as dr. evil would say, + 1 million to everything swan has been saying - for the love of God, this is your money you're talking about - why would you trust it to a nutjob who invested in a racetrack? there are so many things we can't control in trading but a few we can such as position size, stop losses, hedging, etc. but another one is who we choose to do biz w/. pnsn isn't the only game in town. i'm going to repeat this b/c it bears repeating - assuming the gubmit cheese brigade comes riding over the nearest hill and makes everyone whole after a collapse - what happens to you in the meantime if you can't trade? there were a lot of hedge funds that shut down b/c they couldn't get their $ out of LEH after it was frozen - did they get their $ back eventually? yes - but it was too late.
Frank, thanks for the +1 million ... lol. One point though ... many US hedge funds never got their money back following the Lehman collapse. The improper segregation of funds in London hooked up with Prime Brokerage agreements that allowed Lehman to carry US accounts at their London entity resulted in significant losses that were never recovered. Improper segregation resulted in losses that exceeded one billion. Keep in mind these were funds that were managed by highly sophisticated players executing agreements negotiated by the finest law firms money could rent that, under the rules, should never have been exposed to counter party risk.
SELECTED FCM FINANCIAL DATA AS OF February 29, 2012 FROM REPORTS FILED BY April 1, 2012 Penson is #83.
This information will not fit everyone. If your currently at Penson (or any other firm) and would like an Introducing Broker to service your account, we also offer Merrill Lynch Professional. ML Pro is very particular as to the accounts they accept. We can only offer Customer Portfolio Margin account there. The accounts will have other requirements that I can describe on a phone call if you're interested. Send me an email with your contact information if you'd like to discuss it. Bob
Penson now trading at 0.48. There is talk that it's taking a long time for customers to get cash withdrawals out, just like MFG before they went under. Don't know if they are indeed the next to go under, but I sure as hell wouldn't want to have an account with them right now. :eek:
We are not seeing any issues with money moving in and out. They still have over $100M in excess capital. Bob
That "talk" is coming from that weirdo Ann Barnhardt, you know, the one who closed down her cow brokerage when MF went under. Leaving all her customers holding their dicks in their hands. She is hearing "chatter". I'm with MB Trading/Penson, and I have no problems getting money out using ACH. Don't believe everything you hear on the internet. Hey, I could be lying to you.
And if you were seeing issues, would you reveal that publicly on this internet forum? Not accusing you of dissembling, but in this modern age where we saw the exact same type of denials and happy talk coming out of firms like Lehman, Bear, MFG just before they imploded, you'll understand if I don't take public corporate statements at face value anymore. Also, what happens if and when PNSN approaches 0?
Perhaps, but PNSN's cratering stock price is not conjecture. And while one cannot believe everything they hear on the internet, they equally cannot believe everything (or anything) they hear as public corporate statements anymore either. Fact is, these days most often the canaries in the coalmine are the little guys blogging on the internet, or the voices in the wilderness. In any case, I hope there is indeed nothing to this, for your sake.
I'm not 100% stupid. I simply keep the bare minimum I need to trade a couple of contracts. I have spoken with MBT about this as well. I just am not in the mood to change brokers at this time. I may be playing with fire. We shall see.