Can someone from the US trading offshore answer this question…
Why are CME Currency futures not a viable option in the US? Day trading margin on the major pairs is anywhere from 125-250:1 leverage.
Is the size of 1 full contract or the added cost of real time data the issue?
For one thing CME doesn’t have liquidity in many of the Yen pairs, which these days is the “risk” trade.
Are you talking about JPY crosses? I had a level II Globex feed in the past and from what I remember the top of book & <3 pip liquidity depth on the majors were higher than all retail forex ECNs I have seen, however that was during US session.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m currently with Finpro, FXchoice & Tradersway. I currently split my ticket size across all 3 using a trade copier EA & VPS, but I have been seriously thinking about coming back to the US and trading CME currency futures.
The fear of these offshore broker’s bank intermediaries losing their USD corresponding banking relationships due to US regulatory pressure is a constant concern.
I hear you. That was a fun time. FXDD, then Forex FS, then nothing…
A lot of my hours coding ended up being wasted and as a working stiff, I don’t have a lot of time to spare.
The lessons for me were;
On the topic of being denied platforms and APIs, I’ve noticed a lot of REST APIs recently available.
After JForex was eliminated as an option for US traders, I started programming in R and using a REST API.
An upside of this change is that many Crypto exchanges use REST APIs. Also, I just checked and several brokers offer REST APIs nowadays.
It’s unlikely any laws will be passed that will invalidate my R code (or whatever language one chooses) if many brokers make REST APIs available.
The ideal situation is that brokers present a generic API and we write in whatever language we choose. In this model, we can change brokers easily, because we can write our code in any language we want and simply modify the syntax for calls to the broker as needed.
It doesn’t have to be REST, but REST works and brokers seem to be adopting it.
I’m happy to say, I can port my code between brokers much more easily today than I could 10 years ago. This is not specific to going offshore, but this model does empower the individual with personal liberty and helps solve a part of the problem we’re facing. Hopefully, no one has to have their code made unusable overnight again.
Cheers
Sounds like you are trading much larger positions than me. But yes, I was referring to the yen crossrate futures on globex. For example, EURJPY, GBPJPY and AUDJPY seem to average 3-4 pip spreads during the Asian trading session – much worse than even US Division FX brokers.
But I tell you who has really been impressing me lately is Evolve Markets, if you don’t mind the bitcoin funding. I opted for the zero commission account, and seeing under 1 pip (slightly) for many of the pairs. The 500:1 leverage is way more than I need.
He’ll skip on painting a picture and just submit a “smh” gif or emoji lol
For smaller traders, in my experience, when I used to work with Futures Traders is that they were under-funded and were unable to control their risk, due to the “indivisible” value of the 1 contract commitment in, say, 6E ( EUR/USD ).
As you know, in Forex, the same Risk can be 1/100th less (or anywhere in between) and multiple price entries can be used to improve the cost basis ( Volume Weighted Average Entry price )…
If this is not a factor, with large accounts, then Futures trading is viable. In my case, since I do only Forex, Forex analytics would apply equally well to the corresponding Futures contracts with Forex underlyings…
Those who prefer Futures are certainly under-valuing the flexibility and breadth which Forex offers… I use Forex inter-relationships to factor out Currency Trending, and that provides a high level of predictability in Forex trading… (don’t ban my post, since it’s not advertising!)
Honestly, I think the Forex market (at least the major 28 Pairs, based on the 8 primary Currencies, omitting CNY) is one of the most interesting markets, since we can literally “calculate” where the opportunities lie, as there are “constraints” internal to the Forex markets, which do not exist in any other market types, I’d say… but anyway…
Finally, the “death blow” which the Futures markets have dealt to Forex in the U.S. makes this Forum extremely valuable for Forex traders to find brokers, since Forex in the U.S. is really just “dead” in the sense we’ve become accustomed in the past…
hyperscalper
FINPROTRADING WITHDRAWALS
No issues. But, yes, my recommendatiion is never ever to accept bonus type money from any broker… With the leverages available, does that really help anyone? And if you need “bonus money” maybe you’re just under-funded, man… !
hyperscalper
EVOLVE.MARKETS
Yeah, I very strongly recommend this broker. It is a fully anonymous account creation and they have now migrated to MetaTrader 5 for new accounts. For me, using the NJ4X framework, fortunately I am able to deal with mixed MT4 and MT5 accounts.
I can’t say anything negative about Evolve.Markets from any perspective. It’s almost “magical” … I have noticed that since their MT5 implementation is a recent development, that there are some disconnect/reconnect issues, but maybe MT5 is just a bit more sensitive to connection quality…
Your ability to quickly move funds will depend upon the underlying Crypto currency. For BTC accounts, you’ll suffer the slow response of the BitCoin network. But for native LTC (LiteCoin) account types, transaction confirmation times are very quick.
Initially they’ll give you a BTC account, but I prefer LTC so you just open up a second live account using the LTC native funding type. I guess you can just delete your BTC account if you wanted to… VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me…
RISK of course, is that your accounts are Crypto-funded, so you will be exposed to exchange rate fluctuations between your account Currency and your Fiat or normal currency, EUR, USD, whatever… This can be seen either as a risk, or as an additional “dimension” of trading opportunity… 
[EDIT] included screenshot showing that LTC (LiteCoin) accounts are also available. You can literally fully set up an account and trade it within 15 minutes or so… Quite amazing. And, I might add, their support is responsive as well… which is a pleasant surprise… I think they can also protect you with a 2-Factor authentication login…
hyperscalper
HyperScalper,
Thanks for the tip about disconnection issues. Haven’t experienced that myself yet but will be looking out for it.
For those interested, here’s a random screenshot of some major pairs showing in Evolve’s zero commission “classic” account. It’s about 3 hours into the Asia trading session. The USD pairs are trading at 1 pip. Crossrates are also pretty tight. 1.5 pips on EURAUD is very impressive! The spreads do fluctuate, but this is representative for Asia. NY session is even better.
.
I would never trade with an account that has commission included
in the spread. It should be raw spread plus commission. But if you
like it, then great …
I can easily give you the spreads for Evolve.Markets during any
session, with some lead time. If you are not doing "precision trading"
where pricing really matters, then it really is insignificant, I’ll admit.
hyperscalper
The one issue I have with Evolve is having your balance sitting in Crypto. Of course you could always attempt to hedge out that risk by taking a long USD position to cover your balance/profits, however that can get tedious and increases commission costs. That being said, I do have an account there strictly for the 500:1 leverage on CFDs which are banned in the US.
ok guys found another broker you guys can look into. FX Cryptocurrency Trading, Crypto Forex Broker - Coinexx
I would like to give my up-vote for Turnkeyforex.com to trusted broker status as well.
They have my vote of confidence for their client support services, timely deposit and withdrawal (been tested more than a few times ) along with the spreads & commission that they offer( I use the ECN account only).
To me they have proved themselves to be a Trusted broker.
COINEXX FIRST LOOK
Looks like a competitor to Evolve.Markets with more
crypto choices… Great pricing, commish and other terms, MT5
only… [EDIT] in another area they say MT4 so a bit confusing
on which MetaTrader platforms are supported… As with
Evolve.Markets possibly new accounts MT5 only…
[EDIT2] They also mention “fiat” currency accounts, as well
as cryptos, so it is not clear what those choices would be,
some ambiguities on the website itself on a few issues…
Overall, looks really promising !
I did not look into U.S. persons availability but my guess is “yes”.
They are not “soliciting” U.S. persons, clearly, so they would be
CFTC compliant in that regard
hyperscalper
Over the past month, three of our members – HyperScalper, whywescalp, and theforexalgo --have recommended designating Turnkey Forex as our fifth Trusted Broker.
This is a call for additional votes, for or against this designation.
If you have PERSONAL experience trading LIVE with Turnkey Forex, please post your opinion on this recommendation.
Hi Clint! i split my trading between turnkey and finpro. they are deserve to be in the trusted list. have been with them past one year without issues. Good conditions and responsive support team
@HyperScalper @SmallPaul i have an account with them. Shifted from evolve. They don’t accept fiat and offer MT5 only as a trading platform. And a friend of mine from US also trades with them. Spreads and comm are most competitive. you can literally see negative spreads during european & asian sessions. Though i have a small account with them but they seem very promising. particularly pleased that they have chat on their website as opposed to evolve.
coinexx sounds very promising 
, they accept most of the major crypto pairs for deposit, they have accounts denominated in Bitcoins, Litecoins, etherum, bitcoin cash , their chat support tells me that it is possible to have a USD denominated account with them as well AND they dont accept fiat as a method of payment. All deposits and withdrawals are based on cryptos, you can ALSO get withdrawals in any of the major cryptos so both deposits and withdrawals sounds extremely good. Since they only transact in cryptos, we dont have to go through long and cumbersome process of account verification (in a way similar to how evolve guys are). I looked at their spreads and they clearly are a notch better than our best brokers. Obviously @HyperScalper can give us better insights into their spreads compared to our top brokers.
Im going to open an account with coinexx and will share my experience with you guys. So far what I have seen, they look extremely good and totally worth a small test deposit.
thanks @SmallPaul for sharing the info. This broker is everything that I have been looking for
