How safe are my funds with a (US) futures broker?

[Llxa]

Some of the regulatory actions are more administrative than sharp practice, eg failure to keep a required record. You have to look at the detail.

Larger firms will have more complaints simply because they have so many more customers. Since we don't have those numbers, calculate serious actions per million dollars of customers funds. It took me 6 weeks of research to identify the broker I wanted. I was sending my money to an account listed on a website by a company I knew nothing about.

Yeah I do notice that many of them are record-keeping related but there were many that are trade practices, order-filling violation (RCG) and segregation of funds (Dorman) and still 64?! from RCG and 32?! from Dorman?

So I dunno. That's why I said it's a really tough call. I guess you have to invest with them to really know how they are but by that time, it might be too late. You might have already suffered...

 

[i am nobody]

And it doesn't just benefit small traders. Traders who do size can keep a large portion of their account elsewhere (and wire some in if necessary) rather than having a large cash deposit sitting idle for protracted periods. This makes a huge difference at the end of the year, especially during higher-interest-rate periods.

Put only the required margin in your account and all the other money in a (or different) banks.
Make a deal with you broker and your bank that urgent wiretranfers can be made if necessarry.
Your bank should confirm that there is $ XXXX available and reserved in your bankaccount in case these transfers are needed. Broker should first notice you before asking bank to make a transfer. If you don't agree the bank will nevertheless block the requested amount till court orders or agreement between parties.
I don't know if this works in real because I never needed it, but it should work. I hope I will never find out if it does.

 

[meaning]

All accounts at IB are insured in multiple ways.

Not all accounts. The commodities sub-account of an IB Universal Account is not insured.

 

[EPrado]

It's Interactive Brokers NOT Investment Brokers. Just saying.

What's your point ? We are talking about a futures brokerage, which INTERACTIVE BROKERS is.

I didn't write that article.

 

[tandh]

The 500 is for day trading only. Do I think it's smart to trade ES with only 500 in the account? No. But if someone wants to give it a try it's a nice option for real small traders to give live trading a shot instead of a simulator. In my opinion trading on a simulator is a waste of time. It's not real. Unless you are risking real money, you will never know what it's like to trade.

There are better ways to give real trading a shot than trading an ES contract with 500 dollars in your account. You could just trade some shares of an index ETF.

 

[debitspread]

So what happens when you have a seat on the exchange? Do you trade directly with the other seat-holders on the exchange? What's different from when I trade through an FCM? I keep my money in my own bank account instead of depositing with the broker? What are the benefits of having a seat on the exchange?

If the only difference is being able to trade with my money in my own bank account instead of with a broker, this is like trading from an escrow account with min. startup balance of $600K.

No, like everyone else, members clear through an FCM, which holds their required margin. There's no way to "keep [required margin] money in my own bank account," unless you're Hillary Clinton... An exchange membership is like a loyalty-program at the supermarket. It entitles you to exchange-fee discounts. There are various categories of membership, which is a big subject I won't go into here.

 

[EPrado]

There are better ways to give real trading a shot than trading an ES contract with 500 dollars in your account. You could just trade some shares of an index ETF.

I'm not gonna argue and say one is better than the other, but to trade an ETF someone is going to need a hell of a lot more than 500 bucks. Also going to have to trade odd-lots which can be a pain. Also for stocks they are going to run into the Pattern Day trader rules which basically prohibits them from day trading with an account of less than $25000. So for some new trader to start with $25k is very risky as there's a chance they will go from paper trading to live trading and lose it all.

I agree funding an account with just $500 is not the best idea in the world. But if someone wants to trade indexes and doesn't want to risk a lot of their own money in case they fail why not fund an account with a few grand and give it a try.

 

[Llxa]

What's your point ? We are talking about a futures brokerage, which INTERACTIVE BROKERS is.

I didn't write that article.

Ok I didn't realize it's TheStreet who wrote that article. Somebody has already pointed that out to me. So chill please.

 

[Llxa]

No, like everyone else, members clear through an FCM, which holds their required margin. There's no way to "keep [required margin] money in my own bank account," unless you're Hillary Clinton... An exchange membership is like a loyalty-program at the supermarket. It entitles you to exchange-fee discounts. There are various categories of membership, which is a big subject I won't go into here.

Well in Forex trading, sometimes provided if your account balance is large enough, some brokers might allow you to trade from an escrow account where your money is in your bank account. so I thought it might be the same in futures trading.

Thanks for the explanation. Really appreciate it.

 

[debitspread]

Well in Forex trading, sometimes provided if your account balance is large enough, some brokers might allow you to trade from an escrow account where your money is in your bank account. so I thought it might be the same in futures trading.

"From an escrow account where your money is in your bank account." -- I don't follow that. Money is either in an escrow account, or in your bank account, not both. Maybe rather than escrow you mean something like letter of credit. As to futures -- if you find a broker who doesn't require exchange-minimum margin, please let me know!