Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Broker Discussion Forex Brokers
4870

It’s been a while since I’ve checked in here, but I thought I would post a quick update on LMFX. Up until this point I’ve been happily trading with them. However, due to the super-low commissions at FinPro, I’ve been trying to transfer a large portion of my funds out of LMFX to use at FinPro, which would save me hundreds of dollars per month. Now I’m sitting here 24 days after having my wire transfer request approved by LMFX, and zero funds have arrived at my bank yet. LMFX support remains communicative but ultimately unhelpful. So far I’ve been impressed with LMFX operations, but those good feelings have rapidly deteriorated. If I ever do receive my funds, the prospect of waiting weeks for withdrawals makes me loathe to continue business here. I am also worried about the remainder of my funds at LMFX and if I will ever have a chance to successfully withdraw those.

Has anybody currently with LMFX been able to successfully withdraw funds from their account?

2 Likes
4871

Thank you Clint.
Methinks I may have wasted your tyme !.. :frowning:
Is there any way we can “keep hope alive” for a lessening
of the current restrictions on U.S. persons ??
hyperscalper

2 Likes
4872

Capital City Markets Update.

My bank recently got back to me literally after 2 whole months an says its been too long and they can not help . I spent hours going through all the info with my bank manager and the fraud department . I went or called weekly until the head of the fraud department told me these things take time and to be patient , I believed those liars until today.

I would like to hear if any one has reached out the Payment Provider that CCM says is the thief of all our funds ? I would like to consider also multiple class action law suits and would like to hear back to my personal email to go in depth on how to proceed . By the law we have 1 year to go after our stolen funds , our banks , Visa etc. ------------------------ In new light I also understand that the bank and Visa are charged with the responsibility to keep our funds safe at all times and they have to prove they did , and they did not.

If a merchant refuses to refund your money, your issuer may turn it back to you. If you believe the merchant is wrong and your complaint is valid, don’t take no for an answer.

“A lot of people just give it up,” Sherry says. “The issuer may come back to you and say, ‘The merchant said X, we can’t give you the chargeback.’ But that’s not a time to give up, that’s the time to get your dukes up and go in for another round because the merchant may be saying something that’s false. Any proof you can bring to bear at that point will help.”

  1. File under 'claims and defenses’
    If the standard dispute process fails, you have another chance – filing a complaint under “claims and defenses,” a process instituted by the Federal Trade Commission in 1975. Unlike billing errors, claims and defenses can be filed up to one year from the time of purchase. However, they must meet these four criteria:
    • The amount in dispute is more than $50;
    • You must not have paid the disputed charge;
    • You must make a good-faith effort to get a refund from the merchant, and;
    • The merchant must be within 100 miles of your home and within your state (this requirement is waived for online purchases).
4873

@Clint.
Being the forefather of this category is there any agency you might suggest in going forward to recoup our thefts ? I know we have Forex Peace Army to post on which I am about to do .The only reason I stupidly waited was because I believed my bank had it under control , big wake up call .

4874

BITCOIN INFO – ELECTRICAL POWER CONSUMPTION

“…each individual bitcoin transaction uses almost 300KWh of electricity – enough to boil around 36,000 kettles full of water.”

Gosh, and we know there are scalability issues with BitCoin transaction rates which are being severely stressed during the current frenzy…

hyperscalper

1 Like
4875

Thanks for that @HyperScalper - I’ve nicked this for my thread "Bitcoin to fall off a cliff ? " - hope you don’t mnd

atb

F
https://forums.babypips.com/t/bitcoin-to-fall-off-cliff/117389/137

4876

FINPRO LIQUIDITY PROVIDERS MIS-BEHAVING

On a very regular basis, FinProTrading’s Market Makers
are seriously mis-behaving in GBP/NZD specifically…

When I get around to it, I’ll try and bring it to their attention…
They “spike” the BID downwards erratically…
If I showed you a screen shot of the BID it’s embarrassing…
Mostly during the Asian session.

[EDIT2] OK, I submitted a Support Ticket to FinPro pointing out that the GBP/NZD
pair is consistently and significantly misbehaving. We’ll see what they say…

[EDIT] I’ll post the image anyway; a picture worth 1k words…

FinPro-Shenanigans.PNG1306×694 15.8 KB

symbol min , avg , max spread pips
AUDCAD, 0.8 , 1.0 , 4.1 #
AUDCHF, 1.3 , 1.4 , 1.8 #
AUDJPY, 0.6 , 0.7 , 0.9 #
AUDNZD, 0.7 , 1.2 , 1.8 #
AUDUSD, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.4
CADCHF, 1.3 , 1.7 , 3.5 ##
CADJPY, 0.7 , 0.8 , 1.0 #
CHFJPY, 1.5 , 1.6 , 3.1 ##
EURAUD, 0.5 , 0.9 , 1.4 #
EURCAD, 1.0 , 1.2 , 1.3 #
EURCHF, 0.9 , 1.1 , 1.3 #
EURGBP, 0.5 , 0.7 , 1.0 #
EURJPY, 0.2 , 0.4 , 0.6
EURNZD, 1.9 , 2.8 , 3.4 ###
EURUSD, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.5
GBPAUD, 1.6 , 2.3 , 2.9 ##
GBPCAD, 1.9 , 2.2 , 2.7 ##
GBPCHF, 1.4 , 1.7 , 3.0 ##
GBPJPY, 0.2 , 0.6 , 1.1 #
GBPNZD, 15.5 , 18.5 , 24.8 ##################
GBPUSD, 0.4 , 0.6 , 0.9 #
NZDCAD, 1.2 , 1.8 , 2.1 ##
NZDCHF, 1.2 , 1.6 , 1.9 ##
NZDJPY, 0.8 , 1.2 , 1.6 #
NZDUSD, 0.3 , 0.8 , 1.2 #
USDCAD, 0.4 , 0.5 , 0.8 #
USDCHF, 0.6 , 0.8 , 1.0 #
USDJPY, 0.1 , 0.2 , 0.4

hyperscalper

4877

I think this is “normal” behavior for most brokers during low liquidity hours. If you stick to the H1 / M30 during London hours when the liquidity is higher, you don’t get these kind of wonky spreads.

If you want to see something really interesting… watch the gbp/nzd tick chart (market watch box) during a news release. Then you’ll really see the spreads widen.

Best of luck to you. :slight_smile:

4878

sknight1,

Thanks for that, but I disagree that it’s “normal”. I watch this stuff all the time, and FinProTrading claims that they pride themselves on their Liquidity Providers’ behavior, etc. So let’s see whether they care enough to fix this… And of course I know about News Release related spread behavior as well… That’s why I get in BEFORE the News Event. Thanks again !!

hyperscalper

1 Like
4879

SIMPLEFX SPREADS VERSUS EVOLVE.MARKETS

Both of these brokers have about 500:1 leverage on the
native BIT denominated accounts. However, the Bid/Ask
spread pricing on SimpleFX is about 35% or so WIDER
than pricing at Evolve.Markets. Just FYI so I use Evolve.Markets
by preference.

I’m currently pushing some BTC from SimpleFX to Evolve
and timing the transaction. Who knows? Could be like 24 hours
with the BitCoin logjam right now…

[EDIT] Evolve credited the BTC amount 2 hours 45 mins later.
Not bad !.. I believe they require only 1 transaction verification
before they will credit…

hyperscalper

1 Like
4880

it took my friend over 30 days to get $500 out, you should go on forex peace army and file a complaint, this broker is not to be trusted

4881

FINPROTRADING’S REPLY TO COMPLAINT ABOUT GBP/NZD PAIR

Hey, maybe it will result in an improvement; but it’s not exactly an urgent commitment :slight_smile:

Hi Hyperscalper,

Thanks for getting in touch.

The erratic movement was due to thin liquidity around the Sunday open. This is expected in the lead up to the Christmas holiday. We’d like to add that we are actively speaking to our LPs to improve pricing during these periods.
If you require any assistance or have any questions, please feel free to contact us any time via Live Chat, email ( [email protected]) or call +44 20 3289 3467.

Kind Regards,

FinPro Trading

4882

EVOLVE.MARKETS CHANGES BTCUSD PAIR LOT SIZE

Due to the price increase of BTCUSD and the overwhelming popularity of our BTCUSDmicro contract, we have decided to discontinue the larger BTCUSD contract (100 BTC per lot) and rename BTCUSDmicro (1 BTC per lot) to BTCUSD. This will take place in the below steps.

  1. On Thursday , December 21st at 16:00 Server Time, BTCUSD and BTCUSDmicro trading will be halted for approximately 15 minutes.
  2. BTCUSD contract will change from 100 BTC per MT4 lot to 1 BTC per MT4 lot.
  3. All open BTCUSD orders will have their MT4 volume adjusted by 100x. For example, a trade of 0.05 Lots would become 5.00 Lots(5 BTC) however the order will have the same exact value as before (5 BTC).
  4. All open BTCUSDmicro orders will have the suffix “micro” removed.
    Please feel free to contact us should you require further details or assistance.

end quote
hyperscalper

4883

INSTAFOREX SITE POPUP NO US RESIDENTS

This is so depressing to see this, just hopped a link from
Twitter, landed here and got this reminder that U.S. “residents”
are not allowed to use the site.

It’s a one-time banner on the site, so I had to clear my cookies
to see it again…

hyperscalper

InstaForex-No-US-residents.PNG800×548 307 KB

4884

I am a US resident and have used TradersWay for years off and an and I have never had any issues with them. They have good spreads and have never had any funny business to deal with as far as crazy wide 40-60 pip spreads on news like I have always had with Oanda. Having said that their overnight swaps on many pairs is just horrendous for a longer term trader. Any recommendations?

4885

Hi billko1997,

Well, FinProTrading has killer commissions (I mean good…)
but there are times when the Spreads are a bit wider than
I would like but generally not that bad… Fast, stable execution
tight spreads (mostly) and good commissions.

If you are trading at times when spreads are THAT WIDE, maybe
you are “chasing” a News Event while it’s happening, and that’s
not really a recommended way to trade the News, not in a
"reactive" manner. Instead, you should enter a market BEFORE
the News takes place. Or be Bidding or Offering slightly outside
the market on the news.

But the best thing is to formulate a view where a Currency will
be moving, and get in BEFORE the News Event, choosing a
secondary Currency to form the Pair. If CAD is high, and JPY
is low; then SELL the CAD/JPY pair slightly ahead of the
News Event.

But to do that, you have to have Currency Trend Analysis, so
you can see what each of the individual Currencies is doing.
For me, a News Event marks a change of trend in the dominant
Currency’s trend which can be seen days or weeks prior to the
major Calendar News Events regarding Interest Rates, GBP
or major Economic Data disclosures, most of which are
on the Calendars…

hyperscalper

FinPro’s spreads at this very moment are:
symbol min , avg , max spread pips
AUDCAD, 0.6 , 1.0 , 1.4 #
AUDCHF, 0.5 , 0.7 , 0.9 #
AUDJPY, 0.4 , 0.8 , 1.2 #
AUDNZD, 0.9 , 1.4 , 1.9 #
AUDUSD, 0.1 , 0.2 , 0.4
CADCHF, 0.9 , 1.1 , 1.2 #
CADJPY, 0.3 , 0.8 , 1.1 #
CHFJPY, 1.8 , 2.0 , 3.0 ##
EURAUD, 0.3 , 0.6 , 0.8 #
EURCAD, 1.1 , 1.3 , 1.4 #
EURCHF, 0.4 , 0.6 , 0.7 #
EURGBP, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.5
EURJPY, 0.3 , 0.4 , 0.6
EURNZD, 1.0 , 2.4 , 11.6 ##
EURUSD, 0.1 , 0.1 , 0.3
GBPAUD, 0.5 , 1.1 , 1.4 #
GBPCAD, 1.7 , 1.9 , 2.2 ##
GBPCHF, 0.5 , 0.8 , 1.0 #
GBPJPY, 1.4 , 1.7 , 2.1 ##
GBPNZD, 2.4 , 2.7 , 4.7 ###
GBPUSD, 0.1 , 0.3 , 0.6
NZDCAD, 1.1 , 1.4 , 2.6 #
NZDCHF, 0.6 , 1.5 , 7.5 ##
NZDJPY, 1.3 , 2.7 , 4.4 ###
NZDUSD, 0.1 , 0.4 , 0.6
USDCAD, 0.1 , 0.4 , 0.8
USDCHF, 0.3 , 0.5 , 0.7
USDJPY, 0.1 , 0.2 , 0.3

4886

I appreciate your response but Im in no way “chasing news”. Thats for newbs and gamblers and I am neither. For example today the CAD data came out at 8:30 est. I was short USDCAD since yesterday morning from 1.28777. News came out and price was 1.2800 before it hit. My target was 1.2686 and it was triggered at 8:30:32 est and I was filled at 1.2837. Yes, you read that right, Price was over 60 pips from my target when it triggered and then i was filled 80 pips ABOVE price. So in total my limit filled 140 pips from my actual target. This is an extreme example but its a re-occuring theme with Oanda. Crazy huge spread for milliseconds and then filled at some random price in the middle of nowhere. The only reason I came back AGAIN to Oanda is I get paranoid having too much money in an offshore account. The swaps suck with TradersWay but I could deal with it since I have never had a similar issue with them, ever. Just wish the US Gov. would get their shit together and do something to allow some broker competition. The spreads are fine at TradersWay and they appear to be at FinPro too, just wonder how they deal with swaps. Thanks

4887

OK,

Glad you are a “wise trader”. In general you will get high
precision fills at FinProTrading, so … go for it ?

[EDIT] I must say I really don’t know that much about swaps
since I don’t hold for that long. I did notice some swap
charge yesterday, and realized I need to factor in not only
commission, but swap into my Net Profit calculations.

[EDIT2] You should get FinPro’s “Pure ECN” account, last
time I checked. Anyway, it should be variable spread plus
commmission type of account. Don’t get anything where
commish is paid for by the spread…

hyperscalper

4888

Wisdom comes from getting your ass handed too you, repeatedly, so I guess I may qualify… lol. Looked at FinPro and the swaps are pretty similar to TradersWay. To be honest I would rather deal with the swaps and be more picky about which pairs I hold longer term and just go back to TradersWay than deal with Oanda’s “glitches”. So far I have never had any issues with execution at TW and at least there I can leverage up and keep the bulk of my trading capital in my bank and add if needed. The spreads and commissions seam similar as well between TW and FP too so at least I have history with TW. Its just a shame that by trying to “save us from ourselves” the govt. has actually put all of us who trade FX in the states at greater risk, simply by leaving us with little to no respectable options to trade with. I appreciate your reply’s.

4889

Well, considerations of Commission rates are more
important if you are doing closer scalping at times,
where the commissions can be a larger percentage
of Profits or Losses.

Tradersway is a good brokerage, offering perhaps the
highest leverages available. Their pricing is much more
stable that what you describe at Oanda or others,
I’d say… and the higher leverages do make it possible
to have far less money “at risk” if you see offshoring
as a significant risk…

hyperscalper