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Advice on Good Broker Based in US and Accepting US Clients

  • #1
  • First Post: May 16, 2017 10:32am May 16, 2017 10:32am
Hello,

I want to get my feet wet and looking for a regulated FX Broker based out of USA. To get going want to trade Micro Lots and slowly go from there.
This is my research, I see surprisingly few choices:

1. Interactive Brokers: Doesn't allow micro lots. Minimum Deposit is also supposed to be high.

2. Forex.Com: Read not too many good things about it. Supposed to be linked with Gain Capital, which seems to be a bad thing.

3. OANDA

4. TD Ameritrade

Currently reading about OANDA in a thread here and little concerned about it.
My Requirements: Based out of US, Ideally tight spread/commission, good regulation and good leverage{In US restricted to 50:1} and not a market maker.


Most importantly Capital Protection is a key requirement. It would have been nice if MT4 platform, but willing to use another.


Found other Brokers like ATC Brokers and NADEX, but not much review/info out there. Currently leaning towards TD Ameritrade, but want to seek every one's opinion.

Could you please advise on your experiences and what you think would be a good choice? Please include any Brokers not in the list as well.

Thanks
  • #2
  • May 16, 2017 12:40pm May 16, 2017 12:40pm
The broker which is regulated by the US ,
I think it is real regulated broker than others and from here we can get guarantee our trading funds. Because regulated broker always make sure security of funds at any kinds of investments with a wide range of trading technologies.
  • #3
  • May 17, 2017 8:34pm May 17, 2017 8:34pm
Im in the same boat that you are aaven. Ive been paper trading with Oanda and Think Or Swim (TOS). I like certain aspects of both and wish I could combine them! The charts and indicators are much better with TOS, but I like the layout and order capabilities of Oanda better. I also like the fact that with Oanda, I can order any number of units I want rather than the usual unit size in multiples of 10,000. I like to trade the number of units that match my account size, so if I have $22,348 in my account, i like to trade 22,000 units etc. It's good money management system I use. With Oanda, I can do that. With TOS, I can't.

I mainly trade off daily charts, and with Oanda, I can have the day's candle end at 4pm central, 11pm central or at midnight. I like that since I am usually busy at 4pm at work. With TOS, the daily candle ends at 4 pm, and that's it.

An advantage of TOS is that's it's TD Ameritrade and I would think it would be easier and I would feel more confident moving funds in and out of the account since Im in the US and TD is based here. Maybe Im missing something there. Anyway, Id be curious what you decide. Im leaning toward TOS right now
  • #4
  • May 17, 2017 10:25pm May 17, 2017 10:25pm
If you can afford to open an IB account, then that is the best option, assuming it i available to you. Otherwise, the options are very similar in many respects,
  • #5
  • May 17, 2017 10:51pm May 17, 2017 10:51pm
Quoting nonlinear
If you can afford to open an IB account, then that is the best option, assuming it i available to you. Otherwise, the options are very similar in many respects,
I'm interested in why IB is the best in your opinion. Thanks!
  • #6
  • May 17, 2017 11:42pm May 17, 2017 11:42pm
Quoting aaven
Hello, I want to get my feet wet and looking for a regulated FX Broker based out of USA. To get going want to trade Micro Lots and slowly go from there. This is my research, I see surprisingly few choices: 1. Interactive Brokers: Doesn't allow micro lots. Minimum Deposit is also supposed to be high. 2. Forex.Com: Read not too many good things about it. Supposed to be linked with Gain Capital, which seems to be a bad thing. 3. OANDA 4. TD Ameritrade Currently reading about OANDA in a thread here and little concerned about it. My Requirements: Based...
Funny subject
Broker Based in US and Accepting US Clients

Ofcourse any broker based in US accepts US clients. LOL

Reviews are subjective. They might give negative review due to their own sentiment or because they lost and blame it on the broker for their loss.
If you keep reading these negative reviews, you wouldn't take your chance at trading because you already afraid from the start.
Your mind will be cluttered and won't give you good things at taking decision.
I reckon first time always scary, that's ok. I used to be in the same position as you, but now I'm fine.
God bless
This is not investment/trading advise. Will not hold accountable for loss
  • #7
  • May 19, 2017 1:02am May 19, 2017 1:02am
Quoting Dmoss3
Im in the same boat that you are aaven. Ive been paper trading with Oanda and Think Or Swim (TOS). I like certain aspects of both and wish I could combine them! The charts and indicators are much better with TOS, but I like the layout and order capabilities of Oanda better. I also like the fact that with Oanda, I can order any number of units I want rather than the usual unit size in multiples of 10,000. I like to trade the number of units that match my account size, so if I have $22,348 in my account, i like to trade 22,000 units etc. It's good...
Some Inputs i received via PM from one of the FF member:

"""""
1. Interactive Brokers now only works with ECP clients. Basically anyone who has $10 million or more. If you do not have this then they will not work with you.
2. TD Ameritrade is essentially just a white label of Gain Capital (Forex.com). All orders are passed to Gain to be filled and executed.
3. Forex.com / Oanda - both of these companies are solid firms. Forex.com is publicly traded on the NYSE and has been the leader in FX since the beginning. Oanda is the only broker to never of had a regulatory action taken against them. Needless to say, your funds are safe and secure at either of these companies.
With regards to spreads, Oanda has the tighter spreads out of the two and generally we recommend anyone intraday trading to go with Oanda. However, if you are buying and holding trades for multiple days / weeks then I would recommend Forex.com. Forex.com has much more stable pricing during news events and rollovers which means you are less likely to get stopped out of your position due to wide spreads.

""""
  • #8
  • May 20, 2017 6:41am May 20, 2017 6:41am
Quoting aaven
Hello, I want to get my feet wet and looking for a regulated FX Broker based out of USA. To get going want to trade Micro Lots and slowly go from there. This is my research, I see surprisingly few choices: 1. Interactive Brokers: Doesn't allow micro lots. Minimum Deposit is also supposed to be high. 2. Forex.Com: Read not too many good things about it. Supposed to be linked with Gain Capital, which seems to be a bad thing. 3. OANDA 4. TD Ameritrade Currently reading about OANDA in a thread here and little concerned about it. My Requirements: Based...
This is not available in the US. Your only options are market makers with inflated spreads. Regulations in the US also prohibit capital protection. There are many great brokers in the world providing these criteria, but as icing on the cake, US regulations do not allow us to trade with them. Land of the free, baby!!!
  • #9
  • May 20, 2017 12:27pm May 20, 2017 12:27pm
Quoting pipmaster77
{quote} This is not available in the US. Your only options are market makers with inflated spreads. Regulations in the US also prohibit capital protection. There are many great brokers in the world providing these criteria, but as icing on the cake, US regulations do not allow us to trade with them. Land of the free, baby!!!
Pipmaster77,

Thanks for chiming in with your thoughts...

Just to confirm, people based in US cannot open trading accounts with Example: Broker XYZ based in United Kingdom or Australia?
  • #10
  • May 20, 2017 7:18pm May 20, 2017 7:18pm
Quoting aaven
{quote} Pipmaster77, Thanks for chiming in with your thoughts... Just to confirm, people based in US cannot open trading accounts with Example: Broker XYZ based in United Kingdom or Australia?
No, only option is unregulated offshore brokers. Which, in my opinion are actually less risky. Reason is I can have a $5,000 account offshore with the trading power of a $50,000 US account due to the 500:1 leverage. The remaining $45,000 stays in my bank until if/when needed. Since the funds are not protected with a US broker, that $45,000 that would need to sit with a US broker for margin is much safer in my FDIC insured account.
  • #11
  • May 21, 2017 2:57am May 21, 2017 2:57am
Quoting pipmaster77
{quote} No, only option is unregulated offshore brokers. Which, in my opinion are actually less risky. Reason is I can have a $5,000 account offshore with the trading power of a $50,000 US account due to the 500:1 leverage. The remaining $45,000 stays in my bank until if/when needed. Since the funds are not protected with a US broker, that $45,000 that would need to sit with a US broker for margin is much safer in my FDIC insured account.
Pipmaster77,

Much appreciated for taking the time...

So, when you said no, it means US guys cannot open accounts in offshore brokers which are regulated because they don't let you open the account with them in the first place?

Your approach is interesting, i.e. using a small amount exposing it to risk{even if we lose it for XYZ reasons will not make serious damage}.

But how do you handle the uneasiness of the non-regulated part of the off shore broker? Do you constantly withdraw profits, keep only the amount needed? etc...

Thanks
  • #12
  • May 21, 2017 3:18am May 21, 2017 3:18am
Pipmaster, How does a US resident transfer funds with offshore ? I heard of many struggling with this issue.

Thanks
" Liver alone,,,Cheese my Seester "
  • #13
  • May 21, 2017 9:08am May 21, 2017 9:08am
Quoting max value
Pipmaster, How does a US resident transfer funds with offshore ? I heard of many struggling with this issue. Thanks
I also agree as many online brokers does not accept payments from credit cards issued to the US citizens by US banks.
  • #14
  • May 21, 2017 5:11pm May 21, 2017 5:11pm
Quoting jollypk
{quote} I also agree as many online brokers does not accept payments from credit cards issued to the US citizens by US banks.
Look into LMFX. I'm a US based trader and my larger account is with Oanda but I also opened a smaller account a few months ago with LMFX so I could trade Gold, Silver, Oil, etc. Higher leverage, no FIFO, hedging. They are Offshore broker, accept US clients, and you can deposit and withdrawl via credit card or wire. I've had zero issues with them and hearing others say good things about them. One of the long time successful US trader and mentor over at Forexsignals.com knows the CEO and is in constant contact with them. Again, do your own due diligence and decide but just wanted to point out there are some more options for US traders.. In the end some are not comfortable with going offshore but I'm testing out with a small account but so far no issues.

https://www.lmfx.com/
  • #15
  • May 22, 2017 4:29pm May 22, 2017 4:29pm
Quoting aaven
3. Forex.com / Oanda - both of these companies are solid firms. Forex.com is publicly traded on the NYSE and has been the leader in FX since the beginning.
FOREX dot com/Gain Capital Enforcement History United States:

http://www.cftc.gov/Search/search?q=...cess=p&entqr=3

Solid firm?

They might even be worse than FXCM, if that is even remotely possible.
The Event Horizon
  • #16
  • May 22, 2017 4:57pm May 22, 2017 4:57pm
Quoting pipmaster77
{quote} No, only option is unregulated offshore brokers. Which, in my opinion are actually less risky. Reason is I can have a $5,000 account offshore with the trading power of a $50,000 US account due to the 500:1 leverage. The remaining $45,000 stays in my bank until if/when needed. Since the funds are not protected with a US broker, that $45,000 that would need to sit with a US broker for margin is much safer in my FDIC insured account.

It depends on where the Parent Company is based. There are UK located firms that will accept US customers. They prefer to conduct certain of their business operations out of the UK, but are either domiciled in another country outside of UK jurisdiction, or they are owned by a company domiciled outside of UK jurisdiction.

Furthermore, if you are not spot on with Timing a 500:1 leveraged position, you are going wiped out very quickly. I would never suggest such high leverage for a Newb, not knowing how to be consistently profitable. I would not even talk to a Newb about such high risk levels of leverage until they could demonstrate the ability to grow at least 20% per month on a consistent basis.

The average Newb Trader does not know how to determine the dominant side of the market, so they end up being contrarian by default which could present serious problems for for fixed risk/reward ratio Traders counting on trade probabilities that return a certain number of wins relative to an expected number of losses. That kind of high leverage, if deployed during a market phase that is transitory (between a dominant bullish or bearish sentiment) could spell disaster fairly quickly.

The Newb need to learn how to Trade (first) and then take advantage of higher available leverage. Even then, they need to know how to account for the MAE/MFE of their particular trading strategy, method, tactic or system and make sure they never enter a position without the market having already fulfilled more than 50% of the MAE phase. At that point, they are trading smarter and can then develop strategies for scaling into and out of positions appropriately and based on the empirical nature of the market - as opposed to guessing as an "edge."

I just wanted to make that clear, after seeing 500:1 being used. That should always come with a boilerplate caveat. In fact, you can just cut and paste what I typed above and use it as a "Disclaimer" whenever referencing 500:1 in the future. For the typical Trader, that will simply not be survivable under most circumstances. I can't even trade that way an I trade with a massively high degree of accuracy to a specified target. They number just don't work out.

One would need an ability to Time the entry of a position with such a high degree of continuous precision that doing so would in and of itself be a continuous miracle. Else, one goes right back to the insanely tight stop, which runs every position taken directly into the mathematical certainty of the MAE itself.

You can grow capital really fast in this business at 50:1. Insanely fast at 100:1, but with MAE becoming more corrosive over time which places an increased premium on Timing and a reduction in overall Trade Availability. So, the growth curve will be stunted either way - but it will still be a growth curve above 15-dgrees (about 25-30 degrees is optimal), if one has learned how to trade consistently.
The Event Horizon
  • #17
  • May 22, 2017 5:13pm May 22, 2017 5:13pm
Quoting iDouble
{quote} It depends on where the Parent Company is based. There are UK located firms that will accept US customers. They prefer to conduct certain of their business operations out of the UK, but are either domiciled in another country outside of UK jurisdiction, or they are owned by a company domiciled outside of UK jurisdiction. Furthermore, if you are not spot on with Timing a 500:1 leveraged position, you are going wiped out very quickly. I would never suggest such high leverage for a Newb, not knowing how to be consistently profitable. I would...
Sorry for the confusion. When I refer to using 500:1 leverage, I thought I made it clearl only 10% of my capital is on deposit with the broker, so, in effect, I am only using 50:1 leverage. Difference is the remainder of my capital sits safely in my bank and not with some "regulated" US broker who offers no protection of funds.
  • #18
  • May 22, 2017 5:16pm May 22, 2017 5:16pm
Quoting iDouble
{quote} FOREX dot com/Gain Capital Enforcement History United States: http://www.cftc.gov/Search/search?q=...cess=p&entqr=3 Solid firm? They might even be worse than FXCM, if that is even remotely possible.
Absolutely correct, at least as bad, if not worse than FXCM. This is what irritates me about US regulation. They claim they are protecting the trader, but yet they allow firms like this to operate. Meanwhile, the truly solid regulated brokers of the world are kept off limits to us due to these same regulations. It is simply the nanny state once again being where they don't belong.
  • #19
  • May 22, 2017 7:24pm May 22, 2017 7:24pm
Quoting yazzie
{quote} Look into LMFX. I'm a US based trader and my larger account is with Oanda but I also opened a smaller account a few months ago with LMFX so I could trade Gold, Silver, Oil, etc. Higher leverage, no FIFO, hedging. They are Offshore broker, accept US clients, and you can deposit and withdrawl via credit card or wire. I've had zero issues with them and hearing others say good things about them. One of the long time successful US trader and mentor over at Forexsignals.com knows the CEO and is in constant contact with them. Again, do your own...

Just got off a chat with LMFX.

I always want to know where my MT4 client connects. So, I ran some quick networking checks.

Tracert on the system that LMFX MT4 client connects to will terminate at 206.54.172.94 in Texas, United States. That IP is part of a hosted block from The Digital Fountain BBS (Jean-Claude DeMars) dalmax tdf.net. For comparison purposes, I ran a trace on Swissquote Bank AG and its MT4 connection, That terminated at 52.28.239.20 in Frankfurt Germany, on a commercial Amazon box.

I wondered how some of these offshore retail brokers would handle the inherent MT4 latency issue for long range connections and apparently, at least some of those that are accepting US customers also use VPS/VPN - which could be based in the US (which is very interesting in an of itself).
The Event Horizon
  • #20
  • May 22, 2017 7:50pm May 22, 2017 7:50pm
Quoting pipmaster77
{quote} Absolutely correct, at least as bad, if not worse than FXCM. This is what irritates me about US regulation. They claim they are protecting the trader, but yet they allow firms like this to operate. Meanwhile, the truly solid regulated brokers of the world are kept off limits to us due to these same regulations. It is simply the nanny state once again being where they don't belong.
We have long since passed the mere nanny state. Some parts of the country are now in fully blown Neo-Communism while the other parts of the country are working on how to get there as fast as they can. The could have right-sided the regulations to make things stable. But, they decided to end it instead. That's fine. The global financial markets will move on with them and currency pairs will still be traded world wide despite the Stalinism.

"Would you like to make a trade?" Why, yes, I would. "Your papers please." What papers? "The papers that allow you to make a trade." I don't have such papers. "No papers. No trade." Look, the GBP is getting ready to move. I'd like to make that trade. "Sorry." Sorry, for what? "Sorry, your papers are not in order." Then I will go offshore and trade there. "We have threatened all offshore entities with FACTA." Yeah, but not every offshore intermediary is subject to your threats. "Then, we will nuke them." What! "Yes. We will nuke them and then ask for their papers, please."

Stalin, would be so proud.
The Event Horizon
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