[B]aaceofspades[/B], thanks for your comments on Tallinex.
And welcome to this thread.
[B]4evermaat,[/B] it’s been months since we’ve heard from you. Thanks for “keeping an eye” on us.
And thanks for posting your thoughts on the current state of offshore trading.
Agreed. No red flags so far, so I’m leaning that way as well.
I’d like to think the same. FinFx was solid. They seem to have a lot in common with Tallinex. I’m wondering how deep their connection is. I think it’s more than coincidental. I’ll share more on that soon. Still researching.
We all did. You didn’t give up like so many do, so now you’re here. Extra leverage is always helpful. I laugh whenever I hear complaints about too much of it. It’s a tool to be used appropriately. My USD/JPY longs (on since last Friday) would be substantially smaller right now without it.
And yes, I’m worried about how much time we have left as well.
Maybe part-time. I’ve been to Belize. Nice to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there full-time. It’s nicer than Mexico, but I’m not sure about my comfort level when it comes to banking. I’ve been able to keep all of those thoughts (expatriating, offshore corp, etc.) on the back burner for the last few years but FinFx is giving me a wake-up call. I’m interested to hear more about what your friend has learned. Please let me know more.
Keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll be able to afford it.
A permanent solution would be to become a citizen of another country. I think it’s not an unreasonable action to consider if one is able to support himself solely by trading. Just make sure any prospective domicile has reliable internet service available.
Let us know anything more that you learn about Tallinex.
Re: the first years losses… I often think I’m in too deep to give up now. lol I want my money back, plus the interest owed to me for suffering through the learning curve. 
Re: leverage… I recently posted something on a forex factory thread where others were being very critical of excess leverage… and I stated that “…leverage is not the problem, leverage used inappropriately is the problem… the responsibility to learn and employ money management strategies is on you !” So many traders refuse to take responsibility for their actions and thus, will never learn from their mistakes.
Re: usdjpy… congrats ! I was able to catch a UJ long for 33 pips @ 1 standard lot yesterday morning.
Re: expatriating… my trader friend doesn’t talk much about it, he’s only mentioned it a few times. I think this is because he’s so irritated by all the regs that he just doesn’t want to dive into the anger of the situation anymore. Understandable. I’ve no experience in international travel so I can’t speak to specific locales but, I’ve researched Belize, Acapulco, and others. I first became interested in the option through my trade friend. Then when Black Monday happened and the feds shut down online gambling, websites began to pop up to help professional poker players relocate and / or expatriate to countries where they could continue to make a living. So, there’s another area where people have been kicked in the backside by regulations.
I don’t have enough posts to send PM’s yet but, once I do, I can PM you some links to those sites if you’re interested. Otherwise, you can google “poker - relocating - expatriating” and I’m sure you’ll come across them. 
And just like every major city in the US has an area that you would not want to live in, there are also areas that are safer to live in. When considering expatriating, you’d want to look for an established expat community, in which you will find the desired services… like shopping, health care, law enforcement. It’s the expat / tourism dollars that fund those services because the location wants to keep those dollars, and thus will provide the creature comforts in order to keep the people happy. There are online services that help you set up your passports, banking, utilities, cell phone service, etc.
Another Tallinex “convert” here…I have been reading the last couple of pages of the thread and have been going through the exact same things/thought processes glad to have found that i am not alone:51:…going to go through with the account transfer on the 31st on faith in Finfx…One point i would make is that we should all write our respective senators and representatives explaining the @$$ backwards logic behind no_FIFO and no_offsetting positions (and let them have their little leverage victory for the time being) and HOPEFULLY if a Republican can win the next pres. election maybe we could get the ball rolling on amending these arcane rules they have shackled us with…(Food for CFTC thought) off-setting positions would have offered another massive layer of protection against the removal of the cap by the SNB…Please feel free to contact me at my email if any one wants to talk specifically about Tallinex going forward! I am extremely grateful that there other traders going through he same problems with our own taxpayer funded bureaucracy!
THANK YOU CLINT FOR YOUR TIME AND EFFORT INTO RESEARCHING THIS LIST YOU HAVE COMPILED!
The whole “contact your senator” thing has already been done (on numerous issues, not just forex). Didn’t work the first time, certainly won’t work now. They only listen to people / companies with very deep pockets.
Here’s a link to the comments page on the US Commodity Futures Trading Commissions website where, literally, thousands of people rejected the Dodd-Frank leverage crap back in 2010. None of these people wanted it either… but, that didn’t stop it from being approved (click on “view comment” to see what people wrote). Want better leverage and less regulations… find another country to call “home”.
Alpari (UK) has decided to apply for insolvency:
Upon the application of the directors of Alpari (UK) Ltd, on Monday 19 January 2015, the High Court appointed Richard Heis, Samantha Bewick and Mark Firmin of KPMG LLP as joint special administrators of Alpari (UK) Ltd, under the Special Administration Regime (SAR). Alpari (UK) Ltd is a company incorporated in the UK.
To the expat discussion. Not so fast… We shouldn’t have to leave home to make a living. I would if I had to, but there must to be something less drastic? I’ve seen discussions online about setting up a corporate entity the relieves the broker of US regulatory compliance re:FIFO/hedging/margin. Perhaps I could bring my accounts home and trade with US brokers again! I’m going to call an old broker of mine and find out if they can lift the FIFO/hedge/leverage restriction for a foreign corporation. Doesn’t the rule only apply to US citizens??
As for Tallinex. Haven’t decided yet.
The headline says it all. Is anyone here surprised? The SNB black swan is coming home to roost in the USA.
I also just read that Alpari UK is officially dead and filed to liquidate today. They weren’t an option for us, but I had always heard mostly positive things about their brokerage.
I’m marked as a possible spammer here, so I can’t post the links. Google will find it for you instead.
WSJ - Just freaking lovely.
Ace - I thought you were leaning toward Tallinex ?
Interesting comments from the CEO of Oanda, as reported by Forex Magnates —
Potential Regulatory Challenges – Good Times for M&A
Forex Magnates asked OANDA’s CEO Ed Eger about what are the potential implications for the industry going forward and he said, “Though the events on Thursday were absolutely an anomaly, falling out of that, regulators may consider the absolute segregation of client funds, as well as stress tests to ensure all brokers can better manage risk in an event like this.”
“For example, in the case of capital requirements, we are over capitalized at OANDA and it helped us. It means that our business is able to keep running at full tilt, we can look at M&A opportunities given forthcoming market consolidation,” he elaborated.
“Regulators may also make open positions reporting mandatory. In the spirit of our transparency, we already do this today (OANDA Forex Order Book).”
(I added the bold-face above, for emphasis.)
Here is the complete Forex Magnates article —
The Forex Metal (Panama) website https://forex-metal.com has gone offline.
Is it time to remove Forex Metal from Group 1?
Please weigh in.
Edit: Forex Metal is back online.
Their website has not been updated — it still displays “news” from May 6, 2014.
2nd Edit:
Here’s the inquiry I posted in the Forex Metal sub-forum — http://forums.babypips.com/forex-metal/71484-forex-metal-still-business.html#post678494
.
As we understand it, the leverage and FIFO restrictions apply to US brokers, not their clients, meaning that the domicile of the client would not be considered.
For anyone considering the offshore corporation approach, a potential complication of using an overseas corporation to mask a US resident from being rejected by a regulated broker is that the UBO (ultimate beneficial owner) of the company must be disclosed under KYC/AML (Know Your Client / Anti-Money Laundering) legislation, so this may still result in rejection by the broker based on the stringency of their regulatory body. Even if it does not, regulation categorises FX brokers as securities dealers so FATCA legislation may then oblige the broker to report the UBO to the IRS.
While I know that this is the offshore thread, I am sure plenty of the members in our community have US accounts as well. Just passing this email along that I received from Forex.com:
In light of last Thursday’s extraordinary market events, we are forgiving all negative balances incurred by FOREX.com retail clients on January 15, 2015 where permitted by regulation. Affected clients will be notified by email and we expect all credits to be completed and posted to clients’ trading accounts by 5pm ET on Thursday, January 22, 2015.
This was filtered out and sent to my “Promotions” folder in Gmail so some people may not have seen it. Thus, if you have not received an email from Forex.com about any negative balance incurred during the SNB announcement, make sure to get in touch with them quickly!
I just got this email from Oanda…
===============================
If you trade CHF, SEK, NOK action may be required.
Effective 6:00 PM EST, January 22, 2015, the National Futures Association (NFA) has imposed a requirement that forex brokerages reduce the available leverage on certain currencies due to the extraordinary market conditions.
As directed by the NFA, OANDA will be changing margin requirements for 3 currencies. The affected currencies are the Swiss Franc, Swedish Krona and Norwegian Krone.
Currency
Previous Margin Requirement
New Margin Requirement
Swiss Franc (CHF)
2%
5%
Swedish Krona (SEK)
2%
3%
Norwegian Krone (NOK)
2%
3%
As a result of this change, accounts with positions in these currencies will show a reduction of margin available at 5:00 PM EST on January 22, 2015. If this margin available falls below the 50% closeout margin specified in your customer account, all open positions in your account will be immediately closed.
IF YOU TRADE THESE PAIRS, we strongly encourage you to review your account immediately and close sufficient positions by 5:00 PM EST on January 22, 2015 to ensure you have sufficient margin available to avoid closeout of all your positions.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Please call us at 1-877-626-3239 should you have any questions or require assistance.
Thank you for trading with OANDA.
Kind Regards,
The OANDA Client Experience Team
Current list of margin increases ordered by the NFA —
How Is the Forex Leverage Landscape Changing? Full List of Brokers Forced to Hike Margin
Note: this list was posted by [I]Forex Magnates[/I] at 0111 GMT today.
I think this is what big companies are doing already. They just have a lot of tactics to get around things. 
More impositions by the NFA, via Oanda…
If you trade CHF, SEK, NOK action may be required.
In order to comply with the recent reduction of the available leverage on CHF, SEK and NOK currency pairs imposed by the National Futures Association (NFA), we will require 100% of the new margin requirement as of 4:00PM EST, Monday January 26, 2015.
As a reminder, here are the new margin requirements that became effective as of Thursday January 22, 2015 at 6:00PM EST:
Currency
Margin Requirement
Swiss Franc (CHF)
5%
Swedish Krona (SEK)
3%
Norwegian Krone (NOK)
3%
IF YOU TRADE THESE PAIRS, we strongly encourage you to review your account immediately and ensure you have 100% of the margin requirement available to avoid closeout of positions not meeting this criteria.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.
Please call us at 1-877-626-3239 should you have any questions or require assistance.
Thank you for trading with OANDA.
Kind Regards,
The OANDA Client Experience Team
5% is terrible. That’s 20:1, for anyone who’s taking notice. I wonder if this is the beginning of the end of retail fx. Perhaps 10 years from now people who will have come of age to trade will talk about how nice it must have been to trade forex with leverage.
It could end up INVERSED! Maybe we’ll need $200,000 to trade $100,000. Make the most of it while it lasts. Make enough to not need this leverage.