Anyone else out there with experience with Varchev, other than the person who has already posted? They are offering 400:1 leverage according to the site. I could find very little on this brokerage, if anything.
Sorry I donāt see the updated list at the end of this thread. Can you please show me a link for the updated list.
Thanks.
Scroll back to Posts #1108, 1109 and 1110.
The 3-page List probably will not be moved again for several weeks.
1/25/12 ā Edit: The List has been moved again. Itās now at posts #1124, 1125 and 1126.
50:1 leverage is just too low for some Forex traders who have a small deposite.
So what it comes down to if you want to make a nice profit in Forex while using a regulated US broker, is you need a large initial depositeā¦at least large enough to trade 1 standard lot safely (using money management), which means a $100,000 deposite (unless you are into risk and gambling and attempt to use 1 standard lot when your deposite is something like $3000).
We live in a economy where many bank accounts have a dwindling savings often less than a few thousand dollars.
So, if you are already rich you can safely trade with a regulated US broker as long as you use good money management.
But if you are poor, and have a small initial deposite, it is diffiult to get anywhere financially when trading with a US broker.
That is probably at least one reason why some Forex traders seek offshore brokers.
But now that finding a offsore broker that accpets US citizens is becoming more and more difficult, we are forced to either not trade Forex, or open an account with a regulated US broker and trade micro lots until such a time when our balance is large enough to trade mini or standard lots.
(Note that it is a āconsent orderā which means that FXOpen agreed to accept it).
January 5, 2012
Illinois Federal Court Imposes $140,000 Civil Monetary Penalty on Foreign Currency Firm, FXOpen Investments Inc., for Acting as an Unregistered Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer
Action part of CFTCās nationwide sweep against foreign currency firms for failure to register under the 2008 Farm Bill, the Dodd-Frank Act, and CFTC regulations
Washington, DC ā The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has obtained a federal court consent order requiring defendant FXOpen Investments Inc. (FXOpen), a foreign firm, to pay a $140,000 civil monetary penalty to settle CFTC charges that it illegally solicited members of the public to engage in foreign currency (forex) transactions and operated as a Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer (RFED) without being registered with the CFTC (see CFTC Press Release 5974-11, January 26, 2011).
The order, entered on December 22, 2011 by Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, also orders FXOpen to close all U.S. customer accounts and return U.S. customer funds. The order also permanently bars FXOpen from engaging in any conduct that violates the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.
Specifically, the order finds that between October 18, 2010, and January 26, 2011, FXOpen acted as an RFED by taking or offering to take the opposite side of customersā forex transactions without being registered as an RFED, which is in violation of CFTC regulations. The order also finds that during the same time period, FXOpen solicited or accepted customer orders to place forex trades without being registered, which is in violation of the CEA.
In the forex market, entities known as RFEDs or Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) may buy forex contracts from, or sell forex contracts to, individual investors. Under the CEA and CFTC regulations, an entity acting as an RFED or FCM must register with the CFTC and abide by rules and regulations designed for investor protection, including those relating to minimum capital requirements, recordkeeping, and compliance. Further, with a few exceptions, such an entity also must be registered with the CFTC if it solicits or accepts orders from U.S. investors in connection with forex transactions conducted at an RFED or FCM.
The CFTC strongly urges the public to check whether a company is registered before investing funds. If a company is not registered, an investor should be wary of providing funds to that company.
A companyās registration status can be found at: BASIC Search.
The CFTC also strongly urges members of the public to visit the CFTC Consumer Protection websites below before investing money in the forex market:
CFTC Consumer Advisory: Forex Fraud
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Fraud Advisory from the CFTC: Foreign Currency Trading (Forex) Fraud
Foreign Exchange Currency Fraud: CFTC/NASAA Investor Alert
The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this action are Stephanie Reinhart, Joseph Konizeski, Judith McCorkle, Scott Williamson, Rosemary Hollinger, Rick Glaser, and Richard Wagner.
Later tonight (New York time) Iāll clean up the 3-page Offshore Broker List, and move it to the end of this thread
(where it can be more easily found).
The List may need some updating. If you know of additions or corrections that should be made, please post them here.
Trading Point just told me today that they donāt accept U.S. Residents.
You are correct. Thanks for pointing this out.
They have added this statement to their website:
āTrading Point of Financial Instruments does not offer services to US Residents.ā
I will move Trading Point to page 3 of the List later tonight.
Hi,
Iāve been off this forum for a while, but thought Iād check it out again as Iām looking for a foreign broker with micro accts that include the metals indices. I am currently with finfx and have had no problem other than my platform seems to die every once in a while, but my orders are in so no biggy. I havenāt tried to pull money out, so I canāt give a full fledged recommendation, but other than that, theyāve been good.
shaun
You can try HotForex. They have micro accounts, and you can trade gold and silver in their live micro accounts, unlike FinFX where you need a ECN account funded with at least $2500 before you can trade gold or silver. The FinFX demo accounts are based on the ECN accounts, not the micro accounts. I have a live micro account with FinFX but Gold and Siver are not available in the live micro accounts.
This is not a German broker; company is from Costa Rica (headquartered in London), server based in Russia, [B]not regulated[/B].
Website accessible in the Russian language version only.
[B]Exercise extreme Due Diligence[/B] and have a look at this review from 100ForexBrokers.
There indeed is a German broker going by the same name, reviewed by ReviewPips here, accessible through www.vpefxpro.com.
Cheers,
O.
I have not been able to confirm the Costa Rica connection, or the Russian-based server.
This broker has its headquarters (or, at the least, a sales office) in the U.K., as evidenced by their contact info (country code 44 for telephone contacts).
Not correct. See below.
Always a good idea.
Almost the same name. [B]The German broker is FXM Financial Services GmbH,[/B] headquartered in Wurzburg, Germany. Here is one page from their website ā About us | vPE FX Wertpapierhandelsbank AG | Managed Account | FOREX Broker | FOREX Trading | Markt Analyse | Management
Notice this paragraph ā
Risk Warning
High Risk Investment
Margined Currency Trading is one of the riskiest forms of investment available in the financial markets and is only suitable for sophisticated individuals and institutions. An account with [B]FXM Financial Group[/B] permits you to trade foreign currencies on a highly leveraged basis (up to approximately 50 times your account equity). In a standard account an initial deposit of $1,000 will enable the account holder to take a maximum position of $100,000 market value. (Please note that the minimum required to open an account is $2,500 for a standard account and $250 for a mini a $100 for a mikro).
[B]The Costa Rican/British/Russian(?) broker goes by the name FXM Broker Group. [/B] Here is their english-language home page ā Forex | FXM Financial Group | FOREX | FOREX Broker | FOREX Trading | ECN Broker
If you go to their āAbout Usā page, you will find this paragraph ā
Risk Warning
High Risk Investment
Margined Currency Trading is one of the riskiest forms of investment available in the financial markets and is only suitable for sophisticated individuals and institutions. An account with [B]FXM Financial Group[/B] permits you to trade foreign currencies on a highly leveraged basis (up to approximately 50 times your account equity). In a standard account an initial deposit of $1,000 will enable the account holder to take a maximum position of $100,000 market value. (Please note that the minimum required to open an account is $2,500 for a standard account and $250 for a mini a $100 for a mikro).
This paragraph and the one from the German broker (FXM Financial Services) are identical (even including the misspelled word [I][B]mikro[/B][/I]), as is much of the rest of these two websites. Notice the name [B]FXM Financial Group,[/B] which appears on both websites. If you google FXM Financial Group, you will be directed to the Costa Rican/British/Russian(?) site.
Evidently, itās time to contact the German broker in Wurzburg, and asks whatās up with all this confusion. Come to think of it, Oliver, youāre in Germany ā why donāt you do it?
I attempted to open accounts with FXM Financial Services GmbH (in Germany) and failed; and with FXM Broker Group (in wherever they are), and succeeded.
For now, I will assume that we are dealing, here, with two [B]unrelated[/B] brokerage firms, although the similarities between them require some explanation.
Iām going to add [B]FXM Financial Services GmbH[/B] to Group 2 in our List, because they will not deal with American clients.
And Iām going to move [B]FXM Broker Group[/B] to the U.K. portion of Group 1, because their office in London is the only info on their location which I have been able to confirm, so far. This brokerās place in the U.K. listing may be temporary, depending on what else we find out.
I will bloody-up the list with cautions and disclaimers in red, on both of these brokers.
Hmmm, weird, I could only get the Russian-language website; when I tried āā¦/enā and āā¦/deā, I got an error message and a prompt to login with a handle and a password.
I know their server is located in Russia, because a Firefox add-on named ā[I]Flagfox[/I]ā displays country flags and IPs of servers for me, right next to the URL ā¦ quite a useful add-on, check it out on Mozillaās Firefox add-ons pages.
Iāve had a look at the ārealā German site, āVPE Wertpapierhandelsbankā, but killed the tab again quickly due to an all-red āWOTā status (about WOT) and the related warnings popping up.
Hehe, I think the smartest thing to do is to stay away from both of them (if indeed they are two separate companies, which seems doubtful).
If I were you, Iād just delete them from the list ā¦ as Iād delete any broker which necessitates āextreme due diligenceā. There are still enough of them left with good reputations, located in countries one can trust to send money too.
Cheers,
O.
Hey Clint,
When opening any offshore accounts, does the e-mail first method (to have a basis for defending the non-solicitation position) still apply? Iāve heard others went right on ahead and just used their websites anyway. I know iād still use the e-mail first method but would like to get your thoughts on this as a recap for others as well.
And just out of curiosity, and i know there are still quite a few out there to choose from, which offshore broker do you use personally?
I have no idea whatās causing your problems.
Iām able to access both websites in any of the several languages they offer, through either Google Chrome or Firefox.
And I have exceptionally robust and redundant internet security. So, Iām confident that there are no threats lurking in either of these websites.
The suggestion to āexercise extreme due diligenceā is simply a word to the wise. Beyond offering this simple caution, Iām not going to try to censor anyoneās choices.
I dunno either ā¦ maybe some setting of my Fox.
Yeah, makes sense, too, even though it means extra work for you ā¦ for a broker which nobody in his/her right mind will choose anyway, hehe.
By the way, Iām wondering why some brokers withstand the USAās bullying while others, residing in the same countries, succumb to it ā¦ kinda weird, considering that the bullying is made possible by agreements between the Governments of the US and the country in question.
O.
Thatās a judgment-call, on your part. Do what youāre comfortable with.
In the past, when I contacted various offshore brokers to confirm that they still accept U.S. residents as new clients, I told them about the List that weāre compiling here on this website. I was very surprised that many of the brokers I contacted did not even reply to my inquiries. So, I changed my tactic, and began inquiring simply as an individual trader, with no mention of a published ālistā. That has worked much better.
I concluded from this experience that many of these offshore brokers would like to carry on doing business as they have done in the past, without attracting undue attention to the fact that they are defying the almighty CFTC. Itās likely that these brokers would welcome a real prospective customer, but not respond to an inquiry that looks like a āfishing expeditionā.
One of the pretexts used by the CFTC for going after certain offshore brokers is simply that [B]they have websites which can be accessed by U.S. residents.[/B] The CFTC may be acting illegally in this regard; they are certainly acting in a way that is unconstitutional and immoral. But, they will probably continue to get away with it. And this is likely seen as a serious threat by some of the offshore brokers who still welcome U.S. clients.
My suggestion that you approach offshore brokers via email rather than through their websites, was simply to offer those brokers a work-around, in case they were nervous about their U.S. website exposure. But, I have no way of knowing whether this is effective, or worth the bother. Thatās where the judgment-call on your part comes into play.
More than a year ago, when we started this project, I decided not to post anything that could be taken as a personal endorsement of any particular offshore broker.
Over the past year, I have opened accounts with several offshore brokers, in order to test the waters. Also, over that same time period, I have been very vocal in my criticism and ridicule of the CFTC. If I were to learn that the CFTC considers me to be a trouble-maker, Iād be tickled. But, I donāt want any offshore broker who chooses to do business with me to see me as a āproblemā client.
So, Iāll decline to answer your question. Sorry.
I have wondered the same thing.
I can only guess that it comes down to a simple matter of benefit/cost analysis. Each broker has to assess what their U.S. client base is worth to the brokerage business, and what the cost would likely be if they become a CFTC target.
If, in their judgment, the value of their U.S. client base does not vastly exceed the probable cost of being sued or sanctioned by the CFTC, then they most likely will decide that doing business with U.S. clients isnāt worth the risk.
Evidently, different brokers come to different conclusions.
Iām a U.S. resident and my broker Trading-Point is still in the middle of dealing with that lawsuit from last September. I hope they stick up for the trader.