help
You’re a good man Clint to have in an underdog’s corner, but FXCM is no underdog. Indeed, FXCM is one of the MOST profitable FOREX brokerage houses ever and will continue to be.
The above FXCM quote is saying their DD is offered as a service(forget FXCM profiting) for traders who want tighter spreads. The traders they’re talking about are scalpers whose “primary concern” is to trade the tightest spreads possible to have a chance to close in the money. FXCM, like every other DD brokerage KNOWS, it is this category of traders(scalpers) that incur the greatest number of losing trades, hands down, thus making scalpers arguably the largest pool of the most profitable traders to trade against. And yes, FXCM within their DD platform, trade against their clients with reckless abandon. This is where they make their money. Heavy handed? I believe indeed they are, like every other Dealing Desk operation. I’m still waiting for FXCM to present any argument for traders to participate in a DD platform beyond “primary concerns”. So far there is only this carrot of tighter spreads, which frankly are easy to match from their NDD competition.
In the above FXCM quote, please notice where FXCM attempts to distinguish themselves from bucket-shops by insisting they do not manipulate. Then too, please notice where they mention not only here, but many times repeating the same text throughout their literature, “FXCM may, at our sole discretion and at any time, change your execution type to NDD”. You have to know Clint, here they are talking about scalpers who win more than lose against their FXCM DD, admitted in their own words “exposes us to more risk than we’re comfortable with”. If you or anyone, becomes unprofitable for FXCM, they WILL “manipulate” your account, if only from one type to another. Should I trust them to refrain from other forms of manipulations, with it being so easily achievable? No, not with my money.
Where I respect your commitment to what has worked for you Clint, if you drop a dollar on the sidewalk, some otherwise trusted neighbor may very well pocket it with a clear conscience. Unfortunately, the abuses we’re discussing can’t be regulated and are very simple to achieve great profits from. No other reason for offering a DD platform beyond improved spread(barely competitive with many NDD brokerages) has been attempted.
V:42:
P.S. I’m not the only trader who recognizes Dealing Desks as a corrupt business model, and it will remain a red flag for an otherwise great brokerage house.
Although i live mainly in eastern europe, being an american keeps me from these brokers. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Misugami; The simplest thing would be to open a business where ever you are at. The business is subject to the laws of the country where it resides, not the owners state of birth. Open a bank account in the name of the company and use the company to open broker accounts and any other investment dealing that you might have. The only tax you are responsible for is the money that you take out for your own use. Until it is removed, it is the property of the company and those taxes are paid to where ever you opened your company. It is a good idea to shop around for the best countries to open your small investment company in. That’s my best advice.
Misugami; The simplest thing would be to open a business where ever you are at. The business is subject to the laws of the country where it resides, not the owners state of birth. Open a bank account in the name of the company and use the company to open broker accounts and any other investment dealing that you might have. The only tax you are responsible for is the money that you take out for your own use. Until it is removed, it is the property of the company and those taxes are paid to where ever you opened your company. It is a good idea to shop around for the best countries to open your small investment company in. That’s my best advice.[/QUOTE]
FXDD (FXDirectDealer) is a U.S. broker, headquartered in New York. FXDD is a member of the NFA, and is regulated by the CFTC.
I am not aware of an offshore FXDD subsidiary with [I]FSA regulation.[/I] However, if there is such a subsidiary, CFTC regulations would prohibit U.S. residents from trading with that offshore subsidiary (in the same way that CFTC regulations prohibit U.S. clients of FXCM from trading with FXCM-UK, FXCM-Australia, etc.).
I checked the 5 review comments included in our listing for Traders Way (on post #2 of this thread), but none of those reviews addressed the issue of withdrawal of funds. I haven’t traded with this broker myself, so I can’t give you an opinion on them.
So, your question awaits an answer.
In case you haven’t read those Traders Way review comments, here are direct links to them:
Clint you are truly one of the genuine good people. Thanks for taking the time to post the links - I already read the reviews in the thread, but thanks for your continued efforts.
As far as Traders Way - I think I am going to give them a go and I will report how easy hard it is to withdraw money. I tried their proprietary web trading app is lightning fast with some of the best spreads anywhere (demo anyway).
With the help of this thread I joined finfx sometime last year. Since it’s been a while I thought it might be a good idea to provide a short review for the moving offshore thread. I chose to deposit via the debit/credit card option. They also offer skrill and bank wire. Deposits are fairly swift showing up in account within 1-3 days. The only drawback is finfx charges a $30 fee for withdrawals. Which seemed a bit high for my rather small withdrawal of $100.
Even with this fee I’d still recommend finfx to anyone wishing to move their funds off shore since deposit/withdrawal’s are processed swiftly and easily.
We’ve looked at this broker previously, and found them to be pretty sketchy.
Here are two previous posts — this one and this one — where [B]YouTradeFX[/B] was discussed:
If you are interested in vetting this broker further, let me suggest that you have a “chat” with someone from each of their locations (U.K., Australia and Mauritius), and ask about the issues I raised in those two previous posts.
Specifically, find out why the United States is the “default country” on the account-opening page of all three brokers, and yet the fine print on those same pages clearly excludes U.S. residents.
If the folks at YouTradeFX-Mauritius point out to you that there is no fine print on their account-opening page, ask them about the section in their Terms and Conditions which specifically excludes U.S. residents.
Well I finally made it to page 203 of this super informative thread. First I would like to thank Clint and all the other helpful contributors that have made his forum what it is. So after reading through everything can it be agreed that as a US resident looking to take advantage of currency/CFDs/metal trading with increased leverage (greater than 50:1) our best two options reamin FinFX and Forex Broker Inc, right?
After reading and learning a great deal of all the different brokers, i try to avoid sites like forexpeacearmy bc they bash everything and seem like a bunch of cry babies over there. I would like to try and shift this thread back into the main topic and continue to look and research ways to utilize all options to best exercise any available advantages that exist. I currently use Oanda and for anyone that hasn’t tried them (their charting package sucks) but the lots are very flexible and the spreads are the lowest ive seen of any US borker (comparable if not lower than FXCM Active traders spreads). But I would like to have higher leverage and the ability to trade CFDs which is restricted for US customers. Only Oanda UK is allowed to do it.
So with regards to FinFX and Forex Broker Inc - has anyone consistently made withdraws from their accounts and not had a problem?
Are you having the money sent back to your US bank accounts? (Chase, Bank of America, etc)?
The Belize-based Forex Broker Inc comes nowhere close to the Finland-based FinFX. The Estonia-based Tallinex looks like a lot better option than the Belize shop. At least, both Finland and Estonia are the EU member states.
Hello, bhs — I’m glad to see that you’re still checking in with us from time to time.
Regarding European brokers: If you’ve looked at posts #1 and #2 of this thread recently, you probably noticed that I’ve reorganized and consolidated our listing there.
Almost 3 years ago, when we started this project, we had a decent list of U.K. and western European brokers who would deal with us. Almost all of those brokers have since fallen by the wayside. It got so bad that our [B]U.K. / Western Europe[/B] category had dwindled down to [I]one[/I] listing — FinFX in Finland.
Some would argue that geographically Finland isn’t even within “western” Europe, although politically it is aligned with the west, and is a member of the EU (but not a member of NATO).
Anyway, I decided to combine everything west of Asia and north of the Mediterranean into a single category called simply [B]Europe[/B]. Then, in an attempt to even out the length of post #1 and post #2, I moved [B]Pacific / Asia[/B] from post #1 to post #2, and moved [B]Mediterranean / Middle East / Africa[/B] from post #2 to post #1. I hope all this has made the Offshore Broker List more readable.
Over the past 3 years, Group 1 in our List has been shrinking, and Group 2 has been growing. We need to find some replacements for the brokers we’ve lost. If we do some searching, I think we should be able to find new brokers to add to our Group 1. At last count, there appeared to be over 400 retail forex brokers worldwide, of which almost 350 are outside the U.S. We’re probably overlooking some good prospects.
It occurred to me that we aren’t the only website sifting brokers to find those who will deal with us. So, I did a quick search of 4 other sites, and copied their lists of brokers who will accept U.S. clients. In my next post, I will give you those lists.
The lists are in “raw” form, unfiltered and unedited. They include U.S. brokers (which we will have to screen out), and they all include brokers which we have already vetted and eliminated from our List. Although each of these 4 lists is longer than our Offshore Broker List, I believe that ours is the most accurate of the bunch.
Nevertheless, there are brokers in these lists which we have never discussed. There are some names that I’ve never even seen before, and possibly you haven’t either. So, maybe we can get a few folks on this thread to scan these lists, and hunt for prospects for [I]our[/I] List.
