I repeat, to this day I have been able to trade my personal segregated futures account at REFCO on the REFCO PRO platform every single day, without problem.
Well I can admit that I am not a profitable fx trader, however I am very profitable futures and futures options trader. What little currency trading I do involves trading margin cash back and forth between Canadian dollars and $US. I make profits in $US but live in Canada so this is necessary(although I make a few more trades than I have too).I trade with IB. It just happened to me tonight that I had a buy offer in at 1.1922 and because the market tanked I got filled at 1.1911 (15:41) and it is now trading at 1.1925/1.1930. I really don't think that this would happen at FXMC. I looked at there demo and the spreads were terrible. The whole platform was jerky and awkward. If you want to trade currencies the best choice is CME futures (I have yet to look a eurex futures so I reserve judgement). You next best bet is a forex broker with a ENC model where you can split the spread(I can say that IB is good, hotspot sounds good but I don't really know). With these options why would anyone trade with a pay the spread-super leverage-commision free-bucket shop brokerage?
When you say spreads are terrible, I assume that you are not talking about the buy and sell price difference. I've been trading with FXCM/REFOFX for a little while. Though, I admit they could be better. But for the most FXCM's system works well for my strats, and they are fairly predictable for me. D Though probably not for everyone. What I would really like is to have their system in a Canadian dealer that has CIPF. I'm not a big fan of expecting the US government in overseeing these dealer/brokerages.:eek:
because of the 'super' leverage actually (also the relative lack of slippage and the relatively guaranteed fills up to 5-10-20million units depending on which pair, at most of those brokers), there are situations where it can be used to the trader's advantage... ;-)
any inside info as to how much currently remains in refco seg futures accounts altogether? $1bio? $3bio? any whisper number?
I have heard that there are $3 billion in segregated account funds that have remained at REFCO LLC., - - - this is about a 55-60% reduction from the initial $8 billion in funds that were held at REFCO LLC before the Bennett debacle. In any event, I also hear that Man Financial might even keep the REFCO name. At the very least they are bringing back the Lind Waldock name. Internally, they have saved 1,400 out of about 3,000 jobs.
TODAY WITH FXCM CEO Question: What happens to Refco's FX customers if FXCM is outbid in the bankruptcy court? Drew's answer: We set up the bidding in a way that customers will get their money no matter who wins. Question: What would happen if the judge does not allow the sale to any parties? How will refcofx clients be made whole? Drew's answer: although a federal court judge can do what ever he wants, a judge is unlikely to refuse our offer given that we are aying over $100 Million Dollars for it and the mission of the bankruptcy court is to auction off the assets of Refco and get as much money for them as possible. Question: How long will it be before RefcoFX Clients get their money back? Do you think that you will lose more customers if you buy Refco? Drew's answer: The process should take about 30 days and so by mid december or maybe by January 1st clients will get their money back. We are not in control as the bankruptcy court decides these things but we have been assured that its very likely to be in the time frame described above. We expect some Refco customers will leave once their money is available but we spoke to many who are staying for a long while. ---------------------------------------------------------- If this goes through I will be staying with FXCM.
Me too. If this deal goes through, I think a lot of people out there need to give FXCM an apology....
pretty good, given the circumstances... boy, must be real ugly for the guys who got cut though, i wldn't wish that to anybody, not that way...
no fx broker wants to admit it openly yet but they are pretty much all facing significant client / funds withdrawals as a result of the refco collapse... nobody's comfortable leaving more money than necessary on the account at this juncture... now, one way to restore confidence would be to offer some good measure of segregation to margin fx accounts, and to make it CLEAR in the fine print how exactly client monies are protected, how often they r shifted from seg. to non-seg accounts etc... dunno for any of u guys but i have been arguing with my brokers, asking for CLARITY specifically, as well as more protection (even at a cost) over the last 4 weeks or so, but pretty much to no avail so far... as a result, am about to pull a big chunk of $ off the table anytime now, see if they get THAT message...