Quote from JMowery1987:
I'm confused.
If I sign up to a retail broker today, when this whole deal right here affect my trading at the retail broker in any way, and if so, in what ways are most possible?
Not sure what you're asking.
Also, can we have a straight up answer, will someone like me, who just wants to make a few trades, but not day-trade Forex be able to access this. All this talk about Prime Brokerage and stuff is confusing me, and I'm not a millionaire (yet), so is there anyone with a clear answer as to the possiblities as how this is going to work.
CME has confirmed that there will be retail access to it via a brokerage. It's just Globex with a twist. Email them, call them. But be specific with your questions. Your ability to trade depends on the minimum deal size. Of it's a standard lot (100k), you're in business. If it's larger, well... got milk?
Just some simple probabilities as to how this all might work would be fine.
Simple. Since the platform/exchange will be STP(straight through processing) with a per transaction fee, and centralized clearing, there is nothing to stop a retail brokerage from participating. Therefore, there's nothing to stop a retail client of said firm from participating. It's just like Globex in that you can't call up the CME and say, "Hey, I'd like to bypass my broker and trade on Globex directly, thanks." There are some things you have to do first. Buy or lease a seat. Get a clearing firm. Lease a fractional T1, Get a front end like TT. etc, etc. But unless you're doing serious volume, the monthy expenses of direct access to Globex will bankrupt you in short order. I.e. just not cost effective. So you go through a broker instead who has established all that which provides you access at a reduced cost, aka a commission and maybe a platform fee if you want a more professional setup.
Hey, I could be dead wrong about all this. Not all the details have come out. But enough clues have come out to speculate reasonably. CME/Reuters could literally, to their detriment, bar certain types of firms from participating via a number of ways. But given CME's track record of late, especially with Globex, there is no way that they would bar any type of firm with reasonable assets from participation. Their goal is domination. There are other competing setups out there already with a few more being conjured up as of late. CME knows that their edge is not just centrailzed clearing, but open access. And their FX futures offerings will also list on the platform in an effort to boost interest (read:volume). Their FX futures are already available on the retail level. It's all there, but as with anything, time will tell.