@Daal, I wouldn't be so confident on your point that the culture if the US is the best in the world. I love the US but I can see it's flaws.
When you get to my age rock climbing is like women, a spectator sport, so good food and the people do it for me. Yeah, you see chaps in their 70s running around with 20 somethings, I wonder where they get the energy from.
I re-read this. If you want an FX broker outside America open an account with OANDA Singapore. I have an account there simply because I trade a lot of FX and I wanted something outside America, though it is a USD account. Locally incorporated, financially independent of the US entity in the same way FXCM UK is untouched by the US action. I specifically picked Singapore because it is as good if not a better regulatory environment than America. I've worked there and came to appreciate how they do things. MFG really shook my confidence in America, it's all lipstick on a pig to be honest, because the swine still get away with murder. For the global offering that IB has, I know of none here other than prime brokers. Maybank Kim Eng is a good local broker here and has a presence in a few neighbouring countries but I don't believe the cross border transactions have materialised. I haven't checked, I keep the account for local investments.
Same here if anyone knows, please share it. I live in Asia and have been looking for a while though, haven't found it. Yet there are strictly futures brokers which might be interesting. Also you can keep your money invested through solid banks around the world, commissions are higher than with IB, considerably higher if you are aiming further than the local market, but if you are not trading actively through those accounts they help in a global asset allocation strategy.
Tks. One problem that I see is that under a US fiscal crisis a lot of banks/brokers are going to go bust. A bucket shop might be a dangerous place to be in, especially given that a lot of their clients are going to implode (like the in the CHF 2015 episode but it might be even worse than that)
OANDA absorbed all client negative balances in the CHF episode. Your account was wiped out, you didn't owe them money. Seems to me their risk management was superior to IBs, or maybe it was sheer dumb luck. Either way I have no reason to doubt them. That said, like with any broker, leave the minimum amount needed for trading. The trouble with FX is a holding is not on par with a stock holding. My broker can go bust, my shares will be there. Not the same with FX unfortunately.
[ Can one even wire money to a dormant account ? Once an account is dormant, for several banks, it means the funds there are frozen until one show up in person in one of the local bank's branches to reactivate the account and be able to use the funds. Not sure incoming wires to that account would be accepted before it is reactivated, it's probably safer to check with the banks directly, but if anyone has experience I'd be curious to read about it. BTW i've seen subaccounts beeing frozen after as little as 3 or 6 months inactivity, while other subaccounts in the same bank had been active, that sucks if that happens half way around the world in a country one have no plan to visit.
I've had potentially dormant accounts reactivated with a simple ATM transaction after a notice to do so. I have an account with HSBC Singapore that has had a minimal balance for 10 years and I still get the monthly statement. When I had the same in Malaysia dormant accounts were transferred to some holding authority (Public Trustee?) and after X years transferred to some government charity fund at which point you lost the money.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...s-could-spell-disaster/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw Bank credit, C&I loans
Tobias Levkovich, chief U.S, equity strategist at Citigroup said on Bloomberg radio this morning that C & I lags by 6 quarters. That would bring you back to late 2015. C&I probably bottomed in Feb 2016 like the market did.