Another note about the series 3 and CTA registration. There are legitimate offshore hedge funds and institutions that won't work with registered traders. At the same time, there are many US institutions that require traders to be registered. So it's all about who a trader thinks his main funding sources will be. In general, I recommend traders not to jump into registration at this time unless an FCM or institution that makes up a great part of his business requires it. It's really quite simple to get regsitered; so a trader is able to do it at any time. Between studying for the series 3, registering with the NFA online, drafting the disclosure documents, etc., the process may take from 2 to 4 months.
