Trading futures in retirement account - potential huge problem?

IB is very conservative in their business practices and they don't require a "personal guaranty" to trade futures in an IRA account.
 
I know this is an old thread but fyi I have an MF Global account within a qualified plan and I did not sign a personal guarantee. Same with IB.
 
That's great info. Would you mind telling me the contact info for the group with MFG that you deal with? The best would be direct to your account manager. I will keep your (screen) name out of it. You can private message me if you want to.

Thanks,

Tom
 
Most brokers require IRA's etc. to be funded through a Trust company. Millenium Trust etc..

Your account should not require any personal guarantees as long as you meet the minimum funding / margin requirements. Personal Guarantees come into play if you are requesting higher margins than your account can support.
 
True for IRAs, but if you self-direct an ERISA plan you don't need a third party custodian. In either case, the group I am dealing with within MFG claims the personal guaranty is signed as a matter of course. I have also spoken with people at several IRA custodians such as Millenium who have confirmed that many of their clients also signed such a guaranty with MFG, but that it is a prohibited transaction. One custodian said that I was the first person to bring it to their attention and they will watch out for it from now on.


Tom
 
I haven't signed and I won't sign. I have two goals in this thread:

1) Warn other people who may not realize that if they sign they are risking disqualification of their plan

2) Learn how others have handled the problem. Specifically, there is one person who says he was able to open a retirement account at MFG without signing the guaranty. That is how it should be, and I want to know how they accomplished it.

Tom
 
Quote from MandelbrotSet:

Most people probably think it's a bad idea to trade speculative futures in an account which is designed for your retirement.

I know I do.
More...

not if you only daytrade.. its more dangerous to buy and hold starting in 2007
 
There is one area of concern when you do not use a 3rd party custodian account for holding self directed retirement funds.

Securities laws and rules that potentally treat all accounts as one... ie SIPC. liquidation/ span margining. even insider trading /disclosure requirements comes into play.

Not 100% sure but I believe this is one of the reasons most brokers require funding from custodian accounts.
 
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