Trading futures with thinkorswim

justrading · Aug 17, 2012

Quote from HKIB:

justtrading,

What happened to the customers of MFG and PFG? Did they get all their money back?

Latest I heard some with MFG got up to 80% back over a 9 month period. PFG not yet but safe to say with the money embezzled it will not be 100%.

The concept of customer segregated funds is meaningless under the current rules and enforcement. Until it is changed to something better, only put money with a futures broker that you are willing to lose overnight. That is the basic risk even before you take any risks trading.

HKIB · Aug 17, 2012

justrading,

I am sorry for those clients.

What you said makes a lot of sense to me. But how do you operate it? I can imagine this: have a savings account with balance $250,000, a trading account with balance $10,000, swap fund between them according to trading positions. Is this doable?.

justrading · Aug 17, 2012

Quote from HKIB:

justrading,

I am sorry for those clients.

What you said makes a lot of sense to me. But how do you operate it? I can imagine this: have a savings account with balance $250,000, a trading account with balance $10,000, swap fund between them according to trading positions. Is this doable?.

Yes but you do not want to swap funds too many times. What I do is I set a trading size that I stick with and then based on the margin requirements for that I fund my brokers account. Not too tight, I don't want unnecessary margin calls so double the overnight margin is what I use. If I decide to trade bigger then I just need to move more funds over to my brokers account.

As you scale up you can actually work with less than double if you do not want too much broker risk.

HKIB · Aug 17, 2012

Thanks, justrading. Here is one question about IB. My IB account shows me that the excess cash stays in the security side, does that mean it will be protected as securities? Some people said that it is not the case, I am confused here.

justrading · Aug 17, 2012

Quote from HKIB:

Thanks, justrading. Here is one question about IB. My IB account shows me that the excess cash stays in the security side, does that mean it will be protected as securities? Some people said that it is not the case, I am confused here.

I remember there was quite a debate about whether a futures account (or mixed) would benefit from SIPC or not. I do not know myself as I am trading a straight futures account with a FCM and for me there is no protection.

comintel · Aug 17, 2012

Quote from HKIB:

Thanks, justrading. Here is one question about IB. My IB account shows me that the excess cash stays in the security side, does that mean it will be protected as securities? Some people said that it is not the case, I am confused here.

Cash is insured under SIPC except in the case where it is mainly being used to trade futures or forex. If you only trade stocks, it is insured.

HKIB · Aug 17, 2012

Quote from comintel:

Cash is insured under SIPC except in the case where it is mainly being used to trade futures or forex. If you only trade stocks, it is insured.

In my case it is mainly used to trade futures, so IB gives me a false sense of security. I don't understand why IB does not move the cash to a money market fund, which would be a security.

harryh · Dec 3, 2012

I am reading this link for other reasons, but since someon is asking and my company was an mfglobal client, ill chime in. Most 4d/segregated clients got 80 % back. It is fairly certain that we will get the money back eventually, but uncertain as to when. For that reason we sold our claim for 97.5 cents on the dollar.

btw: I am trying ot get a foreign friend trading on TOS. He got set up and now they tell him he can't trade futures. I am furious, but not sure what to do. I didnt like IBs platform. Any other recs?

comintel · Dec 5, 2012

Quote from harryh:

I am reading this link for other reasons, but since someon is asking and my company was an mfglobal client, ill chime in. Most 4d/segregated clients got 80 % back. It is fairly certain that we will get the money back eventually, but uncertain as to when. For that reason we sold our claim for 97.5 cents on the dollar.

btw: I am trying ot get a foreign friend trading on TOS. He got set up and now they tell him he can't trade futures. I am furious, but not sure what to do. I didnt like IBs platform. Any other recs?

It depends what country he is in.

Brokers do not accept clients in countries with restrictive regulatory requirements, unless they happen to have a branch qualified in that country, in which case they do accept them (since they have gone to the trouble of qualifying for that country).

What country is he in?

There are a few futures brokers with a number of foreign branches, including IB and a few others,

justrading · Dec 5, 2012

Quote from comintel:

It depends what country he is in.

Brokers do not accept clients in countries with restrictive regulatory requirements, unless they happen to have a branch qualified in that country, in which case they do accept them (since they have gone to the trouble of qualifying for that country).

What country is he in?

There are a few futures brokers with a number of foreign branches, including IB and a few others,

Since TOS got taken over by TDA, they are apparently closing accounts / not accepting accounts in various countries.

I heard they have been closing Australian accounts. I know they won't accept Thailand accounts (I emailed) and I hear HK is the same. TDA is closing down in EU so TOS will follow suit.

BTW this is all about your location and does not matter what passport you hold (with the possible exception of American but this is just a guess).

I have a futures account with Vision Financial Markets, their R-Trader platform is nothing to shout about but I have traded via Ninja Trader and Sierra Charts, both of which are supported.