Cazza, you are right, but the protection is not as good as the insurance IB offers: http://www.cftc.gov/industryoversight/intermediaries/fcmsegregationfunds.html "Customer funds in segregation have a bankruptcy preference in the event of FCM insolvency." And there are black swans even if you or me did not see one (in Australia ;-)
Thanks a lot, i appreciat your help i have write yours posts and links and now it was clear for me. Just a point... Globalfutures was an IB, IB have same obligations like FCM ?? Thanks again
The FCM that Global is using has the same obligations , you don't have to care about Global since your funds are with the FCM they use ...
Thank you all for such detailed explanations, I wanted to understand where was my money and how it could be protected if my FCM or IB bankrupt. It is important to me because now I get prop trader ... Have a good day all
What about Griffin Trading? The UK traders took a big hit, and from what I understand there are still ongoing law suits in the US to recover lost money...
Very wrong. Futures accounts are not 100% safe. You are ignoring the fact that the real problem with segregated funds is that all customers funds are segregated together. You are only looking at the firm going under. What if another customer blows out their account big time? If another customer blows out past the amount of clearing firm capital then your own customer funds are at risk. In the past when clearing firms have failed customers eventually got their remaining money back, but in the meantime their accounts were frozen. A frozen account not only means no access to your cash, but also no ability to close out open positions or have any input into when the exchanges and/or clearing houses close out your open postions. The Volume Investors clearing firm failure in 1985 was a major mess and embarrassment for the COMEX. The firm failed in March, 1985 and here is a news story that appeared on September 12, 1985. "The Commodity Exchange said a Federal District Court had approved an agreement that would lead to the full restoration of funds owed to customers of the Volume Investors Corporation, a former Comex member. Volume Investors was placed in receivership in March because of losses sustained during volatile gold market activity. The agreement calls for the Volume Investors' principals, Charles E. Federbush and Owen J. Morrissey, to deposit $4.1 million with the firm's court-appointed receiver. These funds, together with the $10.4 million already held at the firm, would be used to meet the $13.7 million owed by the company to about 100 nondefaulting customers." So 6 months later 100 customers were still waiting for their money and most of those 100 customers were exchange members. The failure of the clearing firm Klein and Co. Futures Inc in May, 2000 was a similar ugly mess.
Global Futures with RCG clearing...honestly the best...amazing great service and very great daytrade margins and very low commissions... www.globalfutures.com
Very, very wrong. When it comes to safety of customer funds firms with very low daytrade margins are the opposite of safe. The firms with proper risk management practices and rules and interested in the well being of their customers do not allow $500 or $1000 daytrade margins for contracts like ES.