ATC Brokers (US) is just an IB of OANDA premium account. One reason you might want to open an account with them is lower deposit requirement of 3,000 USD vs 20,000 USD at OANDA but they charge higher commission $10/rt vs OANDA $8/rt.
For OANDA premium account, you need 100M trade volume per month to lower commission to $6/rt according to my relationship manager.
I find OANDA spread quite good but high margin requirement and commission do frustrate me.
Is there a lower than Premium account at OANDA, and what would be the minimum
deposit, and characteristics, please?
hyperscalper
They do offer standard account with no commission but spread is not good.
There is no minimum deposit or minimum balance required to open or maintain a standard OANDA account.
You can check OANDA live spread here: OANDA standard acct spread
ā¦ I wish we could but unfortunately we canāt 
ā¦ And I agree with @hyperscalper, its good to have watchdogs like SEC and CFTC to watch over tradersā interests too an extent but abusing this power to mark the territory is WRONG. And I must say they played 1broker quite wellā¦ Undercover agent and other sneaky tactics to take down the broker & make an example out of them
And now even the court has further sided with CFTC to prosecute and even deny the motion to dismiss petition of the defendant in virtual currency caseā¦ its all getting a little too complicated. Virtual currencies sometimes are taken as commodities, sometime securities, sometimes currencyā¦ I just donāt understand. To me they are just virtual instruments that could have made our lives a hell lot easier by bringing instant and free transfers but US authorities canāt seem to digest loss of power and moneyā¦
Thanks for the good info on domestic brokers. It is very helpful.
Do we want to cover this material here, or do we need another thread?
Maybe āStrategies for coping with an abusive regulatorā would be appropriate.
The CFTC and I had a great relationship for years. But, lately they are very domineering. They control all the money. They are jealous and hostile towards other brokers that I talk to.
I want this to work, but the CFTC needs an intervention right now. The first step is to admit the problem.
EDIT: That last paragraph was satirical, but my question stands. I think it would be very useful to track the offerings of the remaining US brokers, share ideas for trading in the US, and maybe find ways to voice our objections to the gov. If there is interest, we could add and keep updates to US brokers in Clintās list at the beginning of this thread. Or, we could create a new thread named something like āTrading Forex in the USA post-FATCAā. I can see merit in either approach.
Coinexx quotes have so many errors.
Today between 11.30 and 11:45am,my futures quote show GOLD futures drop fast and big, while my coinexx account quote show XAUUSD kept going up.Now at 11:47am, coiness quote suddenly changed and show a much lower XAUUSD price.
Saw such errors many times before.
But are you sure that is āan errorā ?? Futures and XXX/YYY are
not the same thingā¦
Thanks for specifying what symbols may have errors.
I donāt see any such issues, since I stay with mainstream Forex
on Coinexx.
hyperscalper
I am sure they are same things.
In CFD it is called XAUUSD, in futures it is called GOLD.(XAU is GOLD index symbol .)
I have traded them for years, they both move together,never miss a second.
I also trade EURUSD, itās quote is much better, but sometimes freezes for a few seconds.
I also encountered bad quote in NASUSD(which corrsponds to NQ futures), also had many errors, one trading day it simply stop at 1:30pm for the rest of the day, while NQ still trades for the whole day.Fortunately I didnāt have position in NASUSD on that day, or I would be forced to hold a position to the next day, and market may gap big down to cause me a big loss.
I had very early on, some issues with my MT5 feed with Coinexx.
They investigated and fixed it quickly. Since then I have not noticed
any anomalies in Coinexx Forex feed. Sorry you are having issuesā¦
[EDIT] check for errors in the Journal areaā¦ maybe something is
wrong with the technical feedā¦ and then check your local internet
hyperscalper
iād suggest you keep extra attention on the quotes provided by FinPro, TurnKey or Coinexx (since some say they have the same data feed or maybe even run by the same people), I had some strange issues with their quotes about a year ago when I was trading with them.
If Iām reading the following comment from HyperScalper correctly, he was quoting from a PM sent to him by LAF. And he asked LAF to keep the discussion here in the public thread.
I want to respond to LAFās comments about the CFTC, as quoted by HyperScalper, and highlighted in bold type below.
The CFTC is not part of the Executive Branch of the government. It is an independent agency of the U.S. government, created by Congress in 1974, and subsequently reauthorized with expanded powers on several occasions. The CFTCās mandate comes from Congress, and the CFTC is accountable to Congress, not to the Executive Branch (the President).
As an independent agency, the CFTC is not under the control of the President. President Trump cannot sign an Executive Order disbanding the CFTC, or restricting the authority of the CFTC.
CFTC Commissioners are appointed by the President, subject to the advice and consent of Congress, in a process similar to the appointment and confirmation of federal judges. But, the Commissioners do not serve āat the pleasure of the Presidentā, as Cabinet Secretaries do ā that is, the President cannot dismiss them from office (except in the case of gross malfeasance).
All of the grief which the CFTC has caused the forex market in the U.S. ā and worldwide ā is due to its power-hungry nature as an independent agency with police powers.
Over the years, the CFTC has successfully lobbied Congress for expanded authority ā to the point that the CFTC can now classify almost anything as a ācommodityā, and regulate it as they see fit. The latest example of this is the CFTC claim, validated by a federal court, that crypto-currencies are commodities ābroadly definedā, and therefore they can be regulated to any extent deemed desirable by the CFTC.
Like Dr. Frankenstein, Congress has created this CFTC monster, and they continue to feed it. Getting Congress to undue what they have done will likely prove to be impossible in our lifetime.
I used to trade with FinPro and never had issues with their quotes.
So I guess the problem is not related to their data feed, but related to coinexxās software.
And I donāt think my internet has problem, since when I had issues with coinexx quotes, my other futures quotes were working perfectly.
I just read that antigua (spelling ) carribean is accepting 100 grand in bitcoin for investment citizenship.
Again it comes back to whether it does much good to have a second residency. Iām pretty sure the trick with exchanges and compliance at least as far as non euro exchanges go is to have a local manager with power of attourny who isnāt a primary us citizen. This is particularly important for participaing in and offering ICOās. One lawyer was saying that they set up corps in delaware and peurto rico and do the crowd sale in the carribean.
Just to put things into perspective, had you participated in some decent ico in 2017ā¦ yeah a lot of people got very rich off thatā¦ .Now I understand that there were many a scam, but the US solution was just ban everything as usual, for accredited investor. Itās beyond strangling.
I am intensely involved in crypto, to the point that Iād be in an ICO company or would be involved in start ups so, its just going to be an ongoing issue for me.
Does the U.S. offer no better deals in regulated Forex brokers?
hyperscalper
FYI Interactive Brokers no longer offers Retail Forex to US Clients (with less than 10 million$). IB still operates in the USA and offer their high end services to everyone else on the planet. The situation has gotten beyond absurd. Some other agency really needs to check the CFTC.
Are some brokers safer from the CFTC than others?
If a broker has solid KYC, is non-registration with CFTC and higher leverage enough for authorities to consider it a violation and act against them?
As mentioned by others, the legality of some of what the CFTC is doing is suspect. If the CFTC stands a chance of losing in court against a broker, would they be less likely to move against that broker?
Just asking questionsā¦ legal isnāt my area and I do not know the answers. But, if the CFTC is found to be infringing on the rights of individuals, might they lose in court?
Also wondering if 1brokerās key mistakes were insufficient AML, and offering US stock CFDs, which also got the SEC and then the FBI involved.
Would simply allowing Forex trades using Bitcoin have been enough to cause authorities to act? Trading Forex, after all, is not illegal! ā¦and crypto is very new and not clearly legislated.
My goal is to be compliant with applicable law while profitably trading in retail forex.
I wonder if I registered with an offshore broker that has solid KYC and a good track record, if access to my funds would be reasonably safe and if I would be fully in compliance with all laws.
For me, expatriating is not an option. I live here and I am staying here.
MY GUESS ON OFFSHORE ACCEPTANCE WOULD BE
ā¦that seriously/persistently approaching the sales/management
people in an offshore brokerage on a personal level is likely
to result in being accepted with many of these
brokers.
They are mostly avoiding āthe appearance and/or fact
of solicitingā U.S. clients. Because undercover agents
are likely to use a web interface to establish an account,
and thereby build a case against the broker, a personal
contact is less likely to be persistently refusedā¦ once
you get past āthe front deskāā¦
On a public website, they simply cannot allow "all comers"
to create an account if an undercover enforcement agent
can so easily do soā¦ Just an idea.
It is mainly about soliciting, and secondarily about anything
illegal such as money laundering, and so onā¦
hyperscalper
And you are using a LIVE account, right?
hyperscalper
Yes, live account.