APEX Clearing

The Bishop · May 12, 2013

Trying to find the financials on APEX for their futures clearing business but can't it anywhere on the CFTC site.

Does anyone know where I can find this? Penson was listed there when they were Penson, but now that it is Apex, I can't find it. Thx

http://www.cftc.gov/ucm/groups/public/@financialdataforfcms/documents/file/fcmdata0213.pdf

1245 · May 12, 2013

APEX Clearing is NOT an FCM. Penson sold their futures business to Knight Futures. This is Annual Focus Report from 2012 for Apex:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/13/9999999997-13-007267

1245

The Bishop · May 12, 2013

OK, thx. I was thinking of opening a futures account to go with my FX account at MBT but wasn't sure.

Much appreciated.

Catoosa · May 14, 2013

MBT website is still showing trading stocks, futures, and options from a single universal customer account. That is obviously outdated information since the selling of the futures trading part of Apex's business to Knight.

1245 · May 14, 2013

Quote from Catoosa:

MBT website is still showing trading stocks, futures, and options from a single universal customer account. That is obviously outdated information since the selling of the futures trading part of Apex's business to Knight.

And, you can never trade futures in the same account as securities. Some firms give you the illusion you can.

1245

Catoosa · May 15, 2013

Quote from 1245:

And, you can never trade futures in the same account as securities. Some firms give you the illusion you can.

1245

Correct, MBT/Penson moved the money back and forth daily between a unseen futures account and the clients universal account. Worked nicely and hand check writing privileges on the universal account.

1245 · May 15, 2013

Quote from Catoosa:

Correct, MBT/Penson moved the money back and forth daily between a unseen futures account and the clients universal account. Worked nicely and hand check writing privileges on the universal account.

It is important to know this for those traders with smaller accounts and portfolio margin in the securities account. If you move too much equity to your futures account from your portfolio margin account, the PM account can revert to Reg-T.

comintel · May 15, 2013

It is possible to have situations in which you have plenty of equity and margin overall, but it gets locked up by rules on one underlying real account or the other, and you have a margin deficit in the other one and you get liquidated.

This happened to Eric Townsend with Interactive Brokers, who reported it on Financial Sense News Hour.

JamesL · May 15, 2013

Quote from Catoosa:

Correct, MBT/Penson moved the money back and forth daily between a unseen futures account and the clients universal account. Worked nicely and hand check writing privileges on the universal account.

Are they still able to do this with funds held at different clearing firms - Apex and Knight?

Catoosa · May 15, 2013

Quote from JamesL:

Are they still able to do this with funds held at different clearing firms - Apex and Knight?

No, MBT emailed me that the client will have a stock and options account at MBT/Apex and a seperate futures account at Knight. To move funds from the MBT/Apex account to the Knight account, MBT/Apex client will have to make a request through MBT and MBT will charge a $15 wire transfer fee. The MBT client can trade both accounts using MBT software by selecting the proper account number from a list of clients account numbers from within the MBT trading software.