Stop Loss no longer allowed? NFA

Beginner Questions
21

I think I can answer a couple of the questions raised on this thread.

[B]Regarding non-U.S. brokers[/B], I would suggest you consider: FXCM Ltd (UK), Alpari (UK), and ACM (Swiss) Of those three, my preference would be FXCM, because I am already an FXCM client, and I know and trust them. Also, the Financial Services Authority in the U.K., which regulates forex brokers, offers a level of protection to retail forex customers which is not available in the U.S.
[B]
Regarding liquidity providers (banks), trading platforms and data feeds[/B]: in the case of FXCM, all of these are the same for FXCM LLC (US) accounts and for FXCM Ltd (UK) accounts.

[B]Regarding taxes[/B]: the U.S. imposes a tax claim on the worldwide income (including forex trading profits) of U.S. citizens, regardless of where they reside. You can live and work in the U.K., for example, and even hold dual US/UK citizenship, and the U.S. IRS will still claim that you owe U.S. income tax on all of your income, no matter where it is earned.

The only way to get the IRS completely off your back is to RENOUNCE your U.S. citizenship.

Many people, hearing all this for the first time, do not believe it. So, I will furnish three links to the website of a tax attorney who specializes in taxes for expatriate Americans:

*US Expatriate Tax Return Information and Preparation by Attorney &CPA with 27 years experience Don Nelson’s home page.

US Citizens Living Abroad, Expatriates, IRS Income Tax Explained Tax highlights for U.S. citizens living abroad.

Foreign Bank and Financial Account IRS Reporting for U.S. Expatriates Foreign bank account reporting (FBAR) Form TDF 90-22.1, required by IRS, for U.S. persons living abroad.

As they say in poker, [B]Read 'em and weep[/B].

Clint

22

Clint, have you done a dos netstat command to confirm where your data feed comes from. Not to get into an arguement but just to confirm the data feed.

I did a netstat command and found that IBFX IP number and ran it through the whois database and confirmed it does indeed come from Salt Lake city.

I get no connection from MB Trading so i cannot test or verify.

If you really want to have fun run a tracert to that IP and see the hops the actual packets travel through!

I do this because that it helps me to determine that i cannot be a short term scapler as some people are. Some people say that they are in and out in just a few seconds. Therefore if my datafeed comes from New York there is quite possibly a 2 second delay because of the many routers and switches involved in the packet delivery.

That is only to say that the closer you are to the data feed the better for very short term scalpers.

23

I have not done that (in fact, I don’t have a clue how to go about it).

I’m taking the word of FXCM. They say that liquidity providers, platform functionality, etc., are the same on both sides of the pond.

I’m close to New York, and a long way from London, so I would not be surprised if there is a slight difference in signal transmission time to and from these two locations. I’ll look into this.

I’m not a scalper, but I’d still like everything to be executed “instantaneously”.

24

Clint, quick question.

I loaded the clock_v1_3.mq4 and it has the following:

Local 11:37
GMT 17:37
London 18:37
Tokyo 02:37
Broker 19:37

IBFX (the broker) is in my time zone, would you happen to know why they are shown as above?

Thanks

25

rtv2,

If I understand your question, you’re asking why “Broker” is shown as 19:37, when your broker is in Salt Lake City (MDT time zone) — which, at the time of your post, was 11:37 (the same as your local time). Have I got the question right, so far?

You’re obviously using an MT4 platform (I presume from IBFX), and the app that you loaded is calling the platform “Broker”.

The “off-the-shelf” version of MT4 uses Central European Time. Currently, because Europe is on Daylight Saving Time, the Central European time zone is CEST (Central European Summer Time), and CEST = GMT+2. That’s the 19:37 time you are seeing.

I have two MT4 accounts, one from Alpari UK, and one from FXCM UK. The time shown in the Market Watch window on my Alpari MT4 is always CEST. But, on my FXCM MT4 it is London time (BST = GMT+1), because FXCM made some changes to the platform.

Here is an Alpari video explaining why the MT4 platform uses Central European Time:
Forex with Alpari (UK) - Alpari Academy - Video Tutorials - MetaTrader 4 Tips and Tricks

I hope this answers your question.

Clint

26

Thanks Clint, that was it, i am still grinding away at this FX stuff. I still have 10 months to go before i go live i believe. I told my wife that i would take a full year at about 10-12 hours a day before i throw money at the market.

However, i have heard that it might be better to open up a nano or micro account to get started in the psycholgical aspect of the trading using .o1 lots.

I hate to lose money anytime or anywhere.

27

You will probably blow account after account until you can change that belief you have about losing money. Even good systems will drawdown and if you don’t have the emotional capacity to stay cool in that situation you will make more mistakes and compound your losses until the inevitable happens.

Demo is good for learning how the market moves and figuring out how the orders work, but I think a micro account will be the only way to learn how to work with your emotions with real money. I mean maybe you’ll blow a $100 account. That’s a lot of money for a haircut, but this is education towards a highly paid career. How many Harvard MBA’s you think you can get for $100? :smiley:

28

rtv2,

I recommend going ahead with a nano or micro acct to get your feet wet. As others have mentioned, it’s an investment in education. I did well with demos but didn’t realize how emotional one can get when it comes to real money.

I’ve used an account to practice with cents instead of big money. Once you get your emotions in tact - and stick to your system - you’ll be okay. :smiley:

Also, I am peeved about the new no hedging rule and no stop/loss being imposed w/ US FX brokers. Think this will wedge out th little guy. Forex has been a good friend in an unstable economy. On a good note, FXCM is asking clients if they’d like their accounts transfered to the UK.

29

That sucks on so many levels but I appreciate your awareness and sharing.

God bless the USA, but can we get a break so we can contribute to the rebuild of the economy and feather our nest too?

C’mon.

30

Akeakamai, i do understand what you mean about your emotions. However i started with fundamentals on the equity side of the house. I started to read Cramers books and he advised reading some horse book, but i chose “No limit Hold’em” instead. I spent quite awhile learning to read players and the odds, statistics and the outs and what have you. I am familiar with the emotions and money as i have gambled for money, and not just play money.

I don’t do anything like this until i am quite sure that the odds are in my favor.

31

Yes, I also got an e-mail from FXCM - no more stoploss or limit is allowed from Aug 1st on. They also said that they have “one cancels the other” option…
i do not know what to do now, to quit FXCM or “one cancels the other” will do the same as the SL is doing now.:mad:

32

To Clint, my apologies for not helping you with figuring out how to do what i was doing. That which i described is only a rudimetary way of determining the IP address of your Broker.

To actually ascertain and verify the IP address of your data feed requires a packet capture software program. With this utility you capture the data stream.

To that end i will personally install a packet capture software program, open up a demo account with i believe FXCM UK and verify the data feed. I will start a new thread under newbie island about this, if people believe that this is important enough. I believe this is important and it would be a way for me to contribute to babypips. Unless someone else has already done this, or are doing this at this time.

Warning: Installing unnecesary software on your computer may crash your system. As the market is about to open it might not be a good idea for an active trader to do this. I personally have 12 years experience as a Network/Server Administrator and reinstall my computer software 2-3 times a month.

33

I have never heard of anyone here doing that before — so, I’m sure that this will be a first.

What you’re offering to do sounds like a lot of work, but if you think it can yield useful information, by all means, have at it.

Clint

34

You are so right about that.

As far as I know, the U.S. is the only major, industrialized country which claims the right to tax the foreign income of [B]citizens living permanently in another country.[/B]

A good friend of mine, who was born in the U.S., has lived in Canada for 20 years, where she and her husband work and pay Canadian taxes. He is Canadian; she has dual U.S./Canadian citizenship.

It never occurred to her that she was required to file U.S. income tax returns, and pay U.S. income tax, on income [B]earned and already taxed[/B] in Canada.

At this point, she has no desire to turn herself in to the IRS, and face whatever the penalty is for failing to file tax returns for 20 years.

We are rapidly approaching the time when ALL of the government’s data bases will be linked. When that day comes, any person crossing the U.S. border and identifying himself/herself as a U.S. citizen, or as having been born in the U.S., will automatically be scrutinized for tax issues, among other things.

Not only is Big Brother watching; in the case of U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens, Big Brother is cross-checking all the data files ever created on you.

Gloomy thoughts for the Fourth of July weekend.

Clint

[B]�Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred, right — a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.�[/B] — Abraham Lincoln

35

What about the Army, I don’t think they pay taxes when they are over seas, same for contractors.
as far as I know IF you have earn income out side the US you don’t have to pay taxes on it.
can any one confirm this info…
Jado

36

Scroll back to post #21 on this thread.

37

Question by[B] rtv2[/B]…

Also if you go with GFT Austrailia does your signal feed come from GFT US or is it an Austrailian Feed?

[B]I think the statement by wrtm 19 below says it all…[/B]

It didn’t affect to us US Customers either. Nothing has changed in Gft USA

38

Being In The Army Right Now Serving In Kirkuk, Iraq… I Don’t Have To Pay Taxes But, I Do Know That U.S. Contractors Whether It Be Civilian Or Gov., The Majority Of Them, Still Do Pay Taxes Since They Aren’t Considered An Offensive Combatant W/ A Branch Of Service. All The Contractors From KBR, Interpreters & Other Civilians Still, From The Ones I’ve Met, Pay Taxes. There Are A Few That Don’t Or Pay A Very Little %.

39

A little off topic.

Unlimited, you are right “God bless the USA” and to that end:
God Bless Austrailia, God Bless Great Britain, God Bless Mexico, God Bless Canada, and all of the countries of the world, even Russia and China.

Some people may take offense at this, oh well, these countries are made up of people, so like little timmy said, “God bless us, everyone!”

40

By law you are required to pay tax on offshore investments, but my opinion is if they don’t know they exist then its pretty hard to pay tax or more importantly get caught not paying tax on them.

You just need to be smart about it.