AMP, how could you?

Fx-Game · May 21, 2020

I am not a client, but I had once contact with support staff.

Seemed to me to be a bit arrogant, while answering my question.
Not saying goodbye, just sending me some links.

Just my point of view.
But hey, when they offer best prices, what can you do...

temnik · May 21, 2020

Another potential cause is if you got flagged as a "spoofer" - which is a CFTC violation.

destriero · May 21, 2020

J.P. said:
I have been an AMP customer for four profitable years. I thought I was good with them. In fact, I thought I was very good with them. I have two accounts, one Roth IRA and one cash, totaling over $3,000,000.

There is something wrong with you if you keep a $3MM net liq with AMP.

J.P. · May 21, 2020

guru said:
Sounds a bit like the difference between TDA vs IB, where TDA wouldn't let you place more orders than your margin allows (as if all were already filled), while IB allows placing quite a lot more orders but will cancel some after others get filled and hit your margin limit.
In AMP case, it seems they "want to" limit the open orders like TDA, but may not have the means/technology to do so and evaluate them properly. You might've just alerted them to the fact that you have many open orders in addition to your positions, so they took a closer look. (just a guess)
Either way, sometimes you may find a better broker by necessity. Have you tried IB? They can use up quite a lot of margin for open positions, but if you can trade within those limits and as you described it, flatten your positions and balance your margin - possibly it could work. Unless you already tried them?

That may be a perfect evaluation. But I told them that if anything like that was the issue I would change it. What else could I do?

J.P. · May 21, 2020

destriero said:
There is something wrong with you if you keep a $3MM net liq with AMP.

LOL, looks like you may be right about that. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure I never violated any margin policy, but it didn't work out that way at all.

cruisecontrol · May 21, 2020

I would definitely think twice about opening an account with AMP after reading this story. Transparency is key.

Thanks for posting

destriero · May 21, 2020

J.P. said:
LOL, looks like you may be right about that. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure I never violated any margin policy, but it didn't work out that way at all.

AMP is the equivalent of a degen's 450 FICO. Barring (your) haircut issues... you want to be in litigation for 5Y when they blow up on $500 margins?

J.P. · May 21, 2020

RosyScenario said:
Exactly. My impression of amp is that they mainly cater to 1 lot micro traders. And if this guy was trading 400 contracts per account then he is swinging 800 full size contracts at a time and that may just be just too big for amp. They probably don't want to state that and that's why they won't tell him what's wrong. And that's likely what amp was referring to with their comment about his risk profile.

I'll bet that's it! And there's nothing I can do about it.

canoe · May 21, 2020

if you look at the Financial Data for FCMs issued for the month of March of 2020 by the CFTC, you can easily find out that AMP has one of the lowest "Excess Net Capital" numbers out of all FCMs. (it's $4,030,277). link: https://cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/01- FCM Webpage Update - March 2020.pdf

if i had to guess, after the recent period of volatility with the indices hitting limit-up/down left and right + negative oil, AMP was left with many negative-balance accounts and are taking steps to reduce their counter-party risk.

although they did temporarily increase margins, they've already reverted back to their old day-trading margins which are the lowest in the business because most likely even AMP themselves know that offering the lowest day-trading margins is pretty much the only reason why customers would be willing to deposit their money into a brokerage that is so under-capitalized that they could go under any day (not to mention their utter lack of customer service).

since AMP isn't willing to reduce their risk via lowering margins (since that's their #1 selling point), it makes sense that they'd reduce risk by closing accounts with big balances. just your 3MM balance is around 75% of their entire Excess Net Capital.

fyi you're bat-shit crazy for keeping 3MM with AMP in the first place, esp when that figure includes your ROTH IRA. trust me, they did you a favor.

J.P. · May 21, 2020

canoe said:
if you look at the Financial Data for FCMs issued for the month of March of 2020 by the CFTC, you can easily find out that AMP has one of the lowest "Excess Net Capital" numbers out of all FCMs. (it's $4,030,277). link: https://cftc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/01- FCM Webpage Update - March 2020.pdf

if i had to guess, after the recent period of volatility with the indices hitting limit-up/down left and right + negative oil, AMP was left with many negative-balance accounts and are taking steps to reduce their counter-party risk.

although they did temporarily increase margins, they've already reverted back to their old day-trading margins which are the lowest in the business because most likely even AMP themselves know that offering the lowest day-trading margins is pretty much the only reason why customers would be willing to deposit their money into a brokerage that is so under-capitalized that they could go under any day (not to mention their utter lack of customer service).

since AMP isn't willing to reduce their risk via lowering margins (since that's their #1 selling point), it makes sense that they'd reduce risk by closing accounts with big balances. just your 3MM balance is around 75% of their entire Excess Net Capital.

fyi you're bat-shit crazy for keeping 3MM with AMP in the first place, esp when that figure includes your ROTH IRA. trust me, they did you a favor.

Thanks for this good information and good advice.