Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Why are you looking for introducing brokers. All these brokerages allow you to become an introducer. Become you own introducing broker :wink: , a good way to save some pennies on your commissions.

I simply want to earn rebates. It is like a set-and-forget approach, I just focus on trading and rebates accrue on my introducing broker “cashbackforex” account under my name. But each introducing broker has its own forex brokers list. Unfortunately cashbackforex does not work with FinproTrading .That is why I am asking here.

hi hyper scalp, im curious on your top 3 brokers you are using? im currently on oanda for my main account but for my fun higher lev trades I now use EVOLVE thanks to you, though I am a bit concerned about where they get the price data… etc. but I like that I can get my money right away. Any way, wondering what your favorite three are so far? Thanks for being so thorough.

Does CoinExx allow you to deposit in BTC and transfer to USD for trading purposes and the trade to btc for withdrawal? or anything like this? Thats the only problem I have with evolve, im always dealing with BTC/ LTC vol.

Yes, you can deposit in btc and trade on a usd denominated ac & withdraw out in btc . you can check the details with their chat team, they offer 4 other ac base currencies accounts as well . I usually deposit btc and trade on a usd base ac and my withdrawals go out in btc &eth. i traded with evolve for a while before moving to coinexx. though nothing against evolve but i prefer coinexx over them simply cos they allow you to deposit & withdraw in 20+ diff cryptos. I like that they let you to withdraw out in any of the crypto currencies listed in withdrawal list, irrespective of wht your deposit currency was.

COINEXX GREAT SUPPORT !

Wow! Just got off a chat with their support guy “swalker”. I was seeing
some glitches in the MT5 terminal journal, both from my U.S. location
and from the Amsterdam servers. “invalid tick after extended…”

Fabulous support. And they claim they are on top technically,
but that’s not something I’ve been able to verify thus far… I use the
NJ4X.com framework, which supports Mixed MT4/MT5 terminal
pools. Right now, I’m not working with the MT5 side, but will have
to use mixed terminal types eventually…

I would not have expected such responsive support from an
anonymous crypto based broker… So looks very good. When
they get back to me about the glitch, I’ll let you know.

hyperscalper

[EDIT] They got back to me with this response. I am happy if it’s fixed !!
Hello Hyper

Hope you doing well. I checked with my IT and we found a specific data packet loss on your ID. The issue has heen resolved and you should not experience the issue again

Apologies for the inconvenience but im glad we are able to resolve it quickly for you.

Have a great weekend ahead

Cheers

Samuel

MY FAVORITE BROKERAGES

OK, I’d say in order of preference highest first,
TurnkeyForex, FinProTrading, Evolve.Markets,
Coinexx.com, Tradersway.com . With the latter,
not sure I will personally stay. Also commission
is a major consideration, as I don’t know who
could compete with the first 2 in the list. Also,
I hear their commish is negotiable on volume,
and I may finally be getting into volume trading…

hyperscalper

1 Like

Hello HyperScalper,

Would you be able to expand on why the higher leverages make it possible to have less money at risk when using an offshore?

I will be going live in September and this thread has been exceptionally helpful for me choosing a broker. My broker list is down to three: Turnkey, LMFX, and FX Choice. That list will be narrowed to two come the start of August and will choose my broker by the end of the month. I will be sure to contribute to this thread and share my experiences with the broker of my choosing.

@Mapex4X

Higher leverage multiples mean you can control more currencies
amounts (lot size) with a given amount of base account equity.

Most offshore brokers offer 10x the leverage of any remaining
U.S. broker; therefore only 1/10th the equity needs to be held
in the offshore account for the same buying power.

[EDIT] I feel I should clarify what I mean here. It’s a bit like they
say “don’t try this at home kids…” in the sense that you must
not over-leverage yourself, unless you have manual or automatic
methods which are proven to control your exposure.
There is a “trader’s paradox” or a tension here, in the sense
that if you are too “defensive” in your trading, then you will
lose when otherwise you should be able to win. On the other
hand, if you are too “offensive” in your risk allocation, then
you might suffer unacceptable drawdowns. My main solution
to this problem of over-commitment is to use multiple entries
scattered across a wide range in creating a position, and to
factor “price adversity” into your method from the very
beginning…

hyperscalper

1 Like

@Mapex4X I think higher leverage lets you better manage your risk.

Lets take a mathematical example

Say you have two accounts each with 10K USD. Account 1 has 10X leverage and Account 2 has 100X leverage. Both the accounts have margin call at 70% and position closeout at 50%.
Now lets say you buy 1 standard lot of EUR/USD in both Account1 and Account2. Mathematically speaking, you have the exact same risk and risk capital in both the accounts.

After the above trade, In Account 1 your free margin will be 0% and in Account 2 your free margin will be 900%.
Now lets assume, EURUSD goes down by 300 pips. You are loosing 3000 USD on your trade both in Account 1 and Account 2.
In Account 1 you will get a margin call but in Account 2, your portfolio is intact and you can continue to hold your positions.
Now lets say EURUSD goes down furhter 200 pips. In that situation, you will be loosing $5000 in both Account 1 and Account 2. Your free margin in Account 1 will be -50% and in Account 2 will be 400%.
At this point, your Account 1 will hit a margin call and your positions will be closed out by your broker of Account 1. BUT in Account 2, there will be no change to your portfolio and your positions stay untouched.
So essentially you are going to have to fund your account or risk close out of positions pre-maturely in Account 1 while in Account 2, you not only can carry on with your positions but can also add more positions if you wish to double down or diversify.
Essentially, the more the leverage, the better it is for your portfolio “Assuming” that you will not abuse the leverage. By Abuse of leverage I mean, that technically, you can only open 1 standard lot in Account 1 but you can open 10 standard lots in Account 2. And in that case, if EURUSD goes down by 100 pips, your Account 2 will wipe out while Account 1 will stay in tact.
The issue is that regulators assume that the forex traders are dumb and will always open 10 standard lots instead of 1 if given the choice and hence should have the leverage down to 10X instead of 100X. This might be true for amatures or start-up traders, but is almost always wrong for educated / pro traders. And almost always inevitably end ou making it difficult for forex traders to make right bang for the buck. Plus, forex is an OTC market and regulators like exchanges more than OTC because there are more fees, more taxes and more control on what can be traded as opposed to OTC market.
In the end, if we can pay higher taxes and smoke as much cigarettes as we want, even though we know its bad for health then Why can we not make our own decision on our trading leverage ?

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Also, offshore brokers offer something US brokers won’t (can’t because not allowed by CFTC regulations) – “negative balance protection”. So you get the advantages of extreme leverage, with limited downside risk like an option.

Imagine having a large short position in CHF Futures going into the SNB crisis a couple of years ago. The CME would have called “Dog the Bounty Hunter” to collect the loss “down to your last cufflink” as they used to say. More than a few trading careers were ruined that day.

But if you had been trading offshore, account balance would have been zeroed, otherwise no big deal.

Did you know the German Financial Authority (BAFIN) requires retail FX brokers to offer zero balance protection. Yet another example of how US regulators exist to serve the Financial Institution cartel, not individual investors :wink:

EXHAUSTION OF BUYING POWER NOT SUCH A GOOD IDEA

My subject says it all. IF you are even close to “flirting” with exhaustion
of your Buying/Holding Power, then you should just hang it up…

I’d just leave it at saying, in general, that you have 10x Buying Power
with these non-U.S. brokers; but let’s not push it, UNLESS you
happen to have a Trading Strategy (or Algorithm) which gives
you CONTROL over your Exposure… :wink: 'Nuff said ?? LOL

hyperscalper

Yes, of course. Zero balance protection is an insurance policy, not a trading strategy!

EVOLVE.MARKETS UPDATE

OK, it’s still possible to open MT4 accounts with Evolve
but they are limited to the BitCoin BTC funding currency.
Previously, I thought they were not issuing any new
MT4 account, but that is wrong.

On the MT5 side, accounts enjoy BTC (BIT) or LTC
choice of funding crypto-currency.

On the Coinexx.com side, I believe they offer only MT5
accounts. This is a challenge for me until I get the MT5
terminal types stabilized in my NJ4X runtime system…
But ultimately, we’ll all have to move to MT5, and I
expect to use Coinexx extensively, as well as Evolve.

BOTH appear very good, so I’m planning to mix accounts
between them…

hyperscalper

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah against JAFX, Ltd. (JAFX), a/k/a JAFX, EOOD, of Sofia, Bulgaria and Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Complaint CFTC Sues Forex Dealer for Registration and Disclosure Violations | U.S. COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION

Hey all,

I hadn’t posted in a while, but wanted to give you all an update on CCM (Capital City Markets). I began having trouble earlier this year withdrawing funds. Rather then the typical 2-4 days it should take I was waiting 1-2 months. They kept giving excuses that they were having trouble with their intermediary bank (the bank was requiring more documentation) and said they were trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

I’ve made multiple withdrawals throughout this year with the same issue every time…but I ended up getting my money (after many emails). My last withdrawal was submitted last in May but wasn’t received until July. They actually split that into 2 wire transfer saying that they weren’t allowed to wire that much cash (was only $25k). Received one and after a few more weeks (and many emails) I received the last part of my withdrawal.

I know they were red listed by the CFTC last year (sorry, since I’m a noob they won’t allow me to post the link), so maybe the additional regulatory attention is causing these issues, but I hate when they leave me in the dark about why I can’t get my money out.

End result, I got all my money back. But I don’t trust them anymore and won’t be using them. I don’t like having to wait that long for my money, and it just seems to get sketchier and sketchier. The fact that they haven’t fixed the issue and haven’t been fully transparent about it just shakes my trust in them. **Side note, their spreads are really high most of the time.

Anyone else having similar issues with them? Should we remove them from our list? Would be interested to hear others’ experiences.

Cheers!
FW

JAFX has been included for many months in the Alphabetical List of Brokers in post #4 of this thread. And the listing has always said “no U.S. clients”, because that’s what the fine print at the bottom of each JAFX webpage indicates.

This is the text in fine print:

“All information on this website is not directed towards soliciting citizens or residents of the United States. Please check with your local jurisdiction if you are permitted to open an account with JAFX.”



• However, if you begin the Live Account opening process, this is the first page that comes up:

United States is already filled in. This makes it pretty clear that U.S. clients are welcome.



I decided to test the account opening procedure, by filling in this page, as follows:



No problem, apparently. When I clicked “Create Account”, I was taken seamlessly to the next page, which asked me to submit identity documents.

I did not proceed.



It appears that JAFX has done a poor job of disguising the fact that they will, indeed, open accounts for U.S. clients.

The control-freaks at the CFTC will always go for the easy-pickings first. JAFX kinda asked to be noticed by the CFTC when they made “United States” the default selection on their account opening page.

Let this be a lesson to all our offshore broker friends.

Hello FW. Thanks for the update.

I haven’t traded with CCM, and I’m not inclined to do so in the future. But, like you, I have wondered whether we should continue to host them in Group 1 of our List.

Anyone who has live trading experience with CCM is invited to weigh in on this question.

my concern is that the CFTC will start going after all offshore brokers who accept U.S. citizen on there R.E.D. list

Personally I think after all the issues that we hear about them it might not be right. There are always issues with brokers, but as long as those issues are not persistent and not related to withdrawals, its not a “red” signal for me. I think we might have to think about users who follow and believe in the brokers that you put up there in Group-1. I personally know of atleast a couple of traders who just opened an account with one of the listed brokers, just because they were on the Group 1 list. Obviouslt its a democratic vote that we follow on this thread, but my sense is that there might be more users who agree with what I’m saying in here.