FXCM Banned From Operating In The U.S.
FXCM was banned by the CFTC, this week, from operating in the United States for trading against its clients. The CFTC uncovered the scheme during an investigation. FXCM had an external market maker, trade against FXCM clients and gave FXCM a kickback while maintaining that FXCM only made money from commissions for each trade.
U.S. Brokers
Now, I along with many U.S. retail Forex traders have been asking, what do we do now? The United States has very few Forex brokers. Our options are Oanda, Forex.com, ThinkorSwim and MB Trading. The first three brokers all have much wider spreads than FXCM had, but they do not charge a commission. Most are dealing desk brokers, and they will trade against you. HMM is similar to FXCM, but I have to say that I have made the most money trading, using FXCM as my broker then I have with all of the other brokers I have used in the past.
How Plan To Trade Forex Moving Forward
Moving forward, I plan to open an account with Oanda or possibly Thinkorswim and transfer my FXCM account to Forex.com. The reviews I’ve read have not been positive, but I had also read a lot of negative reviews about FXCM before I opened an account with them. I’ve decided to give both brokers a try and see which broker gives me the best fills and swap/rollover rates. I also have a plan to open a Futures account with NinjaTrader and trade currency futures. The same 100,000 unit trade that used to cost $8.00 round turn with FXCM will now cost $4.48 with NinjaTrader. That is a saving of $3.52. I will have to purchase a data feed for $60.00 per month, but if I place at least 17 trades per month, it will pay for itself in no time.
Benefits Of Multiple Trading Accounts
For those of you who don’t know, we are not allowed to use hedging strategies in the U.S. So I will be able to hedge my longer-term trades over the weekend or during a big news event by having multiple trading accounts, Also, by using a futures account I can increase carry trade profits while reducing taxes. So when FXCM was forced to shut down their operations in the U.S., it started out as a considerable problem, but it may just turn out to be a blessing in disguise after all. I’m happy with how this trading year has started out, and I’m prepared to do what it takes to maintain my level of trading.
FXCM Banned By The CFTC Forex Video