“Yes, master…I hear and obey your command”…
The problem if you are a US citizen is that many offshore/european brokers started to block the registration for you… For Canadians its still not a wide spread problem. But recently I was traveling down to Florida and trading with my laptop, and suddenly my account was blocked and received a notification that US citizens were not permitted to trade with my broker. They basically checked my IP adress and thought I was lying to them. Pretty crazy…
Excellent service! Now have no funds with US brokers. Six months with these with live money: FinFX, ForexFS, ProfiFX, SmartTrade, PaxFX, Trader’sWay and Varchev (just demo so far on this one). no trouble so far. Profi is only one with “cent” accounts where $50 looks like $5000 on MT4. Have found these to be extremely useful for auto EA evaluation because EA trades like normal on real live feed with very little risk (of course little profit too). If EA shows potential on demo, move to cent. If looks good on cent move to full account. Terrific! Never risk more than few dollars on proving any EA, and well worth it.
Further note: these are US IRA funds which are as easy to invest as cash because I have had custodian put in an IRA LLC (I control the bank account).
Question: Anyone have info on witch of these brokers have “cent” accounts. Need more, as like to spread the money around to limit bad broker risk (as you can see by the number of brokers I use).
Varchev has cent accounts. They want you to mail in a hard copy account application, though, so that broker will take a week or two to set up. If I may ask, what company are you using for your IRA custodian? That sounds interesting using with an overseas broker.
Had account with Hotforex and was sent notification that as of certain date I would have to close my account. Think Pax has stopped taking US until they get more instruction but have not cancelled my account or prevented trading.
How US Gov can intimidate other governments or foreign institutions is beyond my understanding and infuriates me. If Romney has accounts outside the US, the comment should not be “bad Boy” and it would be certainly counter productive to prohibit this. If you want to keep the money at home you need to look at why it’s moving out and remove the factors that make it unattractive to keep it here. What happened to our freedom?
Suggest Blue Diamond in AZ for LLC (open in week for flat $400). Wife’s IRA custodian is with SouthWest and have mine with Entrust. Both would send funds to overseas accounts if you could set up IRA account with broker but few broker outside US know anything about IRA accounts. FinFX, Forexfs are two that do. Opening a IRA LLC and having them fund that makes all those problems go away. As manager of the LLC you open an account under the LLC name with the broker and fund the account by check, wire, etc from the LLC bank account. Funds withdrawn ar returned to LLC bank account. Must abide by IRA investment prohibitions. Could have bank account at your bank. Since have LLC set up in AZ for min hassle and expense also had Blue Diamond set up account with my bank branch in AZ. Have children as members of LLC for continuity too.
Clint; may want to set this up as a separate thread.
It’s going to get more severe since Romney wasn’t elected, that seems like a big hassle having FOREX funded with IRA accounts, then eventually have foreign institutions close the accounts in the near future.
Brokers are beginning to track IP addresses, to preclude any US residency on their books since they are audited by US regulatory agencies. The other brokers are facing pressure and will soon comply
I have not used one yet, but having a self directed IRA account with a foreign broker seems great. What is even better is a self directed Roth IRA containing a legal entity to make all trading profits, earned within the US or offshore, totally free from all federal taxes, including income taxes. Money withdrawn from the Roth IRA for personal use, however, may or may not be subject to taxation. I don’t think withdrawals are taxable, but I could be wrong about that. Green Trader Tax advertises their services to set up such a Roth IRA account, but if anyone has had experience with another good US based tax avoidance (that is legal, of course) service knowledgeable about offshore trading, I and others would appreciate your letting the rest of us know about the name of that service.
Yes, I see Blue Diamond discusses the checkbook control IRA LLCs on their website @ Easy IRA LLC | Self Directed IRA LLC & Checkbook IRA
This is really helpful info, thanks!
This may be of interest to some… IronFX is currently on the Group 2 List, however a customer representative recently contacted me to let me know that they are now offering binary options to the US market. Includes options on currencies, commodities, stock indexes and some individual stocks.
Just had the worst experience with FXVV I was shorting gold for the past week and for the last few days there platform froze and as a result could not close my positions and lost my whole account. I have contacted them few times about this issue and was promised that they going to resolve the issue asap and they did not. Now I dout that I am going to trade with FXVV any more
No reason for this complication. Just do as I said. Set up and IRA LLC. I am at this time opening an account with our 7th foreign broker, Varchev. I (watch my lips), I fill out their corporate forms to open account and “I” will wire them the money from the LLC bank account. There is no reason to go through the complication of setting up an “IRA” account with a foreign broker and few will bother - I know.
You can not make it any easier. If you have questions contact Tim at Blue Diamond Documents. You can do this with Roth or Traditional. The custodian does the conversion (any custodian you now have). However not all custodians will fund and IRA LLC. If you have Roth you have already paid taxes at conversion and there is no further tax due on withdrawal for any reason at any time. Remember IRAs are a US scheme and there is no way to prevent paying taxes on conversion. You avoid “further” taxes with the Roth.
A really cool side note: if after you convert you loose money, before the next tax deadline plus extensions, you can re characterize back to traditional and recoup the taxes. Then you can convert to Roth again after 30 days and pay tax on the smaller amount. Can’t figure out why they left such a beautiful loop hole.
Odds and ends —
Thanks for this info, Craig. And thanks for your participation on this thread.
I will add a note to our listing for TradersWay, tagging it to your post.
pipcompounder, I will tag your post to our TradersWay listing, as well.
Thanks for this info, Charles. I will add notes to the listings for those 7 brokers, tagging them to your post.
As for your discussion of IRA’s, I think it’s perfectly appropriate for this thread. There’s no need, in my opinion, to slice and dice the overall “offshore” topic into lots of little sub-topics. Questions frequently pop up here, about foreign residence, foreign bank accounts, IRA accounts, taxes, etc., and I think we can handle all of that under one big tent.
assman, take your sniveling and whining somewhere else. Nobody here wants to read any more of your drivel.
Hello, Shatner. I don’t usually add notes to the broker listings in Group 2. But, I will do it this time.
Maybe IronFX is testing the waters for a possible return to Group 1.
Bummer, dk. I hope you get it sorted out.
In the meantime, I will add a note to the FXVV listing, tagging it to your post.
Clint, do u know MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore)?? they are Singapore regulatory. How good their reputation??
Can u investigate for me?? Several big broker register in Singapore for their representative in Asia.
Thanks for ur help,
spidypips
This thread deals with retail brokers outside the U.S. who will do business with U.S. residents. I do not know of any retail broker in Singapore who will do that. Therefore, there hasn’t been any interest regarding Singapore on this thread.
There are other threads on the Babypips forums where traders in Singapore, and elsewhere in Asia, have discussed trading in Singapore. And I know that you have participated on one or more of those threads — so, you probably know more about Singapore, and their regulator, than I do.
As for your specific question, the only thing I know about MAS is that it is the central bank of Singapore, as well as being the financial regulator for all securities (including forex) in Singapore. This makes MAS a bit of a strange duck, compared to other regulatory agencies around the world. But, it doesn’t say anything about the nature of forex regulation in Singapore, or about “how good” a regulator MAS is.
As a resident of Asia, you are better able than I am to research your question. I can’t even connect to Oanda’s Singapore website from my location here in the U.S. When I try, they look at my IP address, and re-direct me to their U.S. website.
So, you’ll have to do your own due diligence regarding Singapore.
Ok, thanks for ur reply anyway. I already do some research on MAS website. But their website not like cftc or fsa, Not user friendly. I will research more deeper from now.
With all respect, I would like the readers to be aware of the legality of trading offshore in this manner, as it appears to flirt with a very fine line of the US law.
There are some federal tax law implications here, as ROTH IRA accounts are intended to avoid tax burdens for the purpose of retirement, not escaping CTFC regulations to trade FOREX offshore.
I would contact an ethical legal professional specializing in the finance industry before going this route, as there are many fine lines that are being tread here.
Also of note, expect more enforcement of the law since Romney was not elected, as this administration is increasing government resources to track fraud. Good day all.
If you contact a legal professional specializing in finance I am pretty sure of what they will say. If it is legal then its legal proceed. There is nothing fraudulent about it. Its pretty smart money management. IRA accounts are for retirement and you are going to pay taxes on it eventually so it does not matter. There is no need to pay taxes now and later. Why pay taxes on already taxed dollars?
Noticed a couple of interesting articles in Business Insider and Marketwatch today. Looks like the CFTC is at it again, this time going after Intrade for accepting US residents, saying they violated its ban on off-exchange options trading, which Intrade refers to as “prediction contracts”.
INTRADE: US Residents Should Close Accounts - Business Insider
Intrade says U.S. customers must close accounts - MarketWatch
I think a couple of points are worth noting here:
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The CFTC claims, “it is against the law to solicit U.S. persons to buy and sell commodity options, even if they are called ‘prediction’ contracts, unless they are listed for trading and traded on a CFTC-registered exchange or unless legally exempt”. […I am now withholding my sarcasm with angelic peace]
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Importantly, though, as has always been the case, the CFTC charges are directed at the company NOT individual US customers. US customer accounts are being refunded in full. The CFTC has no intention or authority to penalize US residents for offshore trading.
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Intrade also offers an intriguing comment in its response, stating, “this in no way signals the end of Intrade in the US. In the near future we’ll announce plans for a new exchange model that will allow legal participation from all jurisdictions – including the US.” Anyway, I don’t believe the new exchange requirement directly applies to spot forex contracts, which are exempted in Dodd-Frank, but may apply to forex currency options.
No doubt, the retail derivatives market is slowly evolving into something new. But I see nothing here that should deter anyone from opening an account with an offshore broker that accepts US residents.
Hey, Shatner
Thanks for those articles. Here is the CFTC press release regarding their action against [B]Intrade[/B] and [B]TEN.[/B]
And, here is the CFTC’s annual report on enforcement actions, released on October 5, 2012 —
In it, they do a lot of boasting about the criminality they have cracked down on, over the past year.
I find their chest-beating regarding the use of their [B]new Dodd-Frank authority,[/B] and also their use of [B]MOI’s[/B] (with foreign regulatory agencies), to be little more than silly bluster, worded to impress their handlers in Congress.
However, it’s interesting to note that [B]there has been no legal action against any “offshore forex broker”[/B] since May 1, of this year. That’s a major change, compared to the flurry of legal actions brought last year, and earlier this year. Let’s hope that the CFTC has already done all the damage they are capable of doing to our foreign broker friends.
Here are some excerpts from the CFTC Enforcement Division’s Annual Report. I have [B]bolded[/B] a few lines for emphasis.
Agency filed 102 enforcement actions, [B]the highest number of cases ever for the CFTC in one year,[/B] bringing the two-year total to more than 200 actions.
David Meister, the CFTC’s Enforcement Division Director stated,…[B]“We have begun to use our new Dodd-Frank authority,[/B] and, as we look forward, we will continue to do so as more new rules become effective. I applaud the staff for their hard work and dedication to the task, and am honored to work alongside them.”
[U]Cases Involving Customer Funds Safeguards and Supervision Obligations[/U]
The Division filed charges against [B]Peregrine Financial Group Inc.,[/B] a futures commission merchant, and its owner, Russell R. Wasendorf, Sr. alleging misappropriation of customer funds, violations of customer fund segregation laws, and making material false statements to the CFTC. The suit, which is pending in federal court in Chicago, was filed within 24 hours after the fraud came to light.
The Division filed charges against [B]MBF Clearing Corp. (MBF),[/B] a registered futures commission merchant, alleging that MBF violated laws requiring the segregation of customer funds and that the firm failed to adhere to its supervision obligations. The case is pending in federal court in New York.
The Division filed charges against [B]Forex Capital Markets LLC (FXCM),[/B] a retail foreign exchange (forex) dealer, for failing to supervise the handling of more than 57,000 customer accounts that were disadvantaged by FXCM’s system that allowed for one-sided “slippage” in forex prices. The charges, which also included a separate violation for FXCM’s failure to produce certain records promptly to the Division, were settled simultaneously pursuant to an Order requiring FXCM to pay more than $14 million.
[U]Cooperation with Law Enforcement Partners[/U]
[B]The Division also continued to work with international regulators. For example, in FY12 the Division received responses to more than 300 requests for assistance that the Division made of more than 70 different regulators under the IOSCO Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Consultation and Cooperation and the Exchange of Information, and other information-sharing arrangements. The international regulatory community has been instrumental to the CFTC’s success in a number of important actions.[/B]
Escaping the CFTC, and the Nanny-State they serve, remains a priority for freedom-loving American forex traders.