@shatnerreborn Well this is off topic but in general achieving
"scalability" could benefit from a pooling of resources. But my
original idea was a personal operation. Still, just like this forum
where ideas are sourced from lots of participants, that occasionally brings in
useful actionable ideas…
And for a scalable long term operation, it really needs to become
more of a business with staff to perpetuate the infrastructure, etc…
But the main threat to me is the lack of availability of a range of
premium brokerages for U.S. persons to use… Right now, we are
just barely “ok” but there needs to be a breakthrough in our access to
quality brokers !!!
[EDIT] This forum is all about ACCESS to and AVAILABILITY of
quality brokerages… for U.S. persons.
[EDIT2] And further to the availability and quality of brokers, plus the
SAFETY of funds on deposit; one of the
most important risks is availability of FUNDS TRANSFER, as that is
one of the “choke points” used against brokers who may be hosting
accounts for U.S. persons… !!!
@ShatnerReborn
Yes, the only truly unrestricted mechanism I have been able
to find is Crypto. Either in natively crypto funded brokers like
Evolve.Markets or maybe SimpleFX or this new Coinexx
broker or others… just transferring native crypto to some local wallet
like Coinbase or even a private crypto vault… But crypto
funded brokers constantly subject us to Crypto / Fiat exchange
rate fluctuations.
From the fiat funded currencies brokers like FinProTrading and
TurnkeyForex, you have to wait for conversion to crypto in their
wallets before transfer can take place. But the exchange risk
is “temporary and transient” since Cryptos are held only for
the purposes of the transfer process.
So Crypto transfers are closest to “frictionless” transfer
mechanisms. Still it is far from ideal that Funds Transfer
mechanisms are under attack.
[EDIT] I’m too busy going live with a new BOT this week, so I just
don’t want to talk about it further. I very much like Evolve.Markets
and FinProTrading/TurnkeyForex and that’s where I’m focusing
my firepower and scalability.
JUST POSTING THIS OLD ARTICLE WHICH CONTAINS
SOME UNDERSTANDING OF CFTC.
Oddly enough, I actually do have “dual citizenship” and according
to this, my “residence” outside the U.S. could make things OK
for me. It’s not gonna happen, but that is Mr. Green’s opinion.
I think this is misleading by strongly implying it is illegal for U.S. persons
to use an offshore broker. I don’t think this is true.
FORBES ARTICLE FROM March 2017
by Robert A. Green
"American retail forex traders should not go offshore
The CFTC does not permit foreign or domestic forex brokers or banks to act as a counterparty to American retail forex traders unless the firm registers with the CFTC, SEC or U.S. bank regulator. It’s the law from the Commodity Futures Modernization Act (CFMA) of 2000. Some unregistered foreign forex dealers accept American retail clients, and they may become a target of CFTC enforcement. A CFTC attorney told me the CFTC views an American-owned foreign corporation as a “dummy corporation,” which does not evade their regulations on this matter. Americans with dual citizenship living in a foreign country may be able to trade forex off-exchange with an unregistered forex dealer. Even though the law focuses on counterparty brokers, traders should not contravene U.S. regulations."
@nicholishen Thanks for the interesting inside info…
I haven’t done anything with Coinexx since I have about a dozen
accounts to hook in as “BOT copy slaves” and if these brokerages
don’t “go away” then that’s enough. My fear is that they may
"go away"… and that bothers me…
Very real concern. It’s known that the company was started by the son of a highly connected Indian police official… and it’s rumored that in India he’s basically untouchable, so good luck getting any kind of reimbursement when they do go away. Also makes you wonder why the company was first registered as Turnkeyfx then finpro and now another spin-off, coinexx. Speaking of such business matters with these companies, I used to get withdrawals in under 48 hrs and my last one took over a week with repeated bullshit excuses why my transfer hadn’t been sent. I’d say don’t sweat a couple hundred bucks you can afford to gamble, but if you have thousands over there, be concerned, very-very concerned.
I have a business colleague who had complained about
a wire transfer being slow from FinProTrading. But then he
switched from a regional to a national bank and there were
no issues at all. So I don’t have any direct experience with
difficulties at FinProTrading transferring money.
I won’t be holding more money in an account than necessary,
and will be using from 30% - 60% of buying power most of
the time… So, in the end, if an account is totally lost it will
already have generated far more in revenue that what might
hypothetically be lost, worst case… So I don’t worry.
Gedanken Experiment: Roughly, with 500:1 leverage,
$5,000 equity will control 500x5000 = 25 lots of
buying power, so a $10,000 account would be using roughly
half its buying power controlling an aggregate 25 lots more
or less continuously. Roughly, 1 lot is $10/pip so that’s
$250/pip aggregate buying power… that’s how I think about it. So
10 pips throws off $2500 / day which makes $10,000 in
a week or so as revenue… That activity is spread over 28 Pairs,
where perhaps a dozen are active at any given time to achieve
the aggregate result. That’s how it should work.
Just using even half of that buying power,
you have 2 (or a few) weeks to offset any
risk of losing the original a$10,000 account equity…
and you’re already break-even. But that $10k is not
going to be lost, or at least I’m not concerned about it
right now…
[EDIT] That’s the advantage of using 500:1 leverage brokers,
as opposed to 50:1 which reduces the equity risk by a factor
of 10 to achieve the same work. The work is done by a BOT
which holds a large number of concurrent positions. Where each
“position” in a Forex symbol like EUR/USD is actually somewhere
between 2 and 4 price and lot size staggered positions to improve
the cost basis, etc…
[EDIT2] … and then everything that BOT does is “slave copied” into
several other brokers which are unrelated to the first one… That
should diversify risk over brokers.
Interesting take on the thoughts experiment! Maybe you have the boss skills to pull off this strategy but I personally believe that excessively high leverage tends to impact the success of trades depending upon who is trading – pro trader like @hyperscalper or a typical trader like me.
For pro traders it does give them the ability to trade diff lot sizes, helping them when the account is down and to diversify. And IMHO, traders like me should stick to max 100 or 200x reserving anything beyond this to pro traders like hyper.
For a typical retail trader like myself, high leverage is a rope, on which he hangs himself. Often the idea of buying a lot with 200 to 300$, entices a dumb retail guy like me who overleverages his ac and burns it out . Having more accessibility to leverage throw them out of the market place forever ( speaking from personal experience lol ).
Probably, that is why CFTC/ESMA restricted the leverage, in order to protect the typical retail trader trader from himself. However, restricting US trader choices, now EUROPE guys, WAS and IS a BAD idea from traders point of view and business point of view.
And am ready to test the waters again with low leverage offcourse and am planning you use one of the brokers off this list
I really don’t understand why there is such a hula ho over high leverage. But I beg to differ @charlie.afl too have this strategy that generates positive results using high leverage in your favor.
The only two things you have to be sure off is that you have a top notch trading platform and a broker that offer you high leverage. Low spreads, low commission and other nuisance charges will also count so having a broker that is cost competitive is very imp. And I think this thread has the list of brokers that fit the bill
So here’s what my strategy is and how it works…. Naysayers might find it ridiculous but it does bring results. And leverage is the catalyst here
First and foremost, you should be willing to trade on 1 hr, 4hr or daily charts, longer the time frames, greater the opportunity to earn profits. Once you spot your setup, then it is crucial to identify your entry on the lower time frames like 5m, 15m or 30 m. Using these time frames allows you to use tighter stop loss. The movement of price should be in the same direction which identified in the longer time frame. Though it is little hard initially, once you became master in this, the rest part is quite easy. Now after you have entered into a trade keeping the above in consideration, be mindful to keep an eye on larger time frame on which you took entry in trade keeps its trend intact, or does not demonstrate any reversal signs. Though price resting is fine, as it might rest before moving in your direction. Second, keep hunting for re-entries to compound your winning rate in the shorter time frame, as you make many entries in the longer one. But to create a risk free trade always moves your stops to the break even. You make a lot of profits using this strategy but the key here is high leverage. Hope you use this strategy @charlie.afl and it changes ur view on leverage. !
The idea is nothing new. What i am not sure is whether high leveraged scaled up method is better or the normal leveraged method. And being a pro really matter or such strategies make you one. Anyhow, thanks for the suggestion and i feel money management is the key always rather than profits
Hi all. I have been reading this question in many forums as people always seem confused with high leverage to high risk concept. Most of us even don’t completely understand leverage. Though I’m not a dedicated pro trader but I do trade on an off in my leisure time or after work. The divergence trading on high or low leverage is very clear to me. No confusion there. Say like trading on 500X or 1x-
If I trade 1 lot of AUDCAD with suppose 500X.I will have to give a lower margin to broker than I would while using 1X lower leverage. Whenever using a stop loss, I would get back the margin from my broker that enables me to predict my risk with the help of margin requirement. Practically speaking, if the trade goes in my favor and I get 100 pips with a volume of 1 lot, then $1000 is my profit. Weather I use leverage of 10:1 or 500:1, my profit would be the same 100 pips or $1000.
So my point is why to risk higher leverage when the ultimate profits remain 100 pips?
I agree @HyperScalper , when I do the trading on algo or technical strategies I usually target 20-40 pips in each trades. Usually looking for a quick profit with breakout momentum. I use almost 60-70% of the equity to create the positions. With leverage we can make more than $2000 in day that help me to take the equity out in couple of weeks.
I usually work on 8 pairs most of the day and it is very easy to make that amount only with leverage broker only as sometimes almost all the pair start moving simultaneously. While doing such trading strategies, it is very difficult to put more trades with low leverage brokers. And it is a opportunity loss most of the time.
Well, I would first like to clear the concept of “real leverage”.
It is your position size divided by the account size.
I have seen traders with a much clouded judgment on the concept of leverage as they generally get all excited about some broker offering N:1 leverage to its clients, thinking that the account leverage matters after all. But they fail to understand that the risk on any trade is hardly affected by the leverage available in the account. Instead, leverage can be increased without increasing the risk as it is the percentage at risk which actually matters i.e. the positioned leverage. The position leverage will have no value if the actual amount at risk is not taken into consideration. There is a need to differentiate between account leverage and position leverage.
REMEMBER- The ultimate target for any trader is to hit hard the positioned leverage without putting your account at risk.
Was pondering over, how FX choice is. Just opened a demo account with them and looking for some feedback on their trading conditions. It seems to be fine with me with their maximum leverage as 200x. Has anybody done any deposit or withdrawal yet, as deposit and withdrawal timing is matter of concern for me. They do support cryptos and bank wire for deposit and withdrawal but seems like they charge bit of a fees while processing withdrawals. Also, I can see the VISA option on their website, do they support VISA deposits for US citizens as well? their commission charges are on higher side, I mean $7 per lot is a lot and that is also only for Major Pairs, not sure about their other instruments as I trade in major pairs only but the good thing is that they offer MT4 and MT5 both and I can access my account easily on Mac due as they do support web terminal. Was just wondering, is there any better way to install MT4 on Mac as wine application literally sucks. Your feedback will be really appreciated.
Hey Rushil! I was associated with Fx Choice sometime back for around 8 months. I appreciated their trading conditions and platform and never had any issues with deposits via the wire transfers. They do offer tighter spreads and unlike many brokers they have exotic pairs to trade on. I just had some issues with my withdrawals and had trouble getting my money back. The huge fees associated with fund transfer also bothered me sometimes as there are brokers who offer competitive conditions at low fees and commission. And as far as VISA is concerned, I doubt they offer VISA option to US traders since I was never able to transfer through it. I see they have added cryptos in deposit/ withdrawals. Hope it makes things easy. And Yes even I like both MT4 and MT5 in one platform which is easily accessible and technically advanced. But I have not much knowledge about MT4 installation on wine or any application. I guess I was able to answer some of your questions. Good luck!
Well, you have a genuine concern about installing MT4 on mac using Wine as MT4 was originally designed for Windows OS and most of the brokers do not have a Mac-friendly process. Instead they provide some lengthy tutorial explaining the use of wine application to install Mt4 in Mac. Just a few of the brokers in the industry actually offer Pre-emulated MT4 platform for Mac by which it takes just a few minutes to download and install the platform.
I was reading through this blog and thought if could find in NON ESMA details here. Good thread and should embrace ESMA stricken folks. But I need some advices reg my situation. I’m a European citizen working out of US… screwed from both ends
I have this really good high profitability strategy im using past 4 years and its giving me desired results. It works very well in Binary options. And with ESMA looming over my head, i will be unable to trade on my strategy. So after thinking hard i was wondering, can these “tweaks” help me fit the professional criteria. So far i can only check one of the 3 boxes.
So can I by making volume for volume by trading FX, meet an ESMA criteria and will be considered a pro trading after one year of trading on this ridiculous strategy. Or should i somehow find a way to fill the 500k criteria by sourcing money. Or leave US or give up my European citizenship. I hope you guys give honest suggestions without judging me. I have been asking this across diff forums. Thanks
I only mention the leverage advantages of offshore brokers
to illustrate how efficiently Forex could generate revenue.
@audrey_collins and others point out risks of using leverage,
and I just want to make it clear that Risk Management should
be your first priority. We could move much of this to a different
thread on Trading, but just to point out that unless you are
CONFIDENT that you have Risk under control… you would be
irresponsible to use the available Buying Power, which is
what Leverage offers…
As they say “Don’t try this at home, kids…” meaning that unless
you have strong Predictors of Price movement, and excellent
control over allocated resources, then don’t be tempted to
control huge size and suffer the downside losses which will almost
certainly knock you out of the game.
[EDIT] I think I posted an equity curve image, which seems to have
been deleted. Anyway, if you can generate a smooth monotonic
equity curve with no “surprises”… then you can consider increasing
leverage without excessive risk of losing everything…