I'm considering managing friends&family money by trading futures. I would like to do this by having the authority to trade their individual accounts (not in a pool where all the assets are combined). According to this http://www.nfa.futures.org/registration/cta.asp I don't need to register as a CTA 1) If I don't advertise myself as a CTA publicly 2) Less than 15 people/managed accounts Also, there's no upper limit to what can be managed. Am I missing something here? PS: IB has a $400k max on the Advisor account unless you're registered. I'm not sure why. According to info from NFA there's no upper limit on the money managed...
Is "$400k max" for pool (CPO) or for managed account (CTA)? Can you post the related URL of IB web-side?
Don't ever mix family and money.. manage some friends money, but do not manage your family's money. I can only equate it to a heart surgeon who performs open heart surgery on his brother and his broher dies on the operating table. The doctor/brother could never forgive himself and neither could his family deep down. You could recommend a good managed cta for tehm or a cpo. (commodity pool)
Sorry, I made a mistake! $400k max is for managing pool without CPO registration... http://www.nfa.futures.org/registration/cpo.asp
Don't manage friends money, either. Everyone is a good trader in their mind, but 5% actually are. You are not doing yourself any favors.