The guy is interested in trading futures so I say go with a large well established firm. What's the alternative other than trading something else or not trading?
Please refresh my memory, if I am incorrect, but the only money lost at Refco was in forex, not futures. Please no flames just info, thanks. Dan
Anybody that I know was made whole on their REFCO Futures account, although funds were locked for some time from withdrawing. Not every REFCO Fx account is whole to this day.
No. You are not correct. Futures traders holding accounts at the futures broker, Refco, LLC, lost roughly a billion dollars, separate and apart from the roughly $100 million dollars lost by retail forex traders holding accounts at RefcoFX.
It is quite obvious to me that you simply do not know any of the futures traders who lost money in the Refco bankruptcy. Why would you go by the experience of just the people you know, instead of doing some research to protect yourself? Research would reveal that futures traders lost about a billion dollars in the Refco bankruptcy. Have you ever heard the name Jim Rogers? Jim Rogers and his money management clients lost hundreds of millions of dollars in futures trading accounts in the Refco bankruptcy, and this was widely publicized at the time.
Those losses did not occur to customers who's funds were held in SEGREGATED futures accounts! Period.