Is anyone else worried about Penson Financial?

Any word on Global Futures? They clear through Penson and I was thinking of opening an account there but I will wait until the smoke clears with all of this first. Still I would like to know people's opinions about Global if they have them.

 

But the money is at Penson. What more do you need to know?

 

You don't have to use Penson as a clearing firm.

Global Futures is an IB and their website lists 4 clearing firms: Penson, RCG, AMP and OEC.

Pleanty of other IB's and clearing firms out there.

 

I would like to provide some clarification on the issues raised in this thread. Lightspeed does not maintain two separate sets of books and records.

We are an introducing broker dealer, and as such all books and records, statements, and tax documents pertaining to client accounts are administered by our primary clearing firm, Penson Financial. We do offer clients two different web reporting options, usually depending on which trading platform they utilize, but this is simply a matter of how the trading data is formatted and presented to clients via a web portal. The underlying trade data, positions and balances are the same.

Now to address the actual problems we've experienced and why some clients have seen inaccurate calculations displayed on their reports. Following Penson's conversion to the Broadridge clearing system, Penson experienced problems processing Lightspeed's trade files. Penson’s issues resulted in some trades not getting uploaded to the client reports, resulting in displayed discrepancies in positions and balances in certain cases.

To say that the reconciliation process has taken longer than expected would be a gross understatement. We are the first to acknowledge that and we extend our sincerest apologies to clients who have been affected and inconvenienced by this. We are working around the clock with Penson to reconcile any remaining outstanding issues. We know how important the reports are to our clients. I will post an update once the reports are corrected.

 

I closed my account with Lightspeed. Four weeks of accounting problems was difficult to rationalize away and was starting to cost me a lot of time and money.

Too bad. I like their platform.

Magellan

 

why would anyone want to have their account at a clearing firm with a market cap of 33M?

 

I withdrew extra cash out of my MBTrading/Penson account last week... if they fold I'll deal with whatever loss I may have to take.

 

Yes ... of course. I have three brokerage relationships. Two of them have very low margin requirements, great rates and great service. I never keep over 7 or 8K at either and am prepared to lose the principal if either or both go down.

I keep higher cash balances at !B yet still below the SIPC max. I know my level of risk, and comfortable with it and sleep just fine. Like any other trade -- these trade offs -- have few absolutes. If I get uncomfortable I will make changes faster than than Superman with runs. I will wire transfer out within minutes of my first qualm. If I have cash and positions I will wire the cash instantly, liquidate the positions and wire the new cash balances the next day. I will never worry about wire fees and I will never ignore my gut.

As you might suspect I am not at Penson or any of their IB's.

 

I paid the wire fee and received my money almost immediatly. Well worth not having to worry through the weekend about wether or not Lightspeed would "lose" my request for transfer or not.

Magellan

 

No one ever went broke paying the occasional "extra" wire fee. You went, I assume, from segregated status -- think MF Global -- to FDIC insured.