What are the safest futures brokers? MF Global and PFGBest have me worried!

I had used PFGBest's demo account and liked some of their educational options but never opened account. I use Interactive Brokers for my futures trading and have always found them to be the best.
 
Quote from travelingtrader:

So should all American futures traders open accounts with brokers in Canada or Europe?

Any good one you could recommend there ? I've started checking Canada but found mostly equities broker, and no one in Europe with competitive rates.
 
The atlas ratings appear pretty accurate and I recently closed an account at MB trading due to their buggy systems, lack of customer service, control issues. Looking at Atlas ratings they're in the bottom of the list since they use Penson Financial Services as agent so beware. I would think people would look at these ratings and seriously consider moving to brokers up the rating list. Surprisingly alot of folks are on there towards the bottom that folks brag about (OEC, Velocity, FCM, RCG, etc). Seems like its not worth taking the risk even if you get some money back after 1 year of hassles and distractions caused by the next one to go under. Opportunity cost in a situation like that would be huge.
 
PFG are/were in Canada but not a discount broker, a 'deal' was done with the individual
account rep based on account min and trades volume

http://www.globalsec.com/ originally was futures only, re-"founded in 1987 as a full-
service brokerage firm"; rt comm is $80 , also offer additional insurance up to $10M

there are other futures brokers or via banks but don't believe there's any discounters

Europe including the UK provides around €40/$50K insurance - as a last resort after
all other means of collecting client funds have been exhausted
 
Quote from carpani:

The atlas ratings appear pretty accurate and I recently closed an account at MB trading due to their buggy systems, lack of customer service, control issues. Looking at Atlas ratings they're in the bottom of the list since they use Penson Financial Services as agent so beware. I would think people would look at these ratings and seriously consider moving to brokers up the rating list. Surprisingly alot of folks are on there towards the bottom that folks brag about (OEC, Velocity, FCM, RCG, etc). Seems like its not worth taking the risk even if you get some money back after 1 year of hassles and distractions caused by the next one to go under. Opportunity cost in a situation like that would be huge.

If you do a quick search, www.atlasratings.com is registered to mkcglobal.com and Andrew McCormick -

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/atlasratings.com

If you follow this you find - http://www.mkcglobal.com/contactus.html - the same guy.

Looks like a very small one man shop. Maybe that is why he does not realize that his list makes no sense. For example, OEC is owned by Schwab. At the close of business Friday, SCHW had a market cap of over $16B (yes with a B). It is comical this one man band can't even figure that out.
 
Quote from TerminatorXit:

If you do a quick search, www.atlasratings.com is registered to mkcglobal.com and Andrew McCormick -

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/atlasratings.com

If you follow this you find - http://www.mkcglobal.com/contactus.html - the same guy.

Looks like a very small one man shop. Maybe that is why he does not realize that his list makes no sense. For example, OEC is owned by Schwab. At the close of business Friday, SCHW had a market cap of over $16B (yes with a B). It is comical this one man band can't even figure that out.
no, but I bet Lloyds could figure it out. When they get Flo to start advertising portfolio insurance on CNBC I may give them a call. I'd rather deal with the insurance company than the SIPC. The difference is, Flo doesn't really care what car you drive. Lloyds would keep a close eye on the broker.
 
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