Going offshore to escape the CFTC

I remember MB very well. They were my first broker. Paid me with paper checks :joy:

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At least you started out trading with ECN / STP Broker, I started with FXCM And Forex com. :rage:

:rofl: I havenā€™t seen one of them in like 10yrs.

Assuming high leverage, I start with 2k. If spread, carry, fills, slippage and withdrawals are ok, Iā€™ll let it grow. Itā€™s not long until itā€™s all house money. Itā€™s important to deploy it across several brokers. I do this for the obvious reason but also, when conditions change, my money goes where itā€™s treated best.

For months, a broker I use had 1.0 spread on CL/XTI and it suddenly jumped to 2.4! At $1 per tick my crude trading moved to my backup broker at 1.6 spread/no commission. This morning, after a few weeks, broker A is suddenly back to 1.0. Free markets and competition in action.

Things Iā€™m reading today got me thinking- The last broker that ripped me off was US regulated, PFG Best. After the CFTC came in, most of us received pennies on the dollar because of all manner of ā€œregulationsā€, excuses, etc. but the attorneys did very well. FXCM was fined by the CFTC for some other scam I canā€™t recall. The list of US brokers taking money from clients is lengthy. Your money is never truly safe anywhere. The SEC did a great job with Madoff, remember? Then there was MF Global. The list goes on. Spread things around, hide your stops and trust nobody.

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They were solid until Dodd/Frank. They were bought or merged and thatā€™s when I started with offshore brokers and never went back. Iā€™ve had some near misses over the years but none of them have directly stolen my money. Indirectly is a different story :sweat_smile:

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They just passed the FIT21. As long as crypto achieves a significant amount of decentralization (Itā€™s already massively centralized in a handful of exchanges) which would in turn be exempt from regulation (then what is forex and why is it so ā€œregulatedā€)ā€¦Everything is ass backwards in this time we live in.

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This is a true phenomenon. Itā€™s as if youā€™re taking away the validity of the market and they donā€™t want to realize itā€™s a controlled environment.

This is it. Add this sentence to a book of wisdom for the gereations. Post it on your refrigerators. It would even make a great tattoo!
I think I am going to get this phrase air brushed on my truck tomorrow.

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-Change has to start somewhere. I am hopeful, but also realistic.

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-I donā€™t knowā€¦ a phrase like that could have other meanings to non-traders. :grin:

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Thatā€™s what she said! OK airbrushing cancelled! Glad I didnā€™t opt for the tattoo

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Waitā€¦ What? No tattoo?!

Thanks for introducing me to AMP. I opened up an account with them and am still getting a feel for all the bells and whistles. I decided on the Mt5 platform since I know it, thereā€™s more popular that even free as well.

Seems thereā€™s more volume on the EU6 and M6E micro (both Eur/usd contracts of different size fyi for those that donā€™t know) and a bit less volume on the EEU mini.

The lack of pipettes is kinda new, but doesnā€™t bother me. You can definitely scalp with enough volatility and in ways itā€™s better with the lack of fractional pips or points/ticks.

There is no hedging, but I always end up in trouble regardless when I did. Iā€™m still trying to figure if FIFO appliesā€¦

I definitely like this environment and Iā€™m much more relaxed. Iā€™m still on demo, so I canā€™t get a feel how my executions are going to impact the market, but from what Iā€™ve been told it wonā€™t be like that I see in the FX and especially and established account with an off-shore.

The fact that I can see the actual DOM players is a big plus as well as being counterpartied with an actual trader(s) is huge.

I see a lot of people that have crossed over from fx like the dow futures, but for now Iā€™m sticking to the EUR since itā€™s the utensil I know.

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When you need to, maybe you can work around FIFO/hedging rules with multiple accounts and an EA to allocate trades. Can anyone here confirm that AMP allows this?

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Edit: Youā€™re actually going to need to reach out to AMP to see if that flys with them. Im getting conflicting info tbh. Some say no, due to CME rules, some say yesā€¦

From CME:

Micro E-Mini Futures Hedging (youtube.com)

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IF FIFO and Hedging rules apply to currency futures then thatā€™s going to raise a flag to me. That would mean in the greater market scheme fx futures do have reciprocating correlation to the fx marketā€¦from the derivative to the common. I guess itā€™s just the way pricing mechanisms work across varying markets naturally. The CFTC oversees all things commodity and currency so I would assume the same rules would apply to all fx derivatives.

In AMPā€™s Mt5 there is no itemization of a position, itā€™s all bulk and canā€™t be separated as far as I know. You canā€™t beat FIFO by varying each trade sizes like you can at Oandafx for example.

My intellectual curiosity is making me wonder, in futures, if your counter party is another trader and he stops out and you continue to ride the move in whatever commodity/currency future whilst in profitā€¦then where is the rest of your profit going to come from?

Another way to put it is your original counterparty stopped himself out ten pips ago and now you want to take a profit, where and who is the profit coming from for the extra ten pips you rode out? So there HAS to be an intermediary intervening in each of these scenarios, am I wrong? Does a brokerā€™s trade pairing algo (if there is such a thing) just simply tack on another traderā€™s order to yours? Iā€™ve never thought of this after trading retail fx for so long.

Hope I donā€™t sound too stupidā€¦

No unfortunately not.

Now as far hedging, like the video I posted earlier from CME, the hedging would have to come from full and micro contracts. So if its EU6 and M6E micro, then you would take the opposites with each with the appropriate sizing to balance.

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Thatā€™s where the level 2 data on the ladder is going to come in. If thereā€™s not enough buy orders for your sell order, then it will execute at best available. ie: slipped fill.

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Ahā€¦I see. So the dealers do stand ready to take the other sideā€¦hmmm

Thats not what I said. For your order to fill 100%, there needs to be available volume. If not then it will execute at best available (if executed at market). Anything other than that will execute partial fills on whatā€™s available on the orderbook.