Hi Traderob and Turveyd,
Please note that if you live outside the US, then your FXCM account is most likely not set up under our US entity, even if your account is denominated in US dollars and you receive live customer support from our staff in the US. If you are able to trade CFD products on your FXCM account such as GER30 (DAX) or XAU/USD (Gold), then your account is most likely with FXCM UK or FXCM Australia, since CFD trading is not available through FXCM US.
That said, I encourage you to
contact our 24-hour live customer support to confirm the exact FXCM entity through which you are trading. Part of our settlement with the NFA and CFTC was to close our US subsidiary, but there will be no changes for clients outside of the US.
Since FXCM US has not been a contributor to overall profits for the firm over the past few years, FXCM will target significant cost cutting by closing the US entity. Specifically, withdrawing from this business will free approximately $52 million in capital. We will use the proceeds from any sale of the US accounts, as well as the large amount of regulatory capital currently tied up, to reduce the balance of our loan from Leucadia. With the reduction of this loan balance, along with sales of non-core assets that were previously announced, FXCM could be in a position to fully pay off the Leucadia loan before the end of this year.
With this exit, FXCM will be in a better position to service our international customers and focus on our profitable subsidiaries including FXCM UK. It's also worth noting that funds held with FXCM UK are insured for up to £50,000 per client by the Financial Services Protection Scheme.
FXCM's full financials can be found here:
http://ir.fxcm.com/
We will announce its Q4 and Full year 2016 financials in the next few weeks.
While I can't comment on the NFA or CFTC complaint specifically due to the nature of our settlement, I can say that we have settled with the NFA and CFTC without admitting or denying any of their allegations or claims. I can also say that Effex Capital is no longer pricing FXCM's NDD forex price feed.
In our UK execution study, we outline the criteria FXCM uses to rank liquidity providers which you can see listed in
question 13 of the FAQ. Our liquidity providers are ranked based on compliance to these standards which we identify as providing the best customer experience possible. Being a top ranked liquidity provider is important. Liquidity providers with the best pricing according to these rules may gain an advantage over other liquidity providers which could result in a large increase in orders captured. Poorly performing liquidity providers are ranked lower for order flow and ultimately could be removed from our platform until they return to compliance.
Also, The
results of this study show FXCM UK retail client order prices to be better for FX than futures prices (74.97% of the time) and interbank prices(91.56% of the time).*
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* The study does not in away way attempt to represent that FXCM maintains a particular capacity or performance level. The figures in this study are provided for information purposes only, and are not intended for trading purposes or advice. FXCM is not liable for any information errors, incompleteness, or delays, or for any actions taken in reliance on information contained herein. Past results are not indicative of future performance.
Material Assumptions
FXCM's Retail Clients are defined as individual, joint, and corporate accounts trading on our retail price stream.
The comparison to each of the Futures and Interbank data is made at the time that the FXCM client order is executed. Normal market slippage and slippage due to rejections by liquidity providers are already included by the time the FXCM client order is executed. However, there is an assumption that there is no slippage on the Futures or Interbank market data.
In order to maintain consistency, Futures Market data and Interbank data used the same acceptable ranges in market trades. The summary of findings is based on the assumption that the maximum acceptable difference between the FXCM price and the Interbank/Futures market price is 5 pips in either direction.
Fees that a participant would pay on the Futures or Interbank market, such as CME Exchange Fees, NFA Fees, FCM Fees, Clearing Fees, and other commissions, were excluded from the study. Similarly, FXCM Commissions are excluded from the study.
