Wow the ESMA thing is really really bad, and it stipulates crypto as well…I’m currently using a euro broker for crypto with 100x…and uh well I’d expat, I’d jump through any hoop to stay a customer, but that’s if the authorities don’t unfairly punish them.
POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL BROKER, WHICH IS
NBPFX.COM in BELIZE.
I hesitate because:
The reasons are 1) commission included in spread, and
no apparent spread plus commission ECN option, and
2) no crypto currency transfer mechanisms.
However, I wrote to them proposing that if they can
resolve those issues, I’d work with them. Will wait
for their reply.
They will accept U.S. citizens, however; and they do
reasonable KYC due diligence. I understand their staff
is largely Russian, but I’m investigating anyway.
Here is their contact page:
https://www.npbfx.com/en/npbfx/contacts/
Initials NPB come from: “NPBFX Company is specialized in providing trading services on FOREX and money market since 1996. Till 2016 service of private traders and corporate customers was carried out through a bank having license of Bank of Russia (JSC «NeftePromBank»).”
Will let you know what they say, and if I get a chance
to do a technical eval.
[EDIT] Although my documents have not been approved yet,
and there was no apparent issue with U.S. persons, some
documents refer to a prohibition. I opened a live MT4 account,
and hooked up. Looks good, except for my gripe that commish
is included in spread. I’ll report more if/when I hear from them
on official approval…
hyperscalper
Has anyone used ATC Brokers?
The only of these listed brokers that I have used is OANDA. I can say that OANDA’s REST API is well written, but you are right about their spreads.
In the Alphabetical List of Brokers in post #3, I have ATC Brokers listed this way:
ATC Brokers (US) — introducing broker (futures and forex) — presently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Do you have more up-to-date information about ATC Brokers?
It looks like they reached a settlement and didn’t have to go bankrupt after all. Their site is up.
Been there done that…
Unless you’re an expat with local employment & housing. It’s almost impossible these days to get an offshore bank account.
The passport of the account signatory nullifies the location of the offshore entity with banks. Secondary passports now show the place of birth and are useless. A non US nominee signatory is an option but that is an added cost and very risky.
You also have the additional problem of trying to find a bank that has USD corresponding bank relationships which most of the Caribbean banks have lost.
I have a list of a few banks that fit the bill from my prior research but they were high cost, required >30K starting capital and required a personal visit.
I completely lost interest when all the major UK/EU/AUS brokers required the US applicant with an offshore entity to be ECP Qualified (>5 million assets)
Ahh ok… as someone else mentioned it’s easy to get around that with a VPN/VPS. I guess they are simply reacting to what just happened with 1broker.
Guys, I just woke up to find that Finpro had changed their server times (my notification email was in the spam folder while all other Finpro correspondence arrives in my Inbox with no problem GRRRR)
The question I have is regarding their decision to make all hour bars close 5 mins late: 00:05, 01:05, 02:05, etc. Why do they do this? Is this to screw people up who trade on the news forcing the price action in the previous hour’s bar?
I have several strategies that work around hourly candles. I’m nervous how this may affect me.
No, not at all. Some like the change, and others
do not. It’s just a matter what you’re accustomed to…
My gripe is simply locating a GMT time when one
broker server is GMT+0 and another is showing GMT+3
but that’s really just something you get accustomed to…
For me, there’s not a lot more to it… Not a “candle guy”…
[Edit] I am not a candle guy at all but I can see that GMT+3 might affect 4h candle formation but it would not affect 1h or 5m or 1m candles, would it?
…found this discussion
http://www.profitf.com/articles/forex-education/forex-broker-server-time-gmt-offset/
hyperscalper
Finpro switching to GMT+3 is a good thing as the Sunday bars will cause people a lot of headaches with indicators and EA’s. My problem is not with changes in time zone; it’s the 5 min. delay they now have on most of the time frames: 12:05 (1hr TF), 12:35 (30min TF), 12:50 (15min TF). It’s not good. I might have to go back to FXChoice or try out Coinexx if they don’t change it back. And that’s a shame because I REALLY liked Finpro. 
I don’t get it?.. Why are you claiming there’s a 5 minute delay?
If it’s a bug, then they would fix it…? Your local system clock
is correct/synchronized, right? IDK if that is used by an MT4 platform or not…
[EDIT] I just looked at 5 minute candles, and they seemed perfect
to me, precisely starting the next candle when it should?.. And,
yes, the FinProTrading shows GMT+3 now…
hyperscalper
For example: a 15:00 hourly bar should start at the top of the hour - at 15:00. But the new bar doesn’t start at the top of the hour, it starts at 15:05. Now, when news comes out at 15:00, 5 minutes of the volatility is hidden in the previous hourly bar (14:05) because it doesn’t close until 5 minutes past the hour, or 15:05. Capice?
Now, if you are backtesting, or programming your EA to identify breakouts on the hour, or the 30min, or 15min, the true volatility of candles will not be reflected and your data will sometimes be vastly different going forward than what you’ve accumulated in the past through research.
The U.S. trading session starts at 12:00GMT. Well, not with 5 minute delayed candles it doesn’t. While the “real” trading session started at 12:00GMT, your MT4 platform will still be showing the 11:05 bar moving up and down for 5 whole minutes PAST the session open. This is problematic.
Look at 15min, 30min, 1hr, 4hr time frames to see an example of a 5min delayed(offset) candle.
You are correct – I found this 2½-year-old article on LeapRate –
So, ATC Broker’s U.S. branch, and their U.K. branch (which I wasn’t aware of previously), are both running normally, now that the Chapter 11 bankruptcy issue is resolved.
The U.S. branch (in California) refers U.S. clients to their U.S. affiliate – previously FXCM, but now ? This does not offer us an offshore opportunity.
Are you suggesting that the U.K. branch of ATC Brokers, acting as an IB, might refer U.S. clients to brokers outside the U.S.?
Again, I don’t get it?.. I looked at 15m candles and, again, they are
precisely what they should be… But what do I know about
candles?? lol 
Does local system clock influence things?.. for me, it’s perfect
on FinProTrading .
hyperscalper
In mentioning ATC Brokers, I was responding to Hyperscalper’s question, "What’s the best of the rest, here in the U.S. ?"
The remaining US brokers might find ways to compete and solve some of the problems we face. It’s good to keep informed of what they offer. Let me know if you think this belongs in another forum. Understandable if so…
I’ve opened demo MT4 accounts with ATC Brokers and OANDA to see how they compare with others. The best of the offshore brokers have much better spreads. Also, I haven’t been able to find any domestic brokers offering MT5.
As I posted a few days ago, MT5 MIGHT have some useful market depth features (especially useful to those of us that used to use JForex). When I get the time, I plan on looking more closely into ATC Brokers’ technicals and the offshore brokers’ MQL5 Market Depth functionality. (my day job has to come first though! it might be a while)
DON’T PANIC ! BEST ADVICE FROM
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
I will admit that the 1broker affair caused me to “panic” for
a couple of days. However, I’ve calmed down. During my
ill-advised panic, I did consider whether I could use U.S.
brokers like OANDA. I’d have to do a lot of re-coding of
logic in order to do this, and so I took a chill pill and am
continuing to have “blind faith” that we’ll have enough
brokers to work with …
Like most in this forum, I feel like all of my hard work is being
defeated by “the nanny state over-reach” which denies us
access to the world’s best brokers !
Meanwhile, back to calm sanity, I am putting faith in Coinexx and
our FinProTrading and TurnkeyForex friends to continue to
accept us U.S. clients. During my recent panic I also started
frantically searching topics like offshore entities, etc. and, as
they say “therein lies madness”… so I stopped thinking that way
as well… back to Sanity and Calm
With regard to Depth of Market, I made earlier comments; and I’d
suggest if y’all want to talk about that, we open another thread,
cuz in Forex that’s nearly (but not quite) impossible. I mean it.
During my panic, I began opening an OANDA account. Gawd
help me and all of us on this thread who are affected by
"denial of service" from the world’s finest brokers offshore…
If there’s just one thing Trump could do for us; it’s to get rid of
the regulatory over-reach, so I could vote for him…
hyperscalper
“DON’T PANIC ! BEST ADVICE FROM
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY”
Agreed. I do not want to cause panic.
Still, the CFTC keeps taking my towel!!!
They drove out three of my US brokers in rapid succession and now they continue playing whack-a-mole.
I don’t keep all my eggs in one basket; but, losing a broker hurts, even if I get my funds back.
It takes time to change setup.
One solution is I’m looking at programming at a lower level to interface directly with blockchain and exchange assets peer to peer. I am wondering if some of the brokers providing amazing spreads aren’t doing similar. Tech is progressing and regulation is not going to be able to keep up with the tech. My bet is that trading on blockchain is the future.
Yes, hopefully we will get some good governance and the agencies will ONLY go after bad actors while leaving legitimate business to thrive and innovate. I am hoping in one hand (OH NO! the other hand is filling up faster! haha)…
In the meantime, part of my strategy is to keep a small deposit in several brokers and use high leverage. It is often said that high leverage is risky, but I find it more risky to leave too much on the table. You never know when a broker will disappear, no matter where they are domiciled. Any advice on this topic is greatly appreciated. i.e. where can we trade that is less likely to shut down. Hopefully, this discussion can be had without accidentally painting a target.
This is frustrating, yet I am hoping it will get better as technology advances.
Ironically, blockchain lends itself VERY well to eliminating money laundering. All transactions are recorded and visible. If using Bitcoin, it is MORE traceable than cash, so long as the source is known. Enforcement focus should be on KYC through tech, stopping actual crime while encouraging legitimate businesses.
More irony, I am an advocate of open source and open society. It’s an affront to even have to jump through hoops like this to simply trade!
Thanks again to everyone contributing here. We’ll get through it.
Had to rant a bit…
Cheers!
I figured out why you aren’t seeing what I’m seeing and I’m not seeing what you’re seeing.
On Monday morning I opened my Finpro demo account to test my commission rate and a few other things (I do most of my analysis on the demo account to minimize the possibility of putting on, or messing up, any live trades).
Here is what I saw (and still see).
15min time frame
30min time frame
But upon opening my live account, everything was golden - all time frames open and close at the top of the hour. I didn’t even think of peeking into the live account as I assumed all data feeds were the same. Why wouldn’t they be otherwise any backtesting or practice would be a waste of time? So I’ve got to believe that the demo feed will be corrected in short order. Crisis averted!
Thanks for tolerating my whining.
MY POLICY IS NEVER NEVER TO USE DEMO ACCOUNTS
AT ALL.
hyperscalper