Going offshore to escape the CFTC

Here’s mine (those that I contacted personally and they have explicitly confirmed to me they will continue servicing US customers with no leverage restrictions after October 18, 2010):

Tadawul (Swiss-based)
FXOpen (Swiss-based)
Marketiva
Instaforex
E-global
AAAFX
ACM Forex (Swiss-based)
FBS
FXCompany
Forex MMCIS
RVMarkets
Arab Financial Brokers

Edited Friday 10/22. This list is out-of-date. Scroll to the most recent page of this thread for the current list.

Edited Thursday 10/14. Changes shown in red type.

As suggested, I’ve compiled a list of all the brokers mentioned so far on this thread, and the results (if any) of our inquiry into whether these offshore brokers will open new accounts for U.S. residents at this time.

Altogether, 51 broker names have been suggested on this thread, and I have arranged these 51 brokers into four groups:

Brokers who apparently will continue to accept new U.S. clients

Tadawul FX (Cyprus / Switzerland)

Dukascopy (Switzerland)

ACM (Switzerland)

One Financial (UK)

MF Financial (UK)

Saxo Bank (Denmark)

Forex FS (Australia)

IG Markets (Australia)

Vantage FX (Australia) — until October 18

Forex CT (Australia)

Got Money FX (Australia)

WSD (New Zealand)

AAA FX (Greece)

FBS (Mauritius)

FX Open (Mauritius)

FX Company (Mauritius)

forex-metal (Panama)

eFOREX (Panama) — until October 18

Marketiva (British Virgin Islands)

Forex Place - 4xP (British Virgin Islands)

FXCBS (British Virgin Islands)

E-Global (British Virgin Islands)

Forex4You (British Virgin Islands) — this is a front for E-Global

Insta Forex (Russia)

Lite Forex (Seychelles)

Brokers who apparently will not accept new U.S. clients

C.I.M. Banque (Switzerland) — U.S. clients must travel to Switzerland to open accounts

Finexo (Germany)

Varengold (Germany)

Nord Markets (Sweden)

CMS Forex (UK)

Activ Trades (UK)

Alpari (UK)

Finotec (UK)

MF Global (UK)

ODL Markets (UK)

GO Markets (Australia)

Axi Trader (Australia)

IBFX (Australia)

Latitude FX (New Zealand)

Forex Yard (Cyprus)

Fx Pro (Cyprus or Jordan?)

Ava FX (British Virgin Islands)

iTrade Capital Markets — this is a subsidiary of FXCM

Brokers whose position on this question is uncertain or pending

MIG Bank (Switzerland)

dbFX (Germany)

Forex Web Trader (Germany)

Brokers for whom we have no information on this question

Forex.CH (Switzerland)

HY Markets (UK)

FXM Financial Group (Germany)

Halifax Investment Services (Australia)

Broco Forex (Russia)

UK-based MF Financial has decided to join the party:

Dear XXXXX,

We agree with your opinion.
No. We are not affected. We have offshore regulatory. Thanks.

MFFX.com
MF Financial Ltd
2nd Floor, 145 - 157 St. John Street,
London EC1V 4PY
United Kingdom
Tel (USA Toll Free) : +1 888 384 8860
Tel (International) : + 44 845 310 8358
Fax (International) : + 44 871 2562256
Fax (International) : +1 646 403 3549 (North & South America)
Toll Free Fax : +1 888 489 2409 (International)

Here’s part of the message that Cashbackforex sent me:

We have compiled a list of all our contracting brokers and the effect of the new NFA regs (either directly or policy changes due to) on these firms, please view the list below:
FX Open: Will continue to accept US clients.
Instaforex: Will continue to accept US clients.
E Forex: Will maintain existing US clients but will not take new US clients after October 18th.
Tadawul FX: Will continue to accept US clients.
Alpari UK: No changes, does not accept US clients.
FXDD: All US clients will be moved to the NY, USA branch and leverage will be changed to 1:50. CashBackForex clients will automatically have their ‘introducer’ changed from Project Triumph, LLC to Excel Markets Inc and receive an email with new login details to CashBackForexUSA tied to their rebate account.
FXCM UK: All US clients will be moved to FXCM US and leverage will be changed to 1:50. CashBackForex clients will automatically have their ‘introducer’ changed from Project Triumph, LLC to Excel Markets Inc and receive an email with new login details to CashBackForexUSA tied to their rebate account.
MB Trading: Leverage will be changed to 1:50. CashBackForex clients will automatically have their ‘introducer’ changed from Project Triumph, LLC to Excel Markets Inc and receive an email with new login details to CashBackForexUSA tied to their rebate account.
FXCBS: Will continue to accept US clients.
Go Markets: All US clients will be forced to close their account on October 18th.
FX Pro: No changes, does not accept US clients.
Ava FX: No changes, does not accept US clients.
Dukascopy: Will continue to accept US clients.
Nord Markets - Will not accept US clients.
Marketiva - Will continue to accept US clients.
Gallant FX: All US clients will be moved to Gain Capital and leverage will be changed to 1:50. CashBackForex clients will automatically have their ‘introducer’ changed from Project Triumph, LLC to Excel Markets Inc and receive an email with new login details to CashBackForexUSA tied to their rebate account.
IamFx: All US clients will be moved to Gain Capital and leverage will be changed to 1:50. CashBackForex clients will automatically have their ‘introducer’ changed from Project Triumph, LLC to Excel Markets Inc and receive an email with new login details to CashBackForexUSA tied to their rebate account.
Forex Yard: Will not accept US clients.
FX Solutions UK: All US clients will be moved to FX Solutions US and leverage will be changed to 1:50. CashBackForex clients will automatically have their ‘introducer’ changed from Project Triumph, LLC to Excel Markets Inc and receive an email with new login details to CashBackForexUSA tied to their rebate account.

This is the reply to my question about CFTC regulatons from Shuvalov, broker support for Lite Forex on this forums broker aid staion:

So it appears you can add LiteForex to the list of offshore brokers who will accept US clients.

Hi all,

We have had many emails/phone calls regarding the issue that this thread is discussing. We have also had many people from the USA visit our site from this thread and open accounts, which we appreciate.

Whilst Got Money FX does not regularly participate in forums, given the circumstances we feel it would be useful to post an official confirmation for everyone here that Got Money FX’s policy on USA customers has not changed, and customers from the USA will continue to be able to open accounts and trade with us before, during, and after October 18th 2010.

We are regulated by ASIC, and are able to offer up to 400:1 leverage, hedging, and all EAs for all of our customers, including those from the USA.

Thank you to those who have contributed to this thread on our behalf previously.

Best wishes with your trading.

Just confirmed with FXCBS via their live chat - they will continue servicing US customers after October 18 with no leverage restrictions. Also emailed their sales department to obtain an email confirmation which I will share here once I am in receipt of it.

So far it looks like Gary Gensler and the US CFTC have screwed up big time. :slight_smile:

I can confirm that Interbank FX Australia does not accept US client. It is clearly stated that US clients are not accepted on the account opening page. I have also spoken with them through live chat confirming they do not accept US clients.

JS

im going off shore too i dont want to have such low leverage the next thing will be 10:1

Thanks to [B]bravehoststamps, ApacheDan, SDC, tom82, Got Money FX, and Jimifan[/B] for your recent additions to this thread.

Later this morning I will edit my post #119 to show the following new information which you guys have provided:

[B]To be added to the list of brokers who will continue to accept new U.S. clients[/B]

MF Financial (UK)

FXCBS (British Virgin Islands)

Lite Forex (Seychelles)

Got Money FX (Australia)

[B]To be added to the list of brokers who will not accept new U.S. clients[/B]

Fx Pro (Cyprus or Jordan?)

Ava FX (British Virgin Islands)

Nord Markets (Sweden)

Forex Yard (Cyprus)

IBFX (Australia)

NEW CFTC Rules. do not apply to banks. Dukascopy is a bank & should be ok until 6/2011.

You should be aware that there are times that Dukascopy will raise or lower margin requirements. This typically just happens on a Friday afternoon and has never caused me a problem.

Alex Findlay

Hantec Markets.
Has offices in London, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and New Zealand.
Might be interesting to look into.

Hantec Markets
Hantec Markets (Australia) Pty Limited

So what happens 6/2011?

Interbank FX will have a webinar about the new regulations and how it will affect us. It starts in 15 minutes from this post. I’m not allowed to post links so you will have to find the link yourself. Sorry :frowning:

JS

The biggest drawback of Dukascopy is they have no MT4 feed. They have a betatest running, but no feed yet. There is a bridge, but didn’t try that. Just to mention that.

They also have not a real 5 digits price right now. The last digit is just 0 or 5. They want to change that in a few weeks, though.

Beside of that it would be a good choice, I guess.

I’ve been using their platform for the last couple of weeks, and it’s WAY less flaky than MT4. I like it much better. Plus, it integrates well with their ECN, and I haven’t seen any MT4 builds that have any meaningful interaction with an ECN past what you get with a standard STP or DD broker.

Thanks for all your efforts to complie the list still welcome US resident trader. It is better to add the margin request next to each broker. If the forex broker can only allow up to 1:100, there is no much difference for me compared to US local brokers allow 1:50.

MB Trading is ECN with MT4 feed. I like DC, but some ppl might go there because of mt4 and then after opening an account they may see it’s just in beta and demo. That’s why I mentioned that. MT4 is a standard platform while jforex is not. Particularly in using EAs, this is important.

One more broker to add to our list - United World Capital:

Dear Jacob
We have reviewed this subject with our compliance officer and the answer is that we do not have nothing to do with US regulations ( we are regulated by CYSEC which is a cypriot gov body )- we are accepting US clients and we have already many active traders from US working and making trades on daily basis .

best regards
ABDO SALIBA

FXCBS has also confirmed to me they will continue accepting and servicing US customers:

Sir, as we are not a US broker, so we do not adhere to any of the US rules. We do not have any restrictions on US Citizens trading accounts after 18th of October and we will not do any changes to our trading accounts or the US clients.
Should you have any more questions, please feel free to contact us at any time. You can contact us by phone, e-mail or live chat support (Live Support | Request a Remote Assistance | FXCBS)

FXCBS Customer Care
<[email protected]>

One more addition - InvestorEurope.com:

Apologies for the delay in my reply. It is a busy time for the company. Although we are a regulated company in respect of MiFID products, Spot Forex is currently not a regulated product in Gibraltar. Subject to keeping within the Laws of Gibraltar, where we are incorporated, we do work with US Persons, subject to respective due diligence and compliance requirements which are difficult to elaborate further in the absence of concrete details on your trading profile and for which specific spot forex solutions and platforms could potentially be matched.

Yours sincerely,
Pierre Boulle
investorseurope
745 Europort
Gibraltar GX11 1AA
T +350 200 40303
F +350 200 51795