Is forex trading illegal in the USA? I’m sorry I’ve been out of the trading industry since 2021 and it seems like a lot has changed with brokers. So does anyone know if it’s now illegal for retail trading in the USA?
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Not being a US Citizen, I only know through research into what is happening with Prop Firms. It seems no US Citizen can open an account with a regulated broker to trade CFD’s. Hopefully a US Citizen can shed some more light.
It also seems like MetaQuotes is doing all they can to prevent any US Citizen using MT4 or MT5.
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Retail forex will never be illegal in the USA. Use any broker you want in the world.
When you’re looking at sources re the legality of forex trading, you have to be careful about what is being meant by trading and where these rules apply. It’s almost universal that US writers are talking always about the situation in the US: writers from outside the US often take a wider view.
When some sources are talking about “forex” when they mean buying, holding and selling of actual currency. Currency trading is illegal in some jurisdictions except for the government. In many places in the world you need a licence to legally carry out currency trading, but these are for banks, no private retail trader is ever going to be issued with one of these to trade from home. In many places where currency trading is illegal, forex trading is legal.
Some types of trading are also illegal in some jurisdictions - spreadbetting forex or trading CFD’s are examples.
Note that a jurisdiction is not necessarily a whole country, it could be a state or province within the country.
In all cases where you can trade, check on the tax implications within your jurisdiction, these vary with little logic. For example, trading forex CFD’s in the UK is subject to Capital Gains Tax, spreadbetting the same markets is tax-free.
i am not a us citizen but as far as i know all brokers i follow stopped working with us citizens so some thing is happening
Forex trading is completely legal in the US. Brokers must be registered with the National Futures Association (NFA) to offer spot forex and futures trading to the US retail community.
You are limited to a select few regulated brokers in the US. That list is comprised of the following companies:
Spot Forex Trading
- Forex.com (GAIN Capital)
- Oanda
- IG US
- TD Ameritrade
Futures Trading (most popular, not exhaustive)
- Tastytrade
- GAIN Capital
- TD Ameritrade
- Plus500
- Interactive Brokers
- Charles Schwab
- Tradestation
- Ninjatrader
- CME
- Etrade
- Optimus Trading
You can use the NFA’s BASIC Search website to determine if a broker is regulated to provide spot forex trading in the US.
https://www.nfa.futures.org/BasicNet/basic-search-landing.aspx
Look for a registration type that matches Retail Foreign Exchange Dealer after entering your search term.
While there are many other fx brokers around the world, both regulated and not regulated, you’ll want to make sure a particular broker actually supports US accounts.
As for the news cycle, if you’ve been hearing about "trading services " being stopped or “US client acquisition in the US halted”, it’s probably related to several prop trading firms ending support for their US clients. The primary issue revolves around prop trading firms no longer being able to use/license MetaQuotes MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 trading platforms for their business operations.
Read more here:
Thanks!
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100 percent true, I was enjoying a broker and suddenly they said I have to part ways with them
As you can see from Pipstradamus’s post above (and from his editing of the thread’s subject-line to avoid any chance of misunderstandings about this subject) that’s actually a very mistaken perception.
No, @Jenirogan, it really isn’t 100% true at all. As you can see from the post just above yours.
Sure. Nobody’s questioning that. But it doesn’t mean that what BAD14214 said is correct.
And it isn’t correct.
What’s happening at the moment is that Metaquotes (who own and market MT4/5) is running scared of US regulators and it’s not allowing market-maker “brokers” who are not US-regulated to offer CFD’s via their platforms to US citizens.
The possible answers to that problem, for US citizens/residents include the following:
(a) Switch to futures (best answer)
(b) Use a US-regulated brokerage and whatever platform you like (reasonably good answer)
(c) Use a non-US-regulated (offshore) broker who will offer US citizens/residents CFD accounts using a different, non-MT, trading platform (really bad answer, and could easily be only temporary anyway)
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Definitely best, but it also makes much higher leverage available, with which people not used to it will need to take great care!!