Going offshore to escape the CFTC

The CFTC Red List – and the future for U.S. Forex Traders

https://www.smartcheck.gov/REDList/

Do forum participants see that our available brokerages will inevitably
be picked off, one by one; or is the sentiment that we will always
have at least a handful of brokers who are willing to work with U.S. persons??

hyperscalper

SOLICITATION OF U.S. CLIENTS VS. PASSIVE ACCEPTANCE

So far, my understanding of these CFTC regulations, as has been
mentioned several times by Clint and others,

It is “illegal” for the foreign entity to actively “solicit” U.S. clients
but it is not illegal for them to accept a U.S. client’s application
which is “unsolicited”.

Is this in fact the correct distinction? Especially in those cases
where the foreign broker has NO U.S. business entities which
could have funds seized, etc. due to non-compliance (whatever
"compliance" is defined to be by CFTC).

hyperscalper

1 Like

I read through the REDList at the link provided by HyperScalper and I did not see LMFX, although I did see the other 3 Trusted Brokers currently shown in the Group 1 list. Maybe I somehow missed seeing it and maybe there is nothing significant about that broker not being on the list, yet.

I also noted the sentence at the link stating “The goal of this list is to provide information to U.S. consumers about foreign entities that are acting in an unregistered capacity and to help them make more informed decisions about whether to trade with or through such an entity.” To me, that sentence makes it clear that I can trade with those entities if I choose. I realize this must have been discussed many many times here and elsewhere, but it was one of those things I wanted to track down and actually see in writing. Sorry to get off subject.
TK

On the contrary, isn’t this absolutely “on topic” ???

hyperscalper

In the description of offshore brokers, the spread is shown, but it happens rarely that anyone discusses carry trade here. Obviously, a person like hyperscalper (who does most of the analysis for spreads) does not care that much about carry trades. However surely there are people who trade on longer term.

I would like to ask if anyone knows which of those brokers have the best carry trades? Or is there a thread which discusses current carry trades for brokers (I mean not something that was active 10 years ago, but now in the present).

I know this is not definitely an offshore question as I am looking for any good carry trade brokers, but it is a good starting point to know what you guys think of the brokers which you have tried.

FE

EVOLVE.MARKETS WITHDRAWALS AND BTC TRANSACTIONS

They do say that their BTC withdrawals are “manual”. In my
latest experience, they didn’t do the transaction for about 12
hours, well within their advertised 24 hour window.

However, when dealing with BitCoin, as more crypto-savvy
members will know, one Big Issue is with BitCoin Transaction rates.
This, in turn, is influenced by the “fee” which is attached and
paid to the miners. (The other significant issue would be the
relative volatility of the BTC market.)

FEES
Because Evolve.Markets pays the BTC transfer fee, it attaches
a fairly small minimum fee to the transaction. This influences the
Miners to pass over your transaction and process other higher
fee transactions first, often for many hours…

Everything works fine from end-to-end of the chain, but I went into
BTC expecting faster transaction times. Understanding why these
transactions are “slow”, and the direct relationship to a relatively low
transaction fee, is just “getting used to” working with BitCoin.

Hoping some of the upcoming “forks” and proposals will significantly
decrease BTC confirmation transaction rates !!

Steps required when withdrawing from Evolve.Markets:

In my case, using CoinBase, obtain a “receive” wallet address.
At Evolve.Markets, Choose Withdraw.
Provide the “receive” address at CoinBase as Withdrawal Address
Specify the amount in BIT
Provide the Evolve website client password
(optionally) Provide Google Authenticator Code
Click Withdraw.
But, wait! Don’t forget that you must also go to your registered
email and click Approve; otherwise the transaction request
at Evolve will expire. They don’t make that obvious…
So you may try several times, and find your transactions
"expire" because you have failed to check your email.
Then WAIT. Up to 24 hours until status goes from queued to complete.

Then, at CoinBase, observe you have receive the BTC
BUT, then you must wait for sufficient confirmation of the BTC
transaction until it is considered “irreversible” . BTC TRANSACTION RATE
At which time, then at CoinBase, you may SELL some BTC
and “instantly” receive USD in a wallet at CoinBase (in my case).
Then request transfer to your linked Bank, which takes 1-2 days.

Voila! You have withdrawn into USD which you can spend !!!
NOTE: Using CoinBase is absolutely NOT an “anonymous” way
to use BitCoin; there are others which are much more anonymous…

hyperscalper

1 Like

SIMPLEFX.COM

Hi, I thought this was one of our brokerages. I do have a live
account (currently empty) with them, but unless they have changed
policies, isn’t SimpleFX available to U.S. clients?

Sorry if I’ve missed something along the way. Whereas their
Live spreads appear slightly wider than some others, they
appear very competitive.

I access them through MT4 but they do also appear to have a
web only interface as well. Funding is in BIT. Apologies if SimpleFX
has been excluded for some reason; otherwise, why don’t we list it?

[EDIT] I can’t recall the circumstances when I got the account so, unless
they have definitely changed their policy on U.S. persons, we should
list them…?? I’m gonna fund it with some, and kick the tires (or tyres)…

[EDIT2] Literally in the brief moments since I first made this post, I grabbed
some BTC on CoinBase, and sent it to my SimpleFX account, and after
1 confirmation by the BTC Miners, the funding is now active in MT4 !!!
I’m taking this “broker diversification” thing seriously, as I do have a
Master/multi-Slave setup in my software platform.

I’ll do some more checking, maybe I just need another cup of coffee !! LOL

hyperscalper

1 Like

SIMPLEFX SPREAD ANALYSIS

at this time 04:30 GMT (Asian session) here are
the spreads at SimpleFX:

[EDIT] By the way, for smaller accounts leverage
is 500:1 and that decreases as account
size increases, but it’s quite good.

symbol min , avg , max spread pips
AUDCAD, 1.6 , 1.8 , 2.0 ##
AUDCHF, 1.6 , 1.8 , 1.9 ##
AUDJPY, 1.5 , 1.7 , 2.0 ##
AUDNZD, 1.6 , 2.1 , 2.4 ##
AUDUSD, 1.1 , 1.2 , 1.3 #
CADCHF, 1.6 , 1.8 , 2.0 ##
CADJPY, 1.5 , 1.7 , 1.9 ##
CHFJPY, 1.4 , 1.8 , 2.1 ##
EURAUD, 1.8 , 2.4 , 2.8 ##
EURCAD, 1.8 , 2.3 , 2.6 ##
EURCHF, 1.2 , 1.4 , 1.6 #
EURGBP, 1.0 , 1.2 , 1.3 #
EURJPY, 1.1 , 1.4 , 1.7 #
EURNZD, 2.3 , 3.0 , 3.3 ###
EURUSD, 0.9 , 1.0 , 1.2 #
GBPAUD, 3.3 , 4.0 , 4.4 ####
GBPCAD, 2.4 , 2.7 , 2.9 ###
GBPCHF, 2.8 , 3.0 , 3.1 ###
GBPJPY, 1.3 , 1.7 , 2.1 ##
GBPNZD, 3.3 , 3.9 , 4.4 ####
GBPUSD, 1.1 , 1.3 , 1.6 #
NZDCAD, 1.5 , 2.0 , 2.5 ##
NZDCHF, 1.5 , 2.0 , 2.1 ##
NZDJPY, 1.3 , 1.7 , 2.0 ##
NZDUSD, 1.2 , 1.4 , 1.5 #
USDCAD, 0.9 , 1.1 , 1.3 #
USDCHF, 1.0 , 1.3 , 1.4 #
USDJPY, 0.9 , 1.0 , 1.2 #

hyperscalper

1 Like

New broker to look at https://www.n1cm.com/

Anyone have experience with them?

BTC, Evolve and Finpro

I processed a BTC withdrawal with Evolve two days ago. It went very well. The only hitch was missing the confirmation email Hyperscalper mentioned. I ran the process again, verified by clicking the email link from them and the BTC was in my wallet within the hour. The mining fee was about $3.50 (BTC $6100 at the time).

As stated, they say that it is a manual process. I entered the request at 14:00GMT. Must have been during office hours, since it was processed very quickly. I’ve been using BTC since March and it continues to meet my expectations. I’m saving time and money.

BTC withdrawals with Finpro have been the same. Quick and easy. Their backoffice system is clunky, but it works. I talked with Sneha there recently, and she confirmed they offer Paypal once again with zero processing fee. I might run my next withdrawal that direction to test.

I don’t have time now to get into the subject of debit cards, but I recently applied for one that charges only .5% to load (convert to USD). This is faster and less expensive than Coinbase and the limits are much higher. Coinbase works, but remains disappointing. Bitpay works, but also has issues. I will make time to post my experiences with both. BTC is evolving and I’m looking forward to more progress. If you aren’t working with BTC yet, you need to get started, if only to understand and master it.

Not bad .How much does trader need in account to get those spreads ?

Ummmm… those are just the regular spreads you can have
with a basic ECN account and $50.00 equivalent. No magic
here; these are just variable spread plus commission type
accounts. We are very lucky these days to have excellent
Forex brokers.

But if you’re into BitCoin then you should use Evolve.Markets
with even better spreads. SimpleFX is “ok” but is not the very
best of the bunch.

Remember I am talking ONLY about the 28 Forex pairs, but
Evolve.Markets allows you to trade like BTC/USD and stuff like
that, if you want to speculate, etc…

hyperscalper

1 Like

Had a quick look at their website. Looks kinda
OK but even the website had html syntax problems,
so I guess they’re just getting going. Their ECN Pro
account would be OK.

For me, there’s no way to know for real without looking
at a Live account in operation.

They are in Vanuatu, and selecting United States did not
result in a rejection message, so I guess they’ll take Yanks.

hyperscalper

1 Like

BITCOIN ANNOUNCEMENT FROM COINBASE

Dear XXX,

We wanted to remind you that the upcoming Bitcoin Segwit2x fork is projected to take place on November 16 and will result in 2 bitcoin blockchains.

In our effort to make Coinbase the most trusted, safe, and easy-to-use digital currency exchange, we are working to ensure we maximize your benefit from this event. So, following the fork:

Any user storing Bitcoin on Coinbase at the time of the fork will be credited with an equal amount of the new Bitcoin2x asset on the Bitcoin2x blockchain. No action is required - we will automatically credit your account. If you have 5 Bitcoin stored on Coinbase before the fork, you will have 5 Bitcoin and 5 Bitcoin2x following the event.

Coinbase users will be able to trade both Bitcoin and Bitcoin2x shortly after the fork.

Coinbase will disable buys, sells, sends and receives for Bitcoin and Bitcoin2x approximately 24 hours before the fork. We will re-enable them following the fork once it’s safe to do so.

For a detailed timeline of events surrounding the fork please see our blog post and FAQ. Thank you,
Coinbase Team

hyperscalper

[EDIT] Geez, the text had indentation of 4 spaces so originally it put text into
a scrolling panel !!! Weird. Fixed it.

2 Likes

Not a bad option to hold some thru the split. Segwit2x futures are currently trading at around $1100

Clint and HyperScalper,

Thank you, both for making such outstanding contributions to help inform those (and traders like me) about the brokers we can (or should not) trust! I appreciate your commitment to helping all you have viewed your threads.

v/r
Pipconomist

1 Like

Request for updates on the Capital City Markets (CCM) deposit situation.

Over the past week, there have been no posts regarding the deposit problem at CCM.

Is this problem being resolved?

If you trade live with CCM, and have been affected by the CCM deposit problem, please post a brief update here on your efforts – and (I hope) your success – in getting this problem straightened out.

Thanks.

No success. Requested withdrawal of remaining funds in live account and it was not honored. Funds no longer show up in MT4. Straight up theft.

Nothing has changed , do not be fooled . Bank says cant go back that far . Visa supposedly has a time frame of when a customer can claim things and its long past , and not a peep from Capital City Markets .

@foreverforex2 and @Martin22 Thanks for your updates.

As it stands now, CCM clients have basically been screwed.

I received an email today from another member (who chose not to post here in the thread) saying essentially the same thing.

If there are other victims of this deposit fiasco, please speak up now, in this thread.

And if anyone has successfully resolved this CCM problem, please weigh in. We need to learn how you accomplished that !