For a U.S. person, it’s not residency but citizenship and tax liability that’s the issue, isn’t it?
Few of us would renounce citizenship to gain access to brokerages… That’s a multi-year process.
hyperscalper
In my mind, I was thinking of both banking and broker options. Some brokers I’ve spoken with have indicated residency outside the U.S. will allow them to setup an account for you as long as you are also banking offshore. You don’t need to renounce your citizenship to attain residency. I think most of us are looking for a path around the barriers banks and brokers are faced with, [I]in order to do business with us[/I]. This is all about having freedom and options to trade with the best of everything (costs and execution). I have to solve the residency problem before I can explore the banking options, so that’s what I’m evaluating now. I live in San Diego 
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Yes some brokers will tell you as long as the bank you are sending money from and withdrawing money from is not based in USA, they might look at your case and open an an account for you but chances are their compliance team will deny your account as a few of them did to me and I have been living outside the USA for almost 6-7 years and file everything with US properly even though it costs me a lot to put up with its nonsense.
Still they deny me an account based on my one passport that is issued by US even though I am dual national. I was told to dump this passport and we would open up an account for you or deny the existence of US passport which I can’t do. The only choice I have left is to to renounce as FATCA ( Don’t want to let it go either as I love US but not US govt )has made our lives impossible even living in other countries. Banks deny you citing your US citizenship as their main problem. Don’t blame them as they have to hire huge teams for FATCA compliances and threats of withholding taxes on them which no other country in the world does to them.
HyperScalper, you are 100 % correct. It’s the citizenship not residency, FATCA strangulation and DODD-Frank Acts that are making 1.5 m Asian Americans thinking about renouncing US citizenship and its in the news these days. Please google for it.
FYI, for offshore respectable banks you need to be very high net worth (around a few million dollars at least) to be able to open up an account these days as an American passport holder. Even with a residency and dual nationality they will not be able to open one up for you since they have to deal with a lot of compliance issues which terrifies them. The only banks I know of which open up an account for US passport holders would be in UK with a U.K. residency or passport. Rest will all say thank you and escort you out the door.
Banks in Carrribean would open one for you too with a high monthly fee and most of the time you will not be able to get money in or out as most Carribean banks have lost their correspondence accounts and are forced to work with payment accounts. Previous US administration during the last few years have destroyed offshore banking for everyone in the world not just US citizens.
hello everybody. i’ve been reading this entire thread for years. i want to express my sincere gratitude to clint and everyone else who has contributed here. while limiting my trading only to demo acct. practice for a couple of years, i have recently reached a point where my wife and i are ready for me to lose REAL money now 
i HAD my eye on tallinex. even had an unfunded but open live account on standby. then i received the email that many of you did about the transfer of u.s. resident accounts to capital city markets.
it’s concerning, as tallinex felt so trusted. but as i look into CCM as a broker, they look enticing. deposit bonus, 1000:1 leverage, 0% hedged margin rate, etc… but they’re BRAND new. and it’s not like i can take a quick drive to vanuatu and get my money back from a scam.
so my question (with apologies for the lengthy post): i’m aware that scams exist in the forex world. however, has anybody here ACTUALLY sent a few thousand or so a broker and just had it vanish or be confiscated for some B.S. accusation of arbitrage or something?
anybody reading this and thinking that i’m a fool for considering capital city markets? or at least relieved that someone is considering being the guinea pig with a new broker?
I am looking forward to transfer of Tallinex account to Capital City Markets (CCM). I recently got an email saying there were technical problems in the transfer, but it would eventually happen.
My minor concern is just that I have to modify our order submission code, because their minimum order size is 0.10 lots with increments above that in 0.01 lots. When calculating a number of bids/offers over a range of pricing, this minimum order size constraint needs to be taken into consideration.
With Tradersway or FinProTrading 0.01 is the minimum lot size across the board.
But I am expecting bid/ask pricing to be much better than with Tallinex, so I’m looking forward to it.
hyperscalper
ccm’s micro account offers a minimum order of .01 lots with .01 increments. so that should be good news for you.
i also received the email about the delay in transferring accounts from tallinex.
Interesting you are all going to put your money in a brand new forex company? I would rather move it to some known company listed by Clint. Brand new companies are often scams and Tallinex will not be responsible if you get scammed. They simply offered you an alternative since they were tired of US regulations and told me so in a chat. They told me they can open an account for me since I live overseas. But for you resident in US it’s not possible anymore.
Wish you all the best.
i hear ya, timAllen. i’m definitely a little bit nervous about it. but i’m considering it because it’s the broker i’m finding that gives me 1000:1, with .01 trade sizes, and 0% hedged margin. those conditions MAY give me a chance to scrape a couple pennies over time with room to not have everything stopped out or margin called. i dunno. new guy here, as mentioned.
that’s why i was asking if anybody had any concrete experience with being scammed. i realize it IS out there, but is it out there and commom.
Yeah, but “micro” accounts are a rip-off, although I haven’t seen their terms. Needs to be a variable spread ECN account plus commission to satisfy my preferences… If the micro account were like the “real” or “pro” ECN accounts, then it wouldn’t need to be called a “micro” account… LOL
EDIT: Yes, I see the “micro” accounts have a minimum of nearly 2 PIPs spread, with commission included in the spread. They do have a “minimum” funding for their “standard” accounts of $2,000 but that’s nonsense for testing and verification purposes, and everything is negotiable…
hyperscalper
hey hyper. i wanted to send you an email and not bug the thread for this, but it won’t let me until i post 17 more messages.
anyway, as a newbie, i was hoping you could post or email me some of your experience/reasons why i should avoid micro accounts. i really don’t know these things and getting nervous that maybe i’m not ready to start if i’m missing the obvious.
No problem. It’s just basically what I alluded to previously, and most “non-newbies” already know; which is just that, in this case, the spread is a minimum of 2 pips or so (usually that means EUR/USD which is always one of the tightest spreads), and if you’re looking at some less common Forex pairs, such as GBP/NZD you could well be looking at 10 pips or more (I have no real idea) with an arrangement like that. Consider that with a “real” variable spread account, with commission separately charged, that a single PIP can pay your commission fee. Therefore, you’re at such a huge pricing disadvantage in the Short Term. However, this disadvantage washes out if you’re doing medium to longer term trading where the Spread versus your Target distances ratio becomes vanishing small.
Micro accounts are for “newbies” who are probably doomed to stay in that category and wash out anyway. Brokerages offer this because some traders weirdly don’t like the idea of paying Commissions, but equally weirdly are happy that it is built into the spread. Cuckoo !!! With EUR/USD on a decent ECN like Tradersway, you’re looking sometimes at 0.3 pips spread or something like that, instead of 2.0 pips or more. As I said, with tighter pricing like that, if your Commission (round trip) works out to the equivalent of maybe 0.7 PIPs, then the market needs to move only 0.7 + 0.3 PIPs for you to pay your Commission from the Net profits. Remember, you Buy the Ask price, and Sell to the Bid price.
We were all “newbies” at one time !!! That’s what this forum is for !! Don’t stay a “newbie” for long, and “learn to trade”. BUT, let me point out that there’s no “learning to trade”; rather it’s a complex accumulation of experience, and maybe an edge, which is a learning curve that never stops…
You might say that any “real” trader is a humble trader; or he’s full of it !!! Trading profitably for a living is, IMHO, one of the most difficult businesses, but potentially one of the most lucrative as well for the select few who can systematically “figure it out”… 'Nuff said.
hyperscalper
thank you for your time and explanation. especially concerning the fees built into the spread vs. commission per trade. your time is much appreciated
I have visited the site but can’t seem to find any list of what CFD’s are offered? Does any one know if they offer indices? DAX? Bonds?
Thanks in advance.
hey dude. and happy springtime to a fellow chicago area resident.
i don’t know the answer to that. i find CCM’s website a little bit lacking also. i would try 2 things. open up a demo account and see what’s offered to trade. or email them. they have responded to several of my emails in very timely fashion.
in fact, i’m gonna quote one of their emails here in a second. i apologize, enochbenjamin, that it’s not concerning your question. but in reference to earlier discussions on this thread, i’m only pointing out that capital city market’s leverage computation system seems to be e-x-a-c-t-l-y like tallinex’s. when i emailed CCM asking if the advertised 1000:1 leverage applied to all account sizes, they responded:
"Hello,
Leverage options available are from 1:1 through to 1:1000 for Micro accounts (the default is 1:400) and from 1:1 through to 1:500 for Standard accounts (the default is 1:200).
You can find more information about our account types from our website Capital City Markets – Welcome to Forex under the “Accounts” tab. There you can choose an account that meets your needs.
In order to allow leverage above the default level, our system needs to assess your trading and determine how much of a financial risk it poses in the event of large weekend gaps, significant news events, etc. In order to reach a conclusion, things like your account balance, trading style, average floating P/L and whether positions are held over weekends are considered. The assessment is ongoing and reviews activity over the most recent 30 trading days. The maximum leverage available to you based on the latest assessment can be seen if you hover your mouse over the Leverage field in your profile. Please note that there is no option to request higher leverage than our system has allowed
Regards,
Support"
I did just what you said and got a response in about 10 minutes. If anyone else is interested, this was the reply:
Hello,
We offer:
AUS200s
SPX500s
US30s
FRA40s
GER30s
Regards,
Support
Hi All,
What do you guys think of Oanda’s new commission structure? I believe they just announced it in March.
I know they are frowned upon as they jack up their spreads all the time but I am really trying to avoid have to go thru the offshore hoops. Still up in the air about it.
Also looking at TD Ameritrade but have not check out their fees (I believe they are commission based as well?).
I’ve traded with OANDA using their micro accounts for years and am happy with them. You’ve already mentioned the biggest downside, which is that the spread on their micro accounts can get big during news announcements. On the positive side, you can open trades with as little as “1 unit”, which amounts to practically nothing. With this model, you can live trade and scale up gradually without incurring significant losses. This is really useful, because Demo accounts often do not represent actual pricing and execution. The ability to start small with a live account is quite nice.
Another place where they excel is in their API. They have a REST API, which makes it easy to code in practically any language you like without running a proprietary GUI.
The spreads don’t bother me much, since I have started concentrating on larger time frames. Scalpers would be more affected.
Spreads and leverage are going to be a lot better at the top offshore brokers listed here.
If you use MT4 and tight spreads are important, scroll back a few pages and read through Hyperscalper’s posts. Some of the foreign brokers here have excellent spreads, execution, and customer support. You really can’t beat their stats.
Thanks for the input Xana.
I like Oanda, mainly since I have been doing good with it in their demo. Need to check out their new commission structure to see if that would benefit me better though as I like to make several trades an hour. They are best for longer trades probably as you say.
Also looking into TradersWay…one of the two offshore left that seem to be trusted.