Hi guys, I've heard a lot of discussions of various FCMs, customer segregated funds, size, capital measures, etc. Only today did I found this rather useful table from the CFTC, listing all of the relevant numbers for each FCM. http://www.cftc.gov/marketreports/financialdataforfcms/index.htm Thought others might find this useful. I personally was surprised at how large Vision was roughly the same size as other more well-known retail firms... like IB or TradeStation. I'm also surprised how relatively small Velocity, Open E Cry, and optionsXpress are (in futures).
You are mistaken. In terms of net capital, IB (IB + Timber Hill) is nearly two orders of magnitude larger than Vision -- ~$2 billion vs. ~$20 million. The difference in excess capital is even larger.
What really surprises me in this report is that IB has approx. $0.5B in customer segregated assets. Given the ubiquitous nature of IB, I would think they would have at least $2B...
Well, right, that's what I was really referring to. Net capital refers to the overall size of the business + assets, and IB is understandably huge. I was more surprised by the segregated assets number, like you were. My best guess... maybe the segregated assets number is a measure of the size of the *futures* side of the business.
The seg number is for the futures side of the business. Seg funds always refers to futures. Even at that just $0.5B for a firm that is so ubiquitous and has access to virtually every futures exchange in the planet. I am very surprised.