Quote from Swan Noir:
Can a US citizen open up with a Canadian firm and have the advantage of the insurance? Would Canadian residence help a US citizen be covered?
Quote from comintel:
Canadian brokers will not accept U.S. clients because U.S. law forbids them to do so.
If they are Canadian residents but not Canadian citizens, possibly - I think the CFTC has exemptions allowing opening accounts for U.S. citizens permanently resident outside the U.S. But they would require very full documentation.
I do not know re Europeans. If the Canadian firm will accept the account, then they are covered.
Quote from Swan Noir:
But that is the point of the analogy. Both the glasses and the money were lost. Once things are lost they may or may not be found again. I suspect the payout on this deal to be low ... buy hey, I never expected to see those glasses again!!
Quote from atticus:
Therein lies the expectancy. The glasses were an arb, but not a fraud.
My point is that there is no precedent for a loss of principal from a failure of an FCM, clearing or otherwise. We can argue NPV to hell and back but that's not the issue.
You "suspect" that it will be low. Perhaps clients of Refco US suspected the same; Volume Investors/Klein as well.
Of course I agree that outright theft/fraud/embezzlement should be met with client protection. I suspect that some body of govt or the futures industry will make the Peregrine clients whole.