Going offshore to escape the CFTC

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.

I personally belive crypto borkers are the ultimate solution (atleast as of current scenario). These brokers are not limited by banking system, that is controlled by CFTC and the likes… I’m betting evolve.markets and coinexx.com are sort of best positioned to take advantage of the current situation and have longivity when compared to some other offshore brokers, especially in how they are structured.

Really up to you. IG group is coming back to the USA, so there is some hope there. But the current selection of offshore brokers that openly accept USA clients leaves something to be desired. Too bad as there are some great options like Darwinex, Global Prime Au, LMAX, etc

Well, there is a big difference here. ESMA is not banning people from using non EU brokers. There are plenty of quality brokers in Australia and Switzerland that you could trade with. And you can go offshore to less stable jurisdictions and take your chances.

When Brexit is complete, UK will likely reverse some of ESMA rules, particularly on leverage.

Also, ESMA ban is technically only 90 days long.
And while the new leverage rules do not affect professional traders. Although I do not recommend re-classifying as a professional trader. It is a scammer’s dream, as it allows brokers to legally walk away with client funds without any recourse. As this trader noted:

Why reclassify when you can go to a proper jurisdiction and get real protections? Defeats the entire purpose of being onshore if:

  • your funds are not segregated
  • no recourse whatsoever if the broker acts stupid
  • no priority status in case of insolvency

can you please elaborate more. What is your suggestion ?. I understand that its perhaps one of the most foolish thing to do to get classified as a professional trader but options do we really have to keep our required leverage and trading conditions intact ? other than going offshore or going to a second level jurisdiction (which is not better than offshore brokers)

Be careful with JAFX, CFTC has filed a civil action against them, accusing them of soliciting and accepting US customers in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act and agency rules.

More specifically, the CFTC’s complaint was filed on July 27, 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. It alleges that JAFX has been the counterparty to leveraged, retail forex transactions for customers located in the United States from September 2016 to present. The CFTC also alleges that the broker misrepresented its profit probability and risk of loss to customers.

Yup. This has been discussed already in posts #5030 and #5032, above

1 Like

DIVERSIFIED OFFSHORE TRADING

OK, just to say where I’m focussed, we just went into production
using TurnkeyForex.com, FinProTrading.com, Evolve.Markets,
Coinexx.com and Tradersway.com as active accounts managed
by a BOT in a couple of pools, “small” and “medium” so that
similar accounts can operate on similar risk profiles…

A Master/Slaves arrangements allows for Slaves to instantly
copy the Master’s positions, while scaling them down in size
appropriately to the Slave account size, etc…

This is all “pure Forex” over the 28 Pairs, so I won’t be commenting
on any other trading instruments…

I’d hate to lose any of these brokers, and preferably we can
begin to accumulate more candidates… KEEP LOOKING
for new quality brokers, please !!

hyperscalper

Would you mind clarifying what your point was again?

You mention withdrawal issues as being something concerning, and that’s what’s been happening with CCM. I’ve been with them since they were Tallinex (those of us whose accounts were transferred to CCM as Tallinex could no longer accept US clients…I think because of CFTC crackdowns). Anyway, I’ve been a loyal customer for many years and really haven’t had many issues. But I’ve made 4-5 withdrawals since January and it’s been a complete nightmare every time. Yes I got my money, but something isn’t right over there and they aren’t being open about it. We don’t have to remove them (maybe just downgrade them), I’m just letting everyone know I don’t trust CCM anymore and have withdrawn all my money from them.

– FW

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I still have a live account there, that was transferred from Tallinex, CFTC recently sued Tallinex and fined them 10 million. SO lets see how the CFTC plans on collecting that. They may have some ties in NY somehow.

As for CCM I never was able to get money in there, I got the CC approved, and sent them all those pictures of the front and back of the CC with the face of the card holder, and after that CC was approved for deposit, they stopped taking credit cards, so I have never funded that account.

if you got the money thats whats most important~! AND for sure slow withdrawls suck, but better late than never!

I have read through much of this thread - it took a while! :astonished:! What a trove of intell!

I plan on openning a new account with Turnkeyforex. Like many other folks I am concerned about withdrawls.

Is there anything preventing an account holder of Turnkey to open a bank account, private or could it be held in the name of a trust or LLC, in GB and have withdrawls sent there and then from there to their US bank account?

I suppose if it was that simple it would have already been done or it’s illegal!

I was under the impression that the CFTC only applied to regulated brokers doing business in the US.

If this was covered in a prior post of this thread I missed it.

FR&L

Back in March 2012, I posted a brief history of the CFTC’s regulation of retail forex in the U.S. Toward the end of that post, I mentioned the CFTC’s meddling in the affairs of offshore brokers alleged to be violating CFTC regulations.

Here is a short quote from that rather long post –

If you are interested in the “brief history” referred to above, click HERE.

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Clint,

Thanks @Clint for the reply. Followed the link. Good info.

Also followed up on the TMoneybags thread and the strategy waterscalming was using.

Appreciate your patience - I certainly missed that one - will have to reread!

FR&L

LQDFX STATUS ARTICLE FOUND

Hi. I was poking around FXopen.com which, by the way says they will NOT
provide services to “U.S. residents” and looked at their regulatory
agency at this link:

And I found a reference to LQDFX voluntary withdrawal from that regulatory
agency here:

I have no experience with this broker, so am just posting this info because it is
currently on our list. Just FYI.

hyperscalper

OPENING LQDFX ACCOUNT

Very smooth, funded with ~$46 nominal BitCoin
USD denominated MT4 account, very smooth. Will
complete the KYC docs and hook it up !

Will let you know my impressions of LQDFX.com Forex.

[EDIT] their ECN account has a minimum required deposit
of $500. I transferred some BTC to their USD wallet, but
it was less than $500. The “internal transfer” from that
wallet to the Live account was blocked, and they are
insistent it MUST be $500 … None of the other brokers
care very much about that, so I’ll have to wait…

[EDIT2] A day later, received an email indicating account
approval with specific information concerning U.S. persons
restrictions, and workarounds. So far, a good sign-up experience.

hyperscalper

I’ve had an LQDFX account now for about a year with no problems. Crypto support is great. FX spreads are comparable to what you might find on FXChoice…not really for scalping but fine for more casual daytrading.

Huge selection of other instruments. Even hard to find stuff like soft commodities and London metals. Spreads are a bit wide on some instruments, but many also have zero overnight swap, so nice for longer term positioning.

Overall, the products offered make a good compliment to the more scalping oriented brokers on Clint’s list.