TDFX has made clear in posts elsewhere that they cannot accept USA clients.
The demo may be out of date, but if you go to open a live account at
https://liveaccount.tadawulfx.com/
then United States is not listed among the list of countries.
Yeah, TDFX no longer accepts US customers. If youāre looking to open an account with a high-leverage broker for scalping without any hassle, consider getting an ECN-account with Finland-based FinFX. I have had a Normal Account with them since March, 2011 where spreads are somewhat higher than with an ECN one and where Iām using a scalping bot Forex Megadroid and even that type of account works just fine.
Although i am still doing my due diligence (and in the process of finalizing), i would have to agree, if youāre looking for an off-shore broker to prevent restrictive leverage, FinFx has consistently made the top of my list.
Looks like itās time to update the Offshore broker list again. Scratch another one off, 2pipfixed.com (Panama) stopped accepting US clients. I just put inquiries out again to UpFX, Xoomforex, and PaxForex.
We have PipFixed (Panama) and 2pipsForex (Dominica) on our List.
I assume you mean PipFixed (Panama)?
Pip Fixed is the IB for 2pipfixed, and if you check the contact section on the 2pipfixed website, their address is Panama.
I got replies back from UpFX, Xoomforex, and PaxForex. Theyāre still accepting US clients.
Scratch another broker of the list, RXFT out of Lebanon:
-----Original Message-----
From: Royal Forex Trading S.A.L. <[email protected]>
To: petg6
Sent: Tue, Nov 8, 2011 12:10 am
Subject: Re: questions
Good day,
Thank you for your interest in opening an account with RFXT. Due to the current rapidly changing regulatory environment in the United States, we are currently not accepting accounts from US clients.
We will contact you once the situation changes to check if you are still interested in opening an account with RFXT.
We apologize for the inconvenience and wish you good luck in all your future endeavors.
Best regards,
Royal Forex Trading S.A.L.
1145 Marfaāa | Cristal Bldg, 4th floor
Solidere, Beirut, Lebanon | Postal Code: 2011 - 6201
Phone: +961 1 998 777 | Cell: +961 03 01 15 01 | Fax: +961 1 997 111
Thanks.
Iāll do an update of the 3-page List one week from today ā that will be November 15.
Over the next week, if you guys have additional info to be included in the next update, please post it here.
The 3-page List of Offshore Brokers has been updated, and moved to the end of this thread.
Hereās a summary of the updates:
ā¢ We welcome [B]Traderās Way (Dominica)[/B] to Group 1 (brokers who will open new accounts for U.S. residents).
ā¢ [B]PipFixed (Panama)[/B] and [B]Royal Forex Trading (Lebanon)[/B] removed from Group 1, and moved to Group 2.
ā¢ [B]BMFN (Australia)[/B] added to Group 2, as suggested in post #1104
In case this was missed, Lite Forex is no longer accepting U.S. clients:
Hello!
Unfortunately, we donāt accept clientās from USA.
Best Regards,
Evgeniya Milinite
Clientsā Department
LiteForex Companiesā Group
Youāre right. Thanks for the update.
I will revise the List later today.
Hey Clint, I have a question for you. On the first page of this thread you wrote this,
āBut, the CFTC has no authority over foreign brokers who operate entirely outside the U.S. And under current law, the CFTC has no authority over individual traders who trade through those foreign brokers that are not subject to CFTC regulation.ā
Is this still the case. I currently trade at Hotforex, and just want to be sure.
Thank you for your time and your response.
Iām so THANKFUL I got in with Trading-Point before they closed it to U.S. clients. They have been by far the best broker Iāve been with. Unfortunately, I canāt open up any more accounts with them, so this is the only account I can have for hedging strategies. And itās great to have the extra leverage as well.
Anyways, has there been mention from any brokers that closed new accounts to U.S. clients, and are now also closing existing accounts that belong to U.S. residents? Damn, I hope that doesnāt happen with Trading-Point.
Iāve been with FinFX for many months now and I really like them. They continue accepting the US customers as usual. Check them out if you need another account with no restrictions in regard to leverage and hedging.
Hey bravehoststamps,
could you answer my question please? i just want to be sure.
"āBut, the CFTC has no authority over foreign brokers who operate entirely outside the U.S. And under current law, the CFTC has no authority over individual traders who trade through those foreign brokers that are not subject to CFTC regulation.ā
^^is that still the case?
Thanks!
I have been contemplating opening an account with FinFX. Though I have a few concerns:
-
bravehoststamps spends a lot of time on this forum praising FinFXā¦
-
the FinFx/ Leo Pro Trader fiasco:
-
this (taken from a post from trade2win). I researched this and verified there is a connection:
āā¦The owner of FinFX is a close friend of the head member of the biggest ponzi scheme in Finland - WinCapita (worth +150 000 000ā¬). He also owns a company which provides automated trading with EA which has failed. His main profession is masseur so he is just an amateur playing with FAPTurbo-like EAs. Theyāre looking for staff in Finnish forums and so on.ā
After all this bs, I am still thinking of joining with FinFX, though I am highly skeptical and will only open a micro account with them. Its apperant bravehost is connected, the Leo Pro Trade thing is not horribly bad, the ponzi affiliation is of great concern, being that they are described as CLOSE friends. On a different note, this could mean that Finfx is being more closely watched in Finland. I have no idea. Im confused as to what to do and whether I should stick with a regulated broker and deal with the low leverage.
Sorry for the long delay in replying to your question.
The short answer to your question is that:
(1) [B]regarding foreign brokers[/B] who have no āpresenceā in the U.S., the CFTC regulatory situation is [B]no longer[/B] as simple as the statement, above, would indicate; however ā
(2) [B]regarding individual traders[/B] who trade through those brokers, [B]it is still true[/B] that the CFTC has no authority or jurisdiction over those individuals.
Regarding foreign brokers, the long answer to your question involves a multitude of agreements, known as [B]Memoranda of Understanding,[/B] between the CFTC and various regulatory agencies in other countries, which apparently make those foreign regulatory agencies āpartnersā with the CFTC in imposing certain CFTC regulations on foreign brokers regulated by those foreign agencies.
Sorry for that tangled sentence, but thatās sort of the nature of regulations ā theyāre tangled.
Hereās a simplified example: Letās say that the CFTC and their counterpart in a foreign country entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) several years ago. This MOU says that the two agencies will cooperate in certain ways. The CFTC [B]now[/B] claims that this MOU gives the CFTC the authority to make rules governing retail forex brokers in that foreign country, IF those foreign brokers do business with U.S. residents.
Specifically, the CFTC claims the authority to require foreign brokers (who do business with U.S. residents) to be registered with the CFTC as Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFEDās), and to conform to the same regulations as U.S.-based forex brokers (maximum 50:1 leverage, FIFO position management, and the prohibition against hedging, etc.).
Each MOU is specific to the country involved; and, as such, is unique. There are dozens of these MOUās, and ā unless you are a lawyer, or a government bureaucrat ā studying them will make you puke.
These things were not written specifically to apply to retail forex. In fact, many of them were negotiated and signed nearly a decade ago, before retail forex (in its present form) even existed.
The CFTC currently has lawsuits pending against more than a dozen [B]offshore brokers,[/B] alleging violations of the rules and regulations which apply to [B]U.S. brokers.[/B] Initially, the brokers sued all had some sort of āpresenceā in the U.S. ā an office, an introducing broker, etc. ā which actually gave credibility to the CFTC claims of jurisdiction. But then, the CFTC extended their claim of jurisdiction to a ridiculous degree ā
The CFTC went so far as to allege that a foreign broker who has a website which can be accessed from inside the U.S. has a āU.S. presenceā, and therefore comes under CFTC jurisdiction. In my opinion, this is absurd over-reaching on the part of the CFTC.
However, the CFTC has an enormous staff of lawyers, and plenty of money to waste on these lawsuits (even if they view them as long-shots), so they can easily use their legal muscle to intimidate foreign brokers, who canāt rely on their own regulatory agencies for protection. This is bullying and intimidation of the worst sort.
The result of this intimidation is that a large number of offshore brokers have simply decided that itās not worth it to deal with U.S. clients. Even some large banks (Deutsche Bank, MIG Bank, ACM/Swissquote, etc.) ā which could afford to defend themselves legally against this CFTC bullying ā have decided to abandon the U.S. forex market.
The regulatory situation remains in flux, and our List of Offshore Brokers (who will do business with U.S. residents) remains a work-in-progress.
Here is the CFTC webpage where all the Memoranda of Understanding (MOUās) are listed and linked to ā
I couldnāt answer your question any better than Clint did. 
As for my affiliation with FinFX, itās that of a satisfied customer of theirs. I used to be with FXPro and liked them a lot until they scammed me by blocking my Forex Megadroid account which I reported on this and other forums immediately. If FinFX ever does the same, be sure I will make it known too.
Other good brokers (in my opinion) are MBTrading and Oanda, but they are US-based, with the leverage and hedging restrictions applying. I also find Pepperstone from Australia very decent but they donāt take the US customers. So itās not like there are no good brokers out there but FinFX. FinFX just takes the US customers with no restrictions, offering them hedging and high-leverage accounts.