UK brokers not allowing U.S. customers?

So far I have tried Alpari U.K. and cms forex uk division and both said that they cannot do business with a resident from the U.S. Are we stuck trading in this crummy 10:1 leverage country

Try Dukascopy. Also the above two companies are headquarterd in the US. If you approach a pure European company you shouldn't have a problem.

Yes.

It's not 10:1 yet... but looking like it might be shortly - regardless of free market participant outcry.

Guys don't give up just yet. I think the dealers will put up a good fight. Hundreds if not thousands of jobs are at stake.

thanks

Do the dealers really have the political power?

It's still early. If the 10:1 rule is enacted they will see a flood of withdrawals from U.S. based brokerages like they have never seen.

All U.S. firms in retail forex will be forced to open offshore brokerages, they will not survive otherwise it will be the final nail in the coffin.

rather than search out a foreign broker now it woud pay dividends to get involved in commenting on the proposed rules. If they get their way here in the U.S. there is nothing stopping foreign based rule making entities from passing the same or similar laws there.

Even if you currently trade at 10:1. Remember we were at 400:1 a nano second ago, now 100:1 with proposed at 10:1. Who's to say it will stop at 10:1? Do something now and avoid having to complain about not doing anything later.

I have a form letter as a perfect example of things you should mention located here http://www.forexfactory.com/showpost...8&postcount=26

You should make changes to it so it stands out uniquely as your own voice. Take an hour to spread the word on other forex boards you frequent. Get as many people involved in this as possible. It doesn't matter if they are foreign traders or not as everyone has something in stake in all of this.

If they don't think so they are only kidding themselves. The U.S. has a good amount of influence around the world. If they achieve what they are trying to do here it may only be a small amount of time until they invoke the same stupidity elsewhere.

Some additional points to raise is all U.S. based firms have been or are in the process of opening offshore brokerages since the NFA rule change of FIFO and No Hedge in the same FX account.

Which means if they are doing this to protect the consumer as they say, it's not working... if it was there would be no need for U.S. based firms to open offshore brokerages. Right?

Get involved, think about it for half an hour. You may think of something that I didn't. We shouldn't lay down should we?

Thanks pip_seeker. I just sent a very lengthy email. This is insane. In general the US is moving to make trading unavailable to small guys (not just FX, in all markets).

Though im not an american..

Ive skimmed about and have not read and fully understood this new

proposed leverage thing..

Though they may have a "supreme" good for all in mind..

And they have their reasons.. which may prove to be hard for

the retail american trader to comprehend...

Isnt this killing the "land of opportunity" tag of the US?

Most people around the globe see's the US as that..

Where everything is possible in the states..

then again with the advent of this ruling..

everything realy is possible in the US... since this happen(ed)

This new leverage rule sucks man... I was wondering why lot of strict rules for US Customers???

Seems like it. FxPro which offers 500:1 has closed all accounts from US residents too.

As a member of the NFA, regulations prevent Alpari UK from accepting US residents.

I opened an account with forex.com in the UK the other day, I also have a forex.com account here in the US.

The main reason they state for these changes is to stop fraud. A good amount of this can be attributed to ponzi scams "r" us - Madoff and Stanford.

This is likely who we have to thank for a good amount of this. The next thing is Spot FX is an infant in the U.S. we don't have a regulating body in the U.S. that is designed to police the Spot FX market.

So because the U.S. was so stupid in their spending ways since 2000 in racking up huge debt, spending the surplus in outlandish tax cuts for the wealthy. [This isn't a bash on any one specific party as they are both guilty if you've been paying attention. This isn't to make this political, but to give reasons why I think this is transpiring.]

They didn't have the finances needed to set up another regulation entity to police the spot FX in the U.S. So they handed the job to the NFA which is more or less a watchdog for the Futures markets.

They are seperate from the CFTC. Now that various laws were passed by the NFA and now the passing of some "Farm Bill" has given further powers to the CFTC.

The CFTC see loopholes in the NFA rules and so this proposal is to close those loop holes. The reason for the leverage change could be any number of reasons. Who is on the CFTC rule making body? Do they have friends in the Futures markets?

So if you catch my drift it could be nothing more than giving the futures markets a boost by making it tougher on spot FX customers. Even tho this will do nothing for Futures but instead drive everyone trading FX to overseas brokers.

This will effect everyone so I hope that everyone will take the time to draft a letter to the CFTC and spend some time spreading the word. We should all stand against this proposal of 10:1 leverage. If we don't stand together and it gets passed the next passing of law the group will be so small you won't stand a chance.

Everyone should do this. Even if you are a foreign trader with accounts elsewhere. Tell them why you wouldn't put your money in a U.S. brokerage. Tell them how this would affect your trading decisions. How this would affect your returns. How many people will lose their jobs over this.

If they are trying to stop the RED on NFP day this will not work as a solution. Does the current administration want to create jobs or shuffle more overseas?

There are plenty of examples and reasons you can give if you think about this for 15 minutes.

Where to send your comments:

email: [color=#22229c][email protected][/color] with "Regulation of Retail Forex" in the subect header.

or FAX it to (202) 418-5521

or snail mail:

David Stawick, Secretary
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
1155 21st Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20581


After you have sent your comment letter please help spread the word to additional forex boards. Thank you.

I've commented on the rule. Everyone has to send their comments to CFTC. I agree. Once the U.S. goes down this road don't think that the UK won't do the same. Stop it now while we still can!

Well, a lot of this is due to a new president with socialist tendencies (i.e. people can't or aren't smart enough to take care of themselves, so they need the government to do it for them). This proposed change is right along those lines.

Not saying I disagree with everything he does, but I do think there's a new mindset in government now about this kind of thing.

I've added my emailed comments to what is hopefully a growing howl about this...

Many brokers in the UK are setup as spread betting outfits where you're technically gambling, even if your broker is hedging all the positions in the market. I like to use spread bets for my speculative punts because the profits on gambling are 100% tax free in the UK - you don't even declare a gambling win. I'm British (well Scottish really) and it's nice to just make a bit of extra cash without having to pay tax, or have the hassle of filling in a tax return etc...

But Internet gambling is illegal in the USA, the Bush administration brought it in because, well, I guess Republicans are all moralistic and think gambling is a sin or whatever and that they should tell people how to live their lifes etc, etc?????

Anyway, you can't gamble on-line in the USA. No offshore company will accept your account because it's illegal for your banks and card companies to transfer your funds from the US to any offshore gambling outfit - you could even credit your account with your offshore broker. Plus if they found a way round it, then the top management of the offshore company could find themselves being arrested on a one way extradition warrent and fast tracked to a US federal prison. Don't try finding away round it, it ain't going to happen, if you don't like it you'll have to get your own laws changed I'm afraid. America is a democracy and if they want to outlaw that sort of thing it's entirely up to their citizens.

I don't think this can be stuck to anyone president. Bush started alot of this in action with the bubble bust. They are trying to prevent another blow-up and prevent fraud.

What's the easiest way to kill fraud in the spot FX? I've give you a hint, it's not to make spot FX flourish.

Lastly the CFTC and NFA are futures organizations. Don't you think they wouldn't like to see this Billion dollar a year industry fall in their lap?

The president really doesn't have much to do with this except for handing out powers and giving jurisdictions. The NFA was already given oversight command in spot FX before Obama took office. So if you think this is a single party move you are mistaken.

This proposal is ridiculous, that being said, those of you piling on Obama and decrying 'socialism'....seriously, grow up. The financial institutions of this country burned the f@cking house down. This economy is the result of 30+ years of extremely bad decision making borne of both parties, though the only President in the last 30 years to run a balanced budget is a Dem. I think we can all agree that this proposal sucks and that the economy is on the brink and many people of all idealogies are to blame. Enough.

Just got this email:
US citizens can certainly open accounts with us as we are a European broker based in Cyprus. We have a very large base of North American clients as they can enjoy stops, limits and hedging for no additional charge. Due to our location in Cyprus we strictly adhere to the regulations of Cysec thus allowing us to offer our clients additional services which have recently been banned by the NFA. The proposed leverage changes by the NFA will not affect us.

David Smith, Senior Account Manager


[email protected] | Phone +1.212.796.6939 | UK 0808.266.9696 | Fax +1.646.514.2310
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Anyone know anything about these guys and Cysec?